Space Swap 2018 Dear Creator Letter
Feb. 15th, 2018 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weakinteractionYay, Space Swap! Thank you for creating for me.
This is a long letter so I want to say up front that you should feel free to ignore it if you want; if you already have your own ideas based on the tags we matched on, then that's great (as long as you avoid the DNWs I put in the sign up). In particular, there is a lot of cut and paste here from previous letters; I've tried to make things vaguely coherent but apologies if it falls to pieces anywhere. Also, please don't read anything into varying lengths of different sections. I used all eight slots and had to narrow down the fandoms list a lot to get there (turns out I have a lot of space canons); there's definitely nothing here that I don't really, really want.
On the details side, my AO3 name is also weakinteraction and I am requesting fic, art or vid for all of these fandoms. Also, warning: there are various S1 spoilers in the Discovery section.
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
General likes
I am up for a wide range of types of fanworks, and equally happy with ratings anywhere on the scale.
I genuinely do equally like all of gen, slash, het and femslash. On the shipping side of things, I don't really have NOTPs in any of these fandoms, so any combination of characters that you're interested in is absolutely fine with me if we matched on a single character or a worldbuilding tag, or as a background pairing in a work for a relationship tag we matched on. (In general, I am more than happy to handwave that Everyone Is Bi And Poly for the purposes of fanworks.)
Tropes-wise, I am particularly fond of time travel, canon-divergent AUs, people with issues relating to identity (in the sense of things like secret identities and amnesia) and telepathy. In terms of relationship dynamics, I like all sorts of things but particularly: friends-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits, enemies-to-lovers, lovers-to-enemies(-who-are-maybe-occasionally-still-lovers-against-their-better-judgement), loyalty kink, and you-and-me-against-the-universe sorts of situations. Many (but not quite all) of my favourite characters share traits of being competent and getting on with their jobs/vocations/whatever, particularly in the sense of Doing The Right Thing over their strong personal preferences to do the opposite and/or against a general angsty background.
Fic likes: Overall, I am honestly very easy to please; I genuinely like pretty much all types of fic, from humorous vignettes, to angsty introspection, to twisty plotty adventure stories, casefic, slice of life, or digging into the canon's worldbuilding, and all points in between. I do want to make a positive point of the fact that fic-wise I'm always up for non-standard formats, anything from epistolatory or verse through to stories presented through documentary evidence, 1st/2nd person, present/future tense, IF, etc. etc. Again, if it works for what you want to do, I'll lap it up. (This is not to say that I don't enjoy reading third person, past tense, because I definitely do! I just don't want you to be put off doing other things if your inspiration takes you in that direction.)
Art likes: I do like use of light and shade in a picture, and interesting Easter-egg-y type stuff going on in the background (if there is one). An action scene that's a snapshot from an adventure, the characters in the middle of kicking ass. Goofy hijinks when the characters are off-duty. Portrayals of canon-divergent AU versions of the characters very, very welcome if the inspiration strikes you (eg: the TNG crew in a post-apocalyptic scenario, Aphra and Sana facing off with lightsabers in Jedi training, etc.). For shippier stuff, little moments of intimacy: stolen kisses, hurt/comfort type stuff (but please not too much on the hurt front), that sort of thing. (I have no problem receiving NSFW art, fwiw.) I am also definitely up for things like diagrams, maps, etc. In the same Easter-egg-y vein mentioned earlier, things like that presented with in-universe trappings (e.g. something for TNG having an LCARS interface around it) would be lovely. I've provided some specific art prompts where I can think of them, but in cases where I haven't I hope at least some of my more general prompts lend themselves to being illustrated.
Vid likes: When it comes to vids I like interesting/surprising/amusing juxtapositions (either between one scene and the next or between what's happening and the music), and having fun with pacing (e.g. the cuts getting faster and faster towards the end before slowing down again). I am very broad-minded in my musical taste; I would much rather go with the music you think fits than have a vid shoehorned in to my favourite song if you're not feeling it. And to be honest, my "favourite song" is something which changes on about an hourly basis. That said, if you do want to know, the two places my music collection/Youtube playlist gravitates towards most strongly are British indie circa 1995-1997 (I hesitate to use the term "Britpop" but, yeah, basically Britpop) and female singer-songwriters from the last decade or so. Some general vid prompts: Action (a pairing against the universe? lovers-to-enemies types doing battle?). Longing looks. Sweeping landscapes. (For Star Wars) Canon-style wipe transitions.
DNWs
This is a slight expansion on the absolute-DNW list I put in the sign up; anything that's on this list but not that one is "strong dislike" rather than "absolute no no" but obviously I'd still prefer you to avoid it if possible:
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
General note for this fandom: I am intensely agnostic about SMAX. I have no preference at all as to whether you include ideas from it, ignore it completely, or treat it as a source of inspiration without feeling bound to the details.
Vidding: this might be a very out-of-left-field idea, but apart from the usual sort of idea of a fanvid, inventing a new Secret Project and making the cutscene for it would be awesome. If you do fancy doing that, feel free to ignore all my prompts.
Character: Planet
Something from Planet's POV would be amazing, either before the arrival of humans, during the time of the colonies, or after the Ascent. Feel free to combine with one of the other prompts below or just explore the POV of a giant network of telepathic fungus.
Character: Deirdre Skye
I'm really up for anything here: backstory from the mission/back on Earth, first encounters with Planet's wildlife(/the Progenitor stuff if you're including Crossfire), the problems of being a faction leader, something exploring how the immortality tech works/the impact of it on people using it.
Relationship: Planet & Deirdre Skye
I am fascinated by all the telepathy in SMAC (as will become obvious as these prompts go on!). Clearly in this setting humans have latent psi powers all along but something about being on Planet brings them out. I love the relationship between these two implied in the cut scenes, quotes, etc., learning to understand each other in the face of an impending apocalypse (and in the good ending averting it) despite the hostility of the other factions.
Prompts: Regeneration tank dreams. Deirdre helping Planet to recover memories of previous flowerings. What it's like to be part of a merged consciousness post-Transcendence. Planet's poetry.
Relationship: Corazon Santiago/Deirdre Skye
The "canon" story that comes out in the Datalinks quotes and wonders videos implies a war where the Gaians eventually completely overrun the Spartans with mind worms, and I would definitely be up for darkfic along those lines if the inspiration strikes you. In general, the screaming pain sphere thing that captured leaders get put in when you defeat a faction and all the "swear a pact to serve me" stuff if you let them capitulate has quite strong BDSM-y overtones to me. But each time you play a game you get a brand new history of planet, and I don't consider the "canon" version any more or less valid than any other possibility. So I'd also be up for something similar with the tables turned and Santiago winning, or a grand alliance between the Gaians and the Spartans, cemented by the union of the two leaders, or arguments in the planetary council leading to hatesex, or anything else that occurs to you. Art-wise, any sort of illustration of anything like the above would be great, or maybe something more abstract representing telepathic contact?
Worldbuilding: Transcendent Thoughts
What are they, anyway? In some games, I seem to have an awful lot of them. I would be up for anything here from pure philosophy to invented science. Art-wise, any sort of numinous representation of a transcendent thought itself would be awesome, or something about the Transcendi -- how they seem themselves vs their reality of living inside a computer, somehow?
