#quantumleapweek

[cornflowershade]

QL Week 2024 - Day 1: Going Nowhere Fast

"like we only go backwards" (x) — a fanvid I dug out and finished up for the occasion! enjoy!

[archester-creations]

sadly with work and other events i was already doing i could only make time for this one (though i do want to finish the others when i get a chance), but! @quantumleapweek day two, pql! i chose ziggy because they're my favourite outside al and sam :)

[alcalavicci]

Quantum Leap Week

Day 1: Lightning

For Sam, it was the slow patter of a cloud dripping down speeding up into a full-blown rainstorm, starting with meeting a POW who’d just been told his wife had left him. For Al, it was more like the quick burst of a lightning bolt.

It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. Al was driving back to the Project in his Testarossa, having just picked up some girl that he fully intended to take to town, still decked out in the tux from the fundraising dinner. Then Gooshie came in over the car phone to tell him that Sam was leaping.

Sam was Leaping. Right that second. Too far ahead of schedule.

That fucking idiot. And just then, the bolt of realization struck him. He couldn’t lose Sam. Al hightailed it back to the Project, found someone on staff willing to take the girl home and hurried into what they would soon call the Imaging Chamber. Where- no, scratch that, when- on Earth was Sam?

Al collapsed onto a chair as Ziggy began the first of many, many searches, looking for Sam’s DNA somewhere in the time stream. There was a party as everyone heard the news and filtered back into the Project to celebrate and figure out what to do next. A few hours later, Ziggy finally had a lock, and Al, having taken a break to dress down a bit, ran into the Imaging Chamber. He was able to wave to Sam, but Sam wouldn’t come to him. Maybe he was too busy with this guy’s job. Al tried again hours later, stepping into a bar, and finally got Sam to come talk to him.

It was the worst. This man, this brilliant scientist, his dear friend, had no inkling who he was. This whole project was going to be a disaster and Al was besides himself. He hurried back through the door.

Beeks stopped him as he rushed back out. “What’s wrong?”

Al explained about his encounter with Sam. “The process, I think it really messed with his memories. How’s he going to do anything if he can’t remember even who I am?”

“Calm down, Al. You’ve had a very long day. Go to bed and we’ll wake you up when Sam does. You’ll have something figured out then. Go.”

Reluctantly, Al dragged himself off to his quarters and tossed and turned. Even a few beers didn’t help, and neither did the next few after that. When he finally managed to drop asleep, he was woken up what felt like a few minutes later. “Al! Sam just woke up. He’s taking the kid of the guy he leaped into fishing. Here, review this.” A printout was shoved into his hands and Al pulled on a robe.

He met Sam in a meadow, coffee in hand. He had to wake up, and the sunlight wasn’t helping his hangover. Following the rules on the printout, Al carefully walked Sam through what he could. It would have to do for now, right? After a shower and a shave, Al certainly felt better. He was able to help Sam with the mechanics of flight, helping him break through a major barrier. Didn’t matter that he had to leave some other lady behind for a bit- Sam was more important.

On the next leap, Ziggy had a better handle on things and was able to get Al in not long after Sam leaped in. Finding himself in a baseball field now, Al popped into the dugout and persuaded Sam to come over and talk. Al, with Ziggy’s help, filled Sam in about this new guy he’d leaped into and more about himself. Knowing that the Project was watching, Al mentally crossed his fingers and hoped they’d let him get away with this one because he could tell it was so important to Sam. He told Sam his first and last name. The last bit of information unlocked in his head, Sam hurried off, leaving Al sad in his wake. Why couldn’t Sam be that happy about him? Al sort of understood, but at the same time, there was a tiny pool of resentment deep down.

That resentment grew in further leaps. Al found more excuses to go off with Tina, and when Sam gave him hell about being an alcoholic while being some Humphrey Bogart character, Al’d had nearly enough. He complained about it to Beeks. “What the hell’s with him? We used to be so close and now he’s being an asshole to me.”

“Al, you’re also abandoning him fairly often for women or other things outside of the Project. Besides, he’s just learning the ropes.”

“He could be less of an asshole about it.”

“So could you, Al.”

