whatif_au

Happy 9th anniversary of the comm, AU friends! I want to thank everyone who has participated these past nine years. This comm couldn’t run without you! Since I started this, we’ve had over 740 fics, fanarts, and podcasts submitted for our 74 challenges. Wow!!

Once this round of bingo wraps up in July, I will be shuttering this comm on the LJ side. There's been almost no participation over here, so it would be easier for me to just have to deal with one site instead of two. I won't be taking it down, though, so you can still come and poke around the themes if you're looking for inspiration.

If you'd like to make the move over to DW, please be advised that we’ll be changing formats just a bit starting in August. Instead of AU themes, we’re going to have AU prompts. So make sure you stay tuned for that!

Without further ado, I give you THE ANNIVERSARY BINGO CHALLENGE!



Here’s what you need to know:

• Bingo will run from April 1st through July 31st. You can request a card at any point during this four-month period.

• Each bingo card will be a randomized 3x3 or 5x5 grid drawn from the prompt list below. Please indicate which size you’d like when you sign up.

• You can veto up to three themes you absolutely don’t want or ask for a whole new card if you get one that’s totally unworkable.

• The wildcard square can be filled by any AU theme from the list below not already on your card.

• Fills can be fic, art, or podfic, or any mixture of all three. Original fic is always welcome. How you interpret a theme is entirely up to you.

• The minimum wordcount for all bingo fics (and fics that become podfics) will be 100 words. Maximum wordcount? Shoot for the stars, friends! LOL!

• All fills must be new works – nothing previously posted.

• You can get a bingo by horizontal or vertical lines, diagonals, or blackout.

• Each square can be an independent fill or, if you’re feeling ambitious, you can combine squares into one fic (though each theme should be given equal time and not just mentioned in passing).

• You can post your bingo fills anywhere you like but make sure to also post them here at the comm so you can be included in the masterlist! There is a What If? AU Bingo collection on AO3.

• Like all our challenges, there are no true deadlines. I’d love to see some bingos by the end of July, but if you need more time you have it!

Below the cut you’ll find the list of AU challenges that will be included in the random card generation. (The links will take you to the original challenge post for that theme in case you have any questions about it.) If there’s one you absolutely don’t want, just let me know in the comments below when you sign up. You can veto up to three.

(I did combine some themes and eliminate others this year. For example, there’s now just one Winter theme, and I cut Christmas out because that can be covered in either Winter or Holiday Mythology. This way you won’t have so much repetition on your cards.)



• Apocalypse
• Air Travel
• Characters as Animals
• Characters as Celebrities
• Circus/Carnival
• Coffee Shop & Variants
• Cowboy
• Crack!fic
• Decade Specific
• Dystopia
• Espionage
• Fairy Tale
• Fake Relationships
• Food Service
• Good Guys Go Bad/Bad Guys Go Good
• Heaven & Hell
• High/Low Fantasy
• High School/College
• Historical War
• Holiday Mythology
• Immortal
• Kid Fic
• Law Enforcement
• Lost/Stranded
• Magic
• Medical
• Modeling
• Movie/TV Fusions
• Music
• Mythology
• Natural Disaster
• No-one Dies
• Ocean
• People with Disabilities
• Politics
• Punk
• Pygmalion
• Radio/Podcast
• Regency
• Reversals
• Robot
• Royalty
• Sentinel/Guide
• Soulmates/Soulmate: Pet Edition
• Space
• Sports
• The Staff
• Steampunk
• Superhero
• Supernatural
• Teacher
• Time Travel
• Tourism
• Treasure Hunter
• Winter Wonderland
• Workplace


There won’t be any penalties if you sign up and don’t get a bingo. We just don’t roll that way over here. ::grins:: So there’s no pressure, friends! Just have fun with it! Let me know if you’d like a bingo card and I’ll get one out to you!

Please Note: If you post your work to AO3 please be sure to select the What If? AU Bingo collection. To be included in the masterlist, you must also post here.

There are no actual deadlines at this comm. You can write any theme at any time, and as long as you post it here, you’ll get added to the masterlist. Also, we support all fandoms (including original fic), all pairings, and all ships (gen, het, slash), and other forms of AU media including art, podfics, any ole thing!

Thank you so much to everyone who created something for the Fake Relationship challenge! This list will be updated if more fics come in, so it's never too late to participate. ::grins::

FIC: All I Want For Christmas, by smallhobbit (Spooks | MI5)

FIC: Miss Marple’s Nephew, by smallhobbit (Spooks | MI5)

FIC: Fake It (Till You Make It), by brumeier (Trixie Belden Mysteries/The Three Investigators)

FIC: Unscheduled Entertainments, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Doctor Who)

It’s been a few years, so I thought we might benefit from another round of Amnesty here at the comm. Particularly now because our format will be changing from AU themes to AU prompts after the next round of bingo, and the comm here at LJ won't be part of that change.



