Dear Creator,
I'm excited to see whatever you're creating for me! Time travel is one of my favorite tropes of all time, and I'm equally fond of scenarios where characters do and don't replace themselves.
DNWs: porn or animal cruelty
Likes:- Worldbuilding: How does time travel fit into the universe established by canon?
- I'm a big fan of general worldbuilding as well - the underlying political structures of a society, more in-depth looks at a historical event, how technology works, all that stuff that's just off screen.
- Alternate divergent timelines, whether good or bad
- Characters making a concerted effort to change their past and that accidentally setting off the butterfly effect
- Music
- Period-Appropriate Clothing/Details
- Action/Hijinks
- Fluff
- Canon-Appropriate levels of violence/gore
- Documents from canon, e.g. new clippings
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Maes Hughes (FMA:B), Olivier Mira Armstrong (FMA:B), Riza Hawkeye (FMA:B), Roy Mustang (FMA:B), Edward Elric (FMA:B), Winry Rockbell (FMA:B)
Accidental Time Travel To The Past - In the "older consciousness in younger body/character replaces themself" model of time travel, I'm curious what any of these characters would do if they woke up in the past. Would they try to change anything?
- Would Ed decide not to attempt human transmutation? If returned later, would Ed refuse the military commision?
- Could Roy or Riza or Maes or even General Armstrong avert or mitigate the Ishvalan Civil War if they tried? Would their attempts potentially accelerate the conflict?
- What would General Armstrong try to do? Why?
- What would Winry try to do? Would she prevent Ed and Al from attempting human transmutation; if so, could she succeed?
- How would foreknowledge affect the promised day?
Meeting Currently Dead Character in Past - Anyone travels back, whether accidentally or on purpose, and runs into Maes Hughes. Awkwardness results, particularly because Hughes doesn't understand why people are acting so weird around him.
Meeting your much younger self - Time travel of the "character does not replace themself" variety. I'm particularly interested with this trope with regards to Ed, Roy, and Olivier, whose younger life we know little to nothing about. With the context of the future, how does the character view their younger self and their actions? (How does their younger self view them?) Do they offer their younger self any advice? Does their younger self follow it?
Outsider POV Of Strange Events Caused By Time Travel/Outsider POV Of Time Traveler(s) - In most time travel stories, only a select few characters have traveled back (either with intent or without it), and it's always interesting to see how their actions look from someone "not in the know." Because Hughes would be dead if the point of departure is past the Promised Day, he seems like the obvious candidate of the requested characters, but it would also be fun to have Random Soldier #3 (or Random Ishvalan #12, Who May or May not Be Scar) view the actions for characters altering the timeline of the Ishvalan War, or Ross/a member of Mustang's team's viewpoint. (Or Olvier gearing up at the wall with either the Briggs soldiers or Roy being the outsider POV.)
Time Travel Fix-It - Altering Canon or Backstory - What is says on the tin. A few examples:
- Ed seeking to prevent himself from committing human transmutation or to save his mother's life in the first place somehow.
- Winry seeking to prevent Ed from committing human transmutation or her parents from dying.
- Literally anyone seeking to prevent the Ishvalan Civil War.
- Literally anyone seeking to prevent Hughes' death.
How do(es) the character(s) seek to accomplish this? (If the character replaces themself, they have to act normal and adjust to lower level of resources/are a literal child; if they don't, they have no resources at all.) Are they successful?
Time Travel Fix-It - Canon is the Fix - The Promised Day relied on a lot of factors coming together: the conspiracy had to be known, allies had to be gathered, massive sacrifices had to be made to take down Father and the Sins (specifically, no one else could fill Van Hoenheim's role). What happens if one of those fell through? or more?
Maybe, in addition to the reversal circle, Scar's brother's notes contained a last-resort method of time travel via crossing the gate so that everyone ends up on take 2 (and 3, and 4, and...).
Time Travel to Past to Discover You Can't Change the Future - The classic tragic trope. (Again, especially involving Hughes' death, but I'm down for anything.)
