Dear Heart Attacker

[extrapenguin]

I'm ExtraPenguin and this is my highadrenalineexchange letter. Contains: Original Work, Guardian, KOTOR, The Clone Wars, and Uplift saga.

Navigation:
Likes
DNWs
Original Work (safety)
镇魂 | Guardian
Knights of the Old Republic
The Clone Wars
Uplift

Likes

• Same-sex relationships, especially F/F.
• 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.
• Untitled Goose Game crossovers of the type where the goose comes to visit the canon.
• Alien settings: Dyson spheres, ringworlds, planets tidally locked to their red dwarf stars, artificial habitats on otherwise inhospitable planets, planets with large axial tilts, planets that are actually moons of gas giants, etc.
• 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.
• Established relationships.
• 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!
• Weird physics.
• 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 shipfic and gen. If you're choosing between something you think the characters would do in a situation and something on my likes list, please err on the side of what you feel is right for the characters and story in general.

DNW

• Setting change AUs (eg: Hogwarts AU, Coffee Shop AU) (exception: In Space AUs of canons not already In Space are fine)
• Christianity, mentions of "sinning".
• Humiliation, especially public.
• Unrequested incest, including foster/adopted relationships. (Jedi master/former padawan doesn't count.)
• Stories about motherhood.
• Unrequested het between humans or humanoid creatures. (Dolphins are fine, people having parents is fine, the fabric of society being canonical and het-enabling is fine.) (Background Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker is also fine.)
• Requested characters being presented as/rendered utterly helpless; the "damsel in distress" trope; woobiefication.
• Stories about mourning unwelcome changes to/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.
• Requested characters dying.
• Stories where the characters have never loved or could never love anyone but each other, incl. soulmates, demisexuality, single-target sexuality, etc.

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Getting up to speed on the canons

Original Works: All in your head. I like milSF and space opera.
Guardian: 40-episode TV series; episode length 45 minutes. Available engsubbed on viki or here (needs community membership, but membership is open).
Knights of the Old Republic: Two video games, playthrough time about 30-40h each. Both are available natively for Windows and Mac, and KOTOR 2 also for Linux. Last I checked, they were 10€ each. My requests mostly stand alone, in that the Revan ones only require KOTOR 1 and the Exile ones only KOTOR 2 to understand. For KOTOR 2, please install the Restored Content Mod, and if you want to get the Handmaiden with F!Exile, the same-sex romance mod that allows just that.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: 133-episode TV series; episode length 25 minutes. It's owned by Disney so streaming options are probably country-dependent.
Uplift: Series of 6 books and a sequel novella. For Creideiki and Hikahi, you can probably just read book #2, Startide Rising. Chissis and Tkett are from the novella Temptation, though you'd need to read at least books #2 (Startide Rising), #5 (Infinity's Shore), and #6 (Heaven's Reach) to properly get it.

Original Works [SAFETY]

I like milSF and space opera! I also absolutely adore competence porn, the ability to enjoy adrenaline thrills, curiosity, knowing WTF they're doing or at least pretending that they do, and women lifting heavy objects. Creativity and creative problem-solving. Knowing the rules and exploiting them. Honorable opponents!

Space Commodore/Enemy Commodore (F/F)

• I'd be really into a sworn nemeses situation where they know each other and their tactics like the back of their hands! Something like honorable opponents who nonetheless oppose each other on principle?
• Maybe an Enemy Mine situation where they've crashed on a remote planet and need to work together to survive? Or a third faction takes them both captive?
• With regards to the conflict, what is it and how do they relate? Is it two equivalent space nations that are just as valid in their views and the conflict? Is one of the nations evil? (Does the Commodore from the evil nation defect, or stay in a sort of "my country, right or wrong" thing?)
• A space battle (whatever that looks like in your setting) from alternating POVs would be cool!

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镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)

I loved the heart of the show, about how the aliens aren't that different really and should be treated humanely, as well as Zhao Yunlan's smarts, the identity porn of the start, Shen Wei's internal conflict and the pressure of his secrets against the weight of Zhao Yunlan's deep well of curiosity. Ye Zun is also a favorite, and I loved how he could still realize he was wrong and redeem himself, even at the end, after all those millennia of hatred. I'm really into aliens amongst us always, and here there are bonus identity issues from Shen Wei being removed from time for so long, leaving him without a place to belong. Dixing is fascinating, too – a cave society, removed from the light! I also have a bulletproof narrative kink for mentorship, so I'm really into Shen Wei's life in academia, being Professor Zhou's prize cabbage of a student and mentoring Li Qian into a life of science!

