Dear Ficcer in a Box

[extrapenguin]

I am ExtraPenguin and this is my ficinabox letter.

For this letter, I have taken a slightly different tack! For some fandoms 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. If I'm requesting A/B and B & C, feel free to write something that's A/B & C; likewise, if I'm requesting A & B and B & C, I'd be happy to receive A & B & C.

Navigation:
Likes
DNWs
Medium opt-ins
Children of Time series - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Uplift series - David Brin
Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: the Old Republic
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy & 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. (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)
• Kinking on bodily fluids
• Under-15s having sex. People under 18 having sex with people older than 18.

Star Wars -specific:

• Tatooine Slave Culture fanon
• Jedi bashing, Jedi Order bashing
• Clones as Mandalorians
• Anyone speaking Mando'a
• Positive depictions of Mandalorians who disagree with Satine Kryze (i.e. no glorifying Death Watch or the so-called "True Mandalorians" from Legends)

Getting up to speed on the canons

Children of Time: Duology consisting of two books, Children of Time and Children of Ruin. You should be able to write about the stomatopods and other terraforming projects just based on the first one.
Uplift series: Series of 6 books and a sequel novella. For Creideiki, you can probably just read book #2, Startide Rising. For the worldbuilding prompts, you probably also want to read books #5 (Infinity's Shore) and #6 (Heaven's Reach) plus the novella Temptation.
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) 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.
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.
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy: Three ~2h movies. Can probably be streamed somewhere.

Non-fic opt-ins

IF: Children of Time
In-Universe Poetry: Uplift
Fanvid: Prequels & TCW. My tastes in music run towards metal (symphonic, power, melodic) and a bit of '00s dance music. DNW Vienna Teng, Taylor Swift, rap, sad indie dudes with guitars, anything that mentions a name that is not that of a character in the vid. (So e.g. someone singing "Oh, Alexander" over a Mace Windu vid is a complete no-go, but someone singing "Oh, Mace" is okay.) I opt in to using footage from other Star Wars media if you think it strengthens your vid. If you want to do Shmi/Jedi gf, firstly, good luck, and secondly, I opt in to crossover vids. I've dropped some song suggestions for each of the characters/ships here. There's also my music tag. I also like vids to instrumentals!
none of the links have been screened for visual triggers
Mace: Not in Our Name, Of Jupiter and Moons
Anakin: Beneath, I Am the Storm, Storm the Sorrow, Insomnia, If There's No Tomorrow, Slice of Time
Shmi: Eye of the Storm, Incurable Disease
Anakin & Shmi: You Will Breathe Again, Eternity, The Looking Glass, If There's No Tomorrow
Anakin & Ahsoka: Dancing in the Dark, One More Flag in the Ground, If There's No Tomorrow, The Other Side, New Life
Anakin & Mace, Anakin/Mace: Dancing in the Dark, Revenge, If There's No Tomorrow, Immortals, Glowing Embers
Shmi/Jedi gf: Is There Anybody Out There?, Glowing Embers, Until It Rains Again, Me, Myself & I, Call of the Wind
Obi-Wan/Maul: Die by the Blade, Architect of Paradise, Like the River Flows, Here's to You

Children of Time series - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Listen: I am a sucker for uplift narratives. I love the spiders, but I also love the sheer potential of the universe exposed to the Rus-Califi virus. Spider society as born from pre-sentience spider behavior was great, and I'd love to see how other species form societies, as well as the steady rise to sentience.

Stomatopod History & Culture

• Tell me anything! How did the stomatopods make first contact with the spiders? What do they think of their spider neighbors?
• What to they think about space and the humans that came from there?
• What ocean-things weigh on their minds and occupy their collective cultural consciousness?
• Do they get included in the space project at some point? Perhaps after the octopodes have been integrated?

Other abandoned terraforming projects

• We see one unintended success state and one failure state – how else could the terraforming projects fail? Go nuts!
• Something like Solaris, or a multi-sentient species-kill-species world, or something where the virus did not quite work as intended and there were even more unforeseen consequences?
• Something where the virus ends up making everything look more like Ediacaran biota due to interaction with alien virus-equivalents?

Corvid-alien hybrids

• The collision of corvid genome with alien molecular catalyst was mentioned in the epilogue of Children of Ruin and not elaborated upon at all, but it sounded super cool. How much did the alien molecular catalyst influence the corvid society?
• Can they survive in environments other Earthlings cannot? Do they have different amino acid needs?
• What was first contact with the spider society like? Do they behave like the humans who're part of spider society would expect them to behave based on cultural memory?