Trying To Change The Timeline By Preemptively Killing Someone/Trying To Change The Timeline By Saving Someone - All of our heroes have gone back into the past to stop the Promised Day. They have... differing opinions on how to accomplish that.
- Who opts for murder? (Are there any surprises there, e.g. Winry going after Kimblee?) Who do they think needs to be killed? (Is it just one person or Bradley's entire cabinet?) Do they make the murder obvious or not?
- Who opts for saving? (Any surprises there, e.g. Olivier deciding that the best way to prevent it is to save this one specific person.) Who do they save? (Is it a single person or a larger-scale action like preventing the Ishvalan Civil War?) How?
- Are either of these attempts successful?
The 39 Clues - Various Authors
Group: Thomas Cahill & Katherine Cahill & Luke Cahill & Jane Cahill, Amy Cahill, Dan Cahill, Sinead Starling
Note: I am fine with Group: Thomas Cahill & Katherine Cahill & Luke Cahill & Jane Cahill appearing in a group or separately, though it would be interesting to contrast their reactions to similar events.
Character Acquires Time Manipulation Superpower/Artifact Unexpectedly - The serum includes the ability to time travel if you do [arcane thing], or Gideon had another invention, or Sinead invents something.
- Does the character time travel deliberately/do they have control?
- What do they do with this ability?
- Do they seek to change something? If so, what are they trying to change? Can they change it?
Can send text messages back in time/Communicating with the Past/Future Through Letters - I'm interpreting these tags more broadly as not only incorporating text communication but also audio or even video if you so choose. I use "pen pal" in the questions below as a general term only.
For Dan or Amy, I'd love to see them communicating with their parents or Grace (perhaps when they were at a similar age if via letters, or the AJT messages are actually sent through time if via text message). For Sinead, it would be interesting to see her contact either her pre-Clue Hunt self or some mentor from the past (maybe a younger, much less polished Alistair?). For Thomas/Katherine/Luke/Jane, contact with some of their respective descendants would be best. Of course, it would also be interesting to see messages from a future self, especially from an alternate timeline.
- How does the character react to the messages? Do they realize the messages are from the past/future? (For Thomas/Katherine/Luke/Jane, there might be issues with their descendants speaking modern English rather than Elizabethan; for Amy, Dan, and Sinead, slang might be a clue.)
- Do the conversations with the past influence their decisions in any way? (For Sinead specifically, could this maybe lead her to make different decisions with regards to the Vespers?) Do the conversations with the past influence choices the characters in the past make?
- What concepts transfer well across time? Which really don't? Can the character understand their pen pal's motivations; if not, does understanding develop over time?
- If the character knows their pen pal in real life, when does the realization of who they are hit?
Meeting Currently Dead Character in Past - I'm down with this being anyone. Bonus points for the dead character has no idea what is going on.
For Thomas/Katherine/Luke/Jane, it would likely be Gideon (or maybe even an earlier relative like Madeline the Matriarch?); I'd be interested in how their reactions to seeing their dad alive again differed, especially if they're in their younger bodies but serum-augmented personalities moved with the shift. (For example, would Luke be more itnerested in getting the full serum whereas Katherine might want to investigate the source of the fire? Would Thomas' main reaction be to punch out Luke because he believes he set the fire? What would Jane do?)
For Dan, Amy, and Sinead, anyone who died during the course of the books is fine. Some suggestions:
- Hope and Arthur - This would be a real heartbreaker for both Amy and Dan, especially if they can't avert the fire (or do avert it only for their parents to die anyways).
- Grace - This one would get real interesting because Dan and Amy (and quite possibly Sinead, because so was Jonah) were quite attached to her, but they also know she hid a lot of stuff from them that did damage in the long run, particularly since the mansion burned down after her death. A pre-death confrontation (either with them replacing or not replacing themselves, since Dan looks like Fiske and Amy like Hope) would be fun.
