{ The AU meme }

[unrelatedname]

 Ever played out something and then later wondered "What if?" Ever wondered what it'd be like to play your character a different way, but didn't feel like making a full thing dedicated to it? Now's your chance to play it out!

Using RNG you'll roll 1-3 for the level of the change, and 1-6 for the change itself, or if you want, pick your own based on what you wanted to do.


1)  Small Change: The flap of a butterfly's wings can cause tsunami's on the other side of the world.

-1: "A minute too late"- What if you missed something by a minute, or more? You missed the big meeting, the girl, helping that person, all because you were too late, what happens next?
-2: "The nick of time"- Just like the first, only that instead of missing something you got, that if you got something you missed because you were either too late, or just messed up? Congratulations! Let's just hope it's what you really wanted.
-3: "A little too early"- One more, what if you showed up early? It's suppose to be a good thing, is it this time?
-4: "The other choice"- You had two choices, left or right, heads or tails, Coke or Pepsi, now you get to see what would have happened with the other choice.
-5: "Oops!"- You slipped up, and made a mistake. Is it bad, or a blessing in disguise?
-6: Wild card/Pick your own- Thought of a slight change that'd make all the difference, or had one you wanted to play? Here's your chance.

2)  Medium Change: Didn't really see that coming, did you?

-1: Turning point change- That one thing that would have turned things in your favor went against you, and vice versa. How will you handle this critical change?
-2: "A Razor's edge"- That one moment that could have went either way has gone the opposite way of before. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?
-3: Crossroads- You reached a point in your life where you had several choices before you, now's the time to go down another road and see where it leads.
-4: The Road less traveled- "Two roads diverged in the woods, and I took the one less traveled" Will it make all the difference?
-5: Interference- Something blocked you from getting something you were going for. What do you do once the moment is gone?
-6: Wild Card/Pick your own-Thought of a medium change that'd make all the difference, or had one you wanted to play? Here's your chance.

3)  Large Change: Why do all the people here have goatee's?

-1: Good/Evil- Use to be a good guy? Welcome to the dark side, here's your cookie. Former bad guy? Hand over the cookie tray and join the side of good. How will the change of moral compass change you?
-2: A different person- You're now a completely different person, literally. Are you taller? Shorter? A robot? A pony? Powers? No powers? Your call.
-3: The other sex- Rule!63 is in effect. Now how does this effect your relationships with the other?
-4: A change in history- Something that happened in the past now has completely change or is now gone. One domino toppling the rest. Now that you've changed your past, how will it effect your future?
-5: Giving up- You walked away from something important to you? Do you regret it? Are you happy?
-6: Wild Card/Pick your own- Thought of a large change that'd make all the difference, or had one you wanted to play? Here's your chance.

 

Comments

[pilot05]

She nodded a little, chewing as she thought it over for a few moments. "Well," she murmured. "I think the only people who'd be offended about not getting invited are Sally and Une, aside from the guys," she agreed. "My family is smart enough to know they're going to get is a copy of the marriage certificate and not a scrap more. What about on your side? Hilde? Howard? Other Sweepers?"

Duo's phone gave a little trill -- a text from Heero, accepting the offer of being best man, if it was still extended.

[maxwellsdaemon]

"I've no family, Wu. Maybe Howard and Hilde would wanna come but..." He doubted there was anyone else. He didn't really have any close friends he could speak of. The closest he had were the guys, but even then he couldn't really say they were close. Duo knew it was his own fault for that. He could make a better effort...

His phone sounded and Duo frowned before he reached for it to read the text. The frown deepened for a moment before he gave a little shake of his head and replied with a single emoji. A thumbs up.

"So I guess small's the way to go. Just us and our friends."

[pilot05]

"I know," she replied with a little shrug, "but you do seem to make friends everywhere you go, so maybe you had a bunch of them I didn't know about," and it was a shame that people didn't return it more than that, but she couldn't be too upset. It meant he was still there for her, and that something she was grateful for.

"Small then, fourteen people at most if we allow them to bring guests... which I suppose depends on how much it will matter to you if Mariemaia is there," she said, and finished off her fries. "Une adopted her a few months after the incident. She seems very sweet these days, but I don't see her often." It was kind of weird, if she was being honest.

[maxwellsdaemon]

"I do, don't I?" Except not really. Most of it was an act. A dance he'd learned a long time ago, that was oddly good at keeping people at bay, at disarming them and, of course, thinking he was too silly to give a damn about.

