Carmen Sandiego Crack AU I'm throwing out there for anyone who wants it where canon happens mostly the same, with the addition of two (2!) things:
Player is kidnapped by Dark!Carmen and made into a VILE operative.
Crackle and Dark!Carmen start dating during the Dark Red Arc.
Crackle and Carmen are wholly dysfunctional - brainwashing doesn't make for healthy romantic relationships, whether or not you wanted it to happen to her in the first place - and constantly arguing. After hours of screaming matches between the two of them, they finally come up with a way to fix their arguments: Just get themselves an impartial third party to help resolve disagreements!
Player is not as thrilled with the idea as they are.
“To surprise you!” Ivy throws her hands up, “It’s your nineteenth birthday, dude! And you have nothing planned! That’s like- that's so sad!”
“I- that’s not-” He starts, then stops, because... yeah, okay, maybe he’s nineteen today, but- “It’s not worth a fuss, Ives.”
Despite the disapproving cross of her arms, Ivy’s face doesn’t exactly read as shocked. “Yeah, Carmen said you’d say that.”
__
As far as Player's concerned, his nineteenth birthday isn't anything special, just another normal day in the normal life they've all been cultivating since the fall of VILE.
If his unlocked door is any indication, then the rest of the team must disagree.
(Made for Player Week 2026, Day One: Long Distance Celebrations)
We’re excited to announce that Player Appreciation Week is returning for 2026! This year’s theme is “Online Friendships” in honor of Player’s mostly remote/virtual relationships in the show. It will run from March 16th to March 22nd
The daily prompts can be found in the graphic below. Text version and guidelines are under the cut!
Text Version:
Day 1: Long Distance Celebrations
Day 2: Technical Difficulties
Day 3: Usernames
Day 4: Unread Messages
Day 5: “Wish you were here”
Day 6: Timezones
Day 7: (First) In-Person Meetings
Alternate 1: Photo dump
Alternate 2: Radio Silence
Alternate 3: Virtual Hugs
Guideline:
Alternative prompts can be used in place of any day, and you can fill as many or few prompts as you want/have time for. The prompts themselves can be used as loosely or literally as you’d like. Prompts can be filled in any number of ways, including but not limited to: Fic, Art, Edits, Memes, Poetry, Analysis/Essay, Video, etc. If it’s fannish and you created it, it counts!
If you can’t post your work on the associated day, you are welcome to post it any time between March 16th and March 22nd. For anyone who needs just a little extra time to submit, we’ll continue to reblog works for the following week as a grace period.
As far as actual posting goes, create a post on your own tumblr blog and @playerappreciationweek , as well as tag #playerappreciationweek2026. If you write a fic, we encourage you to add it to the ao3 collection, Player Appreciation Week 2026. You can then make a tumblr post with the link to your work. We will reblog the posts for everyone to find.
Leading up to the event, if you would like to send a short teaser for your work, please submit it as an ask to this blog with the prompt and day it is for. Once it gets closer to posting week, we’ll post it as an advertisement to help us all get hyped!
Rules:
1. Player Appreciation Week is meant to be Player-centric, so all works should feature him as a prominent character in some way.
2. To keep with tradition, this event is Gen only, meaning no romantic relationships. Background canon relationships like Player’s or Carmen’s parents are fine, but the focus of your work should be on Player and his platonic/familial relationships.
3. Tag your work appropriately. If it includes mature themes, hide your work under the cut on tumblr if applicable, and tag for any known trigger warnings/darker themes, such as Major Character Death, suicide ideation, or panic attacks.
4. No AI-generated content.
Any works that don’t fit these criteria will not be reblogged.
We also have a Player discord server available for brainstorming and beta help! It’s open all year if you enjoy brainstorming CS 2019 ideas in general. Please hop over into Mod Rue’s (@rueitae) DMs to ask for an invitation. The server follows the same guidelines as the event.
If you have any clarifying questions, please don’t hesitate to send us an ask. Looking forward to creating with you all!
Player, making small talk: Oh, yeah. Red and I are actually both autistic too!
Carmen, head snapping up: I'm not... autistic, Player?
Player, breathing through his teeth: Right. Forgot to make that appointment.
Carmen:
Carmen: What.
I actually went and found the video and this guy listed the full recipe
Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 lbs boiled yellow potatoes
1 cup local milk
1/2 cup local 35% Cream
6 whole eggs
1 cup diced ham
1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
2 cups cleaned spinach
1 scotch bonnet pepper or jalapeno sliced thinly (optional)
1 cup grated local mozzarella
3 tablespoons salt - 2 for the water to cook the potatoes and 1 for the egg and milk mixture
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped chives
2 tablespoons local salted butter
Method
Add your potatoes to a large stock pot and fill with cold water. Add salt and allow to boil until fork tender. Once ready strain water and allow to cool for a few minutes
Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease a large cake tin thoroughly with butter and add your now cooled boiled potatoes.
Using the back of a cup gently press down on the potatoes to form your crust.
Add spinach, diced ham, and tomatoes
In a large bowl whisk together milk, cream and eggs. Then carefully pour this into your shell.
Top this with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, hot pepper slices, and mozzarella.
Place this on top of a baking sheet and bake on the middle rack for 45-50 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.
Character turns into a kid and is found by their team/family/crew/etc after the fact. A classic set-up for a kidfic, except there's two things that are different this time around:
They don't have their mind wiped. The kidifed character is fully aware of their past, their present, and just how small they are now.
When they find the team and desperately try to communicate the situation... No one believes them.
The team aren't doing it out of cruelty, they're doing it because, well... if a random child came up to you, claiming to be someone you know, just turned into a child, would you really believe them?
Maybe in this world it isn't possible. Maybe the team hasn't even encountered something like this before. Maybe they have, but the situation is just so absurd they can't believe it.
Maybe someone from the team believes the kid. Or starts to, after a while.
Maybe the kid is losing themself in the process. Maybe the mind-wipe is just delayed, and, eventually, they will become a normal kid, just as whatever caused it in the first place intended.
Maybe their memories are slipping away as they stamp their feet and grab their friends' pants in tiny fists and say over and over again that it's me. Can't you tell it's me?
Maybe the team pieces it together. They look at this tiny, angry, desperate little thing and finally see their friend.
stray cat that's very affectionate and enjoys spending time on the porch with you but disappears once a week and after a while you think you'll never see them again until you open the front door and theyre sleeping in your boots
any computer people wanna explain how the hell this works
it wont let me do shit bc i apparently have 81 gigs of apps clogging my c drive, but my largest app is 0.4gb?????? its not system applications either because system is its own segment of storage. wadda hell are you talking about
Here's your friendly neighborhood trans girl programer to tell you WinDirStat is a free open source alternative and you don't have to sign in to the annoying microsoft app store!
Late in the night, ACME receives a set of files from an ally of Carmen Sandiego. Contained within is information that sends Niagara Falls' fate into a tailspin.
*jangles keys* ZOMBIE CS FIC! WAKE UP ZOMBIE CS INFECTION FIC! *jangles keys* OOOH YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT!!!
Made for Player Appreciation Week 2025 and the prompt “Apocalyptic”
Sneaky peak under the label
@playerappreciationweek
Route_User: How did you access this system?
White_Hat: Potato international crimes potahto
Route_User: These systems are for the use of government officials in emergency situations only.
