Dear Spacer

[extrapenguin]

Hi! I'm ExtraPenguin, and this is my space_swap letter. Likes, DNWs, and prompts beneath the cut. I'm requesting Dragon's Egg, Guardian, Revelation Space, and Uplift saga, with fanfic for all.

Likes

• Narratives of reconstruction: fixing something, whether that be a country, a piece of equipment, a relationship, or a person. (Examples: Nirvana in Fire, Zuko's arc in Avatar: the Last Airbender)
• Journeys of discovery, whether the discoverers be the characters or the reader.
• Redemption arcs. Rehabilitative justice.
• Narratives where something happens; plot. External conflicts. Casefic.
• Comedy of Errors -type things.
• Crack taken seriously.
• Engineering, especially of the sort that keeps civilization running – sewage, maintenance, transport etc – plus fault analysis and infrastructure design stuff.
• Characters expressing caring for each other by feeding each other/giving each other tea.
• Good mentor figures/teachers who have their students' best interests at heart and succeed.
• Class issues and other tensions between origins and current presentation (eg. alien whose species is considered monsters in disguise as a human).
• Worldbuilding!
• Tea.
• Competence porn.
• Enthusiasm in general.
• Xenobiology, aliens, very alien aliens.
• Loyalty, loyalty kink, people loyal way past the point of reasonableness.
• Loving descriptions of small details/of how systems run; insertion of Shown Their Work details.
• Happy endings.

I like both established relationships and get-togethers, as well as shipfic and gen.

DNW

• Setting change AUs (eg: Hogwarts AU, Coffee Shop AU)
• Relationships that turn into this co-isolated dependence thing of "you are the only person in my entire universe", where suddenly the ship is the only thing in the universe that matters, and the members don't speak to other people. (Unless it's clearly presented as fucked-up.)
• Christianity, mentions of "sinning".
• Humiliation, especially public.
• Incest, including foster/adopted relationships. (Unless requested.)
• Unrequested het ships, even canonical.
• Women getting pregnant/having children/giving up anything in favor of motherhood.
• Requested characters being presented as/rendered utterly helpless; the "damsel in distress" trope.
• Stories about mourning unwelcome changes to the body/realizations about the body, with "body" defined broadly, (ex: acquiring a disability, infertility, weight gain) and the associated grief/angst.
• Stories about mourning a dead person.

Fandoms

Dragon's Egg - Robert Forward

Character: Swift-Killer
I'd love to read more about her life, either the pre-expedition life of a Troop Leader who killed a swift, or her life as a Renaissance Cheela who figured out how to communicate with humans. What challenges did she have to surpass to get the communications going? (Oh, and you can include her relationships with her two gentleman callers.)

Worldbuilding: Humans in cheela culture
After the cheelas' development, how do they see humans? What stories do they tell about the slow ones, what monuments do they make, what do they teach their children? Do they keep watch on Earth? Do cheelas later make second contact with humans/try to communicate again?

Guardian (TV)

Fandom-specific DNW: Do not write me anything based on the novel worldbuilding/characterization/tidbits/whatever, even if it wouldn't contradict the show. I am looking for show-only takes on everything.

Relationship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
In general, I love how Zhao Yunlan is such a sappily disgustingly good boyfriend to his devoted envoy. I'm down for anything that has Zhao Yunlan take care of Shen Wei (that The North Face jacket scene was so good), or hurt/comfort where Shen Wei is comforted, or something where they solve a case. Or all of that together. Or simply Zhao Yunlan teasing Shen Wei about his Professor Heels (the Black-Cloaked Envoy's shoes are much flatter, and, height difference) and then Shen Wei plopping his head on Zhao Yunlan's shoulder, because he is at optimal hugging height?
On the weird end: Anything that engages with Shen Wei technically being a space alien! Maybe he one day just ... lays an egg, and calmly explains that this is their future child who can inherit the SID? Or young Shen Wei being utterly terrified by Zhao Yunlan's very human cock, while Zhao Yunlan was completely blasé about Shen Wei's idk tentacle bouquet? Or Shen Wei accidentally acquires a power (stares too hard at a pregnant woman, shakes hands with a Dixingian whose power is hilariously inconvenient, etC) and then they have to deal with him accidentally using said power?
If you wish to go to porn place: I like top Zhao Yunlan, praise kink, and overstimulation. You could also fill my rape roleplay kinkmeme prompt, or do anything else where Zhao Yunlan gives Shen Wei a safe place to let it all go and just enjoy instead of being worried about his responsibilities. Or during the time travel sequence, Zhao Yunlan discovers he has a virginity kink and also likes long hair, so he takes it onto himself to give Shen Wei the best first time ever and also yoink his hair.

Relationship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan/Ye Zun &
Relationship: Zhao Yunlan/Ye Zun
(Grouping these together because a lot of my prompts could apply to both, and this way you have some leeway to tag accordingly, rather than try and kick the fic to fit.)
In general, I'm for anything that gives Ye Zun a redemption arc! Perhaps when Zhao Yunlan time travels to the past, he also saves a young Ye Zun from something, so after the time travel episode he realizes that Ye Zun also considers him important and then uses that to talk Ye Zun down? Zhao Yunlan is bored and asks the pillar guy why he's doing what he's doing, then has an opportunity to talk his captive audience down (and figure out how to get him out of the pillar; also, wtf Shen Wei, you have a twin brother and weren't telling)? Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei have a Relationship Chat earlier-on where Zhao Yunlan establishes that it'd be very useful if Shen Wei didn't hide important knowledge from him and then figures out an action plan on redeeming his brother-in-law? Ye Zun decides that everything gege's is his as well, sets out to seduce Zhao Yunlan, and gets shown that actually, the world can be kind and forgiving, and his issues can be dealt with? I like both triangle and V-shaped arrangements, and Zhao Yunlan realizing that he is the sanest person in the relationship.
On the weird end: Still all for Dixingians being aliens. Maybe there is only one Dixingian who split into three – Professor Shen, Black-Cloaked Envoy, Ye Zun – and now Zhao Yunlan has to make all three aspects of his lover merge through the power of love? Or all Dixingians have cat ears, which make cat lover Zhao Yunlan's heart go doki doki, and when Ye Zun first comes from his pillar in ep 20, Zhao Yunlan can stop the world domination plans by skritching his ears just right?
If you wish to go to porn place: I like top Zhao Yunlan, bottom Ye Zun, double penetration, and praise kink.