Worldbuilding: Social Engineering
The social engineering screen is seriously my favourite game mechanic ever; none of the later Civ takes on the same idea have quite given me the same feeling of pressing a lever here and getting an outcome over there but also an unintended consequence to deal with in the corner. How do the faction leaders weigh up these choices? (Given that these often determine diplomacy as well -- what do they do if their neighbour is pushing for something that isn't necessarily what they would go for?) Or taking a more ordinary citizen's level view of things, what's it like to go through an upheaval? (The fact that you just have to pay a bunch of money for it with none of the disorder in Civ II suggests that the Psych Chaplains and similar are doing a lot of stuff to people to get them to accept new models, for example.) Art-wise, some sort of chart or diagram representing connections between different areas? Or a map produced by a probe team of the likely willingness of an enemy population to adopt certain models? Or a propaganda poster?
Worldbuilding: Religion on Planet
How does life on a new world affect religious views? The Gaians are an obvious candidate here: the Weather Paradigm is a very early project and comes with its own Gaian prayer. But what sort of belief systems existed among Deirdre's followers on board the Unity? What is Deirdre's role, and how comfortable is she with it? That sort of thing. If you're up for doing fictional Christian theology, I'm also intrigued by how the Believers adapt their take on things. There are implications in some of the in-game quotes that they put the expulsion from paradise front and centre, but then there's also all the endgame "We Must Dissent" stuff. But I'd also be interested in, e.g. how the University (which I kind of assume is at least officially atheist) handles rituals around major life events, death, etc. or whatever weird rituals the Hive use to help people "extend [their] awareness outward, beyond the self of body, to embrace the self of group and the self of humanity", and so on. Art-wise for this, I'd love some religious art from Planet.
Worldbuilding: Previous Flowerings
I would love to know more about what Planet thinks in those moments of godhood before the dieback. Is it all quite philosophical, or is it a desperate attempt to try to survive? Art-wise, something representing the connections within the fungus all across the planet, maybe?
Worldbuilding: Impact of discovery of human psi powers on society
The game does jump quite quickly from the early mind worm attacks revealing that psi powers are real to empaths everywhere, and there are later bits that imply the far future implications, like the Telepathic Matrix, but especially in the early days it must have caused huge ructions in a society that was already only precariously clinging on in an alien world. What does it mean for ideas about privacy? How does it affect people's view of what it means to be human? Do some factions shun telepaths? (Or are they just too useful even in the ones that we might imagine would be suspicious, especially in fighting mind worms? And obviously all the faction leaders seem to turn out to be powerful telepaths, given the connections they form with Planet.) Or were there hints that there was something to it even back on Earth? (maybe all those '60s parapsychology experiments caught on to something?) For art, I would be very up for something that gets at the same type of vibes as some of the related Secret Project videos (from the creepiness of the Empath Guild one to the outright horror of the Psychic Amplifier to the everything's-great-or-is-it Telepathic Matrix one).
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
Babylon 5
Relationship: Susan Ivanova/Talia Winters
This ship was very, very formative for me because I really didn't think that canon was going to go there, and then it did. It's just a shame that cast changes meant it was rushed. I am equally happy with canon-compliant (probably heavy on the angst, unless you just want to explore what happened after that fade to black - I've always been intrigued by Talia's descriptions of telepathic sex, fwiw), or some at least slightly happier flavour of canon-divergent AU. How would the plotlines that ended up being Lyta's have played out if this ship was still going?
Worldbuilding: First Ones, Worldbuilding: Civil life during First Ones era
Basically: what were things like back at the start of life in the galaxy? Feel free to go wild and come up with weird alien biology/culture/technology for First Ones we never saw in canon. For more specific stuff: Why did literally everyone but the Vorlons and the Shadows decide to adopt a non-interference policy? Given the Lord of the Rings influences on canon, was this really an Era When Everything Was Just More Epic?
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
Star Trek: Discovery
Relationship: Michael Burnham/Sylvia Tilly
They're roommates and work together most of the time. I can totally see Sylvia arguing Michael into it just being logical that they get together, but there's also the possibility of tensions between them from being in such close quarters all the time leading to an unexpected outpouring of emotion.
Something in the future with Captain Tilly (and Michael doing whatever she would end up doing) would be great too.
Relationship: Mirror Sylvia Tilly/Sylvia Tilly
Obviously this would need a bit of handwaving, since Killy seems to have died when the ISS Discovery got blown up by the Prime Klingons, but I'm sure there's more than one way around it. I think I see this mostly in terms of them maneouvring around each other, Killy unabashedly fascinated by her alternate self but Tilly having more of a repulsion/attraction thing going on.
Worldbuilding: High degree of convergence between Mirror Universe and Prime Universe in this era
This really intrigues me, given that the Terran Empire has had access to the Defiant and its technology for the best part of a century. And of course by the time DS9 rolls around the Terran Empire has been destroyed. Obviously from one perspective there's the storytelling fun that happens from seeing different versions of the same characters, which is what underpinned the TOS version that Disco is somewhat bound to, but is there some in-universe explanation for the close parallels? Especially given the number of assassinations in the Mirror verse, the fact that the same people are around in roughly the same roles seems very surprising. Is there some sort of process driving such convergence? (In terms of the requested characters, feel free to use either or both of their normal universe and Mirror universe selves here.)
Worldbuilding: Kelpien Biology, Worldbuilding: Kelpien History & Culture
Short version: I love Saru, tell me more about him and where he comes from. Slightly longer version: I love the idea of a sentient species that has evolved from prey instead of predator. What differences has that caused in biological and/or cultural senses? We get a few hints from some of Saru's statements and his attitude to things, but there's definitely more to dig into here, I feel. How does the sensing-death thing work, and how abstract can the threat be before it doesn't register? (And why didn't it work with Mirror Lorca?) And why are there so few Kelpiens around in the prime universe?
Worldbuilding: Mirrorverse Politics, Worldbuilding: Mirrorverse Rebels
The politics seems to be very, very feudal, with a lot resting on being in favour with the Emperor (and then on down from there) and the rest being about being willing to murder your way up the promotion ladder. Who were all those people on the Charon? Alternatively, what happens after Mirror Georgiou gets taken to the Prime universe? (Who is the Emperor by the time Kirk's experience in Mirror, Mirror rolls around?) In terms of the Rebels tag, I'm honestly not sure which set of Rebels is intended, but I'd be equally interested in what Lorca's crowd were up to -- he seems to be on a the-regime-isn't-fascist-enough kick, but are his followers' motivations all the same, or do some of them have other ideas and he's manipulating them? But I'm also very interested in the Klingon/Vulcan/Andorian/Tellarite rebellion led by Mirror Voq: how are they organised? how do they tie in with the stuff T'Pol was involved with in the Enterprise Mirror eps? do they lead eventualyl to the Klingon-Cardassian alliance in DS9?
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Relationship: Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard
I was shipping P/C long, long before I knew what shipping was; there are times when I love them for all the angsty backstory about Jack and so on, and then there are other times when I'm much more in it for the UST, and then there are times when it's all about the "she's the only person who can relieve him of command" aspect. Anything exploring any aspect of their relationship would be great, in any medium. In addition to the things already mentioned here and for Beverly above, I do particularly like holodeck shenanigans.
Relationship: William Riker/Deanna Troi
I actually really like these two as a portrayal of people being fine with having broken up, but I also really like the fact that they did eventually got back together. I'm fine with backstory stuff set while they were together back on Betazed, or stuff set during/after TNG. Some more specific prompts: Betazoid vs human cultural differences (either between the two of them, or Deanna as the child of two different heritages), doing snarky crew evaluations on each other, Will helping Deanna deal with the after-effects of one or another of the hundreds of times she gets possessed
Relationship: Deanna Troi/Worf (TNG)
I love the idea of these two as well (and don't see any problem with the two ships coexisting; see below) -- although canon never went there completely, they were definitely playing with it throughout the later seasons (most obviously in Parallels, and if you want to explore either one or other AU from that episode, or the after-effects for the two of them, then that would be great).
