Dear COREr

[extrapenguin]

I am ExtraPenguin, and this is my charactorex letter!

For this letter, I have separated out General Adventure Prompts, which are more focused on external plot, and character-specific prompts that are focused on emotional dynamics and/or inner growth – or just character specific. Please mix and match to your heart's content! I've also mentioned which unrequested characters I most enjoy in case you want to write something with an ensemble cast.

Navigation:
Likes
DNWs
Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: the Old Republic
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

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.
• Journeys of discovery, whether the discoverers be the characters or the reader.
• Redemption arcs. Rehabilitative justice.
• Narratives where something happens; plot. External conflicts. Casefic. Action/adventure.
• Comedy of Errors -type things.
• [record scratch SFX] So You're Probably Wondering How I Got Into This Situation: the fic
• Madcap adventure
• 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 infrastructure design stuff.
• Failure analysis/unraveling the causes of catastrophe, e.g. "why did the plane crash?" (yes, I like Mayday and Admiral Cloudberg)
• 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.
• 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)
• Christianity, mentions of "sinning".
• Humiliation, especially public.
• Unrequested incest, including foster/adopted and master/padawan relationships.
• Motherhood (childcare etc) as a woman's sole or main motivation or purpose.
• Unrequested het between humans or humanoid creatures. (Dolphins are fine, spiders are fine, people having parents is fine, the fabric of society being canonical and het-enabling is fine. Bit part OCs in het relationships are also fine.)
• PIV sex.
• 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. (Exception: soulmate-bestowing geese/geese bullying characters into getting together with someone is okay.)
• Alternate character origin story AUs (e.g. always a Jedi Maul, never a Jedi/slave Anakin, etc)

Getting up to speed on the canons

Knights of the Old Republic I & II: Two video games. Available natively for Windows and Mac, with II also available for Linux, cost about 10€ each the last time I checked. Available on GOG and Steam. Screenshot LP for I, all game dialogue for I, screenshot LP for II, all game dialogue for II. Time to completion should be about 30-40 hours each.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: A MMO. You can get the class stories (incl. Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular) as a free to play player – they take about 30-40 hours too, I think. For Acina, while you do encounter her after Makeb in the Seeker Droid missions Imp side, you need the KOTET expansion, for which you need to subscribe for at least one month – 13€, last time I checked. For Brontes, you do encounter her on Imperial Belsavis and on Oricon, but you really need to be an active subscriber and do the operations. (Story order: Imp Belsavis planetary quest, Eternity Vault op, Karagga's Palace op, Explosive Conflict op, Terror from Beyond op, Section X daily area, Seeker Droid storyline, Scum and Villainy op, Oricon daily area, Dread Fortress op, Dread Palace op.) Or just watch a cutscene compilation on YouTube.
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.

Knights of the Old Republic

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 preferences: Light Side-ish, or at least not the "kicks puppies for fun" type of darksider. Pragmatic. Charismatic. Competent. Please ignore the Revan novel and SWTOR.
Exile preferences: Inscrutable and mysterious, including to herself. Ideally Light Side-ish. I liked the canon tone! Meetra Surik is an acceptable name, though please ignore the rest of the Revan novel and SWTOR.

Other than the requested, I also like T3-M4, Juhani, Jolee, Yuthura Ban, and Forn Dodonna.

Adventure Experience Prompts

• 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
• 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?
• They land on an island – only to discover that it's actually a mat of carnivorous floating vegetation anchored to a volcano by a tree
• Post-canon exploration of the Uncharted World.
• Or a smaller mishap, like them ending up in the rakghoul-infested sewers of Taris by accident and having to find their way out or something.