We have no hard and fast deadlines here at the comm, but sometimes the moment to complete a fannish work for a particular theme passes us by. Or we don’t feel like it’s one we can successfully write for. (I’ve personally been unable to create anything for Regency, Historical Wars, or Crack!fic.)

Now’s our chance to fill in those AU gaps!

Here are the themes we’ve had thus far on the comm (click on each one to be taken to the original challenge post):


• Apocalypse
• Air Travel
• Characters as Animals
• Characters as Celebrities
• Christmas/Winter Holiday
• Circus/Carnival
• Coffee Shop & Variants
• Cowboy
• Crack!fic
• Decade Specific
• Dystopia
• Espionage
• Fairy Tale
• Fake Relationships
• Food Service
• Good Guys Go Bad/Bad Guys Go Good
• Heaven & Hell
• High School/College
• High/Low Fantasy
• Historical War
• Holiday Mythology
• Immortal
• Kid Fic
• Law Enforcement
• Lost/Stranded
• Magic
• Medical
• Modeling
• Movie/TV Fusions
• Music
• Mythology
• Natural Disaster
• No-one Dies
• Ocean
• People with Disabilities
• Politics
• Punk
• Pygmalion
• Radio/Podcast
• Regency
• Reversals
• Robot
• Royalty
• Sentinel/Guide
• Soulmates
• Soulmates: Pet Edition
• Space
• Sports
• The Staff
• Steampunk
• Superhero
• Supernatural
• Supernatural Plus One
• Teacher
• Time Travel
• Tourism
• Treasure Hunter
• Winter Wonderland
• Wintery Mix
• Workplace


Let yourself go, friends! Finish a thing that’s been languishing or challenge yourself to write for a theme you didn’t initially think you could. Create some art or record a podfic or write a poem. Anything goes!

You’ve got two months till the next round of Bingo goes up (April) so have fun writing!

Please Note: If you post your work to AO3 please be sure to select the What If AU Challenge collection. To be included in the masterlist, you must also post here.

Hello, AU friends! I hope the holidays have been treating you well. I know it can be a tricky time of the year to sit down and find words – how’s the process been going for you? Has the fake relationship prompt given you any thinky thoughts?

When I think about fake relationships, the first one to pop into my head is Buck and Wanda, the alter egos of Booth and Bones from Bones. When they went undercover for a case, it was always as Buck and Wanda, a husband-wife duo that were a circus act, a competitive logging team, and ballroom dancers, just to name a few. And all before they were actually husband and wife on the show.

Today we’re talking recs. I haven’t written much in the way of fake relationships, but I do have some. Here they are:

Depth of Field (Hawaii Five-0, Danny Williams/Steve McGarrett): Danny stumbles across a stranger about to get pummeled and pretends to be his boyfriend to keep him from getting his face punched in.

Make It Real (Hawaii Five-0, Danny Williams/Steve McGarrett): Steve and Danny are undercover as husbands on a case, but after an explosion Steve gets a little muddled and thinks the cover story is real.

Something Borrowed (Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay): Rodney hires John to be his boyfriend when he goes home for his sister’s wedding, but they both get too attached to keep the charade going.

Five Days in R&D (Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay): In an Undercover Boss scenario, John goes undercover in his father’s R&D department to see how things are running.

How about you, friends? Any fake relationship fic or media you’d like to share? Let’s see it!

Thank you so much to everyone who created something for the Supernatural Plus One challenge! This list will be updated if more fics come in, so it's never too late to participate. ::grins::

FIC: Maybe For a Kiss, by nagi_schwarz (Astro, Dongmin/Minhyuk)

FIC: Do what you want, by nagi_schwarz (Kpop Demon Hunters/Monsta X)

FIC: The Student and the Scholar, by nagi_schwarz (Astro, Bin/Dongmin)

FIC: Diabolical Bargain, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: My Bright Diamond, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: Walk in Darkness, by brumeier (Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay)

FIC: Hallowe’en at Holmes Hall, by smallhobbit (Sherlock BBC/Hamlet)

FIC: Born Bad, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: Moonlight’s Prism, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: The Endgame, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: Poor, Pretty Fool, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: Atmospheric Thrills, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: The Night Watch, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: Compromise, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Friends)

Okay, so I know you’re wondering about the eggplant bit. Undercover Eggplant is the name of a sandwich place near me (amazing sandwiches!). Although I suppose there could be a double entendre there, considering the theme. Let’s take a stab at the Fake Relationship AU!