Relationship: William Riker/Deanna Troi/Worf, Relationship: William Riker/Ro Laren/Deanna Troi
I have long headcanoned Will and Deanna (especially Deanna) as being into threesomes. Adding Worf seems natural enough, though he himself would probably need the most persuading; my desire for Riker/Troi/Ro is based almost entirely on Conundrum, particularly the final scene where they gang up on him.
Worldbuilding: Life and Work on a Federation Medical Ship
Anything from dealing with how they deal with major crises to more everyday stuff would be lovely here. There must be lots of empty space on a ship like this when it's not actually in full crisis mode; how do the crew deal with that? Are there lots of superstitions? What's the day-to-day admin like? I could definitely go for a Captain's Log or similar meta-style piece here. Art-wise, a scene from life on board, a diagram of some particular piece of medical apparatus, or something like a cutaway diagram of the decks would be amazing. (For what it's worth, if you've offered this in conjunction with Beverly, I would be very, very happy with stuff exploring life on board the USS Pasteur from the All Good Things alt-future.)
Worldbuilding: Poker Night
How did it get started on the Enterprise-D? Is it a Starfleet tradition more generally? Does everyone in the 24th Century happen to known what would from their point of view be a very old game, or did one of them teach it to the others? (One of the slightly silly things I love in Trek is the way every other character just so happens to be an enthusiast for one or other aspect of 20th century US culture, from Kirk getting into character in Piece of the Action to Picard with Dixon Hill to Tom Paris and cars ...) Do people from a utopian society with no money find it difficult to get their heads round the basic idea of gambling?
Worldbuilding: Romance and sex on the holodeck (TNG), Worldbuilding: Sociological Implications of Holodeck Technology
At the start of TNG, the holodeck is this shiny brand new thing that none of the characters have ever seen before (if you want to try to reconcile that with how Discovery's "battle simulator" from over a century previously looks very, very holodeck-like, feel free!), and it doesn't even have its own characters until midway through S1 with The Big Goodbye. But it very, very quickly seems to become ubiquitous. The show does play around with issues around it (e.g. with Moriarty and Barclay, and also all the stuff Voyager does with the Doctor) but there's a sort of baseline assumption that everyone's a Starfleet officer and very busy and focused on their jobs, Barclay being presented as an exception. What does it mean for society as a whole? Is holodeck access rationed in any way? (Surely even in the post-scarcity society computational cycles are a finite resource, given that the Enterprise sometimes managed to get distracted into using up its entire computer core on running holodeck things.) Or can people get their own holodecks in their homes very easily? Does it create a whole generation of shut-ins? Or does the overall philosophy of 24th Century humanity include ideas that prevent them from getting too distracted? Do people worry about the fact that malfunctions seem to be quite frequent? What does holodeck technology mean for crime? Is it ever used as a diplomatic tool? Do people worry about the possible sentience of their holographic romantic partners? Do Starfleet officers in long-distance relationships send each other holo-recordings? (Maybe interactive ones that they've programmed to do certain things?) Crossing over into DS9 for a minute, how does the Federation view Ferengi holosuites? (The Ferengi don't have anything resembling the Prime Directive; is there handwringing about cultures that ought not to be contacted being exposed to the technology when the Ferengi trade with them?) Art-wise, I think there's definitely an opportunity to do literally anything you want here, portraying things inside a holodeck program. But if you want something more specific, maybe people using it to fly?
Worldbuilding: The Traveler - Origins and Abilities
I know he's intentionally mysterious, but anything that peeled back at it a bit would be lovely. Is he alone, or are there a whole bunch of people like him? Is there a master-and-apprentice thing going on, given what happens with Wesley? If so, who was the Traveler's original teacher? Or is there a whole society of people who can manipulate reality with thought, drawn from all across the universe? (And beyond?)
Worldbuilding: Yesterday's Enterprise Reality
"The war is going very badly for the Federation, far worse than is generally known." Exactly how bad is it, and why did things go so wrong? (Given that the Enterprise-C comes from the relatively recent past, what happened between Star Trek VI and then to destabilise the Khitomer Accords?) Are the other major powers of the era content to sit and watch the Federation get taken out by the Klingons, or do they covertly help because they're worried about an ascendant Klingon Empire? Or join in on the Klingon side?
On a less big-picture level: what's life like on the wartime Enterprise-D? How come the crew is still basically the same crew when there'd presumably be a lot of rapid promotion in this timeline? (Especially Riker not having taken a captaincy somewhere in the circumstances.) Where is Worf in all this?
Worldbuilding: War with the Cardassians
I'm absolutely fascinated by the fact that this was still rumbling on in a low-level stalemate-but-no-treaty-yet way all the way through the first few seasons of TNG, but we never heard anything about it. What were the impacts of the Cardassian war that we just didn't get to see on screen? Or, further back, what happened during it? Did the Federation's approach to occupied worlds like Bajor change over the course of the war?
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
Star Wars (Marvel Comics)
Character: Queen Trios
Any exploration of her rule over Shu-Torun in subsequent years would be really interesting -- how do they cope with the fall of the Empire, for example? I do ship Trios with Bixene (who she promotes to Baroness towards the end) based on very, very little beyond my own headcanons, though I'm open to other relationships for her as well. Shu-Torun worldbuilding in general would also be great; there are all sorts of interesting glimpses in canon of their religion and customs to play around with.
Character: Chelli Lona Aphra
Aphra rapidly became my new Star Wars fave when I finally caught up with the Darth Vader comics. I love how spiky she is, her hidden depths, her ability to bullshit her way through pretty much any situation, and her reluctant moments of something approaching morality. Anything featuring her would be great, from canon-style adventures (I will never get tired of her interactions with the murder droids, fwiw) to angsty introspection to whatever else.
Character: Magna Tolvan, Character: Terex
I'm going to cheat and put these two together in a category of "complicated (ex-)Imperials who I ship with the people they're antagonists to". In both cases, they seem to have a bit more independence of thought than the average officer, though this doesn't always end well for them. For Tolvan, some sort of exploration of her backstory (especially why she has all those cybernetics) would be great. I also love that she's a tactical genius; any sort of situation where she's using those skills would be fun. For Terex, exploration of any/all of the stages in his evolution from stormtrooper to crime lord to intelligence agent would be really interesting. For either of them, being put into a situation where they're not as in control as they'd like to be would be great too.
Relationship: Chelli Lona Aphra/Magna Tolvan, Relationship: Chelli Lona Aphra/Sana Starros
With Tolvan, I'd be interested in either a reluctant team up or one or other of them getting the upper hand (Tolvan blackmailing and/or capturing Aphra seems fairly obvious, but I think Aphra's work with Vader must have given her some sort of insight into how to mess around with the Imperial hierarchy). With Sana, I'd be interested in exploration of either their backstory, their future or something roughly parallel to what's currently going on for them in canon.
(While we're in the "Aphra femslash" section, a quick note: I decided not to request Aphra/Hera because I didn't think I would really be able to prompt for it given that we're still waiting for it in canon. But feel free to go for it if you want.)
Relationship: Poe Dameron/Terex
I love the obsessional nature of their mutual antagonism, and if you want to play around with that sort of thing earlier in the timeline go for it, but since what happened to Terex in #14, I have actually found myself feeling awful for him and I would definitely also be interested in Poe rescuing him from fate-worse-than-death and the experience persuading Terex to switch sides, while still being a complete untrustworthy snake.
