Crossovers, fusions, and AUs in FKFicFest

[brightknightie]

We've had crossovers in fkficfest, but it wandered through my mind today that I can't seem to recall, off the top of my head, any fusions (as distinct from crossovers)* or the most typical sorts of "total"/"mundane" AUs (like, coffee shop AU, high-school AU, band AU).

In this year's game, I'll be sure to list those specifically as allowed, along with crossovers, at the "minimum 51% Forever Knight, however you choose to measure it" threshold.

(This thought is brought to you by the notion of Janette, not Guinan, running Ten-Forward on the Enterprise-D.)

* Addendum: Apologies! I'm probably mis-defining "crossover" versus "fusion," and I may well have blown it entirely on how to reference AUs! Of course the fest has enjoyed future!fic and space and pirates and many things. I should be more careful with vocabulary I don't know well! And with times my memory is clearly failing.

Comments

[sholio]

I think your definition sounds like my definition of fusions vs crossovers! I've always thought of the key distinction as:

Fusion: characters from universe A have always lived in universe B (e.g. "what if Nick was a Jedi" - implying that he grew up in the Star Wars universe and hasn't ever been his canon Toronto police officer self)

Crossover: characters from universe A meet characters from universe B (e.g. "what if Duncan & co. met Han Solo and traveled on the Millennium Falcon") but both sets of characters are still their usual canon selves with their usual backstories, aside from whatever is required to get them to meet - a portal or magic or time travel or whatever.

[brightknightie]

Thanks! Yes, I've been still assuming that a crossover is the default for most "so-and-so meets so-and-so!" scenarios (as we very commonly get in canon in comics, less commonly in TV, and almost never in movies or books), with a fusion being a more foundationally transformative approach.