Writing Update

I have done a bit of an archaelogical dig through my AO3 account and Google Drive to determine what days I wrote during February, so I could finally update my GYWO tracking spreadsheet for this month, before I had to do it in a desperate scramble at the end of the month when the check-in form went live.

Currently, I am on track for my annual goal and very slightly behind on my monthly goal. So I could either rest on my laurels until March, or shoot for another 6 writing days for the rest of Feb. I'll probably go for the latter, so I have a bit of a buffer built in for times when writing is just not happening.

Space Swap 2023: Dear Spacer letter

Return point
Jump to: General Likes (including vid and podfic likes)
Jump to: Do Not Wants
Jump to: Requests, Prompts and Fandom Specific Exceptions to DNWs

(Minor bit of business here before we get started: please click on the spoiler tag to uncollapse the DNWs before you start reading General Likes. You don't have to read the DNWs first, what's going on is that I have a couple of anchor links from some of the things listed in my General Likes to relevant exceptions I'd like people to steer clear of in the DNWs and those links only works if the DNW section is not collapsed behind its spoiler tag. The joys of HTML!)

Dear Spacer,

I'm SweetPollyOliver. Thank you so much for offering one of my fandoms! I'm very excited to see what you come up with. Sorry I was a bit slow off the mark gettting this letter uploaded post-assignments going out! I've been a bit run off my feet with a new job lately and haven't had the time to sit down and write it until now. This got pretty long, so no pressure to read the whole thing, you can jump around to the bits that are relevant to you. Optional details are optional!

I am very easy to please, so try not to get stressed worrying about what I would like or dislike. I would much rather that you made me something that you really enjoyed creating than that you were anxious the whole time about my preferences. I will give some guidelines, in case that's what you’d prefer to work with, but they are just that: guidelines. Beyond my DNWs, I’m very happy for you to follow your own muse wherever it leads you, be it canon compliant or AU, gen or shippy, fluffy or angsty, SFW or NSFW, plotty or a snapshot of a moment in time.

General Likes

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I went into a lot of detail for some of these, so I have added spoiler tags to cut for length where appropriate.

There is no obligation to include anything listed if nothing here appeals to you or you can't think of a way to include it. I have only included so many things and gone into so many specifics because I wanted to give you a range of options to use for inspiration if you were stuck or you wanted to have some insight into what I like before you started. Also, I mostly wrote this list in advance as part of an exchange letter template I created to save time during exchange sign ups, including as much detail as I could think of, because I'm often quite stymied when I'm trying to write exchange letters on the clock (I almost always sign up in the last day or two) and I always worry that I haven't included enough detail, because historically I've found it hard to think of things to put down in the moment.

So, TL;DR, don't worry that I sat down and wrote out a list with this level of detail off the cuff, specifically for this exchange, and that I desperately want these requests and only those requests in my gift, because that is not the case at all. I'm very happy to be gifted something that introduces me to new things to add to this list!

I've kept most the NSFW likes together at the end, with NSFW details behind spoiler tags, but otherwise these are in no particular order:

• Post-canon stories or, more broadly, stories that are largely canon compliant. Canon divergent AUs are great, fic that re-interprets or re-examines canon events with a different lens is also great. I am not especially reverent towards canon, but I like stories that rattles the bars of their canonical confines while remaining within them for the most part, if that makes sense. Also:
• Prequel stories, especially ones that are:
• Character studies, especially of characters who are sparsely characterised in canon
• Missing scene stories
• Stories with a strong ensemble cast
• AUs that are a completely different setting to canon, especially fusions with other canons such as Pacific Rim AUs or The Last Unicorn AUs. See DNWs for exceptions to this
• Dramatic irony, especially when it's comedic
• Witty or otherwise humorous dialogue
• As you can probably tell from the last two listed likes, I strongly prefer a comedic tone in fiction (or at least a comedic tinge, which can be ironic and/or bitter, in things that skew more towards the dramatic side of the comedy-drama spectrum)
• Bittersweet or melancholy stories are also wonderful. I am always a sucker for regret and missed opportunities/wasted time
• Quiet, domestic stories that have a sense of contentment about them
• Exciting, dynamic stories that have a sense of uncertainty about them. I particularly really love stuff where I don't know what's going on for 85% of the plot and then it all clicks into place in the last 15% as reveals that were set up earlier start to fall like dominoes
• Found family.
  additional details

  Characters can have any kind of relationship to their family of origin in these kinds of stories—I am equally happy with something about or featuring found families where the characters haven't spoken to their parents in years and never intend to again and things where one of the characters called their mom to talk to her about sourdough starter yesterday. Mixing and matching between these two extremes can be fun too!
• Queer platonic partnerships.
  additional details

  The character(s) can be aro and/or ace, and/or be sexually and/or romantically attracted to a different gender to their QPP, or they can just be queer platonic partners not due to a mismatch or a mutual incompatibility of sexual and/or romantic orientation but because that is the kind of relationship that suits them
• References to queer culture and history. This can be in conjunction with one or more queer ships, but can also be in something gen featuring one or more queer characters
• Pining.
  additional details

  Especially when the character's feelings are actually requited and they're just unaware (especially-especially if the reader is aware before the character is through clues given but not explicitly stated in the narration) but also when their feelings genuinely are one-sided
• Rarepairs
  additional details