Worldbuilding: Archaeological methods
This one most obviously goes with Aphra, but feel free to use OCs too. How does archaeology work in the GFFA? Does the Empire keep an eye on what's being found? What sorts of different techniques are required for different types of environment? Exactly how many ancient superweapons are there out there?
Worldbuilding: Terex's criminal empire
This ties in with the Terex prompts above to some extent, I suppose. I'd be interested in how Terex got things up and running in the first place, how he maintained control even while away, what the organisational structures are, all sorts.
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
Relationship: Chromis Pasqueflower Bowerbird/Bella Lind
Anything exploring the interaction between (the smartmatter) Chromis and Bella would be great. Chromis has this idealised view of Bella as "the Benefactor" that Bella really doesn't recognise in herself. How does Bella react to this person who's simultaneously from the deep past and the distant future? What exactly can the smartmatter do? ;)
Worldbuilding: Lindblad Ring
Anything and everything! Internal politics, trade, how many different types of human-derived people adapted to different environments are there, the consequences of NAFAL travel, the consequences of stars moving closer and futher apart over time ...
Worldbuilding: the Structure (Pushing Ice)
What was it originally built for? (Is it an attempt to preserve life into the far future? See below.) What's going to happen to it in the end?
Worldbuilding: State of the Universe Outside the Structure
Exactly how far into the future are they? Are the skies filled only with dim red dwarfs, all other stars having burnt out? The cube from Chromis makes it to the Structure -- are there similar time capsules for some of the alien civilisations in there? Who's around native to this new era?
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic
Character: Yuthura Ban
Ah, my favouriteprospect for the year non-party NPC in the whole game. Anything at all about her would be great. Sme more specific prompts: Backstory on Sleheyron or how she rose through the ranks of the Sith. What happened next (in any version of the ending that doesn't leave her dead). Yuthura as bad teacher who plays favourites and is permanently exasperated with almost all of her students.
Relationship: Belaya/Juhani
Very strongly hinted at in canon though whether anything came of it while they were padawans is up to you, given the Jedi's restrictions on love. Prompts: Long nights under the stars. Reunion after the end of the game (let's assume Belaya survived the bombardment of Dantooine somehow -- maybe she'd been sent on some other mission?). Or (since Belaya turns Dark Side and pops up on Korriban if you kill Juhani), an AU where they both fall together.
Relationship: Juhani/Female Revan
There's a mirroring thing going on here, given that Revan initially meets Juhani when the Council are trying to make a point to her about the dangers of the Dark Side. However, there's also history given the revelation that it was Revan, on the way through Taris, who inspired Juhani to become a Jedi in the first place. I'd be up for things like: helping each other stay on the Light Side, post-canon missions, Dark Side Revan turning Juhani at the Temple instead of killing her. Art-wise, them fighting with lightsabers (either each other, or back-to-back or a similar pose against various enemies) would be great.
I do have a weirdly specific idea here (probably lends itself more to fic than art), inspired by a recent LS playthrough: the first time I got the little bit of shippy dialogue at the very end of the game came in a playthrough where I messed up several important conversations that ended in me failing to redeem other characters and having to kill them instead (Dustil, and worst of all when I got to the Star Forge, Bastila), which left it feeling like a rather bittersweet victory at best. So I'd be into a take on these two that looked at the cost of victory/the fragility of redemption/etc.
Relationship: Female Revan/Bastila Shan
What I find interesting about these two is their bond through Bastila having saved Revan's life, and how it pulls them together (against Bastila's better judgement given that she knows who Revan is all along, but also her devotion to Jedi beliefs about love being bad). And of course the mirroring of their arcs, with Bastila eventually going to the Dark Side as Revan did (but then coming back, if you play Light Side and choose the right dialogue options). Prompts: Force bonds. Victory celebrations. "I would stand by your side gladly, as your lover and apprentice!"
Relationship: Juhani/Female Revan/Bastila Shan
To be honest, this is basically my default party for most of the game. (I generally build Revan as a high-INT Scout/Consular for high skills and Force powers to make it work, but really do feel free to ignore that. I'm just geeking out about character builds now.) I'd be interested in exploration of how they work through the rough edges of working together during the period covered by canon, or something more post-canon based on the idea that they've all been through different redemption arcs: helping each other stay on the Light Side, that sort of thing. (Or, alternatively, Dark Lord Revan and her concubines. That would be good too, to be honest.)
Relationship: Yuthura Ban/Female Revan
I am very much up for any and all possible takes on the dynamics of this ship: amnesiac Revan as eager student of the Dark Side, post-Leviathan Revan as reborn Sith Lord who Yuthura is the first to swear allegiance to, Revan (with memories or without) redeeming Yuthura (even better if Yuthura is simultaneously trying to corrupt Revan), etc.
Worldbuilding: Rakatan Empire
There's a bit of information in canon, but not much detail and lots of gaps. I'm particularly intrigued by the fall of the Empire, which is where the information available seems most fragmentary. Feel free to treat sources within canon as reliable or not, depending on your preference.
Relationship: Dustil Onasi/Mission Vao
There are lots of directions this pairing could go in: anything from angsty responses to the events of canon (they're both from planets that were bombarded into dust by Malak, after all), to a Dustil who stayed Sith corrupting Mission on purpose to twist the knife further, to wacky comedy about how weird it is that Carth is now Mission's prospective father-in-law (add Revan -- either male or female -- as step-parent-in-law as well if you want).
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
Character: Kel Cheris
I love Cheris, especially the way she seems to continually get herself into trouble by thinking too much. Exploration of backstory would be very welcome (including if you want to look at any of her past relationships ...), but I'd also be very interested in a Cheris-POV take on Raven Stratagem. Given that the book carefully avoids going into her head to preserve the ambiguity about who's in charge, there's a big gap there. How does she feel about what happens to the Mwennin? How hard does she have to work at maintaining the pretence of being Jedao?
Relationship: Liozh Zai/Vahenz afrir dai Noum
I love the way Vahenz seems to be permanently slightly exasperated with Zai. Backstory about them planning their heretical break from the hexarchate before it becomes public? If you want to carry on the epistolary thing from the book, I'd definitely welcome that. Art-wise, it seems to me that we know very little about what everything looks like: any sort of illustration of how you imagine them would be great.
Worldbuilding: servitor culture, Worldbuilding: servitor creation/programming/training
I love the little servitor-POV sections that sneak in here and there, and the intriguing hints about their society that runs in parallel to humanity but is largely ignored. They seem to be fairly devoted to humans, but, given how awful the hexarchate is, why they should be is a bit of a mystery. What do they do in their "time off"? What do they make of humans like Cheris who do make time for them? For art, I'd love a picture of a servitor, or even better, a whole group of servitors with different forms having a meeting.
Worldbuilding: Calendrical Mechanics, Worldbuilding: Calendrical Heresy
Anything and everything about how it works (and how it gets corrupted by heresy) very welcome. What is the intersection between belief systems and playing with the laws of physics? Anything about the day-to-day maintenance of the high calendar, either from the Rahal point of view (towers, remembrances, etc.), the Vidona one, or from the point of view of people like the Mwennin who maintain their traditions surreptitiously while paying lip service to the outward forms, or more out-and-out heretics.
General | SMAC | B5 | DISCO | TNG | SW (Marvel) | Pushing Ice | KotOR | Machineries of Empire
This is a long letter so I want to say up front that you should feel free to ignore it if you want; if you already have your own ideas based on the tags we matched on, then that's great (as long as you avoid the DNWs I put in the sign up). In particular, there is a lot of cut and paste here from previous letters; I've tried to make things vaguely coherent but apologies if it falls to pieces anywhere. Also, please don't read anything into varying lengths of different sections. I used all eight slots and had to narrow down the fandoms list a lot to get there (turns out I have a lot of space canons); there's definitely nothing here that I don't really, really want.