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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. I'm grouping the Chissis and Tkett prompts and the Creideiki and Hikahi prompts together, since they're sort of different cast herds, but the pre-canon prompts in the Creideiki+Hikahi set should work just as well for any subgroup – feel free to mix and match. WRT hetships, Creideiki/Hikahi and Chissis/Tkett are both OK, as are the & variants of both.

I've opted in to haiku series and in-universe poetry. I would love some trinary haiku, either as part of a fic or as a standalone piece!

Chissis & Tkett

• 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
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 Chissis's and Tkett's) favorite wordplays?
• Do they have some additional encounters with Galactic bureaucracy, either before or after the whole "everyone wants to murder Earthclan" thing?

Trinary

• What's it like to think in Trinary all day? What sort of poetic imagery is most popular? What sorts of things count as undertones of Primal that e.g. Makanee is worried about Brookida displaying?
• How did Trinary form exactly? (Dolphins finding haikus cool and just unilaterally to only communicate using them?)
• How does thinking in Trinary affect dolphin views of art? What are the images that are considered most poetic, and why?
• 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?

The Whale Dream

• I'd love to see some sort of opening up of what it is and what it means, and how it's reflected in modern Trinary!
• Do our spacegoing fins miss the song of the humpbacks of Earth's oceans?
• How much of the Whale Dream is cultural and how much is ... not?
• Is the Whale Dream something found without, to be sought in the oceans, or something found within, carried with the fins to the ends of the galaxy?

Buyur plan for Jijo

• 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 are they?
• What was the method to their choice of things to leave behind? Was there one?

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Star Wars Legends: 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 also love the Jedi and their vaguely Buddhist philosophy and telekinetic powers.
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.

Other than the requested, I also like T3-M4, Juhani, and Jolee.

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 e.g. 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!

Female Revan/Yuthura Ban

• 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?
• Revan takes Yuthura with her to face the threat in the Unknown Regions. (Please ignore the Revan novel and all of The Old Republic. Feel free to disregard as much of the rest of the EU as you wish.)
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Forn Dodonna/Female Revan

• What did Forn think, working together with Revan to face down the Star Forge? Did they face off during Revan's journey to the Dark Side?
• Post-canon, does Forn pick Revan's brain about tactics and strategy? Does Revan bond with this Admiral who might give her something of a new start in life?
• The threat in the Unknown Regions that Kreia spoke about – it makes sense to appraise an Admiral in the Republic Fleet about that, right? (Please ignore the Revan novel and all of The Old Republic. Feel free to disregard as much of the rest of the EU as you wish.)
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

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Star Wars Legends: 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 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'll be caught up with the upcoming expansion once it's been released; 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.

Darth Acina/Female Sith Inquisitor
I like Acina! I like the opportunity here for Empress/perhaps-loyal Right Hand, with the Inquisitor (Nox, Occlus, Imperius) the head of Ancient Mysteries and being a nice and loyal Imp, sure, but they're Sith, there's always that "well what if she betrays me?" thing in the background. If you want to write an AU where someone else is the Outlander and the Inquisitor remained in the Empire, playing politics and potentially getting Acina the throne: go ahead!

• Acina's the questgiver for the Dread Seeds mission, so something with Acina going along with her new colleague on the Dark Council to capture all the Dread Seeds and stop the Dread Masters?
• Actually, Acina and the Inquisitor dealing with the Dread Masters story arc, Explosive Conflict to the Dread Seeds to Oricon to the Oricon ops. Just – that.
• Or, once Acina is Empress, some rival (Vowrawn? Ravage?) has established a base somewhere, time to go in with her right-hand woman to eliminate them?
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Talos Drellik & Female Sith Inquisitor
I like Talos! He is great and 100% suited for the archaeology bromance.

• Talos getting more of those archaeology experiences that made him quit the Imperial Reclamation Service and run off to the Inquisitor's ship!
• 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!

Female Jedi Consular
I love the whole diplomacy thing and also the start with the ancient relics.

• 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.
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Female Jedi Consular & Yuon Par
I like 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.
• Master Yuon visiting the Consular's ship after the Consular's achieved Masterhood.
• 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.
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Qyzen Fess & Female Jedi Consular
I like the whole lineage ensemble of the Consular, Master Yuon, Nadia, and Qyzen.

• 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?
• Or some sort of comparison about running around with Master Yuon vs running around with the Consular?
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Nadia Grell & Female Jedi Consular
I like the whole lineage ensemble of the Consular, Master Yuon, Nadia, and Qyzen.

• I liked the holocron hunting on Tython – maybe the Consular brings Nadia to do some as well?
• Mishaps with the ancient Sith/Rakatan/Gree artefacts and having to deal with them.
• Any and all master-padawan schmoop.
• The Consular sharing her favorite Jedi- and Force-related places with Nadia.
• Archaeology of the Rakatan stuff on Belsavis or Voss stuff, either during the questline or after the situation's been resolved.
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

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Star Wars Prequel Trilogy & 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 the tag we matched on in the other era or merging PT and TCW continuities.