- Alistair - Another master at the game, but one all three are very attached to for longer. This would probably be the best scenario for Sinead.
- Isabel - I don't think any of them would want to have a conversation with Isabel, but they might consider her more convenient when dead.
- Natalie - Any or all of them could harbor guilt about her death, but if they go back to before the Clue Hunt, she is an utter brat.
Time Loop/Groundhog Day - Escape by Achieving Mission - For Thomas/Katherine/Luke/Jane, the loop is the night of the fire. Possibly with a later start point so they can really start to hate each other beforehand, but Thomas and Katherine versus Luke and Jane for the first iteration would also be good. The mission is either to save their father's life, avert the fire entirely, or to kill Damien Vesper.
For Dan, Amy, and Sinead, the Gauntlet acts as a time loop; once the representatives of the five branches enter, they either make the serum and unify the family, or they all die of non-homicide causes, at which point the loop is cancelled. The scars of the failed attempts are when previous groups tried to blast their way out of the loop. (Whether Grace knew this or not is up to the author.)
I am My Own Grandfather - It's noted that Dan looks very much like Fiske and Amy looks very much like her mother, who looks EXACTLY like Madeline (the Madrigal). In a non-replacement universe (possibly with the Dan or AMy coming from a bad timeline), they are one and the same.
Time Travel Fix-It - fixing one's own mistakes - After death, the character goes back in time to before their regrets. They make different choices. (Well, try to. See altering canon or backstory for ideas.)
Time Travel Fix-it - Multiple Characters Trying To Fix Different Things - And, as a result, nothing gets fixed/things do NOT go according to plan.
For Thomas/Katherine/Luke/Jane, they're all sent back to before the fire; maybe Olivia, Gideon, and/or Madeline (if we're doing non-replacement) are sent back too. They all have different objectives: save their father/stop the fire, get the serum, find out who set the fire, keep the family together, kill my brother, etc. If any of these objectives are actually completed, it's entirely uninentionally.
For Dan, Amy, or Sinead, they go back to the Clue Hunt, possibly with Ian, Jonah, Hamilton, Ted and Ned, Nellie, Fiske, etc. Some groups are still set on winning, Sinead mostly wants her brothers to come out uninjured, Dan and Amy are scrambling to get the Madrigals onto a war footing for CvV when they're not supposed to know about the Vespers yet, and everything is going to hell directly in a handbasket. Bonus if only Dan or Amy comes back and one has to work around the other.
Time Travel Fix-It - Altering Canon or Backstory - Some ideas:
- Prevent the 1507 fire and subsequent breakup of the Cahill sibling.
- Failing that, prevent the giving of the serum (clues).
- Prevent the Trent fire.
- Prevent the explosion that injured Ned and Ted.
- Prevent the rediscovery of the serum.
- Prevent the deaths of Irina, Lester, Alistair, Natalie, Pony, etc.
Bonus points if the timeline is flexible/this doesn't work as intended (e.g., Trent fire doesn't happen, so Hope and Arthur are assassinated a week later) and if the butterfly effect kicks in (e.g., Irina never dies, so Isabel goes to jail for a variety of other crimes because Irina has access to the incriminating evidence).
Outsider POV or Time Travelers - Their clothes are wrong, they're acting funny, they've just killed innocent socialite Isabel Ka- wait, what was in her basement?
Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling
James Potter, Lily Evans Potter, Group: James Potter & Severus Snape, Sirius Black
Note: I know canon goes for a "timeline can't be altered" model of time travel, but feel free to break that as you wish, or to incorporate it for maximum tears.
Accidental Time Travel To The Future - Either to the Harry Potter Generation or to the Next Generation.
- How do Snape and Sirius react to their future selves if they meet? How do James and Lily react to them?
- When do they discover their fates? How do they react?
- How do they react to Harry's generation/the Next Generation? (These kids are the kids/grankids of people they know, and half of them are the orphaned children of teenagers who are still, in their minds, very much alive.)
