jedibuttercup

So here are the first five results from Friday's plotting practice meme-- the descriptions of several stories I have not written based on titles and fandoms supplied by my flist. Broken up due to length, and needing to go to sleep. =)

1. "Tomorrow is Yesterday" for

bastardsnow (B:tVS, B/X)

At some point post-Chosen, when Xander and Buffy are dating random new people, the Great Clothes Fluke re-occurs in some fashion, this time with the pair of them as participants. Someone walks in on them just as they realize what they're doing ("didn't I give up on this years ago?" / "when did he stop being totally off-limits?", etc.) and pull back, feeling guilty. But too late: that someone, probably Willow, is upset enough to start lecturing them (mostly Xander) about those who don't learn from history being doomed to repeat it, and unthinkingly makes a wish along those lines.

So they start learning from history-- by repeating it-- one randomly chosen era and location at a time. Always moving backwards. Never moving to a new time until they've learned something important; it takes them awhile to realize that someone is choosing the eras with a specific intent, with a particular ultimate goal in mind. (Some eras take longer to move through than others, since they often have to learn entirely new languages before they can decipher the lessons). As they're still capable of being injured or killed, they realize they'll have to figure out what that goal is before they run out of human history to learn it from: pre-human history is not likely to be survivable.

Much frustration and angst in the early going. But with every tomorrow that reaches further into yesterday, they grow closer; they work out the problems that had turned them from happy friends into screwed-up, scarred adult acquaintances; and the last chapter brings them face-to-face with Sineya in a climactic encounter that sets up a B/X epilogue in which they arrive back in the present and deal with matters there from their adjusted POV's.

2. "Sidhe Who Must Be Obeyed" & "Resistance is Feudal" for

sinanju

During the years SG-1 spent struggling against the Ori, Daniel's research focused more on what was expedient-- how to fight, then destroy them-- than on following every available line of questioning about their existence and how they tied into the history of Earth.

For example: "Merlin" came with the retreat from Atlantis 10,000 years ago, at which point the Ancients and Ori had already been separate peoples for millions of years. So why did he suddenly decide 1,000 years ago-- after all that time of no contact, and after having been Ascended for nine millenia-- that the Ori were a serious enough threat that he needed to descend in Britain and build a device against them? Further-- back in Daniel's original lectures on the Ori vs. the imagery of fire being noted as evil in human mythologies-- how could said images have been passed on when the human race didn't even exist in the Milky Way the last time any Ancient had contact with the Ori faction?

The answer is tied up in an AU resolution of the Ori plotline (avoiding a lot of the drawn-out garbage and unnecessary loss of extraterrestrial human life in Seasons 9 & 10). Shortly after Vala Mal Doran is lost at the Supergate, Daniel realizes the anomaly, and asks to go back to Glastonbury Tor to do a little more research. This leads him to the discovery of another yet breakaway faction of Alterans; some of those on Earth had stuck around to meddle after Ascension despite directives not to, and (much as with Chaya in Pegasus) were condemned by the Others to stick to one place and limit what they could do. They became the sidhe of legend, above humans but below gods, and it was their capricious presence which eventually prompted Merlin to reconsider the idea of developing an anti-Ascended weapon, just in case.

In Sidhe Who Must Be Obeyed, Daniel manages to locate a group of said sidhe while pursuing research leads in Britain; it turns into one of those Daniel-captive-while-team-searches stories, in which he has to use all his wits and knowledge of the legends of the sidhe to survive and be able to leave in the same condition he was when he arrived. Possible use of the leanan sidhe? Lots of drama and peril, but in the end Daniel does get to leave, and the sidhe are now aware that (a) not only the Ancients but now the Ori have designs on their turf, and (b) the Ancients are doing nothing about the Ori, so there's dangling threads to be resolved in Resistance is Feudal. In that sequel, Adria arrives (as in canon) and the sidhe, lesser in number and power than the Ori but hella motivated, decide to get involved (in their own capricious fashion) in the resistance against her forces. Much use of the medieval-style planets from canon as Ganos Lal (aka Morgan Le Fay) panics now that the Ascended Ancients are not only up against a rock but a hard place too, and sticks her oar in early to enlist the Tau'ri to put a stop to it.

3. "not even the rain (has such small hands)" for

izhilzha (CSI, Sara/Greg)

This story would be a Sara/Greg storyline breaking off from the main CSI plot either just before or just after Sara snaps and leaves Vegas.

Because Greg cares; she's made her way under his skin in all the years they've worked together, and no matter how much he falls back on respect and friendship there's still that little voice in the back of his mind wondering why Grissom and not him. Why always Grissom when the older man is not ever going to be able to offer the support Greg knows she needs. He sees her falling apart, fragile; he sees her beautiful, intense; knows that speaking up is going to forever change the fond base of friendship he relies on into something either much better or much worse. It's not until he realizes that she's breaking, that they're about to lose her altogether, that he decides he has to do something.

I would never be able to get through the writing of this one, because there would be so much angst and emotional pain in it before they could get to the healing and love, and Sara's relationship with Grissom would be a necessary victim of the plot. Would end with Greg and Sara staying in or returning to Vegas, just starting to feel their tentative way toward a happily-often-after, while Grissom finally disappears ghost-like the way he'd always promised Warrick.

4. "And I Feel Fine" for

thady (HP/B:tVS crossover)

This would be a snapshot of Luna Lovegood, Slayer, at her first apocalypse.

Background, vaguely sketched into the story: She'd already been through a war against an implacable evil in which many friends and mentors died; as a consequence, she took her new calling (at age 22 or so, as timelines match up) well in stride. The Scoobies were taken a little aback at first-- they only knew she was a previously untrained, now activated Potential, they weren't expecting someone with her experience, magic, or personality-- but once past that, she'd assimilated well. In fact, it was through the Council that she met Rolf Scamander (grandson of famous naturalist and author Newt) while he was investigating demonic crossbreeds like the American strain of werewolves. She regularly sends her father Slayer-related tidbits of no strategic importance that the Quibbler's customers ignore just like they do the tales of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, and carries on a distant, though fond, correspondence with the rest of the survivors of Dumbledore's Army.

All things considered, she does not regret her new job at all. She is serene; she is deadly; she is a Slayer, and she feels fine.

5. "Non-Specific Variables of Emotional Acceleration" for

butterflykiki (SGA, SG-1, scifi)

OK, now that is a headscratchy prompt. I googled it, but still have trouble translating it into layperson. But I don't know Dr. Who. So...

Something gen and AU and thinky and character-focused with Daniel going to Atlantis, probably post-"Ark of Truth", and staying. Not truly expecting happiness, connection, new friendships, excitement, joy, etc. (because how could lightning strike twice, he's older and more disillusioned now, he came there planning to study his dream city not get involved). Achieving it anyway.

I've tried writing more details about this one half-a-dozen times and then gone back in to delete them, because I can't articulate the images the title puts into my mind. But it would definitely be from the POV of someone else (at least Teyla, probably Ronon, maybe others) watching Daniel adapt, little by little, to Atlantis and adapting Atlantis to him in turn. Writing him interacting with Rodney would be fun; but I have a feeling the meat of the story would end up revolving around interactions with John. The similarities and differences in their characters, not only to their "counterparts" from the other show but to each other, continue to fascinate me. Wouldn't really "end" so much as go off on a worldbuildy epilogue tangent.