On the details side, my AO3 name is also weakinteraction and I am requesting fic, art or vid for all of these fandoms. Also, warning: there are various S1 spoilers in the Discovery section.
General likes
I am up for a wide range of types of fanworks, and equally happy with ratings anywhere on the scale.
I genuinely do equally like all of gen, slash, het and femslash. On the shipping side of things, I don't really have NOTPs in any of these fandoms, so any combination of characters that you're interested in is absolutely fine with me if we matched on a single character or a worldbuilding tag, or as a background pairing in a work for a relationship tag we matched on. (In general, I am more than happy to handwave that Everyone Is Bi And Poly for the purposes of fanworks.)
Tropes-wise, I am particularly fond of time travel, canon-divergent AUs, people with issues relating to identity (in the sense of things like secret identities and amnesia) and telepathy. In terms of relationship dynamics, I like all sorts of things but particularly: friends-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits, enemies-to-lovers, lovers-to-enemies(-who-are-maybe-occasionally-still-lovers-against-their-better-judgement), loyalty kink, and you-and-me-against-the-universe sorts of situations. Many (but not quite all) of my favourite characters share traits of being competent and getting on with their jobs/vocations/whatever, particularly in the sense of Doing The Right Thing over their strong personal preferences to do the opposite and/or against a general angsty background.
Fic likes: Overall, I am honestly very easy to please; I genuinely like pretty much all types of fic, from humorous vignettes, to angsty introspection, to twisty plotty adventure stories, casefic, slice of life, or digging into the canon's worldbuilding, and all points in between. I do want to make a positive point of the fact that fic-wise I'm always up for non-standard formats, anything from epistolatory or verse through to stories presented through documentary evidence, 1st/2nd person, present/future tense, IF, etc. etc. Again, if it works for what you want to do, I'll lap it up. (This is not to say that I don't enjoy reading third person, past tense, because I definitely do! I just don't want you to be put off doing other things if your inspiration takes you in that direction.)
Art likes: I do like use of light and shade in a picture, and interesting Easter-egg-y type stuff going on in the background (if there is one). An action scene that's a snapshot from an adventure, the characters in the middle of kicking ass. Goofy hijinks when the characters are off-duty. Portrayals of canon-divergent AU versions of the characters very, very welcome if the inspiration strikes you (eg: the TNG crew in a post-apocalyptic scenario, Aphra and Sana facing off with lightsabers in Jedi training, etc.). For shippier stuff, little moments of intimacy: stolen kisses, hurt/comfort type stuff (but please not too much on the hurt front), that sort of thing. (I have no problem receiving NSFW art, fwiw.) I am also definitely up for things like diagrams, maps, etc. In the same Easter-egg-y vein mentioned earlier, things like that presented with in-universe trappings (e.g. something for TNG having an LCARS interface around it) would be lovely. I've provided some specific art prompts where I can think of them, but in cases where I haven't I hope at least some of my more general prompts lend themselves to being illustrated.
Vid likes: When it comes to vids I like interesting/surprising/amusing juxtapositions (either between one scene and the next or between what's happening and the music), and having fun with pacing (e.g. the cuts getting faster and faster towards the end before slowing down again). I am very broad-minded in my musical taste; I would much rather go with the music you think fits than have a vid shoehorned in to my favourite song if you're not feeling it. And to be honest, my "favourite song" is something which changes on about an hourly basis. That said, if you do want to know, the two places my music collection/Youtube playlist gravitates towards most strongly are British indie circa 1995-1997 (I hesitate to use the term "Britpop" but, yeah, basically Britpop) and female singer-songwriters from the last decade or so. Some general vid prompts: Action (a pairing against the universe? lovers-to-enemies types doing battle?). Longing looks. Sweeping landscapes. (For Star Wars) Canon-style wipe transitions.
DNWs
This is a slight expansion on the absolute-DNW list I put in the sign up; anything that's on this list but not that one is "strong dislike" rather than "absolute no no" but obviously I'd still prefer you to avoid it if possible:
- extremely fluffy fluff so that essentially all that happens is the characters exchange endearments you'd never hear them use in canon
- character bashing (these are all canons where I like the rest of the characters too)
- any kind of AU apart from canon-divergent
- pregnancy/kidfic (I don't mind occasional appearances by canonical children, but please don't focus on them to the exclusion of all else)
- major character death (exceptions: deaths that happened in canon, but even there I'd prefer not to have a huge focus on characters grieving afterwards or similar; or deaths happening offscreen if a lot of time has passed since the time the character was around in canon, i.e. you don't have to make everyone immortal if you're writing futurefic; also this doesn't apply to apocalyptic canon-divergent AUs, because an apocalypse that everyone happens to survive doesn't really make sense)
- violent non-con (I'm fine with sf/fantasy type noncon like mind control for pairings it would suit, or dubcon of various stripes)
- as far as porn goes, I am generally fine with most stuff; the only things I'd ask you to avoid are breathplay, watersports, bloodplay, vore, scat, and emetophilia.
- incest and under-16s having sex (none of these pairings are anywhere near fitting the bill for either of these, but please no background incest pairings or revealing characters to have been related all along or anything like that)
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
General note for this fandom: I am intensely agnostic about SMAX. I have no preference at all as to whether you include ideas from it, ignore it completely, or treat it as a source of inspiration without feeling bound to the details.
Vidding: this might be a very out-of-left-field idea, but apart from the usual sort of idea of a fanvid, inventing a new Secret Project and making the cutscene for it would be awesome. If you do fancy doing that, feel free to ignore all my prompts.
Character: Planet
Something from Planet's POV would be amazing, either before the arrival of humans, during the time of the colonies, or after the Ascent. Feel free to combine with one of the other prompts below or just explore the POV of a giant network of telepathic fungus.
Character: Deirdre Skye
I'm really up for anything here: backstory from the mission/back on Earth, first encounters with Planet's wildlife(/the Progenitor stuff if you're including Crossfire), the problems of being a faction leader, something exploring how the immortality tech works/the impact of it on people using it.
Relationship: Planet & Deirdre Skye
I am fascinated by all the telepathy in SMAC (as will become obvious as these prompts go on!). Clearly in this setting humans have latent psi powers all along but something about being on Planet brings them out. I love the relationship between these two implied in the cut scenes, quotes, etc., learning to understand each other in the face of an impending apocalypse (and in the good ending averting it) despite the hostility of the other factions.
Prompts: Regeneration tank dreams. Deirdre helping Planet to recover memories of previous flowerings. What it's like to be part of a merged consciousness post-Transcendence. Planet's poetry.
Relationship: Corazon Santiago/Deirdre Skye
The "canon" story that comes out in the Datalinks quotes and wonders videos implies a war where the Gaians eventually completely overrun the Spartans with mind worms, and I would definitely be up for darkfic along those lines if the inspiration strikes you. In general, the screaming pain sphere thing that captured leaders get put in when you defeat a faction and all the "swear a pact to serve me" stuff if you let them capitulate has quite strong BDSM-y overtones to me. But each time you play a game you get a brand new history of planet, and I don't consider the "canon" version any more or less valid than any other possibility. So I'd also be up for something similar with the tables turned and Santiago winning, or a grand alliance between the Gaians and the Spartans, cemented by the union of the two leaders, or arguments in the planetary council leading to hatesex, or anything else that occurs to you. Art-wise, any sort of illustration of anything like the above would be great, or maybe something more abstract representing telepathic contact?