Al considered it. He fought for Sam in front of those nozzles who wanted to take away their funding… or were they nozzles? The cranky man magically turned into the woman Sam had been helping, who granted them the money they needed. Then in the next leap, Sam was in a woman, which sent Al into a tizzy. He’d been holding down that feeling for a long time, since that night in the Testarossa, but the physical factor forced it into the open. Al adamantly denied it every time Beeks questioned him about it, but deep down, he knew. Finally, when Beeks told him he was facing years of therapy for this, he caved. Better to give her something, right?

He told Sam that love was just a part of friendship, then watched him seduce his old piano teacher, watched him fall in love with other women, watched him pine away for a woman who had originally left him at the altar.

Sam was the windmill Al was tilting away at. And he’d have to learn how to be okay with that, at least until Sam came home.

[argentnoelle]

• this video was made for quantum leap week's prompt private conversations. I felt like I just had to do a video for my favorite QL fanfic of all time (despite the fact that  I generally don't even ship them), The Last Measure of Devotion by Sue Walker. Not only is it angsty and plotty and intense, a uniquely clever fix-it for Mirror Image AND a believable end for the show, it's also my favorite portrayal of Al in fanfic. The video trailer is fine for a general audience, but I would rate/warn that the fanfic is M for language, sexual scenes, and mature/heavy themes.

[jonotheg]

Lightning (14 November 2021)

First of all, RIP Dean Stockwell. The perfect fit to play Al. We'll all miss and remember you.

The crack of thunder and the streak of lightning filling the sky. Sometimes when a Leap featured these weather events, Sam Beckett would give pause and wonder what the hell was happening here. Was his host going to be struck by lightning in their original history? How could he put it right? What did Ziggy have to say?

But the telltale sign of both Leaping out and Leaping in was the blue, electric lightning that engulfed him, its brightness forcing him to close his eyes each time.

He had it down to an art form. Now, as the lightning receded and he opened his eyes, he realised he was driving a car! The interior was lit up with displays, including rows of digital display clocks, with what appeared to be dates. One caught his eye. 1955.

Just as soon as he got (some) sense of his surroundings, Al whooshed into sight. 'Sam, whatever you're doing, keep your foot on the gas! Your name is Marty McFly, and you're driving a DeLorean. The year is 1985, and as soon as you hit 88 miles per hour, you're going into the past. 30 years into the past! You're going to get your - I mean Marty's - parents together, and keep Marty's father, George, safe from harm.'

Sam wiped the sweat off his brow with one hand, another white-knuckled on the steering wheel. 'Alright, Al, calm, please. What happens to George?'

'In the original history, he gets shot dead by a Biff Tannen.'

'Oh, boy,' Sam groaned as the speedometer rose higher and higher. 87. 88. 89.

Just as he saw the numbers rise above 88, Sam noticed sparks and showers of lightning, yet again. They engulfed and surrounded the vehicle, and Sam had to fight the instinctual response to close his eyes.

'Get ready to go back to the future, Sam!' Al cried, before disappearing briefly.

It only took a few seconds, but after the lightning Sam noticed he was heading towards a tree, and a barn. It was too late to avoid hitting the tree with the DeLorean, and as much as Sam tried to avoid it, he was going too fast to stop crashing into the barn's door.

He wasn't hurt, but he did feel a sense of deja-vu wash all over him. The barn had equipment that seemed familiar. A sign on the wall read John B's Farm and Homestead.

John B. John... Beckett? His father?

Before Sam could contemplate anything else, a lone figure entered from the shadows and started entering the barn. An unmistakeable voice boomed: 'I don't know who the hell you are, but show yourself before I blast ya head off!'

Al materialised just in time. 'Sa-am... I don't think you're going to like this. Ziggy has mapped your location to Elk Ridge, Indiana...'

He gulped. 'The man that's threatening you with a shotgun is...'

Sam finished: 'My father. Ohhhh, boy.'

[jivvin]

I was trying to protect you. // From who? // From you.

[cromodinamica]

* Quantum Leap Week day one: favorite character or episode!

* I chose Al because I'm basic and predictable!

[id: cartoony doodle (with the #quantum leap week hashtag) of Al shrugging with blue lineart, green pants and shirt, red and blue tie, bright yellow green suit and hat and red shoes, he's holding Ziggy in one hand and smoking.]

* (I did it from memory so not the most accurate thing I've ever drawn)

[quantumlasange]

Quantum Leap Week Day 3: Putting right what once went wrong

Whoever discorded the footage of the alternative and lost ending for Mirror Image and Quantum Leap as a whole. If you ask me that’s putting right what once went wrong.