Dear Spacer

[extrapenguin]

Hi, I'm ExtraPenguin. Here's my Space Swap letter! Likes, DNWs, and prompts beneath the cut. Fandoms listed: The Long Earth, Machineries of Empire, Pushing Ice, Uplift, The Stars Are Legion.

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, aliens, very alien aliens
• 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
• angst (esp. in a mourning context), depression
• 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

The Long Earth Series - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
Worldbuilding: Climatology on the Long Earth
Scientists studying Earth West n's whatever. Thoughts on how the slightly different conditions make for such different winners. Thoughts on why the Ice Earths' climates are in an ice age. Researchers carting all the measurement equipment through the Long Earth. The engineering of iron-free measurement apparati.

Worldbuilding: Longness
So: how is Longness determined? What makes it happen? Is Venus Long? Why only two directions rather than three? What makes the anomalies stop branching? Would it be possible that a world branches where humans can observe it – say, there suddenly appears an Earth West 70 265.5 or something.

Worldbuilding: Radioactive Dinosaur Ruins
I'd love a catch-up, either of scientists more properly investigating, or something from the dinosaurs' glory days, or their fall! What was it like in the years before everyone's death? What was their society like? What other things were left behind for future investigators to discover?

Worldbuilding: Turtle World
Again, I'd love a catch-up! Either from the turtles' perspective, or of scientists' who've been sent over to study the culture! How did the society form? What would First Contact be like? Do they go explore the Long Earth?

Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
Character: Kel Ragath
Was he Four from the bidding session? In that case, who's Three? How's his little rebellion going on? I love his attitude of "life sucks, but whatever, I'll enjoy the explosions"/enthusiastically observing history as it's happening; anything on how he acquired that, or his backstory in the Kel, would be nice.

Character: Rahal Zaniin
What made Rahal Zaniin into the kind of person she is, ie someone who'll deal with heretics if it means the survival of a planet? Has she had prior occasions of saving people's days?

Relationship: Kel Aurel & sin x² (Servitor)
What made sin x² like Kel Aurel so much? Did Kel Aurel ever notice sin x²? (Note: I'm also okay with Kel Aurel/sin x²!)

Worldbuilding: Calendrical Heresy
Tell me about the heretics! How do they typically try to subvert the Calendar? Are any types of heresy more successful than others? How does Kel Command change its approach to dealing with them depending on the "type" of heresy? Are any types of heresy more common than others?

Worldbuilding: The Black Cradle
How does it work? What's it like for its inhabitants? Is Nirai Kujen trying to further develop it to get more people in?

Worldbuilding: Vrae Tala
How does it work? What were the precise circumstances of its development? Can it be turned back off?

Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
Relationship: Chromis Pasqueflower Bowerbird/Bella Lind
Does Bella meet another Chromis post-canon? When Chromis was around, what did they do offpage? What uses does the smart matter have?

Worldbuilding: Lindblad Ring
How did the Lindblad Ring form? We know/perhaps the "Lind" comes from Bella Lind, but what about the "blad" part? How is it governed? What's life for the common person with all this tech running around?

Worldbuilding: State of the Universe Outside the Structure
When Svetlana and her posse explore the galaxy, what do they find? How much time has elapsed Outside?

Worldbuilding: the Structure (Pushing Ice)
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?

Uplift Series - 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?

The Stars Are Legion - Kameron Hurley
Worldbuilding: Reason for the Legion's death
Is it a lack of a certain type of nutrient, or is the Legion just ... growing old? Is it repairable or preventable? What have the different ships' inhabitants tried to prevent it?