#XCOM AU

[mwolf0epsilon]

Not me for real having ideas for a Star Wars XCOM AU where clones are still a thing and the Jedi (and a select few clones) are Psi Operatives...

[rollforrandom]

I know the "Canon" is that XCOM failed in the first 1-2 months of the invasion, but does anyone else feel that's not -quite- the case? Hear me out:

The ADVENT mechs look very similar in design to the MEC trooper from EW, minus the actual person in it. This could just be standard mech design/reused assets, but it makes sense if the Elders found that humans had made something useful with MELD, they would take it for their own purposes.

The ADVENT troopers use magnetic weapons, which while not fully Canon to EU/EW (the main one was the railgun for MEC troopers), are rather prominent in Long war, a mod that helped inspire aspects of XCOM 2 and whose development worked with/for the actual game studio when XCOM2 was developed. But why would ADVENT use a weapon like that if they have plasma? Cause XCOM already designed it. It was cheaper, designed for humans, by humans, and coopted by aliens

Bradford's forces are too well organized at the start of XCOM 2. They have a WHOL ALIEN SHIP, with a launchable drops hip? That's not something that just "goes missing" without repercussions. Especially if we get stomped into the dirt with no resistance in 2 months. This feels like an opportunity was taken while the world was still in turmoil, fighting was going on, and XCOM grabbed what it could while the aliens were suppressing major dissonance across the globe. Something that according to the elder, didn't happen. And we all know we can trust them /s

This is all just theory and hypothetical. But I am really into that rn, especially other theories like "The commander/player is actually the Ethereal from the Bureau" level of theory. Tell me if you agree/disagree/want to hear more rambling.

[etherealvoidechoes]

Mobile post ~

Old sketches of Bradford with bonus off model Jynn in the middle. Have to edit them a fair bit before slapping them on the other blog.

[ladypenitent]

picturing a dragon age/xcom AU in which the Evanuris are the Elders, Ethereals whose physical bodies have atrophied over millennia in imprisonment, who are seeking a cure at any cost

[purple-nautilus]

Viper: (I was told that there would be a meeting, wtf)

[becauseplot]

I don't know if you remember her backstory I typed up a while back, but yeah... Tallulah has never in her life been safe or happy, and Chayanne has only just discovered these things, and he wants to give her the universe. That's his brain-friend and little sister! She's been hunted most of her life and he'll stab you if you hurt her! But also he's sharing his dads because sometimes the monsters are too tall. Best Big Brother.

And yeah! Egg classes! They do also have stuff like reading, writing, and maths, but their education is extremely casual and all over. Especially as it doubles up as daycare. Main eggs range from about 11 (Chayanne) to 2 (Trump) in terms of development, and then there's A1/Allie who is in her late teens to look at but only about 3 months old, and because of speed growth both mental and physical development are a mess. So, education is very, very all over. Just whatever the adults fancy teaching. It's the likes of Pac and Mike and Cellbit who insist someone has to teach them maths and reading and writing hardest (AKA the ones who didn't get education themselves...), though everyone shares the burden of unfun subjects.

And writing this I realise this Cellbit probably had an extremely bad reading ability most of his life. He remembers a bit of the skill from before the amnesia, like he does many skills (unlike say Quackity's amnesia where he lost reading and maths and stuff too), but... He still had to piece it all back together. And even then his skill was only that of a 10 year old. It's good now! And he teaches the kids to read and does silly voices when he does storytime for them (Pac e Mike do maths, but also baking powder volcano type science). But... it's a skill he had to fight for. Mostly alone. The prison did force him into some education programs, but it was mostly just them ticking legal requirement boxes not actually helping him with it. Felps almost certainly also helped, but yeeeeeah. I bet for his birthday Pac and Mike are trying to find and steal him a set of literary classics and the sort of stuff you study at school as he never had the chance to do any of those. Those two at least remember the schooling they did, and made it to 13/15 which is more than Cellbit's 10, even if not enough!!!

Sorry got distracted by thoughts of like... the blorbos.

