An Incomplete List of My Favorite ModernAU Fan-Canons from the AO3 Polin Fanfic Community as someone who has had Polin Brain Worms for more than two months straight and can't stop reading fanfictions
Colin and Penelope are best friends (independent of her relationship with Eloise) (rip to anyone who tries to tell Eloise there is competition for title of Pen's best friend)
Penelope and Eloise are or were flatmates prior to Eloise moving out when she gets together with Phil
Queer Eloise (and she is more often attracted to women so bonus points if either a) we're all a little shocked she ended up with a man, b) Phil is a woman and "Phil" actually short for Phyllis or Philippa or c) phil is nonbinary
Colin and Penelope are bi4bi (and also verse4verse)
Penelope works in publishing (bonus points for if she works as Danbury Publishing)
Penelope is working on a historical romance novel
Colin is a travel writer/photographer/vlogger
Sunday brunch at Violet's
The SIBLING group chat (bonus points if the name is some joke on the alphabet mafia)
Penelope is in the family group chat years before she and Colin ever get together (violet has fully adopted her as her child and is just all the more pleased for it to be official once she and Colin get together)
Penelope has a standing invite (and assumed presence) at Sunday brunch, Bridgerton family Christmas and New Years, and summers at Aubrey Hall
Anthony is in fact still a viscount except now his siblings tease him mercilessly for it (and he's also the CEO of the family company)
Hyacinth is a Gen z chaos goblin and Polin's #1 shipper (okay, #2, after violet)
Ben is a successful artist and runs his own gallery
Daphne is a socialite and viewed as a paradigm of class and a trend-setter
Greg has a crush on Penelope (Colin is not pleased)
Literally everyone knows that Penelope is and has always been in love with Colin (she doesn't realize because it goes unspoken)
Literally everyone knows Colin is in love with Penelope before he realizes it, bonus points if Ben needs to knock him over the head with the information for him to put two and two together
Penelope and Colin's meet-cute is the same as in the book but it was her yellow hat knocking him off his bike instead of his horse
Penelope hates yellow because her mom always used to force her to wear flouncy frilly yellow dresses as a kid
Yellow is colins favorite color bc he associates it with pen and he still loves it on her (and loved it on her back then too)
Blue is penelopes favorite color (specifically the shade of Colin's eyes)
Penelope ran a successful gossip blog on college
Colin feels like the family fuck up more often than not
Penelope understands him and his need for travel and the unconventional success he actually has and shows him how much she respects and believes in him
Edwina and Penelope are also close friends and sometimes colleagues
Anthony was still a dumb dumb and dated Edwina before getting together with her sister Kate
Simon is still a duke (quote Penelope's internal monologue "of course Daphne married a real life duke, she's practically perfect in every way")
Bonus points if Colin and Daphne are super close in addition to Colin and Ben being close
It is universally acknowledged that Penelope has phenomenal tits
Colin and Penelope are movie buddies (no one else in the family really cares about movies or tv very much but they do)
Even once they are together, it takes a bit of time (and some extended communication) for it to finally sink in to Penelope that Colin loves her back (and is attracted to her)
Penelope has worked very hard and still has lasting scars from the body image issues portia instilled in her growing up
Early on in their relationship penelope needs to work on being more open about how she feels bc she's so used to shoving all of her feelings for Colin down and not letting them show
Colin feels guilty that it took him so much longer to realize he was in love with Penelope when she knew her feelings for forever and also feels guilty that she had to suffer alone in pining for him for all those years
Violet views Colin as the most sensitive of her children
At minimum Colin has, in the nibling department - Augie/Aggie (Daphne & Simon) and Edmund (Anthony & Kate)
Colin takes his role as Uncle very seriously
Colin is heckin soft for seeing penelope with the niblings
Penelope is very organized and driven about her writing, she can sit down and make herself write even if she's not in the mood
Colin can only write when the spirit moves him or he has a deadline hanging over his head (he both admires and is jealous of pen's consistency and discipline)
Colin cooks, he preps breakfast for pen in the mornings
Pen is not a morning person
Penelope lives on the second or third floor of a walk up in a flat she loves but is a little run down from age
Penelope has infinite trinkets and comfort items
Colins apartment is much more sleek and modern, in a high rise, with only a handful of personal items (usually souvenirs from his travels or gifts from pen) in addition the curated furniture of an interior designer
Once they get together Colin and Penelope are literally feral for each other, they invented pda and all of the siblings would like them to climb off of each other's laps please
