hey an AU meme!

[jlh]

from havocthecat:

The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms you know I am familiar with AND give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, What-If-X-Happened etc.). I will then explain what story from that fandom I would write for that AU.

Except I don't care for horror, so please don't say zombie AUs as it will make both of us sad.

Fandoms I've written in:
American Idol RPF
Harry Potter
Star Trek
Ferris Bueller/Pretty in Pink crossover
How I Met Your Mother
Avatar: the Last Airbender
(one-offs:)
The Philadelphia Story
White Collar
Castle
Broken Hearts Club
Rent
Project Runway RPF
Top Design RPF
Top Chef RPF


Canons I've offered for Yuletide, but haven't done:
Bringing Up Baby
The Thin Man
His Girl Friday
The Great Gatsby
Little Miss Sunshine
Little House books

Comments

[alwayswondered]

So, you know, SGA fandom really loves its coffee shop AUs. And much as everyone groans about them, I quite like a good coffee shop AU now and then.

A theoretical Star Trek 2009 coffee shop AU might be just what I'm looking for right now.

[jlh]

I have not read any of the coffee shop AUs! (Though to be fair the only SGA fics I've read are that one about taking off clothes? and the Farm in Iowa AUs, having never watched the show.) So I may not get the form quite right but here goes.

Jim is the proprietor of the local coffee shop in a university town. His grandfather Tiberius had run it before him, while his dad was a promising young prof at the university who died very young. His mother helped her in-laws run the shop, while Jim grew up into a wild townie who resented the college smarties. But when his granddad died, Pike, a former student of his father's who now taught at the university himself saw Jim at the funeral and convinced him to take over the coffee shop rather than letting his mother sell it. Since a recent fling with a college girl has resulted in a baby coming, Jim thinks maybe it's time to stop running wild—especially when the girl decides Jim would make a better parent for their son than she.

And then, eventually, Jim started taking a few classes at the university; after testing out of a lot of the lower level requirements he decided to go full time. He's thinking about an English or Comp Lit degree. Maybe he even has a book in him.

Hikaru Sulu is the local florist, and is one of Jim's earliest customers, stopping in for a coffee on his way to the flower markets in the city. He just happens to always be there as Pavel Chekov, the young son of the local baker, delivers Jim's pastries for the day. Jim doesn't think this is a coincidence.

Spock is also a professor at the university, and he comes in every day after lunch for one of Jim's special blends, green tea with mint and lemon verbena. Jim took one of his seminars and while Spock wasn't impressed with Jim's approach to the topic he had to give him an A. They've been friendly since then.

Nyota Uhura is a grad student Jim knows from a higher level class on the Russian novel. She's the total comp-lit type: speaks a gazillion languages, not all romance either; was a ballet dancer and tends to either sit perfectly straight, or hunch over crosslegged with a pashmina over her shoulders because she's always cold. She'd only been to the shop a few times—mostly with her roommate Gaila when Jim dated her briefly—but then Jim notices her picking up Spock's usual green tea for him a couple of days a week.

Most of Jim's staff are college students, but Jan manages the shop during the evening hours—though Jim is only steps away, as his flat is upstairs from the shop, and sometimes once David is in bed he'll sneak back down just to be back with adults for a while. Scotty is an asst. prof who works as Jim's tech support in exchange for free coffee, and convinced Jim to apply to the uni to be a wifi hub three years ago.

And then one fall, a tall dark and handsome man, a little rough around the edges but Jim kinda likes that, wandered into the shop, a laptop bag over his shoulder, and asked, "So, is there an hourly minimum or somethin' for using the wifi?" in the growliest voice ever, with just a hint of a southern lilt.

"Not during the day," Jim replies and grins.

The man grunts and orders, "Coffee, black, and pie."

"What kind of pie?"

"Surprise me."

It takes three weeks for Jim to get out of the man that his name is Leonard, he's a physician teaching at the university hospital while he gets his MPH, and he has a daughter the same age as David. After that, it's only a matter of time.

Scotty starts a betting pool of possible dates for the date. Spock, of course, wins.

[now I'll have to write this, damnit.]

[alwayswondered]

Eeee, this is awesome! I love Spock and his green tea! And Bones and the wifi! This could TOTALLY WORK! *glee* Pavel delivering the pastries is beyond adorable (Chulu will never fail to make me smile after Ship Wars). And for some reason I really like the idea of Jim being a responsible father and a student at the same time. Kirk multitasking and not being an asshole FTW.

Also, that's pretty much exactly the form. :D I'm sure I've read like a million SGA coffee shop AUs but I never keep any fics bookmarked or memoried on LJ, which is silly because I'm always going "I want to reread THIS! Oh wait. D:" But from what I remember, usually Sheppard owns the coffee shop and Rodney is that one cranky customer, but sometimes Rodney owns it and Sheppard is That Mysterious Guy, or Rodney and Sheppard frequent the same coffee shop and the rest of the team is, you know, there. Coffee shop AUs are ultimately heartwarming, and my heart could often do with being warmed.

[kittenspyjamas]

OH MY LORD, PAVEL + PASTRIES + HIKARU + FLOWERS = I am dead, but it is a beautiful, sugary death!

I love that Jan and David are still here, and for some reason that image of Nyota wrapped in a Pashmina really grabbed me. She'll be okay once she gets some toasty half-Vulcan cuddles, though, right? :D

[jlh]

I hope you went and read the totally cute Chulu bit that one of your teammates wrote!

haha, when I was thinking of Nyota as one of those always-cold comp lit majors I forgot about Spock's whole furnace thing. LOL!

[havocthecat]

What about Top Chef RPF in some sort of supernaturally themed (but not horror!) AU?

[jlh]

Since you didn't specify a season I'm just going to choose the people I've liked, and I'm shamelessly stealing ruby_fruit's Xmen-like school for magical types AU. Colicchio is the head of the school of course, and the judges are all profs.

Harold Dieterle and CJ Jacobsen are werewolves
Lee Anne Wong and Richard Blais are Ravus-like trolls (meaning, they're awesome)
Fabio Viviani and Stefan Richter are vampires
Jamie Lauren and Radhika Desai are pixies
Casey Thompson and Jennifer Carroll are mermaids
Ashley Merriman and Stephanie Izard are dryads
Bryan Voltaggio and Michael Voltaggio are shape shifters

[havocthecat]

Oh, that's awesome. I love it!

[jlh]

YAY!