August 2026 is AU-gust here at the Prompt Foundry!
Alternate Universe takes on our favorite stories—be they shows or books we love, or tales of our creation—can be a delightfully fun way to explore what makes those stories tick, what makes those characters who they are, and what in them is important to why we enjoy them.
On the other side of the coin, some settings and scenerios are popular for AUs because there's something special about that environment or situation that really tickles our brains, and it can be fun to figure out how to fit different characters and their contexts into that world.
So let's run through the multiverse and play with some AUs!
Feel free to combine different days’ prompts with each other, or combine them with other events, like last year's March of the Blorbos! Draw, paint, sculpt, sing, write fiction, write poetry, write academic analysis—use your OCs, your favorite characters from media, your own experiences, whatever tickles your fancy.
If you use this list, please tag me here @thepromptfoundry, I’d love to see what you create!
Respond to as many prompts as you want or as interest you, don’t worry about missing or skipping any, or posting your work after the day the prompt is assigned to. Remember, this is supposed to be fun!
If you have any questions or musings, check our FAQ, and if you don’t find your answer, shoot me an ask.
Plain text list below the cut:
1 Coffee Shops
2 Superheroes
3 Genderbent Characters
4 High Schoolers
5 Androids and Robots
6 Steampunk
7 Vampires
8 Werewolves
9 Soulmates
10 Professors and Academics
11 Actors Behind the Scenes
12 Professional Sports
13 Cozy Farm Life
14 Rock Stars
15 Pirates and Sailors
16 Merfolk
17 Elemental Powers
18 Faeries
19 Circus Arts
20 Post-Apocalypse
21 Externalized Souls (Daemons)
22 Libraries and Bookshops
23 Mob Bosses
24 Swords and Sorcery Fantasy
25 Hanahaki Disease
26 Arranged Marriages
27 Starships and Space Travel
28 Catpeople
29 Good Guys Gone Bad
30 Bars and Bartenders
31 Time Travel
It's because there's more mlm content where they don't objectify each other, most hetero media especially recently like in booktok books (I hate most booktok books sm) people objectify the men and then in a lot of books written by men the girl is objectified but mlm books if it's not like the whole alpha omega dom thingie that I don't actually read or understand than I feel like it's written for them to have more equal footing and actually have depth both of them not just one. And that's also assuming I'm cishet which we're not going to think about that until I move out.
Anyway that's why I enjoy hetero romance fine if it's written well but I think it's more often not as well written, let's also note I barely ever read mlm smut it's mostly fluff and getting together (I'm ace okay smut doesn't do anything for me if it's your thing I don't care you do you) so... yes I do need to read more diversity especially yuri because it's under represented but i don't think I read mlm because I'm fetishizing them
Also I need more ace rep in my life if any of yall got any?
"Oh but there is so much awful stuff on ao3 it needs a for you page and censorship" Or literally any criticism, as someone who was exposed to explicit content at a young age as someone who really wishes I hadn't, it wasn't AO3 it was through popular booktok books that "aren't spicy" and it literally is and the normalization of spice in YA, AO3 has something that "censored" media does not and that is an ability to filter, I haven't read a physical published book in ages because there's so much and most of it things I'm not interested in and there's no filter, I understand that there's bad stuff there or whatever, and it's none of my business, yes you have to trust the users to regulate themselves, boo hoo, take some personal responsibility, and also for the fyp I hate that idea no I like searching through each tags and finding recommendations from other people and not a mindless algorithm because finding recommendations through others gives a sense of community that is almost impossible to find nowadays.
Anyway keep AO3 as it is, we should genuinely change published books to contain tagging and warnings as well
since evan rosier is severely underrated and i wont stand for it... here are my headcanons?
-asexual
-he's obsessed with bugs like he just so omg
-albinism
-masculine but like a peacock
-fucking insane, liek barty is insane as in ehehhheee ouu im insane(with a deserving backstory) but evan is more like unsettling crazy but also a bit like barty
-picks his skin it's terrible
-has a terrible sweet tooth but gets acne easily so he doesn't eat a lot of sweets
-he hates olives(barty loves them)
-he's german but he was born and raised in the uk
-like northern london specifically
-he gets into street fights often
-lucky strike enthusiast
-man he's like horrendously beautiful like he's ethereal but you can see the horrors he's seen
Tumblr is bad for me because I have no filter and am going to say something REALLY dumb because of that dumb ol disinhibition effect is way worse on tumblr for some reason for me at least
And SOMETIMES I get really bad “oh my gosh I should delete anything I post because I do not deserve thought expression” but most of the time I forget tumblr exists so idk
it’s starting to feel like we have reached a point of being deeply shallow
like there’s this illusion that there’s depth but when you actually look at it no they aren’t.
Like “ah yes this character has tragic backstory” and then you’re like “actually that’s sad but that’s all it is” and the character is “so interesting and morally grey” but then his only personality trait is like loving the girl or like revenge or something super shallow.
I miss mad scientists, their so obsessed with something that isn’t even technically bad but they take it to far, “morally grey” nah throw it out, I want villains who have a goal, who lack empathy. They don’t simply care enough that it’s hurting people, and if they are doing revenge I want them to be so single tracked mind that as soon as they see their effect they can’t even seem to care because they’ve driven themselves insane, “villains are people too” yeah and bad people exist, I’m done with the “there’s good in everyone” yeah and some people kill any goodness and I want that portrayed some people simply refuse to change, like you look at the n@tzi leaders and they were genuine psychos who were super inhumane. Having understanding also does not excuse their actions. They’re still bad people I’m so done with the “morally grey” if you’re going to redeem yourself you better actually redeem yourself and not just be the same person but you do it for your girlfriend or smth (im looking at you Shatter Me)
moonwater friendship in the way that Remus is Reg’s brothers cool boyfriend.
like it was a canon event that Older Sibling’s Partner is like cool and gives you more attention than your loser sibling (because older siblings ofc bully their youngrs) like you cannot tell me at least little kid regulus didn’t think Remus was cool AF even before they got together
picture this: Regulus following Sirius onto the train for first year, Sirius starts introducing their friends and then starts teasing Reg and James is laughing (good natured) and Peter is quite and then Remus like flips the convo so he’s teasing Sirius instead and Regulus is like ✨ woah ✨
and then Reg reaches an age where he highkey hates Sirius so he pretends he hates when Remus ruffles his hair when the black bros are fighting and Remus intervenes, but Remus just laughs because he genuinely does not care what his bf younger brother thinks of him
and then when James and Reggie get together and Sirius starts like throwing a fit when he finds out it’s Remus who calms him down and so then Reg and Remus become like good friends, and yeah it’s clear Remus is Sirius’ but Regulus and Remus can find peace in watching their knucklehead bf’s mess around and do dumb stuff and they both understand each other rlly well.
(And they both know how it is to be mad at Sirius because he’s so dumb cuz like the prank yk)
okay but the concept of an au where Tim pieced together who Red Hood is and Nightwing and Bruce in so much denial, and Tim gets yelled at for being “insensitive” and then there’s this big reveal and Tim is just saying “I TOLD YOU” and all I can think about is him with the “I knew that door had a lock on it but you made me think I was losing my mindddd”
okay so introducing my child, who is me, like in all ways but he has trauma and a different living life and he’s actually so different but deep inside we are the same person because I cannot write anything without a self insert character.
anyway his name is Elijah the third. He’s super cutest.
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
titsay
izzy806
kianamaiart