Fake Dating from author Jennifer Peel

Fake relationship doesn’t mean just a fake dating scenario; it applies to any relationship that isn’t real (or doesn’t start out that way). That includes law enforcement types going undercover as a boss and assistant, for example. It doesn’t have to be a romantic scenario. And if the fake becomes real, that’s good too! ::grins::

There are a lot of ways you can tackle a Fake Relationship AU:

• Two strangers in a fake relationship to make use of a free trip
• One friend acting as the ‘beard’ of another
• Acting as a boyfriend to protect the other person from harassment
• Fake relationship for immigration purposes
• Trying to make someone jealous
• Someone pretending to be a long-lost relative
• Fake dating someone to boost their image/career
• Undercover Boss scenario

Get your stories straight, bust out those acting skills, and let’s fake it till we make it!

PROMPTS WANTED! We’d love to see your prompts for this theme! Leave them in the comments below. They can be fandom-specific, but with the variety on this comm it would probably be better if they were more generic. Maybe you’ll get inspired by a prompt! Or someone will be inspired by yours!

You’ve got two months till our next round of amnesty (February) so have fun writing!

Please Note: If you post your work to AO3 please be sure to select the What If AU Challenge collection. To be included in the masterlist, you must also post here.

There are no actual deadlines at this comm. You can write any theme at any time, and as long as you post it here, you’ll get added to the masterlist. Also, we support all fandoms (including original fic), all pairings, and all ships (gen, het, slash), and other forms of AU media including art, podfics, any ole thing!

Thank you so much to everyone who created something for the Heaven & Hell AU challenge! This list will be updated if more fics come in, so it's never too late to participate. ::grins::

FIC: White as Lilies, Pure as Milk, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: Guardian Angels, by smallhobbit (Sherlock Holmes ACD)

FIC: Heaven and Hell, by melagan (Stargate Atlantis, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard)

FIC: Meet Me in Purgatory, by brumeier (Hawaii Five-0, Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams)

FIC: Wasting Time, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Labyrinth)

FIC: Shoulder Angel and Shoulder Demon, by nagi_schwarz (Astro/Monsta X, Jinwoo/Myungjun, Jooheon/Kihyun)

FIC: Out of Bounds, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: No Man’s Land, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: Wasting Time, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Labyrinth)

FIC: Bindings, by but_can_i_be_trusted (Original)

FIC: The Payment, by cyberiad_queen (Original Poetry)

FIC: No Mercy, by cyberiad_queen (Original)

You know me well enough to recognize what October means – changing leaves, pumpkins, and all the spooky Halloweeny stuff that brings me joy. Which can only mean one thing…it’s time for the Supernatural Plus One AU!



We’re going to mix things up this time around. In addition to a Supernatural AU, you must also incorporate another AU theme, and it doesn’t need to be one we’ve had here on the comm. Think Regency + Supernatural (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) or Historical War + Supernatural (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter).

There are a lot of ways you can tackle a Supernatural Plus One AU:

• A bakery run by supernatural creatures (supernatural + food service)
• A human family raising a changeling (supernatural + kid fic)
• Sending humans to the fairy realm as punishment or vice versa (supernatural + dystopia)
• The first supernatural creature to reveal themselves to humans (supernatural + characters as celebrities)
• Supernatural creatures calling a phone-in radio show for advice (supernatural + radio/podcast)
• A human finds out their soulmate isn’t remotely human (supernatural + soulmates)
• A school for kids with supernatural abilities (supernatural + high school/college)

Let’s see what fun themes we can smash together with Supernatural! When you post your finished product, please make sure to indicate which other AU you added to Supernatural!

PROMPTS WANTED! We’d love to see your prompts for this theme! Leave them in the comments below. They can be fandom-specific, but with the variety on this comm it would probably be better if they were more generic. Maybe you’ll get inspired by a prompt! Or someone will be inspired by yours!

You’ve got two months till amnesty (December) so have fun writing!

Please Note: If you post your work to AO3 please be sure to select the What If AU Challenge collection. To be included in the masterlist, you must also post here.

There are no actual deadlines at this comm. You can write any theme at any time, and as long as you post it here, you’ll get added to the masterlist. Also, we support all fandoms (including original fic), all pairings, and all ships (gen, het, slash), and other forms of AU media including art, podfics, any ole thing!

Hi, all my AU friends!

As a reminder, the comm will be shutting down on the LJ side in April. I hope you'll come over and join us on DW (whatif_au), especially since we'll be changing things up next year. Here's what the majority voted for in last month's poll:

We’ll continue with themes until April (2 left to go, plus an amnesty!), at which time we’ll run the bingo. After bingo, the comm will transition to AU prompts. Starting out, they’ll also be bi-monthly; we can always make adjustments depending on how things go.

The prompts will vary – there will be picture prompts and word prompts, and sometimes the community will nominate and vote on prompts – to keep things fun and fresh.

I hope you’ll stick with us as we transition, and maybe we’ll get some new members as well. ::fingers crossed::

The AU comm lives on!