AU Exchange 2023

[mayfic]

Hi, creator, thank you for making me a gift! This is just a quick rundown of some of my likes and whatnot, plus some prompts to be used in conjunction with the freeform tags if you'd like them! But feel free to use just the freeforms as a jumping off point!

Likes:
Hurt/comfort
Smut
Missing scenes
Xeno
Lore
Cold weather trappings like sharp, cold air, rain, fog, wind, clouds and snow
Rain in general, including storms. Also, the sea.
Sensory detail
Atmosphere
Fashion porn
Animals
Food porn
Scenery porn
Casefic
Mysteries
Horror
Worldbuilding
5+1 fics

DNW:
Scat
Watersports
Babies
Animal/Pokemon harm or death

Art likes:
Atmosphere like something being pensive or melancholy.
Cozy scenarios, especially when juxtaposed with, like, something less cozy e.g a warm fire when there's a storm outside or a safe, softly lit room in a dark, haunted mansion,
The sea, rain and snow and overcast clouds.
Focus on the sartorial.
Things where there's a lot of character or world-based detail like stuff in a bedroom or a shop or in clothing.
Stuff that's kind of subtly creepy like you don't notice it at first but then it gets you.
But I just like horror-y stuff in general - body horror, creepy/scary entity design, unsettling places, etc.



1. Pokemon Anime

Characters/Pairings: Ash Ketchum, Ash/Gary, Ash/Paul, Ash & Professor Kukui, Dawn/May, Jessie/Delia, Jessie/James & Meowth

General Notes: I've requested these ships in particular, but feel free to ship Ash with any other human you'd like. I love both big adventures and slice of life stuff.

AU Tags:

Academic Rivals:

• For this one I will waive my 'no aging up' DNW; perhaps the characters are professors trying to one-up each other in their chosen field. I'd love to see how you think these characters would be as professors: does Ash still have his wanderlust and does he speed off at the mere hint of the sighting of a cool pokemon? Does Gary follow in his grandfather's footsteps or does he want to set himself apart as a professor? Does Dawn and/or May bring in contests as a part of their teaching of the young trainers and does this play into their rivalry if they have one? Does Jessie and/or James go into academia after retiring? What does everyone focus on?
• Or maybe they're students in higher education, trying to learn more after their journeys as kids so they enter the student life, going deep into the more complex knowledge of the Pokemon world.
• What if Delia goes into teaching?

Jessie, James and Meowth leave Team Rocket/Bad guy switches sides after falling in love:

• So this one is pretty self-explanatory but it's just sad to me to imagine the TRio just carrying on like this forever (though I did love the rest of the finale). But what do they do next? Do they go off the map or do they try and make amends to those they've wronged in the past?
• The second tag could either be for Jessie/Delia or it could be about Jessie and James deciding they just want to settle down.
• If you go for Jessie/Delia, I'd love to see Jessie trying to make amends with Ash and making an effort to bond with him. I'd also love to see her still being close to James and Meowth.

Boarding School AU:

• I'd love to see these characters at boarding school, their day to day lives and stuff. Maybe Ash goes to one of the Paldea schools (*wistful sigh*), or maybe you want to make one up in Kanta, Galar, Kalos or wherever.
• I'd love to see an adventure happening here. Is the school haunted? Does a villainous plot spring up (world ending or lower stakes, it's up to you)? Does the school have it's own league? Is there a pokemon causing chaos and maybe somebody catches it?
• Are any of the adult characters teachers here?
• Any of Ash's friends can be students, here, that would be really fun.

Canon character can see ghosts:

• So, to clarify, I mean the human type of ghost, not ghost-type pokemon, of course.
• How does the character handle it? Are they scared at first and then they make it their mission to help the ghost move on? Do they try and pretend they don't see them? Do they tell others? Has it always been a thing or is it a recent occurrence?
• I'd love some spookiness here, maybe even some creeping horror.

