AU Meme

[thisbluespirit]

Time for a meme! I thought I'd give the AU one another go round - I did it last year in celebration of the end of summer and here we are again, so:

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.

Canon Divergence
Coffee Shop
Shapeshifters
Magic
. . . In SPACE!!
Historical
Fusion
Police/Firefighters/Medical
Supernatural
Regency/Romance Novel

I have changed some of the options up again, just to vary things up a bit. The full list of people/pairings I have already done is under the cut below, as I am not sure I could do this twice for anybody! Otherwise anything I know is fair game, and I'll just let you have another choice if I really can't do something. (My tags and my interests are a fairly good indicator of things I know & like between them.)


Adam Adamant/Georgina Jones
Justin Alastair
Roderick Alleyn
Hilda Annersley & Nell Wilson
Bea & Evie Eliott
Ruth Evershed/Harry Pearce
Jane Marple
Emma Peel
Sam Vimes
William de Worde/Sacharissa Cripslock

B7 - Cally
Deva

DW - Liv Chenka
Five, Nyssa & Tegan
Leela
The Master (Delgado)
Jamie McCrimmon & Zoe Heriot
Nine & Rose
Donna Noble
Ander Poul
Romana & River
Liz Shaw
Six & Evelyn
Sarah Jane Smith

Comments

[persiflage_1]

Doctor 12, River Song and Martha Jones please.

[thisbluespirit]

Um, which one of those? Apart from River, who I did (with Romana) before.

[persiflage_1]

Well, I actually meant all of them together, enjoying shenanigans.

But if I have to pick just one, Martha.

[thisbluespirit]

Martha it is then! I'll take pairings and I suppose even teams but canon ones, otherwise it's like AUing an AU, and it's not as if I don't have enough trouble just getting my head round AUing DW. (I suppose I did do River & Romana one time, but they just wrote themselves anyway.)

[persiflage_1]

Okay.

[romanajo123]

Seven & Ace ?

[thisbluespirit]

Canon Divergence
“Dorothy!” Her Mum’s entrance ruins a promising chemistry experiment and somewhere else a nameless evil from before the dawn of time™ has to go find another pawn.

The Doctor doesn’t know what it is he’s stopped with his timely warning to Mrs McShane, but he recognises the stench of evil. It couldn’t have been anything good.


Coffee Shop
“Ace, what have I told you about explosions on the premises?”

“Sorry,” she said, as they stood together outside, watching their independent café burn down. “I won’t do it again. Promise.”

“Perhaps we should go into a different line of work. How does demolition sound?”


Shapeshifters
“Professor, will you stop doing that? You’re going to give me a heart attack.”

“My apologies,” said the hat stand. “Just keeping in practice.”


Magic
“Magic,” said the Magician to his Apprentice, “is complicated. It’s also dangerous, and not to be taken lightly, especially not in a house full of rather primitive combustible material.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Different kind of disappearing spell. Can I try it again?”

“Of course! If at first you don’t succeed, try again in someone else’s study. And I know someone who truly deserves it…”


. . . In SPACE!!
Space Cadet McShane hung her head. “Look, I am sorry about the life capsule, but it was the only way to get the stuff off the station once it started to go wrong.”

“Tell me, do you often whip up explosive substances in your spare time?”

“I, uh, I mean, maybe?” McShane wasn’t sure exactly which response this Big Wig wanted, whoever he was. “But I’m really careful. Usually.”

“Excellent. Talent, and quick thinking. How do you fancy a stint on a rather battered old exploration vessel, heading for the furthest quadrant of this galaxy, leaving sometime about teatime today?”


Historical
“Something tells me you don’t belong in this monastery.”

The latest postulant stared back. “I don’t know what you mean, Father Abbot.”

“On the run and the nunnery was full, was it, my child?”


Fusion
“So what are they going to do to me?”

Dr Smith glanced down at the new pupil. “I’m not entirely sure. In several hundred years, you’re the first student to combust the Sorting Hat before it finished placing them.”

“Yeah, well,” she said sulkily, “I didn’t like the way it was talking to me. It was well out of order. Didn’t mean for all those flames and that, though. That’s what happened – how they found me in the first place. I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“Don’t worry,” he said with a wink, “I’ll put a good word in for you with the headmaster.”


