#multifandemonium

-->AU is multifandom, with Corpse Bride, Alice games, Back To The Future, and Portal main characters

-->AU involves Victor, Victoria, a still-living Emily, a still-living Bonejangles, Alice, a still-living Lizzie, Marty, Jennifer, a teenage Doc (aka Emmett), and a teenage Clara all waking up in a mysterious sciencey area where they’ve apparently been kidnapped and kept in suspended animation. None of them can remember what led them to there, and they’re all baffled by this metal ball hanging from the ceiling introducing itself as Wheatley and saying he’s saved them all

-->Wheatley explains they’ve been taken to be experimented on, that there’s been a massive power failure (”Which isn’t more than 10% my fault“), they’re the only ones left alive, and offers to help them escape

-->The group decides they might as well follow the one “person” who has any idea what’s happening and starts trekking through the facility -- only for Wheatley to insist they have to see the view and lead them to a big window. . .

-->Which looks out on SPACE. Nope, they have NOT been kidnapped by Aperture, they’ve been kidnapped by aliens! Who have time travel technology and have been capturing subjects of interest to help them in their plans to conquer Earth. Hence why three of the should-be-dead people are alive -- Emily, Bonejangles, and Lizzie were all taken before their deaths. Emmett was also specifically taken before he could invent his own time travel technology, which annoys the shit out of him once he learns about it

-->Oh, also the aliens have been visiting other worlds as well, and thanks to the power failure one of their specimens has escaped containment -- an Alien. As in the Ripley family bane Aliens. So not only do they have the angry and scared kidnapper aliens after them, there’s a real chance they will run into a literal MURDER MACHINE

-->Shenanigans ensue! Shenanigans tend to include:

Alice gaining the Otherlands-style ability to enter other people’s minds, and the ability to summon her imaginary weapons into reality

Emmett being revealed to have technomancy, which really helps in hacking alien computers

One of the group being revealed to have been programmed to become a sleeper agent, activated with a code phrase -- which Wheatley says; everyone thinks it’s Alice and is relieved when it appears the conditioning didn’t work, but then they run into some aliens and the agent is revealed to be Victor -- who, thanks to Wheatley blurting the code phrase, has ‘imprinted’ on his friends as the people he is fighting for. (Alice later uses her dream-walking to help better merge the programming with Victor’s regular personality so he doesn’t go into a murder trance every time there’s enemies)

Wheatley admitting this whole thing is him feeling super guilty about how things went down in Portal 2, and he’s hoping that if he can get them back to Earth, he can finally apologize to Chell

Wheatley gets badly damaged, but manages to hook into the alien systems -- his attempt to download himself as the ship AI goes awry, however, and instead he ends up with a standard-issue human Wheatley body (you know, looks at least vaguely like Stephen Merchant)

Wheatley’s first appearance in this human body is running at some aliens threatening his new friends wielding a wrench BUTT-NAKED

-->In the end they all manage to get in an escape pod and get back to Earth, crash-landing near Area 51 because some cliches will not be denied

-->The military base takes them in -- and wonder of wonders, Chell is there! Wheatley is initially tongue-tied, and later tries to argue that he can be friends with her again if he never ever talks (Alice: “Wheatley, you’ll explode“); however, it’s not long before the beans are spilled on his identity -- fortunately, since the group speaks highly of him helping them escape and she can see that his eventual apology IS sincere, Chell agrees to give him a second chance

-->Shipping notes:

Definitely a Victor/Victoria/Emily/Alice situation -- Victor and Victoria were taken right after the rehearsal, so of course they’re already close, and they warm up to Emily and Alice during the shenanigans (Victor and Alice in particular during the dream-walking bit). There’s a bit of confusion on the part of these Victorians about their feelings, but eventually they throw caution to the wind and become a happy cuddlepile

Back To The Future characters follow their canon pairings -- Marty with Jennifer, Emmett with Clara. Have occasionally debated Emmett maybe having some attraction to Jennifer too, but not sure if it would go anywhere

Lizzie and Bonejangles hook up, of course, largely because they end up having each other’s backs so much during the shenanigans

And Chell’s second chance ends up turning romantic because I am very much into Chelley too