Female Revan

• It is a lovely day on Korriban and Revan is a horrible goose
• Revan takes people/a different set of people 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.)
• Revan having a long and hard conversation about the memory wipe stuff with the Council
• The Dantooine Council made all the Revan Decisions on their own, without consulting the main Jedi Council on Coruscant. Revan sics Coruscant on Dantooine and watches the evisceration
• Revan gets her memories back on Taris and decides to troll the fuck out of everyone on Dantooine
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

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Star Wars: The Old Republic

SWTOR! I got into the MMO in Feb 2021; the Sith Inquisitor was the first character I played and I have mine current with all content (so no need to fear spoilers). I liked the [electrocute] options and the hilarious quantities of sass and snark, as well as the focus on ancient mysteries and Sith archaeology. Like, seriously, write me a fic that is just the Inquisitor investigating Rakatan ruins and I will be ecstatic. Please refer to the Inquisitor as Darth Nox/Occlus/Imperius if set at an appropriate place in the timeline. My personal Inquisitor is a Zabrak, but I like the other alien options as well.

On the Consular side, I really enjoyed the Tython/Coruscant bits of ancient archaeology and going through Belsavis for Hallow Voice! My Consular is a bit more recent, but I've done the class story, and I have another character current with Republic-side plot. My Consular is a Human, but I like Zabraks and Togruta and the "Imperial" (Chiss, Rattataki) aliens as well. Please don't call the Consular the Barsen'thor in narration. Please no DS Consular.

I'm not really into Zakuul or Valkorion family drama.

Adventure Experience Prompts

• Maybe a visit to a Sith Temple at some point in the timeline – ancient artefacts for the defeat of the Republic/Empire?
• Visiting Ziost and its Sith tombs before the Cataclysm? Visiting Ziost after the Cataclysm? How much has survived, buried beneath the soil?
• Investigating Nathema before or after the re-greening?
• Or something more war-related – I'm fully caught up with the latest events; feel free to use stuff from there if you want.
• They land on an island – only to discover that it's actually a mat of carnivorous floating vegetation anchored to a volcano by a tree
• Archaeology field trip to some ancient temple! Sith space, neutral regions, wherever. Just the requested characters doing archaeology together.
• Or a smaller mishap, like them ending up in the rakghoul-infested sewers of Taris by accident and having to find their way out or something.

Female Jedi Consular
I love the whole diplomacy thing and also the start with the ancient relics, as well as the whole lineage ensemble of the Consular, Master Yuon, Nadia, and Qyzen.

• I liked the holocron hunting on Tython – more of that, maybe, coupled with some philosophical discussions?
• Mishaps with the ancient Sith/Rakatan/Gree artefacts and having to deal with them.
• Meeting with a mind-controlled Master or Master Syo after the plotline has been resolved.
• Any and all master-padawan schmoop.
• The Consular asking Master Yuon for advice on teaching Nadia.
• Archaeology of the Rakatan stuff on Belsavis or Voss stuff, either during the questline or after the situation's been resolved.
• Qyzen is such an interesting companion to the Consular – he seems to deal well with running around with a very Jedi Jedi, but how does the Consular adjust to having a Trandoshan hunter with her?
• I really liked the Trandoshan cultural stuff, so, more of that? Qyzen brings the Consular on a traditional hunt as a mirror to all those times the Consular brought him with on Jedi business?
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Female Sith Inquisitor
I love the deranged comedy aspect and the batshit insanity of it all. Also the space archaeology! Can't forget the space archaeology. In terms of other characters, I like Talos, Zash, Bessiker, Pyron, and Xalek. Also Acina, in terms of castmembers available to more than the Inquisitor!

• The Dread Seeds – the Inquisitor's good at grabbing forbidden stuff, so she gets sent to do that. Does she run into complications not in the game? Does Acina decide to tag along?
• Actually, the Inquisitor dealing with the Dread Masters story arc, Explosive Conflict to the Dread Seeds to Oricon to the Oricon ops. Just – that. It would be really interesting thematically, considering that the Dread Masters are these extremely powerful Sith, drawing power from the mental connection they share with each other, and the Inquisitor has these ghosts banging around her head.
• Honestly just. Archaeology. Write me Talos and the Inquisitor nerding it over artefacts and I'll be a happy penguin.
• Mishaps with the ancient Sith/Rakatan/Gree artefacts and having to deal with them.
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Calphayus
Spoilers for the Dread Masters arc!