Shen Wei/Ye Zun/Zhao Yunlan

• Ye Zun tries to hold Dragon City for ransom and Shen Wei negotiates with him to keep him fed in return for the humans' safety, nd then it turns into a bit of the Thousand and One Nights as Shen Wei struggles to keep Ye Zun both fed and not bored
• Shen Wei and Ye Zun reconcile pre-canon under the influence of Cheng Xinyan, and Shen Wei runs afoul of SID Chief Zhao Yunlan when gathering Hallows to get Ye Zun out of the pillar
• Fake dating where Zhao Yunlan brings home Zhu Jiu out of SPITE to make his dad shut the fuck up, while Zhu Jiu goes along with it to get at the Hallows; cue comedy of errors. Endgame ship whatever you wish from the set of Shen Wei, Ye Zun, Zhao Yunlan, and Zhu Jiu, incl. poly.
• Scenarios where Zhao Yunlan meets Ye Zun first (either in the present, or in the past due to e.g. the Hallows dumping him onto baby Ye Zun instead of baby Shen Wei)? Or something post-canon-ish where Shen Wei and Ye Zun end up in the same body? 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.
• Anything where the twins reconcile. Canon divergence where Ye Zun rants at Shen Wei about why he hates him, or Shen Wei comes across Ye Zun much earlier, or just – anything. (Feel free to include other characters in on the getting them to communicate thing!) And then they rebuild, with Ye Zun still raw over the things gege did/didn't do, Shen Wei trying to figure out how to be a responsible big brother as an adult in the future, full of awkward mutual caring. Or something fraught canon-ish where Ye Zun tries to break the timeline and Shen Wei tries to keep the timeline intact?
• Casefic! I love casefic. Maybe something where everyone thought it was a guy from Dixing, but the guy's actually human/Yashou? Or just a random Dixingian turning up to cause trouble. Stuff caused by the Regent?
• The baiji river dolphins didn't actually go extinct; they were all Baiji Tribe Yashou and they shapeshifted into their human form and walked out of the Yangtze when it wasn't satisfactory anymore. Then they ... get involved with Dragon City/the SID somehow.

Li Qian & Shen Wei & Professor Zhou

• I'm really into mentorship and Science Shenanigans, so: that.
• Something about generational transfer of knowledge – Shen Wei asking Professor Zhou questions about how to mentor his first PhD student Li Qian? Scientific collaboration?
• What sort of bioengineers are they, and what do they study? Fungi? Humans? Plants? How does it all end up going wrong with an amount of explosions more suited to a chemistry lab?
• Shen Wei gets revealed to be Dixingian/the Black-Cloaked Envoy. Was it his carelessness or someone with blackmail material on him? What's the fallout?
• Professor Ouyang's latest experiment goes All Wrong, and now it's up to Li Qian, her thesis advisor, and her thesis advisor's thesis advisor to stop the sunbathing plant zombies/mutated dogs/politicians who reproduce via binary fission!

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Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)

For KOTOR 1, I really enjoyed the reveal and companions' reactions to that. The potential for identity stuff/doubting one's recollections is super cool; I'd appreciate a chance for Revan to yell at the Jedi Council.
Revan preference: Light Side(-ish) but not necessarily aligned with the Jedi Council/forging her own path. Not the distracted from mission to kick all the puppies type DS actions that a DS playthrough involves, at any rate. Please ignore any EU material from outside the game. My favorites among the companions are Juhani and Jolee. My least favorite is Carth.

For KOTOR 2, I am very much into the "there's something intrinsically metaphysically wrong and horrifying about the Exile and that makes them unstoppably compelling to everyone they meet" schtick, so leaning into that is very welcome! I really enjoyed the tone of the thing and the colossal loyalty kink possibilities, plus the slow unfolding of the premise and realizations.
Exile preference: inscrutable and mysterious, ideally Light Side(-ish). Light Is Not Nice -type stuff is welcome if that inspires you. Meetra Surik is an acceptable name, though please ignore any EU material from outside the game. My favorites among the companions are Visas, Handmaiden, Bao-Dur and T3-M4. My least favorites are G0-T0 and Atton.