Police/Firefighters/Medical
The Chief Fire Officer thought it best not to ask just how the latest recruit had such an excellent knowledge of the habits of arsonists. It was too useful to ignore, in any case.


Supernatural
“Come closer, Alice,” said Gwendoline, drawing Ace in, with a cold hand on hers. She brushed back Ace’s hair from her neck, bending in – and brushed against the cross at her breast, leaping back with an animal snarl, and baring her fangs.

“Oy,” Ace gasped, recovering herself and pulling back, one hand going to her neck. “No biting, thanks. Rule number one around here.”

A loud yell floated up from somewhere below.

“Professor!” said Ace, and ran in the direction of the cry; Gwendoline forgotten for the moment.


She found him in the cellar, slumped against the steps and clutching his neck.

“What happened?” She knelt down.

“Ace,” he said, waving his other hand at her ineffectually. “Keep away.”

She didn’t, putting her hand over his and pulling it away to reveal the bloodied bite mark at his jugular. “Oh, no. Professor. I thought you said you could handle the Count.”

“One of us has bitten off more than he can chew,” he murmured faintly. “Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure which one yet.”


Regency/Romance Novel
“Remind me why we can’t tell your nice widow-lady that you’re really Dr John Smith and not Lord Francis Strathclyde, so she’ll stop worrying you’re too posh for her to marry?”

“Because in my guise as Lord Francis, I am perfectly placed to intercept letters from that master of Napoleonic agents, Sir Gilles Estram. It’s merely unfortunate that Mrs Jones also has to be persuaded of the deception.” He paused. “Besides, I am technically also Sir John Smith. And if we told her the truth, we’d have to explain that you’re not actually legally my ward, and then we’d both be in trouble.”

Ace surveyed her unofficial guardian with interest. “Can’t you do anything like a normal person?”

“A good question,” said Dr Smith. “But then love has never been known for its rationality and neither has life, in my experience.”

Ace shrugged. Still, as long as this went on, she and Nan, Mrs Jones’s pretty ladies’ maid could carry on passing more than messages to each other and that was absolutely fine with her.

[jaxomsride2]

Paul Buchet, The Protectors

[thisbluespirit]

I'm sorry, but I haven't actually watched any of it yet & I'm not sure when I will! Try again? (sorry!)

[auroracloud]

These are brilliant. :-D

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thank you!

[paynesgrey]

The Brig, Jo Grant and Three

AU Meme: Three, Brig & Jo

[thisbluespirit]

Sorry it took so long!

Canon Divergence
“Ah,” said the Brigadier, pointing to the distinctive pier, visible in the distance, though the tide was out. “Just as I thought. It’s Cromer.”


Coffee Shop
“There you go, Alistair,” said John, pocketing his screwdriver with a satisfied smile. “The cappuccino machine, all fixed up and good as new. Well, better than new. I’ve added in a few extra options that I think should prove helpful.”

“I seem to remember that was what you said last week when you added a self-cleaning function to the espresso machine.”

Jo looked up from cleaning tables. “Well, to be fair, it did clean the espresso machine. It’s not John’s fault it exploded afterwards.”

Alistair felt strongly that it was entirely John’s fault that the espresso machine had exploded. Still, there was no denying that some of his more creative ideas where what drew in the punters, and so he merely sighed and gave the cappuccino machine a wide berth for the time being.


Shapeshifters
“Something wrong, Brigadier?” asked the teapot.

The Brigadier glared at it. “Doctor. This is a top secret organisation. Will you stop encouraging my people to use those powers to engage in games of hide and seek?”

“But don’t you see, Brigadier,” said the daffodil in a vase beside the teapot, “it’s not a game. It’s vital training – teaching us how to spot the lurking enemies within and all that. It’s not as if it comes naturally to any of us, except the Doctor.”

A freak accident, following the arrival of two shape-shifting aliens (the Doctor – chiefly benevolent, although sometimes the Brigadier felt that was putting it too strongly – and his enemy the Master, who was unquestionably not benevolent), had imbued a small but seemingly random number of Earth’s population with their own abilities. Something had to be done about it, and UNIT was that something. The Brigadier, having also been affected, much to his disapproval, had been a natural to lead it. It was just that almost everyone else wasn’t exactly military in their approach to the organisation, especially not the Doctor.