• If you play Republic, you can actually spare him at the end and cart him off to Tython. How would that go? What is it like to come back from all that insanity and realize that shit, you almost burned down the galaxy?
• Or something about his visions – he's apparently a seer. How does that affect him? Did he foresee any of what would happen when he began work on the Phobis devices?

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I really enjoyed the prequels in all their ridiculous glory, especially the lightsaber fights and the sense of a sweeping world and the Jedi and the Jedi Temple. I love the space wizards and their vaguely Buddhist philosophy and telekinetic powers. I really like people figuring out their place in the universe and helping others on their journeys. So here are a bunch of prompts for a variety of Jedi. I also love slash, femslash and milSF! I'm also not fussy if you end up writing a PT-era fic/merging PT and TCW continuities.

Characters I like, other than the requested: Plo Koon, Maul, Adi Gallia, Depa Billaba, Shmi Skywalker

Note regarding the Jedi: Please no Jedi bashing or Jedi Council bashing. They can be acting on bad/misleading information, 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 or after a canon-compliant Order 66.

On how to deal with Padmé: you can set your fic in an AU where she and Anakin never got together, they broke up offscreen pre-fic, or just never mention her.

Adventure Experience Prompts

• All the weird Force bantha poodoo! Someone touches an artefact and oops, now there's a Force bond? Time travel to the KOTOR era/Revan turning up in the PT/TCW era?
• Discovering ancient Rakatan devices! Trying to figure out WTF happened with them! Anything dealing with the legacy of the Infinite Empire.
• 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! One or more Jedi get sent to rescue/negotiate/pay the ransom.
• 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.
• Or the interesting happens to them! A large diplomatic event between two planets that attach supreme importance to pod racing, Separatists attacking someplace and the only their legion is close enough to respond, a bizarre Force Ghost starts haunting the Temple basement, etc!
• Or a smaller mishap, like them ending up in the rakghoul-infested sewers of Taris by accident and having to find their way out or something.
• They land on an island – only to discover that it's actually a mat of carnivorous floating vegetation anchored to a volcano by a tree

Adi Gallia

• I like Adi! We don't see much of her, but she's apparently also a pilot and the one who deals with politicians.
• What was she doing at any given point of the war? Trying to wrangle the Senate? Fighting off Grievous?
• Adi (and company?) gets stuck in a time loop of the day the Zillo Beast escaped. How long until she realizes she needs to let the Chancellor die to get out of it?
• Adi gets trapped in the clutches of the Senate Budget Committee and has to escape
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

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!
• Any and all padawan raising schmoop! I am 100% here for it.
• At Anakin's insistence, she gets sent on a mission with as little to do with the war as possible with either Anakin or some other master. Tracking down an ancient Sith artefact? Sent to investigate ruins with a strong Force presence?
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Mace Windu

• If you are aware of the Mace Windu Unfucks the Timeline tumblr post? That. I am 100% here for another take on that idea. Relatedly, anything involving Anakin as Mace's padawan.
• What did the Geonosis rescue mission planning look like?
• Mace (and company?) gets stuck in a time loop of the day the Zillo Beast escaped. How long until he realizes he needs to let the Chancellor die to get out of it?
• Mace gets trapped in the clutches of the Senate Budget Committee and has to escape
• Missionfic with Mace kicking ass and solving all the problems?
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Darth Maul
IMO Maul is the perfect comedy protagonist: He's done enough bad stuff of his own volition you don't feel too bad laughing at him, yet he's enough of a victim of circumstance that a happy ending is satisfying (unlike for, say, Palpatine).

• Maul gets his lower half back (Nightsister magic, Sith rituals, bacta tank, realistic prosthetics) and discovers he is not simply horny for vengeance. No. He is also horny for Kenobi.
• Maul decides that actually, he also wants vengeance on Sidious, and the best way to get that is via the Jedi. Now, how to make this Jedi believe him...
• Time travel! Rebels/TCW-era Maul travels back to TCW/TPM and tries to convince himself to change approach, with varying levels of success.
• What if Maul weren't discovered by Savage on Lotho Minor, but someone else? A Jedi? Bail Organa? The Hutts?
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

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