WRT the "stories about motherhood" DNW: Anakin is allowed to exist and Shmi is allowed to care about him; just give the fic a plot that isn't about Shmi raising Anakin and give her motivations unrelated to him. (Idle thoughts à la "I hope my son's doing well" or "I'm glad Anakin isn't around to get caught in the splash damage of what I am about to unleash" are 100% okay.)

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

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!

Anakin Skywalker

• Prequels-era Anakin is a prime target for fixit fic! This man is a disaster (affectionate), please fix him.
• Or, alternatively, a prime target for screwball comedy driven by the Force. In an effort to protect Anakin from Sith Grooming Experiences, the Force sends him on Adventure Suffering Experiences! Lots of them. Constantly. Anakin would like to take a nap please?
• An AU where Anakin is raised by a Jedi who isn't Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon. (Mace Windu, Agen Kolar, Shaak Ti, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, Depa Billaba...)
• Anakin meets a male Jedi padawan who also likes engineering/piloting and they really hit it off and Anakin realizes he's into dudes
• Anakin solves the key mystery of a mission through his engineering prowess and/or being a friend to droids
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Shmi Skywalker
I have a huge preference for Force-sensitive Shmi. I also like it when she has more rough edges and despite being a kind person (whose personal philosophy is surprisingly compatible with the Jedi) and doing her best to raise Anakin isn't just a saintly self-sacrificing mother.

• It is a lovely day on Tatooine and the Hutts are about to discover that Shmi Skywalker is a horrible goose
• Maul finds Shmi and Anakin first, and wowed by Anakin's power in the Force, decides to pretend to be a Jedi so he can take them on as apprentices. None of them have any knowledge of what a Jedi is beyond osmosis. It's glorious.
• Or a Jedi who isn't Qui-Gon Jinn is the one given the Naboo mission and thus the one finding her and Anakin. (Any of the ones in the movie, someone from TCW, or just invent an OC.) What changes?
• Shmi is from a non-Jedi Force sect! What sort of Force traditions does she have? Does she teach any to Anakin?
• Or what if Qui-Gon freed Shmi as well/Shmi freed herself and left Tatooine with Anakin?
• Or perhaps the prophecy is slightly different and it is Shmi who is the Chosen One, to be trained as a Jedi?
• Or Shmi was, once upon a time, a Sith apprentice who ran as far as she could, but now the past is catching up with her...

Anakin Skywalker & Shmi Skywalker
I have a huge preference for Force-sensitive Shmi. I also like it when she has more rough edges and despite being a kind person (whose personal philosophy is surprisingly compatible with the Jedi) and doing her best to raise Anakin isn't just a saintly self-sacrificing mother.

• Anakin returns as a teen pre-AotC with a homebrew chip deactivator to free his mom! Then they have to dodge slave catchers as they make their escape/free a bunch of slaves/assassinate Gardulla.
• AotC canon divergence where Anakin arrives a few weeks earlier/early enough to save Shmi – except that she doesn't want to go back to the Larses and they have to figure a way to smuggle her offworld under their noses...
• Maul finds Shmi and Anakin first, and wowed by Anakin's power in the Force, decides to pretend to be a Jedi so he can take them on as apprentices. None of them have any knowledge of what a Jedi is beyond osmosis. It's glorious.
• When Anakin is a padawan, Shmi wants to be trained in the ways of the Force to help keep herself safe and help people, and, well, it's not like Anakin wants to say no? So now there's a mostly-trained Force user running around Tatooine, and Anakin has a suspiciously large comm bill.
• A Shmi Lives AU where Anakin comes visit her during the Clone Wars to show off his shiny new padawan. What does she think of Ahsoka? What has she been up to in the meantime?

Anakin Skywalker & 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.
• Anakin and Mace sent together on a mission somewhere during the war, either a battle, getting allies (a world that loves podracing and theater?), or a miraculous piece of Jedi Business unrelated to the war effort. (Ahsoka is 100% welcome to tag along as well.)
• Anakin's mission assignments go differently (Padmé stays on Coruscant/someone else escorts her to Naboo), so he's part of the Geonosis rescue planning team with Mace.
• In preparation for solo missions, Mace takes padawan Anakin with him on a mission somewhere!
• Time loop fic where they only get out of the time loop when Palpatine dies despite their best efforts (Zillo Beast? regular assassins? shuttle crash?)
• Mace teaching Vaapad to Anakin
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

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!
• Any and all padawan raising schmoop! I am 100% here for it.
• 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?
• Time loop fic where they only get out of the time loop when Palpatine dies despite their best efforts (Zillo Beast? regular assassins? shuttle crash?)
• I'd really love a fic with Anakin in his role as Ahsoka's teacher and guardian rather than just co-conspirator, so, that?
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Anakin Skywalker/Mace Windu
Please nothing set before Anakin's Knighting. Thank you!