Folk Horror:

• Would love to see some folk horror in the Pokemon world. Is it a pokemon or something else? How do the pokemon interact with this if it's something else? Does it occur in one of the character's home town or is it somewhere they visit? Is it new or a known thing? Are the requested characters part of it or are they an outsider? Does anybody get possessed or almost get sacrificed?
• Is, say, Ash, a particular target for this small-town cult or what have you?
• I'd just really like to see the combination of Pokemon lore and folk horror, I think it'd be really neat.

Fandom Specific DNWs: Aging up of characters (unless it's the academic rivals AU), romantic or sexual Ash/Pikachu, romantic or sexual Delia/Mr Mime, treating Ash or anyone else for being in the wrong for not trusting/being against Team Rocket.


2. Pokemon Video Games

Characters/Pairings: Hilda / or & N, Hilbert / or & N

AU Tags:

AUs for 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s:

• As you can probably tell, what I'd love to see for this one is these ships (and the Unova region) in a different decade to the 2010s one the game came out in.
• I'd love to see how things are during these time periods, in terms of culture, fashion and how people interact with pokemon, maybe even which pokemon are available. Is there even a league during this time? How do Pokemon trainers work?
• Unova is based on New York, so it could be a hub for the cultural climate at the time. Though the Pokemon World differs to our own so it's up to you how much real life stuff you want to draw from, here.
• What are these characters like during these eras? It's up to you whether you want to draw from the plot of the games or whether you want to do something new.
• If you're an artist, I'd love to see these characters in the fashions of the time, or maybe what the towns look like.
• I just love pokemon lore and different takes on it really so I'd just love to see what you come up with here.
• If it's the 90s, what is the local knowledge/opinion of what's happening in Kanto?
• Bring in other characters, if you'd like. Flapper Elesa, forties pilot Skyla, eighties punk Grimsley, I don't know.

Fandom specific DNWs: AUs with no Pokemon.


3. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

Note: This is an excellent little folk/cosmic horror adventure game that came out not too long ago.

Characters/Pairings: Thomasina Bateman, Lord James Panswyck

AU Tags:

Canon Divergence AU/Canon Events that Happened to Character A Happen to Character B Instead:

• I loved the ending, but I'd also like to see what happens when things turn out a little differently in the ending of the game.
• When Thomasina gets possessed by Abraxas, what if she ended up killing James and Leonard and the other cultists. What if she never went to see her father and ended up causing a bloodbath in James' chapel instead?
• What if James ended up being possessed, instead? Maybe he ends up in the barrow with Thomasina, maybe he ends up in there out of curiosity by himself, maybe Thomasina figures out ahead of time what's going to happen and manages to deflect it onto him. Does he love this or hate it? What do the other cultists do about it.
• Maybe Thomasina just manages to escape but she now lives with the knowledge that the world isn't what she thought it was.

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Characters/Pairings: Buffy Summers, Faith Lehane, Kendra Young, Rupert Giles, Buffy & Dawn, Buffy/Faith

AU Tags:

Characters are Magnus Archives Avatars:

• This is pretty self-explanatory, but I'd love to see who goes where, who is doing it by choice and who is pretty much roped into it by association.
• Do the Watcher's Council serve the Beholder, and do the Slayers serve the Hunt? Or do they both serve the hunt? Or does this mean that the Beholder and the Hunt have an alignment? Or maybe it's something else.
• Do different species of demon and whatnot follow one of the powers automatically?
• Are the Watcher's Council in correspondence with the Archives?

Pokemon Fusion/Pokemon Trainer AU:

• Is this a Pokemon fusion that's set in the Buffy Universe that's the same but there are now Pokemon, which make everything a bit nicer. What Pokemon does everybody have? 
• Or is it a Pokemon AU with the characters as trainers and gym leaders and whatnot. Does Buffy/Kendra challenge the league, is she a gym leader or something like a ranger? Is she rivals with anyone? Does she have to take down an evil team? Is it Dawn challenging the league? Is Giles a professor? Is anyone into contests?