Duo was tapping the table top a little quicker now, though his expression was the same as it ever was.

"Mariemaia, huh?" Duo, just like that, was suddenly remembering why kept kept to himself. He didn't quite get how after everything was said and done, everyone was able to just go and make friends with the enemy. Hell, Wufei had been fucking the biggest enemy of them all. Une had been his right hand who had adopted another of their enemies it seemed. If Heero came then Relena would and probably Zechs, who was another person that Duo couldn't stand. But... what could he say? It was a single day. He could deal with it for day. For Wufei's sake. So he nodded. "That's fine with me."

[pilot05]

She lifted a brow at him when he agreed to having everyone bring guests, especially with his finger-tapping getting faster. "Duo," she said softly, and held her hand out for his. "This wedding is for us, together. We should both be looking forward to it, not dreading it, least of all because of the people who will be in attendance. Please, be honest with me about what you want."

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo looked up, saw the hand reaching for his and hesitated before he reached out to take the hand within his, fingers curling around it gently.

"It's just one day. I can handle it for one day, Wufei." But he sighed. She wanted honesty so... "I guess I'm just not as forgiving as you guys are. That's all..."

[pilot05]

"You're able to handle a great deal that you shouldn't ever have had to," she agreed, giving his hand a squeeze. "We'll keep it to the seven." She smiled at him, soft and warm. "So now I'm going to ask the really hard question. When you imagine a perfect wedding, what does it look like? The colors, the ceremony, the reception, the venue... anything that matters to you."

[maxwellsdaemon]

Had he though? Duo wasn't entirely sure that was right but didn't have the heart to correct Wufei. Not when he already felt bad for cutting down on how many people would be at her wedding.

The next question though...

"You'll have to get back to me on that. I've never thought about it. Remember, Wufei. I believed I'd be dead by now. Marriage was never on the cards for me. Until this morning it still wasn't on the cards for me. I expected to be alone the rest of my life and made peace with that long ago."

[pilot05]

She hummed softly, nodding in agreement. "I suppose that makes two of us. I didn't have any choice about anything in my first wedding, and didn't expect to get another." She'd expected to die during the war, or on a mission for Preventers, or just old and alone and still hiding her gender to hold onto her freedom. "We can think it over and revisit the conversation on the flight to Dubai, or do you think you'll need more than a week?" She had no idea how long it would take her to come up with ideas. "They must have television shows about weddings, right? I guess I'll have to try out the TV after all, see what kinds of things are typically done at weddings."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"A week should be enough." Duo agreed as gently as he could. "We can think on it. Brain storm when we can." and if push came to shove... There was always Quatre.

But that thought was quickly pushed to the side in favour of a better idea.

"Could come at this like a mission? Work out our parameters, list the things we each want and work from there?"

[pilot05]

Her brows jumped up at that, and she straightened up in her seat a little, smiling widely. "I take it back. You're not an idiot, you're a genius," she laughed warmly. "That sounds perfect. We'll work on that this week, compare notes on the flight. Unless you think we need to practice telling Quatre to go to hell when he offers to help plan it." It was inevitable, the boy loved parties, but Wufei would rather drown herself in a vat of acid than let Quatre 'help'.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Even an idiot could stumble upon a good idea every now and again. But he did like her laugh and it made his chest feel a little funny to hear it. But there was no need to address that was there?

"Nah, leave Quat to me..." Duo smiled. "He... He won't be a problem." as long as he could get Quatre on his own at least. But he didn't think that would be much of a problem once they were there. "Just focus on the mission. I'll do my part. You wrangle the others."

[pilot05]

She smiled warmly, nodding in agreement. "Alright, then, he's all yours, and I'll handle Heero. He usually decides how he feels about something faster than this," she replied, leaning back with a sigh. "He's probably mad at me."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Mad at you? Why the hell would he be mad at you?" Duo didn't think that was right at all. It had seemed he was more back at him than Wufei. Though the text made him wonder a bit... Generally he was just confused. It had always been hard to work out what Heero was about and age had not made that any better.

[pilot05]

"Because he's my best friend and he didn't know I was a woman," she sighed, rubbing her hands over her face with a groan. "He trusts me to be blunt and honest with him, and this is a massive lie. I didn't even apologize to him properly."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Gotcha... Well." Duo pulled out his phone again, unlocked it with a quick swipe of his finger and slid it across to Wufei.

