#been a while for me

[aroaceleovaldez]

i had a thought of "do people not know what AUs are anymore?" and then i remembered nobody explains fandom stuff to new people anymore so it is entirely plausible people genuinely don't know what AUs are and nobody has explained it to them, so for today's lucky 10,000:

"AU" stands for "Alternate Universe" or "Alternative Universe" (same difference) and is basically any thought scenario for a fandom that isn't canon and can't fit within the canon universe. If it takes place in the canon universe but something is notably different, that is typically what's known as a "Canon divergent AU," because it diverges from canon.

an AU can be absolutely anything. There's a couple of widespread pan-fandom au scenarios that often get thrown around, like coffee shop aus, genderbend aus, hanahaki aus (hanahaki is a whole thing in itself i'd recommend researching on your own), etc. One you might hear sometimes is "crossover AU" which is when you have characters from one fandom interacting with characters from another.

You can have as many aus as you want. They can be whatever you want and you can do whatever you want in them. It's a sandbox for you to play around in and explore how things would be different or how the characters would act in those circumstances or environments. Maybe they have different relationships with each other. Maybe they behave slightly differently. Or you can just say "Okay, [x] is true. How did they get here? How would things have to be different for this to occur?" which can also be fun.

If you are ever confused about why people ship something that seems completely out of the blue or doesn't make sense to you in the canon setting, there's a good chance they like it in an AU setting! Not everything everybody is interacting with is necessarily the canon! Not everybody wants things to exist in canon and just want to explore playing dolls in a different sandbox and that's okay. And their sandbox might look a lot different than yours, and that's also okay. You have the freedom to make your sandbox whatever you please. Do whatever you want forever. Get funky with it. AUs are fun.

Okay that's my schpeal. everybody go have fun and play nice now.

[mysillycomics]

[clowns0up-felix]

Falin Drawlin ^.^

[stealingpotatoes]

with how much time my cat spends in his litter box (and how loud that time is), i can only assume he has the greatest litter zen garden in the lands

[egophiliac]

missed the mark by (looks at calendar) uhhh. hm. but I really wanted to do something for the 5th anniversary! happy five years to these idiots 🎉

[fiiniky]

Gem's lighthouse

[soapbbox]

I like that Megatron is essentially leading a bunch of senior citizens

[featherfangart]

Wanderlust

[artist-rat]

i miss them sm!!!!

[hinamie]

growth // decay

[badninken]

He's been hauled around by so many people and animals at this point in his life that he's starting to rate them by size and comfort level.

He's literally bent over backwards on a horse ridden by three other men here. He's having this thought in the privacy of his own mind while frowning at the sky, still shot full of lead bullets btw. Peak Law moment.

Episode 690 at 20:54 (the voice acting for this line is amazing)

[bluemoon1331]

I love 'hero living long enough to become the villain', but oughhhh, 'villain living long enough to become the hero' is life altering. Also not just ending in some goddamn sacrifice. They've gotta legit LIVE with those actions. And holy fuck, if they end up caring for someone they previously traumatized and now have to bear being the thing that haunts their nightmares for years? OH, THE ANGST, TAKE ME NOW!!!

[stil-lindigo]

the vulture.

a comic about cycles.

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creative notes:

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[even-fools-are-right-sometimes]

“Tell me it's okay I know I won't believe you I need it despite”

– i promise i want to trust it (Haiku #146)

[drenched-in-sunlight]

thank you for the amazing halftime show 💙❤️🥰