Dear Yulegoat

[extrapenguin]

ETA 6.10. there is now Baru Cormorant!

Hi, I'm ExtraPenguin. Here's my Yuletide letter! Likes, DNWs, and prompts beneath the cut. Fandoms listed: Kerbal Space Program, Uplift series, Pushing Ice, Machineries of Empire, Vorkosigan saga, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Art prompts over here. Yuleporn.

Likes

• SCIENCE FICTION :D
• engineering, especially of the sort that keeps civilization running – sewage, maintenance, transport etc – plus fault analysis and infrastructure design stuff
• narratives about women and their relationships with each other, whether platonic or romantic
• same-sex relationships – F/F and M/M – in general
• fucked-up F/F
• achieving greatness via wanting to do something, then doing it so hard one becomes great in the process
• competence porn
• honor and loyalty: people being honorable and loyal even past the point of reasonableness
• tea
• humor
• snark (if mutual)
• intenseness of tone
• fun
• zaniness
• comedy of errors -type things
• exposition
• loving descriptions of landscapes, space, whatever
• enthusiasm
• Shown Their Work details
• xenobiology
• generic nerdery and science feels
• academia and assorted academic pissing contests and infighting when played for humor
• transhumanism
• happy endings

I tend to prefer fics that are about an (external) thing happening (eg. There is an engineering malfunction!) more than fics that are about a trope (eg. Accidental Baby Acquisition or what-have-you). I appreciate this can be a fuzzy line to tread, but I hope this helps you in your ficcraft.

DNWs

• grimdarkification or other substantial departures from canon tone
• character death
• humiliation, especially public
• embarrassment
• incest
• pregnancy/children/motherhood, infertility
• violence to fingers or eyes
• noncanonical permanent disability or the acquiring of such
• animal harm (especially negative outcomes for horses)
• sexism, homophobia, racism, etc and narratives built solely around them
• plots based entirely on miscommunication
• pure introspection/character study/slice of life or angst

Fandoms

Kerbal Space Program Valentina Kerman
The mad, bad space adventures of Valentina Kerman, certified badass and probable adrenaline addict thrill seeker! 50% Science, 50% Bonkers! Batshit space missions to Mun and beyond on a spacecraft made entirely of duct tape? Having to capture asteroids to redeem the reputation of the space program? Advancing the knowledge of Kerbalkind on a solo mission to Eeloo? Building a base on Duna with some random recruits?

I'm okay with any of the whoopses – fail!parachute deployment, explosions, crashes, any disaster possible – as long as no-one dies. (IE, pretty close to canon tone.) Kerbals are pretty durable, after all.

Uplift series - David Brin Creideiki
I really love the OTT space opera hijinks! I'd most be interested in reading about 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. The more focus on the dolphins, the better. Trinary is cool. My second-most-beloved character's Hikahi, and I like Creideiki/Hikahi. (How/when did they first meet?) And Keepiru! (The humans and chimp with them, not all that much.) I also love all the batshit aliens, so Creideiki & co dealing with them would be nice.

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.

Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
How did the Lindblad Ring form? We know/perhaps the "Lind" comes from Bella Lind, but what about the "blad" part? When Svetlana and her posse explore the galaxy, what do they find? How much time has elapsed Outside? What happened between Svetlana leaving and Bella being woken up? What's life like inside the structure – exploring it from the inside, figuring out its deepest mysteries, etc. Why's it there? What happened to the Spicans? What happened to the center? Does Bella meet another Chromis? (I ship Bella/Chromis and also Bella/Svetlana.)

Note: I'm not fond of the canon het in this canon, so if you can ignore it/gloss over it, that'd be awesome.

Machineries of Empire series - Yoon Ha Lee Kel Cheris
What happened between the books? Did Cheris forge her summons? How did she convince (all?) the servitors to cooperate with her, or did she? What will the new calendar be like, more precisely? How will she inspire loyalty in the Kel following her – how many will choose not to become crashhawks, how many will object to following Shuos Jedao and drop the formation instinct? How free is their choice to do so? How much Jedao is there in Cheris? – Or, some pre-canon battle of Cheris' – how much mathematical nigh-heresy has she gotten away with previously? Does she bond with Kel Khiruev over various tinkerings? (I ship Cheris/Khiruev.) Do they figure out the Hafn calendar/any of the Hafn tech? Can they save the geese? Does the new calendar inhibit the Hafn exotics? What happened to the crews of those ships the Hafn made turn coat?

Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold Aral Vorkosigan, Simon Illyan
(Okay this is a bit more incoherent than most, but please bear with me.)
Something that explores the – complicated, shall we say – relationship between these two, including that fucked-up dynamic where Aral requests fucked-up things For The Empire and Simon doesn't even think of refusing. (Yes, I ship Aral/Simon. A lot.) Dubcon loyalty kink, I think? (See my Smut Swap letter.)

For actual scenarios, something from during the Regency involving the protection of Gregor – Aral doing political maneuvering and Simon doing his spying job to protect Gregor from plots domestic and/or foreign – perhaps some fallout from Vordarian? Or the bit where power is transferred from Aral to Gregor, and how that percolates through the people involved. Or, earlier in the timeline, during the Escobar invasion, Simon finding his loyalty shift towards Aral.

Note: please don't dwell excessively on Simon's head injury thing. Mentions are fine if relevant, but please no misery porn or a fic focusing on it.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson Baru Cormorant, Tain Hu
I love, love, love the loyalty kink. Give me all the intense shippy loyalty. (I ship Baru/Tain Hu, as is probably obvious!) Give me Tain Hu kneeling at Baru's feet. Give me Baru giving in to Tain Hu's charms earlier during the winter. Give me an AU where Baru actually leads the rebellion to its end and rules Aurdwynn with Tain Hu as her loyal right hand and lover. Hell, give me an AU where Tain Hu ... learns how to breathe underwater/secretly magically survives and then attaches herself to Baru's side, ever the loyal advisor, while Baru politics in Falcrest. – Or, how about logistics? How do Baru and Tain Hu manage the nitty-gritties of feeding an army? How does Aurdwynn's long trudge of history and internal inter-ethnic conflicts affect the local politics necessary? What is a country, and what is the nature of patriotism? All the financial worldbuilding ever would also be welcome!

Note: please don't dwell excessively on Baru's head injury. Mentions are fine if relevant, but please no misery porn or a fic focusing on it.