Worldbuilding: Transcendent Thoughts
What are they, anyway? In some games, I seem to have an awful lot of them. I would be up for anything here from pure philosophy to invented science. Art-wise, any sort of numinous representation of a transcendent thought itself would be awesome, or something about the Transcendi -- how they seem themselves vs their reality of living inside a computer, somehow?
Worldbuilding: Social Engineering
The social engineering screen is seriously my favourite game mechanic ever; none of the later Civ takes on the same idea have quite given me the same feeling of pressing a lever here and getting an outcome over there but also an unintended consequence to deal with in the corner. How do the faction leaders weigh up these choices? (Given that these often determine diplomacy as well -- what do they do if their neighbour is pushing for something that isn't necessarily what they would go for?) Or taking a more ordinary citizen's level view of things, what's it like to go through an upheaval? (The fact that you just have to pay a bunch of money for it with none of the disorder in Civ II suggests that the Psych Chaplains and similar are doing a lot of stuff to people to get them to accept new models, for example.) Art-wise, some sort of chart or diagram representing connections between different areas? Or a map produced by a probe team of the likely willingness of an enemy population to adopt certain models? Or a propaganda poster?
Worldbuilding: Religion on Planet
How does life on a new world affect religious views? The Gaians are an obvious candidate here: the Weather Paradigm is a very early project and comes with its own Gaian prayer. But what sort of belief systems existed among Deirdre's followers on board the Unity? What is Deirdre's role, and how comfortable is she with it? That sort of thing. If you're up for doing fictional Christian theology, I'm also intrigued by how the Believers adapt their take on things. There are implications in some of the in-game quotes that they put the expulsion from paradise front and centre, but then there's also all the endgame "We Must Dissent" stuff. But I'd also be interested in, e.g. how the University (which I kind of assume is at least officially atheist) handles rituals around major life events, death, etc. or whatever weird rituals the Hive use to help people "extend [their] awareness outward, beyond the self of body, to embrace the self of group and the self of humanity", and so on. Art-wise for this, I'd love some religious art from Planet.
Worldbuilding: Previous Flowerings
I would love to know more about what Planet thinks in those moments of godhood before the dieback. Is it all quite philosophical, or is it a desperate attempt to try to survive? Art-wise, something representing the connections within the fungus all across the planet, maybe?
Worldbuilding: Impact of discovery of human psi powers on society
The game does jump quite quickly from the early mind worm attacks revealing that psi powers are real to empaths everywhere, and there are later bits that imply the far future implications, like the Telepathic Matrix, but especially in the early days it must have caused huge ructions in a society that was already only precariously clinging on in an alien world. What does it mean for ideas about privacy? How does it affect people's view of what it means to be human? Do some factions shun telepaths? (Or are they just too useful even in the ones that we might imagine would be suspicious, especially in fighting mind worms? And obviously all the faction leaders seem to turn out to be powerful telepaths, given the connections they form with Planet.) Or were there hints that there was something to it even back on Earth? (maybe all those '60s parapsychology experiments caught on to something?) For art, I would be very up for something that gets at the same type of vibes as some of the related Secret Project videos (from the creepiness of the Empath Guild one to the outright horror of the Psychic Amplifier to the everything's-great-or-is-it Telepathic Matrix one).
Babylon 5
Relationship: Susan Ivanova/Talia Winters
This ship was very, very formative for me because I really didn't think that canon was going to go there, and then it did. It's just a shame that cast changes meant it was rushed. I am equally happy with canon-compliant (probably heavy on the angst, unless you just want to explore what happened after that fade to black - I've always been intrigued by Talia's descriptions of telepathic sex, fwiw), or some at least slightly happier flavour of canon-divergent AU. How would the plotlines that ended up being Lyta's have played out if this ship was still going?
Worldbuilding: First Ones, Worldbuilding: Civil life during First Ones era
Basically: what were things like back at the start of life in the galaxy? Feel free to go wild and come up with weird alien biology/culture/technology for First Ones we never saw in canon. For more specific stuff: Why did literally everyone but the Vorlons and the Shadows decide to adopt a non-interference policy? Given the Lord of the Rings influences on canon, was this really an Era When Everything Was Just More Epic?
Star Trek: Discovery
Relationship: Michael Burnham/Sylvia Tilly
They're roommates and work together most of the time. I can totally see Sylvia arguing Michael into it just being logical that they get together, but there's also the possibility of tensions between them from being in such close quarters all the time leading to an unexpected outpouring of emotion.
Something in the future with Captain Tilly (and Michael doing whatever she would end up doing) would be great too.
Relationship: Mirror Sylvia Tilly/Sylvia Tilly
Obviously this would need a bit of handwaving, since Killy seems to have died when the ISS Discovery got blown up by the Prime Klingons, but I'm sure there's more than one way around it. I think I see this mostly in terms of them maneouvring around each other, Killy unabashedly fascinated by her alternate self but Tilly having more of a repulsion/attraction thing going on.
Worldbuilding: High degree of convergence between Mirror Universe and Prime Universe in this era
This really intrigues me, given that the Terran Empire has had access to the Defiant and its technology for the best part of a century. And of course by the time DS9 rolls around the Terran Empire has been destroyed. Obviously from one perspective there's the storytelling fun that happens from seeing different versions of the same characters, which is what underpinned the TOS version that Disco is somewhat bound to, but is there some in-universe explanation for the close parallels? Especially given the number of assassinations in the Mirror verse, the fact that the same people are around in roughly the same roles seems very surprising. Is there some sort of process driving such convergence? (In terms of the requested characters, feel free to use either or both of their normal universe and Mirror universe selves here.)
Worldbuilding: Kelpien Biology, Worldbuilding: Kelpien History & Culture
Short version: I love Saru, tell me more about him and where he comes from. Slightly longer version: I love the idea of a sentient species that has evolved from prey instead of predator. What differences has that caused in biological and/or cultural senses? We get a few hints from some of Saru's statements and his attitude to things, but there's definitely more to dig into here, I feel. How does the sensing-death thing work, and how abstract can the threat be before it doesn't register? (And why didn't it work with Mirror Lorca?) And why are there so few Kelpiens around in the prime universe?
Worldbuilding: Mirrorverse Politics, Worldbuilding: Mirrorverse Rebels
The politics seems to be very, very feudal, with a lot resting on being in favour with the Emperor (and then on down from there) and the rest being about being willing to murder your way up the promotion ladder. Who were all those people on the Charon? Alternatively, what happens after Mirror Georgiou gets taken to the Prime universe? (Who is the Emperor by the time Kirk's experience in Mirror, Mirror rolls around?) In terms of the Rebels tag, I'm honestly not sure which set of Rebels is intended, but I'd be equally interested in what Lorca's crowd were up to -- he seems to be on a the-regime-isn't-fascist-enough kick, but are his followers' motivations all the same, or do some of them have other ideas and he's manipulating them? But I'm also very interested in the Klingon/Vulcan/Andorian/Tellarite rebellion led by Mirror Voq: how are they organised? how do they tie in with the stuff T'Pol was involved with in the Enterprise Mirror eps? do they lead eventualyl to the Klingon-Cardassian alliance in DS9?
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Relationship: Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard
I was shipping P/C long, long before I knew what shipping was; there are times when I love them for all the angsty backstory about Jack and so on, and then there are other times when I'm much more in it for the UST, and then there are times when it's all about the "she's the only person who can relieve him of command" aspect. Anything exploring any aspect of their relationship would be great, in any medium. In addition to the things already mentioned here and for Beverly above, I do particularly like holodeck shenanigans.
