Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Writing in the MAU universe

So I've been writing in the MAU universe for a while now, so this is a little bit of what it is like. The MAU universe was created by Elrod W a few years ago. Sadly it isn't as popular as it used to be, but I hoping there is a resurgence in the future.

The best thing about it is the freedom of it. There are a few rules, but the MAU allows amazing freedom in what you can do with your characters.

Now since it is something of a shared universe, there is a little bit of crossover between stories. Largely coming from the Agents C & D, who pop into several stories. They even show up in one of mine, the 100th MAU story on Fictionmania. Although I only included them as a cameo for that reason. The characters from the MAU - Trekkies stories have gotten a slight mention. I believe that Elrod W wants them off limits to other writers, so I only vaguely referenced them. I would think that the Agency is still very interested in them and their working MAU, but have given up on trying. The largest crossover for me has been with Allen W's The Slayer series. It is pretty much the inspiration for my series, so I only felt it was right to include his Faith on some level.

Plus since this is in the same universe, the original Faith is going to have some ramifications on my Faith. Both have worked for the Agency, so some older Agents are aware of what happened. Although I like to think that it was covered up and the newer Agents do not know about it. Agent R being one of them, he has no knowledge at all about the other Faith. He hasn't even been told by his girlfriend, who is my Faith. For Faith, she has some trouble dealing with it. Imagine learning that there is someone who looked just like you, pretty much acted like you, and worked at the same place. Now imagine that something very bad happened to this person, it would probably be a little weird to say the least.

The original Faith has driven a little bit of the plot, way more than I originally wanted. But I looked at it from a logical point, she would have had a major impact on how the Agency operates. So the "man in the suit" main plan was to wipe out both slayers because he knew how strong the original was. Plus the chip mentioned in the last story is an updated version implanted into the original Faith. I try to avoid it, but sometimes it just comes up.

Now will there ever be a meeting of the Faiths?
Maybe.

As for the future, the next arc is going to be a little different. Buffy and Faith are now on the run. Along the way they encounter other MAU users and begin learning what the "man in the suit" has planned. I have something planned with an experiment on a MAU. Something that it isn't supposed to do, but is meant to be an one in a million type event. There may be some different alien technology showing up. Not Fwirthian technology, but something else and much rarer. There may be a large time jump sometime in the future. So far I've only jumped a few weeks and series is more or less set in present day. The next arc will probably wrap up the "man in the suit" storyline. The seeds for the next villain have already been planted. In case anyone is wondering, the dream sequences are very important. Especially the ones in "I Close My Eyes and Then Drift Away" and "Into The Great Unknown".

2 comments:

  1. hi, i just wanted to say that i am really enjoying this story. the mau stories have always been one of my favorites and to mix it with buffy was great. You are a very good writer and i really appreciate the hard work you are doing. please keep up the great story telling as i am looking forward to the future episodes. Kim

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  2. Thanks. I should have the next story ready in a few weeks so keep an eye open for it. Also I'm glad you found the blog.

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