“Quite,” the teapot continued. “Couldn’t have put it better myself, my dear. Ten out of ten, by the way, Brigadier, for spotting us both so quickly.”

The Brigadier raised an eyebrow. “Too generous, Doctor. Miss Grant has been, so far, a plastic sunflower, a plastic tulip, a child’s plastic windmill, and you still have those –” he waved a hand – “frills about your spout and lid. It wasn’t difficult.”

“Hmm,” said the Doctor, morphing back into his own shape. “Although, I must say, Brigadier, you can’t talk. It’s not as if you’ve managed to lose the moustache yet.”


Magic
“Do you mean to say that you faced the Dark Lord alone?”

Alistair brushed ash from his clothes. “Not alone as such. I still had one captain and a sergeant left. And your apprentice.”

“Jo! Where is she?”

“Here, Doctor,” said Jo, slipping her arm through his. “It’s lucky I went, too, because as it turns out, my magical daffodil won the day.”

The Doctor looked at Alistair.

“The Dark Lord appears to be allergic.”


. . . In SPACE!!
“Have you seen these readings?”

Captain Lethbridge-Stewart repressed an inward sigh. The day had been going so well, but if his scientific officer and his assistant were rushing onto the bridge talking wildly of anomalies, it was going to turn out to be yet another one of Those Days, after all.

“Just look at it,” said Junior Officer Grant, gazing at the flight screen in big-eyed wonderment. “A big orange swirly thing in space! Groovy.”

“Jo, that is a…” Smith floundered, and then said, “Well, to be honest, I’m not sure what it is. That’s what’s so fascinating.”

“Exactly, and in the meantime I’ve observed carefully that it is orange, swirly, and in space,” said Officer Grant. She gave Smith a cheeky grin.

Captain Lethbridge-Stewart couldn’t fault her reasoning. There was another thing he knew was a certainty in these situations, however, and a question he must ask: “Smith, how dangerous is that thing?”

“Oh, hardly enough to mention,” murmured Smith. “As far as I can tell.”

“Red alert,” ordered Captain Lethbridge-Stewart.


Historical
“I’ve brought you your dinner, sir,” said Jo, in her cunning disguise as serving wench, bringing the Royalist prisoner his meal. She beamed at the Brigadier, and then gave a wink, lowering her voice to a stage whisper. “Be careful how you eat it, though. There’s a file and a knife in the pudding. Courtesy of Dr Smith. He’s come up with a cunning escape plan, so be ready to meet us at midnight.”

There were times, the Brigadier felt, when he might almost be better off staying in his cell. But only almost. One had one’s duty.


Fusion
“Doctor,” said the Brigadier, “must I remind you to keep that Daemon of yours in order when on the premises?”

“Why, yes, Brigadier, I think you must.”

“And forgive me being personal, but what is the blasted thing supposed to be anyway?”

The Doctor gave the Brigadier a severe stare before deigning to answer. “You don’t recognise a three-armed Venusian grotillery when you see one?”

“Ah,” said the Brigadier. “I see. That explains everything. Or nearly everything.”


Police/Firefighters/Medical
WPC Grant had just made her twenty-fifth cup of tea that day while the argument between the Super and Inspector Smith raged on.

“Come on,” she said, finding Sergeant Benton. “We’ll jolly well go out and solve the mystery ourselves! After all, I bet it’s that Mr Magister up to no good again!”


Supernatural
Dr Smith, Jo, the Brigadier, and what remained of UNIT, retreated to the pub at Devil’s End to regroup.

“Really,” said Dr Smith, “I’d have thought the BBC would have had more sense than to actually take up that suggestion about interviewing Satan live on TV. It ought to have been obvious even to that nitwit of a presenter that it was a bad idea!”

The Brigadier ordered a pint and refrained from mentioning that if certain people’s Oxbridge friends went round disguising themselves as men of the cloth and summoning the Devil, it was a bit rich to blame the BBC just because it turned out that the Devil had been misused the opportunity in order to bring about mass demonic possession of the viewers. He sighed. “What next, Dr Smith?”