• Let's be real: Mace definitely deserves a hot young knight to give him a shoulder massage, and Anakin has a Thing for authority. This is definitely a good idea!
• Anything in the genre of "Anakin and Mace go on an adventure together and end up getting together". Levels of peril and number of witnesses up to your discretion.
• Mace and Anakin get trapped together in a time loop of the day the Zillo Beast escaped. How long until they figure out that the Force won't let them out until the Chancellor gets eaten?
• A manifestation of the Force in the shape of a goose (or just a horrible goose from the local park) decides they're soulmates and must kiss. Immediately. Or there will be consequences.
• Mace gets trapped in the clutches of the Senate Budget Committee. Anakin stages a daring rescue.
• Mace decides to try teaching Vaapad to Anakin; Anakin has a crisis over how hot Mace is
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Obi-Wan Kenobi/Darth Maul
(If going the porn route, please give Maul functioning genitals, either of the functional prosthetic type or fleshly type by e.g. having him regrow them in a bacta tank, AUing the way Obi-Wan defeated him, or having him use Sith Superglue to slap his original lower half back on.)

I love the enemies to lovers aspect here and how they're both quippy, sassy assholes at heart.

• Obi-Wan is the one to find Maul on Lotho Minor!
• Due to Dooku, Sidious, or forces of nature, Obi-Wan and Maul are stranded somewhere and can only get out if they cooperate.
• Maul decides that actually, he also wants vengeance on Sidious, and the best way to get that is via the Jedi. Now, if only Kenobi would believe him...
• 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.
• Before killing his beloved nemesis, Maul absolutely needs to monologue at him about how he ruined his life. Then monologue some more, because he can only kill his nemesis once, so he better say everything he's ever wanted to say first. Wait, that turned out much too personal and revealing, abort – why can't he kill Kenobi? What is this colossal betrayal of his hand???
• Maul's revenge quest is, like all revenge quests, awfully personal. What if it took a turn for the physical/erotic? Obi-Wan decides to try flirting with him to get out of this and oh look, suddenly the sexual tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife and serve it for dinner?
• Obi-Wan comes to the tragic conclusion that Maul is hot when they're fighting with lightsabers and also really hard to kill. Maybe he should try redeeming the guy instead? You know, just to minimize collateral damage. Anyway, here's his comm code, please call first if you feel the urge to kill anyone, Maul!
• Time travel! Rebels/TCW-era Obi-Wan/Maul travels back to TCW/TPM and tries to convince himself/the other one to change approach, with varying levels of success.
• A manifestation of the Force in the shape of a goose (or just a horrible goose from the local park) decides they're soulmates and must kiss. Immediately. Or there will be consequences.
• Mix and match with adventure prompts as needed!

Depa Billaba/Shmi Skywalker
Shmi Skywalker/Shaak Ti
Shmi Skywalker/Original Female Jedi
I think that after all the bullshit in her life, what Shmi really deserves is a hot Jedi girlfriend. Depa, Shaak, and OFJ all welcome! I really like how sharp and observant Depa is, and think she could help pull Shmi out of her shell. Shaak, OTOH, is serene and dedicated and would complement her nicely.

• Shmi and Anakin are first discovered not by Qui-Gon Jinn, but Jedi Girlfriend, who is on some mission to Tatooine. Was it intentional, or did the ship crash? How does Shmi get embroiled in the scheme?
• Or it happens after Anakin has joined the Jedi. Diplomatic negotiations gone awry? Some undercover shadow work? Something that should have been simple but is anything but and now the Jedi of choice is on the other side of the galaxy, wondering how the hell she's going to get out of this mess? (Enter Shmi Skywalker.)
• Shmi leaves Tatooine and, in a cruel galaxy, finds work as a bounty hunter. This brings her to the attention of whomever hires trainers for Kamino. She gets there, and then she meets the Jedi in charge of the place and oh no, she's pretty...
• Shmi Lives AU where she's running around during the Clone Wars, and the world she's on is the frontlines. The Jedi General leading the Republic defense is smoking hot, and Shmi shares everything she might know about the Separatist advance – even if it leads to potential Separatist retaliation. Perhaps especially if it leads to Separatist retaliation. After all, that might give her a hot Jedi bodyguard.

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