Yuthura Ban/Female Revan

• Revan and Yuthura going on a grand mission of slave liberation!
• I love the redemption/"was Sith, now no longer" thing they have in common. Did Yuthura recognize this was Revan? What did she think, when the Dark Lord herself told her to return to the Light Side? Did she have a crush on Revan with her mask and helmet?
• AU in which the Jedi Council thinks Yuthura should join Revan in her quest to find the Star Maps. Do they need to go look for an extra Star Map after the canon ones prove inconclusive?
• Post-canon exploration of the Uncharted World.
• Revan takes Yuthura with her to face the threat in the Unknown Regions. (Please ignore all of The Old Republic. Feel free to disregard as much of the rest of the EU as you wish.)

Female Revan

• 5 Times Revan Pwned a Sith Lord (and 1 Time the Sith Lord Self-Pwned Before Revan Could Do the Pwning) – time travel welcome, your choice of who the pwned Sith Lords are; anything in canon, Legends, or an OC is game.
• Revan goes to face the True Sith! What does she find? The relics of a bygone empire? A fleet primed for conquest? A flock of horrible geese?
• I would love Revan regaining her memories without the Jedi Council knowing and being an absolute horrible shit to the Jedi Council by asking things from them where they can't refuse without having to break it to Revan that she's actually a mind-wiped Sith Lord.
• Revan takes on a padawan! Either before her Fall or post-canon.
• Do they need to go look for an extra Star Map after the canon ones prove inconclusive? Is it on another Malak-controlled planet like Korriban, Republic territory, an active war zone, or neutral? What troubles do they run into there – environmental, political, other? Does Malak send another batch of bounty hunters to off them? Do they find more Sith tombs?

Female Jedi Exile/Visas Marr

• Breaking the oath. After only just meeting her, Visas already considers the Exile a paradise valley. How? Why? Does she realize it's a reflection of the Exile being a wound in the Force, creating Force bonds with all?
• Visas falls from the darkness to the light, in a way. What is it like to fall in that direction?
• A fully-trained Jedi is a dangerous thing, as the denizens of Dantooine would no doubt inform you. After serving Darth Nihilus for so long, what would Visas expect from the Exile she now serves? How does the exile compare to the expectations?
• Dark F/F where the Exile is like the lure on an anglerfish, and Visas cannot help but fall.
• Missionfic of something unknown, either during or after canon. The tomb of a Sith Lord? Some political snare? Has Czerka regrouped to threaten the Ithorians again?
• Post-canon fic with the Exile and her followers/students reforming the Jedi Order
• Does Visas sneak off to join the Exile to confront the threat in the Unknown Regions? What is the threat, and what must be done about it? (Please ignore all of The Old Republic. Feel free to disregard as much of the rest of the EU as you wish.)

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

Okay, so one of my bulletproof narrative kinks is mentorship, which this show delivers in spades. And I just really love Ahsoka. She's a determined and stubborn padawan and then grows into a determined and wise not-Jedi. I really like her figuring out her place in the universe and helping others on their journeys. So here are a bunch of prompts for Ahsoka and people who teach her. I also love femslash and milSF! In addition to the requested characters, I like Padmé, Mace, Shaak Ti, Fives, and Maul. (DNW exception note: background Padmé/Anakin is fine.)

Note regarding the Jedi: Please no Jedi bashing or Jedi Council bashing. They can be misguided, but I'd like them to be well-intentioned and not be on a mission to be petty and rude to Anakin Skywalker. Canon-compliant fic is 100% fine, but please nothing set in a canon-compliant Order 66.

Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano

• I like how Anakin's very protective of his padawan, even if Ahsoka chafes against it a bit at the start, and then grows to trust her, so: saving each other from trouble!
• A new Separatist stronghold has been discovered! Who's in charge? Grievous? A tactical droid? Some all-new non-droid General Count Dooku hired after one more disappointment from Grievous? What horrible trouble could befall our heroes this time?
• Someone gets kidnapped and potentially ransomed! Ahsoka and Anakin get sent to rescue/negotiate/pay the ransom.
• At Anakin's insistence, they get sent on a mission with as little to do with the war as possible. Tracking down an ancient Sith artefact? Sent to investigate ruins with a strong Force presence?
• Completely by happenstance, they're at a location when Something Interesting happens, and since they're Jedi, the local authorities ask them to solve the murder mystery/high-profile theft/terrorist attack.
• The silliest, crackiest fix-it you can come up with! Plo Koon has secretly been a Sith Lord all this time and figures out Palpatine's deal in time to expose him? Ahsoka gives the Chancellor a pet goose, except oh no, the goose is actually Darth Honkius the horrible? Sidious, Maul, and Dooku all put to motion their next plans – except they're working at cross-purposes, leading to an entertaining explosion?

Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano

• Grandmaster-grandpadawan bonding time! Does Obi-Wan tell Ahsoka about all the embarrassing stuff Anakin got to when he was her age? Or does he attempt to keep it to meditation practice, only for everything to start exploding, because why would things not explode around Anakin's padawan? Does he end up having to disclose something from his youth? (I'm familiar with Obi-Wan's Legends backstory.)
• A new Separatist stronghold has been discovered! Who's in charge? Grievous? A tactical droid? Some all-new non-droid General Count Dooku hired after one more disappointment from Grievous? What horrible trouble could befall our heroes this time?
• Someone gets kidnapped and potentially ransomed! Ahsoka and Obi-Wan get sent to rescue/negotiate/pay the ransom.
• At Anakin's insistence, Ahsoka gets sent on a mission with Obi-Wan that has as little to do with the war as possible. (Just like his own, not-in-the-middle-of-a-war padawan times!) Tracking down an ancient Sith artefact? Sent to investigate ruins with a strong Force presence?
• Completely by happenstance, they're at a location when Something Interesting happens, and since they're Jedi, the local authorities ask them to solve the murder mystery/high-profile theft/terrorist attack.
• The silliest, crackiest fix-it you can come up with! Plo Koon has secretly been a Sith Lord all this time and figures out Palpatine's deal in time to expose him? Ahsoka gives the Chancellor a pet goose, except oh no, the goose is actually Darth Honkius the horrible? Sidious, Maul, and Dooku all put to motion their next plans – except they're working at cross-purposes, leading to an entertaining explosion?

Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano

• I love the dynamic where Obi-Wan enjoys Anakin's padawan raising problems much too much and the way Ahsoka quickly gets included into Anakin and Obi-Wan's banter!
• A new Separatist stronghold has been discovered! Who's in charge? Grievous? A tactical droid? Some all-new non-droid General Count Dooku hired after one more disappointment from Grievous? What horrible trouble could befall our heroes this time?
• Someone gets kidnapped and potentially ransomed! The gang get sent to rescue/negotiate/pay the ransom.
• At Anakin's insistence, they go on a mission that has as little to do with the war as possible. (Just like Anakin's own, not-in-the-middle-of-a-war padawan times! Except he's a Knight and he brought his own padawan with.) Tracking down an ancient Sith artefact? Sent to investigate ruins with a strong Force presence?
• Completely by happenstance, they're at a location when Something Interesting happens, and since they're Jedi, the local authorities ask them to solve the murder mystery/high-profile theft/terrorist attack.
• The silliest, crackiest fix-it you can come up with! Plo Koon has secretly been a Sith Lord all this time and figures out Palpatine's deal in time to expose him? Ahsoka gives the Chancellor a pet goose, except oh no, the goose is actually Darth Honkius the horrible? Sidious, Maul, and Dooku all put to motion their next plans – except they're working at cross-purposes, leading to an entertaining explosion?