Loving the thoughts about the blorbos!! Give me all of the distracted thoughts about the blorbos!!!!!

First of all yes bestest big brother Chayanne! Beloveds <3

The classes thing is so fucking cute holy shit. And makes sense who's advocating for the Essentials the most, given their circumstances (everyone just wants better for the kids than they got themselves I'm ;-;). The ideas about Cellbit, Pac, and Mike's educations pre-everything is just so goddamned *bangs fist on table /pos* (Rrrrr that's what I love about your worldbuilding and character-crafting so much it's those little details!! They mean so much. Love love love this series so much you've no idea.)

I imagine those classes with the kids are also a nice kind of break from the craziness of ykno: alien invasions, dangerous missions, constant threat of death or annihilation or Worse hanging over their heads. Stressed out of your mind about your impending doom? Go wrangle the kids into a lesson about photosynthesis. Do finger painting with them with whatever paints you've got. Demonstrate how to use a socket wrench. Help them bake something nice to eat. Show them how to write their names. Read a book with them and help them sound out the big words. Teach them phrases in your mother tongue, and then teach them about the country you came from, and then teach them about the continents, and then teach them about the planet. Sketch the solar system with a sharpie on the back of an old mission report and draw a little arrow to the circle labeled "Earth" and tell them we are here and this is our home. Answer their million-billion questions and remember what exactly it is you're fighting for.

[elecman108]

me: I can remember the exact intricacies of what frames I can superguard in TTYD and how exactly to consistently do a frame perfect hazard respawn in order to acquire stuff early such as Ms Mowz, a fresh pasta, or put Mario in a train-based purgatory much akin to the Emmet of the Pokemon Legends Arceus timeline where his brother got yoinked into feudal japan out of nowhere by god for shits and giggles.

also me: what fucking movie had the two creepy twins in it (it was The Shining. like. its one of the most famous horror movies. how could I forget.)

ALSO also me: hehe I have (genuinely) over 350 OCs :)

[factorialsotherfandoms]

Ooooo Christmas fic from Factorial :0 I love your writing so much!! How about one from one of your Ordem AUs? I really like your post-opc with Johnny and Rubens, but any of the others (xcom, opd/opc fix-it, maybe even that steampunk one you were poking at a while back) are also good. Thank you and Merry Crimmus friend!! Go nuts!! <33

Merry Christmas Curly!!! You do not have post-opc au, you have a special treat... (likely never to be continued steampunk au)

And to everyone else, a wodnerful holiday season to you all.

Please find the ao3 link here is you so prefer: [link]

Mild body horror, but if you can handle ordem canon you should be fine. No spoilers, it's too au for that!

This is the furthest into one of his father's factories that Thiago has been in a long time. Long gone are the great thick safety rails and brass plating, replaced with burning pipes and skin-meltingly hot steam exhausts. The machines used here before were dangerous, yes, but nothing next to the ghost tech now installed. Even Thiago knew ghost tech was dangerous when his father vanished a decade ago; whoever stole his inheritance clearly has no such concerns, not when factory accidents now make the everyday news.

It is Thiago who writes that news, of course. The Gazette is not the most sophisticated of papers, but it is one that allows him the freedom to investigate such accidents. Explosions, burns, loom teeth catching on long skirts... he has seen much, and written it all. Even choking slightly on the cotton dust in the air after yesterday's work Thiago keeps looking; the lack of cleaning plus the exposed boil-vents is reason enough to slam the company, but only page seven news really.

What he hasn't seen, though, is a factory like this one; he had managed to convince the foreman to give him the key, between a silver tongue, a shared and genuine concern for the workers' safety after a number of disappearances, and a the insinuation that he was sleeping with the man's wife. And now he is inside...

The other bits are just factory, but it's in jimmying open a door and getting towards the machine rooms that he finds it.

The true meaning of ghost tech.

Pulsating walls, steam churning like blood, a hulking mass of wire and brass and steam... There's blood all around, and lumps of flesh mixed with the pipework. If it is human or not... Well, he prefers not to think about where those missing workers went.