Relationship: William Riker/Deanna Troi
I actually really like these two as a portrayal of people being fine with having broken up, but I also really like the fact that they did eventually got back together. I'm fine with backstory stuff set while they were together back on Betazed, or stuff set during/after TNG. Some more specific prompts: Betazoid vs human cultural differences (either between the two of them, or Deanna as the child of two different heritages), doing snarky crew evaluations on each other, Will helping Deanna deal with the after-effects of one or another of the hundreds of times she gets possessed
Relationship: Deanna Troi/Worf (TNG)
I love the idea of these two as well (and don't see any problem with the two ships coexisting; see below) -- although canon never went there completely, they were definitely playing with it throughout the later seasons (most obviously in Parallels, and if you want to explore either one or other AU from that episode, or the after-effects for the two of them, then that would be great).
Relationship: William Riker/Deanna Troi/Worf, Relationship: William Riker/Ro Laren/Deanna Troi
I have long headcanoned Will and Deanna (especially Deanna) as being into threesomes. Adding Worf seems natural enough, though he himself would probably need the most persuading; my desire for Riker/Troi/Ro is based almost entirely on Conundrum, particularly the final scene where they gang up on him.
Worldbuilding: Life and Work on a Federation Medical Ship
Anything from dealing with how they deal with major crises to more everyday stuff would be lovely here. There must be lots of empty space on a ship like this when it's not actually in full crisis mode; how do the crew deal with that? Are there lots of superstitions? What's the day-to-day admin like? I could definitely go for a Captain's Log or similar meta-style piece here. Art-wise, a scene from life on board, a diagram of some particular piece of medical apparatus, or something like a cutaway diagram of the decks would be amazing. (For what it's worth, if you've offered this in conjunction with Beverly, I would be very, very happy with stuff exploring life on board the USS Pasteur from the All Good Things alt-future.)
Worldbuilding: Poker Night
How did it get started on the Enterprise-D? Is it a Starfleet tradition more generally? Does everyone in the 24th Century happen to known what would from their point of view be a very old game, or did one of them teach it to the others? (One of the slightly silly things I love in Trek is the way every other character just so happens to be an enthusiast for one or other aspect of 20th century US culture, from Kirk getting into character in Piece of the Action to Picard with Dixon Hill to Tom Paris and cars ...) Do people from a utopian society with no money find it difficult to get their heads round the basic idea of gambling?
Worldbuilding: Romance and sex on the holodeck (TNG), Worldbuilding: Sociological Implications of Holodeck Technology
At the start of TNG, the holodeck is this shiny brand new thing that none of the characters have ever seen before (if you want to try to reconcile that with how Discovery's "battle simulator" from over a century previously looks very, very holodeck-like, feel free!), and it doesn't even have its own characters until midway through S1 with The Big Goodbye. But it very, very quickly seems to become ubiquitous. The show does play around with issues around it (e.g. with Moriarty and Barclay, and also all the stuff Voyager does with the Doctor) but there's a sort of baseline assumption that everyone's a Starfleet officer and very busy and focused on their jobs, Barclay being presented as an exception. What does it mean for society as a whole? Is holodeck access rationed in any way? (Surely even in the post-scarcity society computational cycles are a finite resource, given that the Enterprise sometimes managed to get distracted into using up its entire computer core on running holodeck things.) Or can people get their own holodecks in their homes very easily? Does it create a whole generation of shut-ins? Or does the overall philosophy of 24th Century humanity include ideas that prevent them from getting too distracted? Do people worry about the fact that malfunctions seem to be quite frequent? What does holodeck technology mean for crime? Is it ever used as a diplomatic tool? Do people worry about the possible sentience of their holographic romantic partners? Do Starfleet officers in long-distance relationships send each other holo-recordings? (Maybe interactive ones that they've programmed to do certain things?) Crossing over into DS9 for a minute, how does the Federation view Ferengi holosuites? (The Ferengi don't have anything resembling the Prime Directive; is there handwringing about cultures that ought not to be contacted being exposed to the technology when the Ferengi trade with them?) Art-wise, I think there's definitely an opportunity to do literally anything you want here, portraying things inside a holodeck program. But if you want something more specific, maybe people using it to fly?
Worldbuilding: The Traveler - Origins and Abilities
I know he's intentionally mysterious, but anything that peeled back at it a bit would be lovely. Is he alone, or are there a whole bunch of people like him? Is there a master-and-apprentice thing going on, given what happens with Wesley? If so, who was the Traveler's original teacher? Or is there a whole society of people who can manipulate reality with thought, drawn from all across the universe? (And beyond?)
Worldbuilding: Yesterday's Enterprise Reality
"The war is going very badly for the Federation, far worse than is generally known." Exactly how bad is it, and why did things go so wrong? (Given that the Enterprise-C comes from the relatively recent past, what happened between Star Trek VI and then to destabilise the Khitomer Accords?) Are the other major powers of the era content to sit and watch the Federation get taken out by the Klingons, or do they covertly help because they're worried about an ascendant Klingon Empire? Or join in on the Klingon side?
On a less big-picture level: what's life like on the wartime Enterprise-D? How come the crew is still basically the same crew when there'd presumably be a lot of rapid promotion in this timeline? (Especially Riker not having taken a captaincy somewhere in the circumstances.) Where is Worf in all this?
Worldbuilding: War with the Cardassians
I'm absolutely fascinated by the fact that this was still rumbling on in a low-level stalemate-but-no-treaty-yet way all the way through the first few seasons of TNG, but we never heard anything about it. What were the impacts of the Cardassian war that we just didn't get to see on screen? Or, further back, what happened during it? Did the Federation's approach to occupied worlds like Bajor change over the course of the war?
Star Wars (Marvel Comics)
Character: Queen Trios
Any exploration of her rule over Shu-Torun in subsequent years would be really interesting -- how do they cope with the fall of the Empire, for example? I do ship Trios with Bixene (who she promotes to Baroness towards the end) based on very, very little beyond my own headcanons, though I'm open to other relationships for her as well. Shu-Torun worldbuilding in general would also be great; there are all sorts of interesting glimpses in canon of their religion and customs to play around with.
Character: Chelli Lona Aphra
Aphra rapidly became my new Star Wars fave when I finally caught up with the Darth Vader comics. I love how spiky she is, her hidden depths, her ability to bullshit her way through pretty much any situation, and her reluctant moments of something approaching morality. Anything featuring her would be great, from canon-style adventures (I will never get tired of her interactions with the murder droids, fwiw) to angsty introspection to whatever else.
Character: Magna Tolvan, Character: Terex
I'm going to cheat and put these two together in a category of "complicated (ex-)Imperials who I ship with the people they're antagonists to". In both cases, they seem to have a bit more independence of thought than the average officer, though this doesn't always end well for them. For Tolvan, some sort of exploration of her backstory (especially why she has all those cybernetics) would be great. I also love that she's a tactical genius; any sort of situation where she's using those skills would be fun. For Terex, exploration of any/all of the stages in his evolution from stormtrooper to crime lord to intelligence agent would be really interesting. For either of them, being put into a situation where they're not as in control as they'd like to be would be great too.
Relationship: Chelli Lona Aphra/Magna Tolvan, Relationship: Chelli Lona Aphra/Sana Starros
With Tolvan, I'd be interested in either a reluctant team up or one or other of them getting the upper hand (Tolvan blackmailing and/or capturing Aphra seems fairly obvious, but I think Aphra's work with Vader must have given her some sort of insight into how to mess around with the Imperial hierarchy). With Sana, I'd be interested in exploration of either their backstory, their future or something roughly parallel to what's currently going on for them in canon.
