Gaming Dice.

"AU" stands for "Alternate Universe" or "Alternative Universe" (same difference) and is basically any thought scenario for a fandom that isn't canon and can't fit within the canon universe. If it takes place in the canon universe but something is notably different, that is typically what's known as a "Canon divergent AU," because it diverges from canon.

an AU can be absolutely anything. There's a couple of widespread pan-fandom au scenarios that often get thrown around, like coffee shop aus, genderbend aus, hanahaki aus (hanahaki is a whole thing in itself i'd recommend researching on your own), etc. One you might hear sometimes is "crossover AU" which is when you have characters from one fandom interacting with characters from another.

You can have as many aus as you want. They can be whatever you want and you can do whatever you want in them. It's a sandbox for you to play around in and explore how things would be different or how the characters would act in those circumstances or environments. Maybe they have different relationships with each other. Maybe they behave slightly differently. Or you can just say "Okay, [x] is true. How did they get here? How would things have to be different for this to occur?" which can also be fun.

If you are ever confused about why people ship something that seems completely out of the blue or doesn't make sense to you in the canon setting, there's a good chance they like it in an AU setting! Not everything everybody is interacting with is necessarily the canon! Not everybody wants things to exist in canon and just want to explore playing dolls in a different sandbox and that's okay. And their sandbox might look a lot different than yours, and that's also okay. You have the freedom to make your sandbox whatever you please. Do whatever you want forever. Get funky with it. AUs are fun.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

A friend of mine considers themself anti-censorship but thinks that if you write about an identity you aren’t a part of and receive criticism for it and don’t take down/change the work, people are allowed to set you straight.

(“Set straight” in this instance means making posts that say “this person is racist/homophobic, so report their account and do not support them”, making burner accounts to comment on all of their posts about how bad the fic in question is or calling them racist/sexist, or spamming the fic with aggressive comments).

Their argument is that freedom of expression stops when your expression involves stereotypes or misinformation about marginalized groups, since it affects real people. I’m having a hard time disagreeing with them to be honest.

no, it is never reasonable or justified to harass anybody. period. I have already talked about this before but you (general you) cannot know if someone is racist or homophobic or a bad person in real life just because they write about fictional stories that are taboo and “problematic” in a way that is “problematic”. I have always praised “write whatever you want, however you want” and I mean writers can and should write whatever they want, however they want. what art someone creates does not reflect their real life moral compass or who they are as a person.

my advice for your friend is to close the tab and move on. because while I get how frustrating it can get and while their feelings are valid, fanfiction is not an activism and fanfic writers do not owe anybody anything. fanfic writers write for themselves. they don’t write for anybody’s approval. or at least I write for myself, not for anybody’s approval.

no, people are not freely allowed to “set someone straight” if it’s a hobby that that someone does for themself and their own enjoyment. “but what they write is harmful” actually it’s words on a screen that you (still general you) choose to read, you can stop reading anytime you want. and if someone else reads it and thinks “oh everything that is written in this fanfiction must be true in real life because it’s portrayed as such in this piece of fiction, I will change my entire moral compass now” then chances are that with or without the fiction they consume, they are already troubled — if they can’t separate fiction from reality — and they need help. the problem is them. not the writer or how they write their fic.

no one needs to take anything down because it pissed someone else off. “taking something down because someone else doesn’t want people to see it and so they believe they have the power to control what other people see and what can be created” is literally a fascist tool and what censorship means. so your friend cannot claim to be anti censorship if they think a work that offended them specifically should be taken down, otherwise I promise you there would be no fic about taboo contents or “problematic” ships. because these fics still offended someone and there are people (pro censorship folks) who believe these fics should be taken down because it offended them.

anti censorship means no censorship, no censorship means no censorship. it does not mean “works I personally think is morally good enough can stay but works that I personally find too offensive must go”.

“but it affects real people”. no, it doesn’t. it’s a work about fictional characters. not you. “but it’s about marginalized people who are real” it’s still a fictional stories about fictional characters. by your friend’s logic, works that contain topics like violence, murder or SA also affect real people because violence, murder and SA happen to real people in real life too. go back and read what I’ve already said:

“if someone else reads it and thinks “oh everything that is written in this fanfiction must be true in real life because it’s portrayed as such in this piece of fiction, I will change my entire moral compass now” then chances are that with or without the fiction they consume, they are already troubled — if they can’t separate fiction from reality — and they need help. the problem is them. not the writer or how they write their fic.”

no, fanfics, especially about fictional characters, do not affect real people. what does is harassment. if you (general you) make a call out post about someone, if you harass someone because you disapprove of the fictional stories they write, if you encourage other people to harass them because you disapprove of the fictional stories they write, then you are nothing more than a pathetic bully who just wants an excuse to harass real people over fiction in order to feel morally superior. but what you actually are is just a pathetic bully who should be ashamed of themself.

Which means that Avid knows how to make bombs. And poison. Heck, he could have probably poisoned the vampires animals and killed them if he got close enough.

LEGS IS A POISONER.

DO YOU THINK EITHER OF THEM EVER SAID SOMETHING AND THEY JUST STARE AT EACH OTHER BECAUSE THE KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE OTHER ONE IS TALKING ABOUT. DO YOU THINK LEGS FELT SLIGHTLY SICK. DO YOU THINK LEGS ALWAYS CHECKED HIS FOOD AFTER THAT.

OH. AND THEY BOTH PROBABLY KNOW THE TASTE OF POISON TOO.