He also has no idea as to if this monstrosity itself can be considered alive or not; careful of making noise, he grabs a pencil and paper, and begins to draw.

His sketches are nothing special, but they can be used as references for the stamp cutter. Chip here, gap there, move it all about...

He's nearly done when a gloved hand covers his mouth and pulls him closer.

Looking up... a woman, smartly dressed in green-trimmed black. The lace from her hat covers only the left side of her face, a cloth mask covers the lower half, and the edge of a cage-crinoline is pressed against the back of his legs. It's somewhat out of date, most women now preferring the half-hooped crinolette if not the recently developed bustle.

... Maybe Thiago should be paying more attention to his surroundings, and less to his colleagues working on the fashion rags.

Still, with a hand over his throat, there is not much Thiago can do but attempt to make eye contact.

It is very much failing, the woman's one visible eye is trailing over the abomination before them.

"I suggest," she whispers, bite in her tone. "Leaving very carefully and quietly."

Her hand shifts, and Thiago gains space to speak.

"Unfortunately, dear lady, I am here on business, and I am not quite finished yet."

He keeps his voice low, not wanting to draw attention if that thing can hear.

She glances at his sketch, then at him. Pauses a moment, and then…

"Oh, about the explosion?" She asks.

"Explosion?"

What explosion?

"Hm," her eyes run over the abomination again. "The one that will happen in around five minutes. A terrible shame about the use of fire boilers in an uncleaned textile mill."

"Ma'am, that is not a boiler."

"As a member of the Special Investigations Unit," she flashes a badge too quickly to see, then hides it again; there is no way that is a legitimate police unit, Thiago had been studying those extensively before taking to trespassing. "That is all that you know."

"But you know more, don't you?" He presses a little. "These were my father's factories, you know? The Infinite Production Conglomerate stole them during probate."

That seems to catch her attention.

"You're a Fritz?" she asks.

"Thiago," he replies, following her gaze to watch the monster.

The hand leaves his face entirely, reaching instead into a pocket of her skirt. She leans to one side as she does - it must be a large pocket - before pulling out... Some form of gun.

"Elizabeth," she tells him, as though there were fewer than six Elizabeth's working in his department alone. "Now, I am going to see that this monstrosity finds its way to hell. I highly suggest leaving."

Thiago does not know what sort of gun this Miss Elizabeth is holding, but he does know what happens if you combine even a slight flame in a textile factory this poorly maintained.

And he enjoys having skin.

"Alright," he whispers back. "There's an open door just across the factory floor."

"Lockpick?"

"Foreman knows me. He lent me the key."

"Hm," she considers a little. "Alright, your way; I don't want to climb back through the window."

She got in through a window? In that dress?

Thiago would say he is impressed, but flabbergasted would be a more accurate term.

"Of course, my dear Miss Elizabeth," he offers a hand. "Shall we?"

She ignores the hand, and starts crossing the floor.

Thiago quickly finishes up his sketch, and follows after her.

Now that he has seen it, he can hear the squelching of the abomination echoing in the pipes...

He tries not to think about that.

They make it outside without incident, and Thiago finds the guards he snuck around collapsed on the floor. There is no smell of blood, so he likes to think of them as merely drugged unconscious.

It is dark, he cannot see details, he can be forgiven.

Also, Miss Elizabeth does not drag the bodies into the factory, which anyone sensible would do with corpses before demanding a cover-up from a reporter of dubious repute, so they are probably clear of murder charges.

"Permission to explode your possessed factory, Mister Fritz?"

"Of course, Miss Elizabeth; I do think such things an insult to my father's legacy, after all."

She does not say more before snapping open her strange gun. She adds not a bullet but a canister to it, before flipping it closed and pointing it at the broken window.

And then she fires.

No projectile he recognises comes from the gun, but instead a small burning leading a trail of red smoke.

It enters the window.

Miss Elizabeth grabs Thiago by the arm, and pulls him to the ground.

It does not even take a second for the cotton dust to ignite, the entire factory quickly developing into a blazing ball of soon-to-be-ash.