(While we're in the "Aphra femslash" section, a quick note: I decided not to request Aphra/Hera because I didn't think I would really be able to prompt for it given that we're still waiting for it in canon. But feel free to go for it if you want.)
Relationship: Poe Dameron/Terex
I love the obsessional nature of their mutual antagonism, and if you want to play around with that sort of thing earlier in the timeline go for it, but since what happened to Terex in #14, I have actually found myself feeling awful for him and I would definitely also be interested in Poe rescuing him from fate-worse-than-death and the experience persuading Terex to switch sides, while still being a complete untrustworthy snake.
Worldbuilding: Archaeological methods
This one most obviously goes with Aphra, but feel free to use OCs too. How does archaeology work in the GFFA? Does the Empire keep an eye on what's being found? What sorts of different techniques are required for different types of environment? Exactly how many ancient superweapons are there out there?
Worldbuilding: Terex's criminal empire
This ties in with the Terex prompts above to some extent, I suppose. I'd be interested in how Terex got things up and running in the first place, how he maintained control even while away, what the organisational structures are, all sorts.
Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
Relationship: Chromis Pasqueflower Bowerbird/Bella Lind
Anything exploring the interaction between (the smartmatter) Chromis and Bella would be great. Chromis has this idealised view of Bella as "the Benefactor" that Bella really doesn't recognise in herself. How does Bella react to this person who's simultaneously from the deep past and the distant future? What exactly can the smartmatter do? ;)
Worldbuilding: Lindblad Ring
Anything and everything! Internal politics, trade, how many different types of human-derived people adapted to different environments are there, the consequences of NAFAL travel, the consequences of stars moving closer and futher apart over time ...
Worldbuilding: the Structure (Pushing Ice)
What was it originally built for? (Is it an attempt to preserve life into the far future? See below.) What's going to happen to it in the end?
Worldbuilding: State of the Universe Outside the Structure
Exactly how far into the future are they? Are the skies filled only with dim red dwarfs, all other stars having burnt out? The cube from Chromis makes it to the Structure -- are there similar time capsules for some of the alien civilisations in there? Who's around native to this new era?
Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic
Character: Yuthura Ban
Ah, my favourite
Relationship: Belaya/Juhani
Very strongly hinted at in canon though whether anything came of it while they were padawans is up to you, given the Jedi's restrictions on love. Prompts: Long nights under the stars. Reunion after the end of the game (let's assume Belaya survived the bombardment of Dantooine somehow -- maybe she'd been sent on some other mission?). Or (since Belaya turns Dark Side and pops up on Korriban if you kill Juhani), an AU where they both fall together.
Relationship: Juhani/Female Revan
There's a mirroring thing going on here, given that Revan initially meets Juhani when the Council are trying to make a point to her about the dangers of the Dark Side. However, there's also history given the revelation that it was Revan, on the way through Taris, who inspired Juhani to become a Jedi in the first place. I'd be up for things like: helping each other stay on the Light Side, post-canon missions, Dark Side Revan turning Juhani at the Temple instead of killing her. Art-wise, them fighting with lightsabers (either each other, or back-to-back or a similar pose against various enemies) would be great.
I do have a weirdly specific idea here (probably lends itself more to fic than art), inspired by a recent LS playthrough: the first time I got the little bit of shippy dialogue at the very end of the game came in a playthrough where I messed up several important conversations that ended in me failing to redeem other characters and having to kill them instead (Dustil, and worst of all when I got to the Star Forge, Bastila), which left it feeling like a rather bittersweet victory at best. So I'd be into a take on these two that looked at the cost of victory/the fragility of redemption/etc.
Relationship: Female Revan/Bastila Shan
What I find interesting about these two is their bond through Bastila having saved Revan's life, and how it pulls them together (against Bastila's better judgement given that she knows who Revan is all along, but also her devotion to Jedi beliefs about love being bad). And of course the mirroring of their arcs, with Bastila eventually going to the Dark Side as Revan did (but then coming back, if you play Light Side and choose the right dialogue options). Prompts: Force bonds. Victory celebrations. "I would stand by your side gladly, as your lover and apprentice!"
Relationship: Juhani/Female Revan/Bastila Shan
To be honest, this is basically my default party for most of the game. (I generally build Revan as a high-INT Scout/Consular for high skills and Force powers to make it work, but really do feel free to ignore that. I'm just geeking out about character builds now.) I'd be interested in exploration of how they work through the rough edges of working together during the period covered by canon, or something more post-canon based on the idea that they've all been through different redemption arcs: helping each other stay on the Light Side, that sort of thing. (Or, alternatively, Dark Lord Revan and her concubines. That would be good too, to be honest.)
Relationship: Yuthura Ban/Female Revan
I am very much up for any and all possible takes on the dynamics of this ship: amnesiac Revan as eager student of the Dark Side, post-Leviathan Revan as reborn Sith Lord who Yuthura is the first to swear allegiance to, Revan (with memories or without) redeeming Yuthura (even better if Yuthura is simultaneously trying to corrupt Revan), etc.
Worldbuilding: Rakatan Empire
There's a bit of information in canon, but not much detail and lots of gaps. I'm particularly intrigued by the fall of the Empire, which is where the information available seems most fragmentary. Feel free to treat sources within canon as reliable or not, depending on your preference.
Relationship: Dustil Onasi/Mission Vao
There are lots of directions this pairing could go in: anything from angsty responses to the events of canon (they're both from planets that were bombarded into dust by Malak, after all), to a Dustil who stayed Sith corrupting Mission on purpose to twist the knife further, to wacky comedy about how weird it is that Carth is now Mission's prospective father-in-law (add Revan -- either male or female -- as step-parent-in-law as well if you want).
Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
Character: Kel Cheris
I love Cheris, especially the way she seems to continually get herself into trouble by thinking too much. Exploration of backstory would be very welcome (including if you want to look at any of her past relationships ...), but I'd also be very interested in a Cheris-POV take on Raven Stratagem. Given that the book carefully avoids going into her head to preserve the ambiguity about who's in charge, there's a big gap there. How does she feel about what happens to the Mwennin? How hard does she have to work at maintaining the pretence of being Jedao?
Relationship: Liozh Zai/Vahenz afrir dai Noum
I love the way Vahenz seems to be permanently slightly exasperated with Zai. Backstory about them planning their heretical break from the hexarchate before it becomes public? If you want to carry on the epistolary thing from the book, I'd definitely welcome that. Art-wise, it seems to me that we know very little about what everything looks like: any sort of illustration of how you imagine them would be great.
Worldbuilding: servitor culture, Worldbuilding: servitor creation/programming/training
I love the little servitor-POV sections that sneak in here and there, and the intriguing hints about their society that runs in parallel to humanity but is largely ignored. They seem to be fairly devoted to humans, but, given how awful the hexarchate is, why they should be is a bit of a mystery. What do they do in their "time off"? What do they make of humans like Cheris who do make time for them? For art, I'd love a picture of a servitor, or even better, a whole group of servitors with different forms having a meeting.
Worldbuilding: Calendrical Mechanics, Worldbuilding: Calendrical Heresy
Anything and everything about how it works (and how it gets corrupted by heresy) very welcome. What is the intersection between belief systems and playing with the laws of physics? Anything about the day-to-day maintenance of the high calendar, either from the Rahal point of view (towers, remembrances, etc.), the Vidona one, or from the point of view of people like the Mwennin who maintain their traditions surreptitiously while paying lip service to the outward forms, or more out-and-out heretics.