- When/if they travel back to the past, do they work to change their fates? Are they successful? (If not, is it due to imperfect information or flexible timeline inevitability?) Do they manage to change anyone else's fates?
Accidental Time Travel to Past - I could see them going to their personal pasts (wake up at death/fall through veil to their time at Hogwarts) or to the past for them, either of which could be fun.
- If character goes to personal past, do they seek to change their actions there? Why or why not?
- If character goes to the past, does the situation there inform their present (e.g., limits of fidelius, universal antidote to avoid death, protective charms, how to become animagi, etc.)
Communicating with the Past/Future Through Letters - Mostly, I'm interested in forward communication with Harry's generation, especially Harry. (Though Hermione would also be interesting, as would Luna, as would a first-year Ginny.) How does the communication affect the character and their pen pal? When do they learn the communication is across time as well as space? When does the character learn about their eventual fate/the fate of the Potters/the end of the war?
Enemies Travel Back In Time Together - forwards in time also works. Obviously, this applies to Snape & James, but Lily & Sirius (and Lily & James, depending on when the fic is set for them), would also work. They hate each other's guts, but they're not here on purpose, and they really need to get back home...
Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Group: Katniss Everdeen & Peeta Mellark, Katniss Everdeen, Primrose Everdeen, Rue (Hunger Games), Cinna (Hunger Games), Finnick Odair, Haymitch Abernathy, Group: Katniss Everdeen and Johanna Mason
Butterfly Effect - Character Tries to Prevent Other Character's Death
- Any of the victors travel back to their games with the intent of not winning (or at least, not winning alone). This either ends in rioting or a no-winner year.
- Someone travels back in time to take Prim's name out of the reaping bowl. Effie either draws Katniss' instead (killing one of her instant likeability factors) or draws a random stranger's, who quickly dies off. (I can't remember if Rory was 12 in the first book and could afford not to get tessera because of the hunting or not, but if so, his name could be pulled from the male bowl, and Gale could volunteer, becoming an extraordinarily grumpy face of the rebellion.)
- Katniss, (Plutarch), and Haymitch conspire to get Cinna out of the Capitol alive. This has... unintended consequences. (Cinna doesn't get along with Coin, consequences in the arena, Plutarch dies instead, Katniss as a more willing Mockingjay, etc.)
- Katniss (and Peeta) go back with the intention of Rue being the one getting out of the 74th Arena. If successful, this completely fucks up the Rebellion, since the Mockingjay is dead.
Meeting Currently Dead Character in Past - Cinna, Rue and Finnick are the obvious choices here if the time traveller is coming from the book timeline, but it could be anyone if the time traveller is coming from an alternate timeline. I'm mostly interested in how the traveller and dead person interact; is the dead person's fate averted? Are they informed of it? If we're going with the replacement model of time travel, do they figure out their friend is a time traveller?
Time Loop/Groundhog Day - Escape by Achieving Mission - The arena (or a part of it) acts as a time loop until there is one victor.
- This could be a fun take for an alternate Third Quarter Quell - every day is the exact same, complete with opponents (seemingly) rising from the dead. (They might be replaced with murderous mutt replicas - the victor of victors is the last one left unreplaced.)
- For Peeta, Katniss, and Rue, some part of their arena repeats - perhaps from the day of the announcement, perhaps the last day, perhaps all of it - until there is only one victor. Up to the author whether the competitors manage to break the loop or not.
- For Johanna or Haymitch, something goes wrong during the original run of their arenas, so reboots have to be made.
Time Travel Fix-It - Altering Canon or Backstory - Either the Capitol attempting to erase the Mockingjay narrative/Rebellion, the requested characters "fixing" their mistakes/what should have happened in their arenas, or someone trying to tidy up the Rebellion. How successful are these attempts?
Time Travel Fix-It - Canon Is the Fix - There is a timeline where Haymitch drinks himself to death before the 74th Hunger Games, where Peeta isn't called as Katniss' co-tribute, where Katniss fails to become the Mockingjay or is never reaped, where the rebellion splutters out because a different card is drawn for the Quarter Quell, where... this is someone's attempt to fix that timeline.