"Call him. Sort it out. Better to do that now than later." He stood from the table and gathered up his uneaten food, bundling it all up in their own wrappers and then tossed the whole of it into the trash. "... You mind if I crash on your bed for an hour?" That should give her time enough to sort things with Heero, he figured.

[pilot05]

She nodded. "Thanks," she replied with a little smile. "Go ahead. I threw a dustcloth over it before I left, so all the bedding is still fairly fresh. I'll do a little cleaning while you're down and hopefully save you an allergy attack," she had no idea if he had allergies, but she figured everybody sneezed some in a dusty room.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo just laughed. "I'll help later." He promised and took himself to her bedroom.

Once inside he removed the dustcloth and then his jacket before he dropped down onto the bed with a huff and a sigh. An arm flopped over his eyes and he did his very best to switch off his brain.

Today had been one of the strangest days he had ever experienced. And he'd had some doozies over the years. Some worse than the others. But nothing quite as bizarre as finding out the person you'd been carrying a torch for for the last several years was apparently a woman. That was a monumental mind-fuck he'd never expected.

It was as he was thinking this that a wave of exhaustion took him and it wasn't long after that Duo fell fast asleep.

[pilot05]

She cleaned up from lunch, and gave Heero a call, talking things over with him while she dusted the place, from top to bottom. Like Duo predicted, it only took half an hour, and things with Heero weren't nearly as bad as she'd thought.

By the time Duo emerged, if it was only one hour or many, she was laid out on the sofa napping, laptop open on the coffee table with a little progress bar running on the screen. Whatever she was running, it was a process that would take about ten hours, so if he got up after just an hour, it would hardly be started.

[maxwellsdaemon]

It had only meant to be a short nap, but it was a few hours later when Duo finally woke up feeling dazed and confused and uncertain about where he was. It was only after he'd gotten up to find Wufei on the sofa that it all came back to him.

Alright, that was a whole thing. He turned and went to the bathroom to deal with business and throw some cold water on his face. And, when he looked in the mirror, to fix his hair as well which was sticking up. Once he was presentable enough, Duo returned to the living room but he didn't wake Wufei, he just dropped himself into a chair to wait.

[pilot05]

It didn't take long for the movement to rouse her, and just a few minutes after he sat down, she blinked her eyes open, brow furrowing as she tried to figure out just where the hell she was. At least until the pain hit and she let out a groan, sitting up slowly. "Fuck," she grumbled, an arm resting over her stomach as she cast a glance to the progress bar to gauge how long she'd been sleeping.

She dragged both hands over her face, let out a long sigh. "I'll be right back," she said, and shuffled off to the bathroom to take care of her own business -- and take some pain killers, before she went to the kitchen to start some water for tea. "You want something to drink?" she asked.

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Sit down, Wu." Duo pulled himself to his feet once she'd come back from the bathroom. He followed her into the kitchen and, with a gentle touch, took her by the waist and turned her away from the counter. When he let her go he took her spot to fix the tea.

"Just sit down and relax, okay? Let the meds do their work." Because he knew she would have taken some, and if he was told she hadn't then he'd just correct the mistake by getting her some.

[pilot05]

She hummed, moving aside when he guided her, heading back to the dining room table to sit down. "I don't know how the rest of them deal with this every month," she decided, folding her arms on the top of the table and laying her head down on them. "I'm never going off birth control again, unless we decide to have children," she hid her face in her arms.

She had a very high pain tolerance, had been trained to resist all sorts of torture techniques. None of it had prepared her for the special hell of period cramps.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo hissed as he spilled a little of the hot water onto his hand. Wufei's comment taking him so much by surprise that he almost dropped the kettle. He took a breath, centered himself and concentrated on making the tea before he addressed what she was saying.

"That's... something you want?" He asked carefully as he brought the two cups over, one for Wufei and one he held in his own hands as he sat himself down opposite her. Duo didn't much like seeing her in pain and wished he could help, but he really didn't know how.

[pilot05]

She jerked her head up when he hissed, frowning at his hand. "There's aloe gel under the sink if you need some," she offered, glancing up as she accepted the mug.

The question got a shrug. "I've never thought about it. They'll probably want us to, but they're much less likely to throw a fuss if you say no than if I do." She pulled the mug up, taking a sip with a happy sigh. "They may call me an empress, but they wouldn't dare treat me like one."