Dr Smith paused and looked around the bar. “Wait,” he said. “Where’s Jo?”


Somewhere down in the church crypt, a small figure in white confronted the Devil. “Hello,” she said, raising her chin, “you said you’d leave us alone if someone was prepared to sacrifice themselves. Well, here I am!”


Regency/Romance Novel
Dr Smith watched Miss Grant and Dr Jones’s carriage drive away into the sunset with something that might have been regret. Weren’t reformed, charming rakes supposed to win out in these affairs? He heaved a sigh.

“Doctor,” said the entirely unromantic voice of Lethbridge-Stewart from beside him. “Far be it from me to interrupt a private moment, but His Majesty has further need of your services.”

No peace for the wicked, eh? thought Dr Smith, and then favoured Lethbridge-Stewart with his full and unvarnished opinion of the Royal nitwit otherwise known as the Prince Regent, and if he verged on the treasonous, Lethbridge-Stewart failed to mention the matter for once.

Re: AU Meme: Three, Brig & Jo

[paynesgrey]

Loved them all! Thanks!

Re: AU Meme: Three, Brig & Jo

[thisbluespirit]

:-D

[liadt]

Nanny Ogg? Or any Discworld character you like.

[john_amend_all]

Catherine Morland?

[thisbluespirit]

I'm not sure I'm up for Jane Austen just now - can you choose another?

[john_amend_all]

OK - how about John/Lucy/Mina?

[thisbluespirit]

<3<3<3

AU Meme: Lucy/Mina/John

[thisbluespirit]

Sorry it took so long! I kept letting the individual sections get out of hand, too, so here's the link to AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16478306

(Btw, something seems to be up with the UC generator - some of the text (the hyperlinks??) aren't visible.)

Re: AU Meme: Lucy/Mina/John

[john_amend_all]

Thanks! I commented and kudosed over on AO3.

The UC generator seems to be working for me (I just added Thirteen, Yaz, Ryan and Graham) so I'm not sure why it's playing up for you.

Re: AU Meme: Lucy/Mina/John

[thisbluespirit]

Ah, right. I have just been into Firefox and my default font colour for links was white. Now I've changed that to blue, I can see all the text! (Thanks, Firefox, very helpful. /o\)

[dimity_blue]

Ooh, how about Regency/Romance Novel with Servalan? I should think she'd be hell on wheels.

And may I steal your meme? I'm hoping something like this will jolt me into a creative mode.

[thisbluespirit]

Memes are for stealing! I don't know where I got it from, either, not any more. :-)

I will do Servalan - and you get all 10, unless I get very stuck on one!

[dimity_blue]

I do not envy you dealing with Servalan but I'm sure she'll deal with everything with aplomb!

Thanks! I will hug it and love it and call it George. And post it too.

[thisbluespirit]

George the Meme!!

[dimity_blue]

Posted!

AU Meme - Servalan

[thisbluespirit]

Rather belated, but I finally did the AU Meme for Servalan for you! 9 AUs (minus the Space one for obvious reasons!) A general warning for Servalan being Servalan, so a couple of them are a little bit dark because you know how she is. She wouldn't behave nicely.

***

Canon Divergence

She walked in, the long train of her clinging back dress trailing behind her.

“It’s over, Avon. I have you, your pathetic crew and your ship – such as it is.”

Avon glared. “Yes, well, someone broke my last one.”

“Not intentionally,” said Commissioner Sleer, with a dismissive wave of her hand. “In any case, you may as well resign yourself to the fact that you are not going anywhere. Where was it you were headed in such a hurry?”

He stared ahead.

“Oh, Avon,” she said, her pity sounding almost genuine, before she broke into laughter. “Not Gauda Prime? I think you would have regretted that. Such a depressing place. My plans for you will be much more entertaining I assure you.”


Coffee Shop

Her chain of coffee shops was perfectly run – efficient, soulless, the workers had zero hour contracts, and she never troubled with the expense of obtaining coffee or cocoa from ethical sources. She had expert financial advisers who helped her to avoid any irritating tax demands, and her latest brand launch had gone exceptionally well, while her main rival had gone into liquidation very recently, and quite mysteriously.