Time Travel Leads to Dystopia/Time Travel Makes Things Much Worse - See "Butterfly Effect" above.
Trying To Change The Timeline By Saving Someone - Who needs to be saved? (Is it a single person, a splinter rebellion group, or a general "I'm trapped fifty years before my time, might as well save whoever I can?") Why? How does the character aim to accomplish this? Are they successful? Does this work?
H.I.V.E. series - Mark Walden
Otto Malpense, Natalya | Raven, Maximilian Nero, Theodore Pike, Group: Otto Malpense & Laura Brand & Shelby Trinity & Wing Fanchu
Abusing Time Travel For Petty Reasons - Especially Otto & Laura & Shelby & Wing or a younger Max (and Diabolus Darkdoom). What is the most ridiculous thing done with time travel? By whom? Why? ("Because I wanted to" is a perfectly logical answer for some of these characters.)
Character Acquires Time Manipulation Superpower/Artifact Unexpectedly - A (sometimes erratic) time machine seems like the thing Professor Pike would invent and then have Nero or Raven accidentally use, but a fun take would also be Otto & Laura & Shelby & Wing building one for funsies or Shelby just having one from her days as the Wraith that she loans out occasionally.
Alternate Timeline - Good character now bad - The Disciples are the time travelers (or some seriously weird butterfly effect goes on), and the Bad Timeline and ours collide. Go as campy or as serious as you want with the Bad Timeline versions of the "good" guys. Some possible ideas:
- Otto was kept under closer watch instead of being dumped at the orphanage and is truly eeevil. Cue Significant Haircut/Scar, because the eeevil clones have Significant Eye Color Change already.
- Raven was never turned by Nero and is still a pet assassin/assistant of the Furans. (By implication, Nero and possibly Diabolus Darkdoom, and therefore Nigel, are dead.) Her happiness with this situation is up to the author, and she may be turned to the side of the (relative) good when put in contact with her alternate self.
- Raven still murdered Nero (and maybe Darkdoom) and then murdered the Furans to become her own evil supervillain.
- Max, burned by Elena's death, burns all his ethics and decorum and becomes eeevil. (Again, noted by Significant Haircut/Scar.) May still run (a more eeevil version of) H.I.V.E. (which is, of course, staffed by eevil versions of the current professors.)
- Professor Pike, instead of (or in addition to) being in lack of safety protocols, is also in lack of scientific ethics.
- (For relative values of "bad") Laura, instead of going to H.I.V.E. or to jail (as anticipated), is recruited by [top secret cybersecurity force].
I'd also be down with the Bad Timeline versions of eevil characters (Trent, Cypher, the Furans) being erstwhile allies.
Time Travel Fix-It - Canon Is the Fix - There is a timeline where Otto was unable to defeat Overlord at various points (either due to premature death or being in the wrong place or not knowing how), knowledge of Overlord came too late (Max was killed/Cypher actually died at the end of Overlord Protocol), or other things generally didn't work out. What happened in that timeline?
Trying To Change The Timeline By Preemptively Killing Someone/Trying To Change The Timeline By Saving Someone - Everyone agrees that they need to prevent the clones from happening in order for the world not to end. Everyone agrees the simplest method of this involves time travel.
- Someone thinks they should prevent Overlord in the first place by murdering its creators/whoever sugggested the project in the first place. (Nero, who oversaw the project, backs away nervously.)
- Someone thinks they should save the Overlord techs (like Wing's parents) so that they have more people to think up a back door when the time comes.
- Someone thinks they should save Lucy Dexter because surely her power of persuasion would influence the clones.
- Someone thinks they need to find the labs and destroy them themselves to ensure no clones survived.
- Someone thinks they should just kill Number One right after the Overlord Incident, before the cloning project can start. (Otto, a clone, laughs nervously.)