Plo Koon & Ahsoka Tano

• I like how Plo Koon cares for Ahsoka despite not being required to (as she's not his padawan). Does Ahsoka come to him for advice when she doesn't understand Anakin's teachings? How often?
• A new Separatist stronghold has been discovered! Who's in charge? Grievous? A tactical droid? Some all-new non-droid General Count Dooku hired after one more disappointment from Grievous? What horrible trouble could befall our heroes this time?
• Someone gets kidnapped and potentially ransomed! Ahsoka and Plo Koon get sent to rescue/negotiate/pay the ransom.
• At Anakin's insistence, Ahsoka gets sent on a mission with Plo Koon that has as little to do with the war as possible. Tracking down an ancient Sith artefact? Sent to investigate ruins with a strong Force presence?
• Completely by happenstance, they're at a location when Something Interesting happens, and since they're Jedi, the local authorities ask them to solve the murder mystery/high-profile theft/terrorist attack.
• The silliest, crackiest fix-it you can come up with! Plo Koon has secretly been a Sith Lord all this time and figures out Palpatine's deal in time to expose him? Ahsoka gives the Chancellor a pet goose, except oh no, the goose is actually Darth Honkius the horrible? Sidious, Maul, and Dooku all put to motion their next plans – except they're working at cross-purposes, leading to an entertaining explosion?

Ahsoka Tano/Asajj Ventress

• I enjoyed their unlikely cooperation while Ahsoka was on the run! What if Ahsoka hadn't been able to call Barris and they'd be on the run together for longer? Could they have lost their tail completely? Stolen off Coruscant (to do tandem bounty hunting/end the war by killing Dooku/something else)? Is there a universe where things go so that Ahsoka is in a position to put in a good word for Ventress as she promised?
• Or maybe they meet after Ahsoka walks away from the Order and is trying to figure out what to do?
• I'd love a take where Ahsoka and Ventress go to Mandalore together to apprehend Maul!
• Post-canon fic where their paths cross as they're trying to avoid detection in the early Empire?
• Or something set earlier in canon – any sort of Enemy Mine scenario where they work together against a common foe (Dooku? Slavers? Those Trandoshans who kidnap sentients for hunting?) would be great.

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Uplift Series - David Brin

My very favorite dolphins! I love the setting with its "and even the kitchen sink" attitude towards space opera worldbuilding eg the five different means of FTL travel, and the fact that the universe is vast and wondrous and has umpteen billion alien species in it. Pragmatic Hikahi and Creideiki the wily philosopher were the standout stars of Startide Rising, and Chissis and Tkett, both mad in their own ways, were of Temptation.

Chissis & Tkett (Uplift)

• Chissis and Tkett were the outstanding stars of Temptation for me! I'd gladly read more of their adventures exploring Jijo, maintaining things in the face of entropy, Tkett doing science (and founding a scientific journal just to get a place to publish it in?), and Chissis clawing her way back to sentience!
• Is the Buyur plan simply what they said it would be in Temptation, or is there yet another layer hidden there? Do they have things hidden on Jijo beyond the things mentioned in Temptation? What was the method to their choice of things to leave behind?
• How does being stuck on Jijo affect Trinary? Do the alien shores mean their favorite imagery in Trinary changes? Their favorite wordplays? Their views on art
• What's it like to be mad in a completely unique way?
• What else is there that lurks in Jijo's depths?

Creideiki/Hikahi (Uplift)
Creideiki
Note: Please don't dwell on Creideiki's head injury. It's okay if he has it, but I don't want a fic that's All About him having a head injury and how he copes with it – I'd prefer fic about his adventures instead.

• I'd love to see more of Creideiki & co's galactic escape adventure! How do they reach Earth?
• Does their escape adventure/some training cruise of Creideiki's go through E-Space, and perhaps yield them with some new knowledge of how E-Space works? Or do they actually encounter a mad sentient who prefers it to other modes of hyperspace travel?
• Are there still Progenitor relics to be found? Did the Progenitors all unifiedly disappear one day, or did they gradually fade out? Does their find in the Shallow Cluster lead them to another set of clues, or did Creideiki's hunch to investigate the Shallow Cluster come from some prior experience with Progenitor relics?
• How did Creideiki and Hikahi first meet? (I do ship it!)
• Do they stumble across some (illegal) Uplift process? Or a failure/"failure" of an Uplift process?
• What's it like to think in Trinary all day? What does a Trinary courtship look like? What are Creideiki's (and Hikahi's and Keepiru's) favorite wordplays?
• Do they have some additional encounters with Galactic bureaucracy, either before or after the whole "everyone wants to murder Earthclan" thing?

* Hands and fire?
      Hands and fire!
* Use them, use them
      To leap higher!
* Dreams and song?
      Dreams and song!
* Use them, use them
      To leap-long! *

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