There was just one fly in the ointment.

“Chief Constable,” she said, pressing the button on her speakerphone. “This is Servalan. I asked you two days ago to remove those wretched protestors from outside my main branch. I trust that by the next time I look out of the window, they will be gone. Otherwise, you will find yourself in a position more in line with your capabilities, or lack of them.”


Shapeshifters

A purebred Siamese landed on the desk and then lightly hopped down onto the chair beside it before morphing back into the form of a dark-haired woman in white. She smiled to herself. She was the proverbial cat that had got the cream – or in this case, the ambitious Space Command officer who had overheard incriminating material about her immediate superior.

“Servalan!” barked the voice of said superior through the intercom. “Get in here this minute!”

She smiled slowly. Oh, now, this would be fun…


Magic

“You aren’t worried, your supreme majesty?”

The White Lady merely laughed. “Another chosen one, setting himself against me, with his motley band of followers? I think not, Captain Travis, I think not. We shall defeat them just as we’ve defeated all those who tried before. Why should this pathetic lot be any different?”


Historical

Lady Servalan rode the bounds of her estate, ensuring that all her people were doing as they had been commanded. All seemed to be well, save for one small detail –

“Sheriff Travis, why is that peasant merely lying there? Does he not have work to do?”

Travis glared at the inert form lying in the mud. “I think he’s dead, my lady.” He kicked the unfortunate peasant. “Yes. Definitely dead. Shall I feed him to the dogs?”

Before she could reply, an arrow whizzed past her, narrowly missing her headdress and embedding itself into the nearest tree.

“Leave the peasant,” said Servalan, turning her mount, a light in her dark eyes. “Bring me that outlaw!”


Fusion

“Cadet Servalan,” said Kasabi, marching into the room. She stopped, as the sight that greeted her shocked even her, a hardened officer in the Space Corps. “My God. What the hell have you done?”

Servalan rose from where she’d been kneeling on the floor, pale against her black army uniform. The hand she placed to her mouth was shaking, but there were no tears in her eyes. There was a lizard lying there, lifeless, blood spilling out over the floor.

“A daemon,” said Servalan, wiping her hands on her uniform, “is merely a weakness. You told me I needed to be stronger. Well, from now on I shall, I promise you that. This is only the beginning.”

And if at night, the pain of loss wracked her, she counted it as practice for the future. She would never let anything stand in her way – love, pain, fear, and certainly not her soul. She no longer had one.


Police/Firefighters/Medical

“Why don’t we cut a deal?” said Chief Inspector Servalan to the man she’d arrested earlier for fraud. “Your friends seem on the straight-forward side to me, but you and I, we could work together.”

“Could we now?”

She smiled, tracing one finger along his jaw. “Oh, yes. All you need to do is – what is the word they use? – grass up your mates and we’ll get along splendidly. I’ll ensure you get off lightly. I can always use a good informant.”

“What as?”

She laughed. “Oh, Avon. Why don’t you try me and find out?”


Supernatural

Thunder shook the castle, lightning illuminating the room before casting everything back into shadow. Servalan sat, bedclothes bunched around her in the four poster bed, watching the unearthly spectres that circled her, as their wails and moans filled the room.

Then she lay back down to sleep again. Dead enemies, she knew, could not hurt one. That was rather the point. And if they had hoped to instil remorse in her with this haunting, then the afterlife had certainly not improved their intelligence.

She slept well until daylight.


Regency/Romance Novel

“Do you know, I’ve never been held up by a highwayman before? This is all quite novel.”

The masked gentleman of the road nodded at the pistol she was directing at his head. “I believe currently it would be truer to say at this point that you are holding me up.”

“Yes, but it was a sterling attempt,” she said. “I rather enjoyed it. Would you be willing to consider a partnership?”

“Of what kind?”

She tilted her head to one side, surveying him with an enigmatic smile. “A very good question, sir. But if it helps you decide – if you say no, I will put a bullet through your head.”

"Ah, one of those kinds of questions..."

***

[jaxomsride2]

Snape and Hermione

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, it's been way too long since I've read/watched any HP, sorry - would you like to pick someone else?