no meme since may?! for shame!

[aburningspirit]

the|alternate|universe|meme

ONE. list your characters (journal names optional).
TWO. others reply with one of those characters or a pairing for you to write; platonic or romantic is up to you.
THREE. pick five cliché AUs from this list (complete with explanations!), and write something of any length - a sentence, a paragraph, a drabble, or a full-length ficlet, if you'd prefer - for each of those five AUs, involving that character or pairing.

Comments

I can only brain three, is that cool?

[rockstark]

Post-Apocalyptic

The last of the oil had been siphoned out of the Earth five years ago. The tanks in Texas were due to run dry in months, and the wars over what remained were getting bloodier and bloodier. The weapons stockpiles filled entire states, as America's paranoia rivaled the Cold War. Anyone coming for their precious crude would have to take it from the cold, dead hands of every citizen still standing.

He'd helped them stockpile it all, made missiles that could incinerate the human body but leave a puddle of oil nearby unharmed - it was all very complicated, had to do with the chemical reactions necessary to cause ignition - and they told him it had saved lives by saving the energy needed to sustain them.

It wasn't making him feel any better, he thought, as he stared down at the half-finished missile on his workbench. Idly, he toyed with the palladium chip he was about to lay into the core.

There had to be a better way.

[Supernatural]

"Now, that," Tony breathed to himself, fitting the cover in place over the finished casing, "is going to freak me right out. Don't you start talking to me in my sleep or anything, either, or we're going to have issues, and I'll just ... have them raise someone else."

The reactor's light only fluttered a little in dissent, before Tony reached down and slotted it back into place.

"Talk about your dead folks living on in your heart."

[spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]

He wasn't sure how, exactly, he'd managed to coax a few more light years out of the ancient speeder. Sure, it'd been pretty in the hangar, vintage and gleaming, all chrome and dials, but there was a reason they didn't make it anymore: it flew for crap. The terrorist faction had nearly blown him planetside, before he managed to evade them and make his own landing. No sooner had he climbed out of the cockpit and scrambled for the crater than something exploded next to him, white-hot, followed by a rain of laser fire. He fumbled for the shield generator at his wrist, which fizzled, but still worked: damn, he was good at getting antiques to work for him. Sliding down the bowl, he heard the terrorists approaching, their angry shouts, and managed to reach out and grab the tiny, fist-sized hunk of glowing rock before they crested the crater. Quickly, Tony replaced it with a similar-sized piece of rubble and stuffed the fallen star under his jacket, hoping to hell it wouldn't glow through.

"Sorry, boys. This one's a dud. Looks like you nearly committed murder for nothing."