AU Challenge Bingo Card

[chacusha]

I promised myself I would allow myself to request an au_challenge bingo card once I cleared some exchange fic off my plate. I have FINALLY done this, so here we go! I am not actually going to make any fanworks for this, but I just want to use it as a meme/activity to allow people to give me AU prompts and I can share my thoughts on how I think an X AU for Y canon would look like.

So, help me fill out this bingo: Pick a square + a fandom you'd like me to apply that AU to (+ optionally, a set of character(s) or ship(s) you'd like me to focus on for that AU), and I will write up some thoughts on how I think it would work. Here's a list of my fandoms if that helps. (If you happen to know I'm familiar with some fandom not listed there, feel free to request that.)

Porn Star AU	Single Parent AU	Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies ‎AU	Bar/Pub ‎AU	Medical ‎AU
Superhero AU: Star Trek: DS9, Quodo	Sci-Fi AU	Vacation AU	Renaissance AU	Canon Fusion (Movie) AU
Ghost AU	Non-Famous ‎AU	Free Space	Circus AU	Firefighter AU
Fae AU	Spies & Secret Agents ‎AU	20th Century AU: Final Fantasy IX	Royalty AU: Star Trek: DS9	Monster Hunter AU: Final Fantasy Tactics
Online Dating AU	Idols ‎AU	Crime AU	Racing AU	What If...? AU

Please help me fill up this bingo card with some fun AU ideas? 🥺 Feel free to specify an AU of your choice (not appearing elsewhere on the card) for the free space. Or just leave it to me to pick.

Comments

[chacusha]

I'm going to do the Royalty AU + DS9 one first because I'm not sure yet about the Quodo Superhero AU.

For the royalty one, I'm still trying to figure out how the whole situation would work, and what kind of setting to use here (like a traditional monarchy vs. a constitutional monarchy type system instead), but I feel like Ben + Jake work pretty well as a king and prince of Bajor, but ones who were only recently brought in, for some reason. Maybe there was a series of regime changes and upheaval on Bajor, but then they found some foreign nobles who are distant, distant relatives of a past monarch or something who could function as a successor and wouldn't have any of the problems associated with the other options / is a compromise monarch between rival factions, and invited them to come rule.

The officers of DS9 would then be prominent members of Sisko's court. Kira is Sisko's majordomo or whatever -- the head of his household. She doesn't think this arrangement will last and is annoyed that someone who didn't grow up on Bajor is currently the king, but grudgingly admits Sisko is probably the least worst option here. Dax is Sisko's... general? Some sort of strategic adviser who he worked with before and brought from whatever country he was living in previously. Worf joins later, another general/military adviser who initially doesn't get along with Dax, but then they become bros. Bashir is the royal physician. Odo is the sheriff of the nearby castle town. Nog is Jake's commoner BFF who has an uncanny talent for sneaking the prince out of the palace and away from his studies, lol.

Winn is still the leader of the local Church and wary of Sisko's policies, especially where they curtail the Church's power/influence. Dukat is the former, recently-deposed tyrant of Bajor who is in exile and who everyone hates, but he's always going around trying to raise an army to take Bajor back and is ready to invade at the first sign of weakness.

I'm not really sure what to do with the Changelings/Dominion and whether to keep them in at all. They could certainly be a neighboring country and you could have some geopolitics that way, but I also wonder if they could be a powerful family within Bajor or something like that.

I'm curious if this is similar to what you were thinking, or if it's completely different!

[tribble_of_tarth]

Overall, it's pretty similar to what I had in mind! I went back and forth between whether this would be a sci-fi space royalty situation or an all one planet/more standard royalty AU. I ended up somewhere between the two, with everyone except the Founders/Dominion being on one planet and the Founders being a looming interstellar villain set on taking over the planet.

I imagine Cardassia is a neighboring country of Bajor, who invaded and occupied Bajor for 50 years. The Bajorans eventually dispel the Cardassians, but the original Bajoran royal family was killed early in the occupation and there is no clear-cut heir to inherit the throne. Sisko is a noble (Maybe a duke or earl? I don't want him to be as high up as a prince.) from the neighboring country Terra, whose mother was a lesser member of the Bajoran royal family who married into the Terran royal family prior to the occupation of Bajor. Despite his reluctance, it's decided he will act as regent for Bajor while the country gets back on its feet and figures out who will ultimately become king/how governance will be handled going forward.

Jake, Dax, Miles, Keiko, and Julian are part of Sisko's court that join him in Bajor. (Dr. Bashir wasn't Sisko's choice to bring, but someone owed Julian's father a favor, and the young doctor has been keen to practice medicine in another country.) Worf is the head of the castle guard. Kira is his head Bajoran advisor who is very not keen to have a regent who has never even set foot in Bajor before. She warms up to him after he shows he has good judgement and has the best interests of the Bajoran people at heart. The two of them also get closer as Kira shows him Bajoran culture and Sisko starts to feel more connected to his mother, who died in childbirth and he never met. Odo is his national security advisor. Quark owns a local tavern, and they let him get away with petty crime in exchange for him relaying information about possible threats to the country.

General politicking and such happens, but then the Founders show up and decide they're going to run the whole planet now, so everyone has to band together to defeat them.

I really like your bit about Nog being Jake's commoner BFF with a knack for sneaking him out of the palace! And if Worf was head of the castle guard, it would drive him absolutely crazy lol! Thanks for sharing this!

[chacusha]

Oh, fascinating! This is indeed quite similar. I agree, Sisko should be a more minor noble before he's brought into Bajor so that he doesn't have multiple kingdom-ruling responsibilities, which would be confusing. Having the connection be through Sarah and it be a temporary regency situation makes a lot of sense! These are some really fun thoughts -- thanks for sharing! :D