Miss Elizabeth keeps him low for a while - long enough for the shrapnel and spitting fireballs to pass - before carefully getting to her feet.

"A pleasure doing business with you, Miss Elizabeth," he tells her, as he also struggles up.

"I must bid you farewell; I have a telegram to send," she dusts off her dress, and corrects the tilt of her hat. "I suggest leaving; pray we do not meet again, Mister Fritz. You have no business here."

She does not wait for an answer before returning the strange gun to her skirts, and begins sprinting down the road, in the opposite direction to the bell of the approaching fire cart.

What a strange woman, Thiago thinks, even as he, too, sprints off at ninety degrees to them both.

[companionwolf]

in the feedback (day) but it's over a amv of xcom x blaseball crossover/au/whatever where the commander and central are players on the same team...

[echotunes]

🥤🍄❄️ \o/!!

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

hm. well same hat with that I'd recommend you but you're sending the ask LOL. you already recommended Factorial (@/factorialsotherfandoms) but I will do it again for the benefit of everyone else reading. you mentioned two of my favourites from his XCOM 2 AU (in this post, for everyone else) and I also really love Remind Me How It Feels To Hear Your Voice which is part of the same arc but well. chapter 3. is all I will say. I adore that fic.

other than that - one of my favourite qsmp fics will always be And will we bring the stranger in? (Circle, grow and grow) by WheelCoveredInEyes (@/blocksgame). it does feature forever a decent amount so make your own decisions about reading it I suppose but I can't not adore this fic. it's everything to me. same with if stainless steel could love you back by underoriginal (@/magicalmanhattanproject), albeit for very different reasons. one of the fics of all time. do not take the gore warnings lightly. it's so so good

dead man's float by anonymous is so underrated it's one of my favourite fitpac fics and I never see anyone talk about it and it's SO GOOD. it fucks me up so much I adore it

and last one for now lol but how to (not) deal with asymmetry by Solaneceae is also really good. tazercraft mindlink my love

🍄 ⇢ share a headcanon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

does it count that I like the idea of t4t tazercraft having done each other's top surgery. because I do. I pitched the idea of Pac having bioluminescent top surgery scars to fey feyscape once and they put it in a fic and it's great. tazercraft brand home surgeries: probably not safe and definitely not doctor approved but hey it works!

and I answered ❄️ here!

(ask game)

[omnissaiev]

I has a problem. What I got in writing is about 10% of a kibbutz AU for Naruto (in Hebrew). What I got in my head is about 45% for a slow burn M rated Utena revenge fic, and ideas for an XCom-Amphibia crossover.

What I also got is a demanding full-time job, ADHD. How to make that work?

[rollforrandom]

I just want to point out, XCOM doesn't really play out like we are bunch of veteran soldiers hamd-picked to save humanity. It really feels like we are given the oddball and scraps of various militaries. I mean, if the Skyranger existed, it would be mass produced by the US military industrial complex to replace the Chinook. Odds are, it was a one-off experimental prototype that was overengineered and overcooked, then "gifted" to XCOM when the invasion hit. And the interceptors? Probably just F-15s with fancy upgrades cause they're cheap and can launch from a vertical footprint. All the soldiers are rookies cause they're the ones that volunteered, or got voluntold.

[etherealvoidechoes]

Can either of you learn how to let go?

Sad-ish future scene of that VoidWalker AU.

[ladypenitent]

the dragon age/xcom AU is futher compounded by these guys basically being cousins

[purple-nautilus]

the xcom au again, but with snek!76

Hey look I drew viper

[becauseplot]

A gift of a handful (tumblr character limited me) xcomau species notes! Specifically flaws. avians - weak to poison gas, certain broken bones can cause suffocation in people with specific traits. fish-folk - can't get gills dry, wounds there cause big complications. spider - if balance gets fucked, it's super fucked. balance on 2 legs not 8, but don't have as many as 8... cats - prone to overstimulation especially light, reduced depth perception. ~Factorial

ooohohoohhoohhhhh. the whump potential is enormous for this let me tell you.