Worldbuilding: Dixingian genetics
How does it work? They're part alien and part human – has the human concentration changed over the years? Are Shen Wei and Ye Zun and their cohort significantly different genetically to Chu Shuzhi and all the other modern-day Dixingians? Are Dixingian powers genetic, and if so, why do Shen Wei and Ye Zun have different ones, or do they actually have the same root power but use it differently?

Worldbuilding: Uses & limitations of Dixing powers
What are the powers based on? What is dark energy, anyway? Did the original Dixingians bring over idk nanobots that suffuse the planet and which Dixingians can connect to and use to alter the environment? What are the boundaries of Dixing powers – we know they can violate causality, so is someone's power faster than light travel? Are Dixing powers genetic, and if so, why do Shen Wei and Ye Zun have different ones, or do they actually have the same root power but use it differently?

Worldbuilding: Dixingians' original planet
What was it like? How did it differ from Earth? What was the reason they developed their powers in the first place, and why are they so varied in kind? We know they came over on a spaceship, so they must've been pretty technically advanced – did they alter their homeworld's environment, and how much?

Revelation Space series - Alastair Reynolds

Character: Skade
What did Skade's prior missions look like? How does she participate in Council politics? When (and how) did the Madamoiselle infiltrate her? How would she react if she learned the truth about it? What was it like to be Conjoined and then go to the outside world to operate alone?

Relationship: Ana Khouri/Ilia Volyova
In general, I love their enemies to allies dynamic and the dark fraughtness of it all, and the way they don't tell each other everything at the start. I'd like to see something that maintains that tension and unease even during an Enemies to Lovers plotline. (If you want to keep the Aura plotline, surely the Hades Matrix folks can do a F/F pregnancy, but you can also deal with it all in a different fashion.)
Plotty: They figure out a way to reprogram the Inhibitors with Skade's assistance, so Resurgam Inhibitors go out to destroy the other systems' Inhibitors! Or basically anything where the two of them save humanity.
If you wish to go to porn place: Power gradient things that aren't necessarily safe or sane. Rough sex with biting and manhandling. Can cache weapons be used sexually?

Relationship: Ana Khouri/Skade/Ilia Volyova
AU where Skade makes it to Resurgam instead of/ahead of Clavain
In general, anything where these three interact and form a fragile allegiance! (A new triumvirate to replace Hegazi and Sajaki, if you will.) I'd also be very much down for Skade and Ana having a chat during which Skade realized that the Night Council doesn't exist, the voice whispering in her ear is the Mademoiselle. (If you want to keep the Aura plotline, surely the Hades Matrix folks can do a F/F pregnancy, but you can also deal with it all in a different fashion.) I'd also be interested in a look at how the tensions over stiff like implants affect implant-free Ultra Ilia Volyova's relationship with the Conjoiner Skade.
Plotty: They figure out a way to reprogram the Inhibitors with Skade's assistance, so Resurgam Inhibitors go out to destroy the other systems' Inhibitors! Or basically anything where the three of them save humanity.
If you wish to go to porn place: Ana and Ilia double-teaming Skade. Is it possible to use cache weapons sexually? Breathplay, bondage, edging – all goes.

Worldbuilding: Greenfly plague
How was it first made? How does it work? Is it possible to deactivate them en masse, or go live behind the Greenfly frontier?

Uplift Saga - David Brin

Character: Creideiki
Creideiki & co's galactic escape adventure! How do they reach Earth? Or perhaps something about the hunch that had Creideiki go investigate the shallow cluster? Or something about dealing with galactic bureaucracy? Or, in general, what about the pre-canon adventures of Creideiki and/or the Streaker? Dolphins: I love them.
Note: please don't dwell excessively on Creideiki's head injury. Mentions are fine if relevant, but please no misery porn or a fic focusing on it.

Worldbuilding: E-Space
How does it (not) work? What bizarre things do E-Space travelers encounter? Does any mad sentient actually prefer it to the other modes of hyperspace travel?

Worldbuilding: Progenitors (Uplift)
What were the Progenitors like? Why did they make the choices they did? Did they unifiedly disappear one day, or was there fractiousness? How did First Contact between the Progenitors go?

Worldbuilding: The Uplift process
I'd love a nitty-gritty account of what goes into the Uplift process, as well as failures/"failures"! Alternatively, what are the Galactic Library's guidelines on Uplifting different species?

Worldbuilding: Trinary language
How did Trinary form exactly? Dolphins finding haikus cool and just unilaterally to only communicate using them? What's it like to think in Trinary all day? How does it affect dolphin views of art? What are the images that are considered most poetic, and why? Do they How often do they use Trinary to subtly or not-so-subtly troll humans? What does a Trinary courtship look like? What're dolphins' favorite wordplays?

Worldbuilding: Danikenites
What are the places with the most Danikenites? What sects does the Danikenite movement have, and are they only based on which species is humans' upliftor, or do they have "internal" schisms over the circumstances and reasons of abandonment etc?