  The interpretation of this term being used here includes ships that involve more than two partners. In most of my fandoms I usually end up getting more and more niche over time. I love when my first reaction to seeing a ship tag is, "Huh?" but then when I finish the work I'm completely sold by the execution of it because it feels true to the canonical characterisation of the characters and the evolution of the relationship (or invention of it, if they've never met before in canon) is a natural extension of that, so feel free to include ships that you really love that I have not mentioned in my fandom specific likes, as long as I haven't mentioned actively disliking them
• Polyamory/non-monogamy, very much including forms of non-monogamy other than polyfidelitous triads, such as vee arrangements, polycules or open relationships etc.
  additional details

  Your fic can be primarily about X/Y and have it as a background detail that this relationship is non-monogamous, if you like. I really like something that is about X/Y, but X's canonical relationship with Z also exists in the fic without anyone cheating or getting jealous. For examples of the kind of thing I mean, cosmic_llin has some great fic where Deanna Troi is dating something who is not her canonical love interest, Will Riker, while also being in an established open relationship with Will Riker
• Emotionally intense and tempestuous co-dependent relationships, which can either get healthier over the course of the narrative or remain very much a "don't try this at home" kind of depiction
• Unironic "issuefic."
  additional details

  This is a term that turns up in DNWs rather than likes in a lot of fandom exchange letters, in my experience, but I genuinely love reading about The Issues™. This can include, but is not limited to, things like disability theory adjacent themes, trans headcanons, depictions of characters being very deliberate and careful about respecting consent, unironic depictions of characters talking like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy, examinations of the broader social context of the settings of various fandoms, middle aged men trying to be kind
• Kid fic.
  additional details

  I prefer if the kid seems broadly realistic for the age they are depicted as being, but what is typical at a certain age varies a lot (I certainly had a very spiky developmental profile myself as a child) so don't stress about it
• Knitting or other kinds of crafts, especially from authors who are crafters and especially-especially when it includes technical or jargon-y details
• Speaking of jargon, I love STEM-y things being featured in fiction
  additional details

  like the stuff about mathematical proofs in astolat's Rodney McCay/John Sheppard fic Time in a Bottle. You don't have to go into enormous depth here to get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of how much it will please me. I nearly swooned when I read the main character of the novel Hold Me by Courtney Milan mention something about something being three standard deviations above the mean.
  I also love:
• Wildly unrealistic and campy fake science escapades
  additional details

  à la this fic I wrote where a CEO character's R&D department creates a super soldier who he falls in love with or this fic trinityofone wrote for the same ship where the CEO character uses fake science, again from his R&D department, to babytrap his love interest. Basically though, if a bubbling, neon green liquid housed in a beaker that is smoking profusely appears in your fic then you are on the right track!
• Things relating to ageing.
  additional details, some NSFW

  Including, but not limited to: moments of wistfulness or melancholy about it, older characters having active and fulfilling sex lives, broader themes about ageing, or matter of fact inclusion of details about changes brought about with age. In terms of that last one, I once wrote a fic where a character's wrist started clicking after he fingered the woman he was having sex with for a long time, so stuff along those lines is great. That fic also had some sci-fi age-related stuff about the Phase where post-menopausal Betazoids' sex drive quadruples or more, so feel free to include speculative/sci-fi stuff about ageing too if it fits the setting of your fic!
• Stuff about (wanted) pregnancy.
  additional details, some NSFW

  Including, but not limited to: cloyingly fluffy family fic, breeding kink (and/or risky sex) and overly specific and/or scientific details about pregnancy itself. These details can relate to real pregnancy or speculative/sci-fi pregnancies featuring alien physiology or artificial wombs, etc. Speculative/sci-fi pregnancy does not have to be realistic for me to enjoy it! Depictions of real pregnancy would ideally have a higher degree of realism though, as pregnancy has been a long standing special interest of mine. I don't mean, by this though, that you have to give someone a difficult pregnancy because they're over 36 and that's "more realistic" or something (also, fwiw, my aunt had her first baby at 48 and she had a very healthy and active pregnancy), just that I would prefer that any specifics that you mention are accurate (so no feeling the baby kick before 16 weeks, for example). If you want to create a work that features someone having a difficult pregnancy, or complications like gestational diabetes, though, go right ahead! I would ask though that if you go this route that it's more along the lines of h/c than something that ends tragically.

  Notes regarding mpreg and people other than cis women getting pregnant

  Cis mpreg heavily depends on execution for me and I am generally not that interested in it—when I do read it, I prefer cis mpreg where pregnancy is not the norm for cis men in that universe and it's contextually a fake science or magic-related thing. I am okay with trans mpreg, especially written by other transmasculine authors, and with other AFAB trans people getting pregnant as long as it is a wanted pregnancy and any depictions of dysphoria are not extremely graphic. If you would like to create a work where a trans woman or transfeminine or other AMAB trans person gets pregnant, then I'm totally open to that and my preferences for that align more closely to the ones I've mentioned for speculative/sci-fi pregnancy that to my preferences relating to cis men being depicted as being pregnant. Rather than wanting the pregnancy to be depicted as unusual or unique, as is my preferance for cis mpreg, I would prefer a fic where transition related healthcare has progressed or is on the cusp or progressing far enough to allow this kind of pregnancy to happen. Also, despite what I just said about preferring this kind of pregnancy not to be depicted as being singular in-universe, if you want to write fic where your character has gotten pregnant after being granted a wish by fairies, say, that is set in a universe where transition related healthcare has not, and will not in the near future, allow for AMAB people to get pregnant, go right ahead! This is relatively uncharted territory, fic-wise, to my knowledge, so go forth and be fruitful, as it were 😉 My only truly strong preference here would be that your character is pregnant due to wanting to be pregnant rather than for another reason.

  I'm totally open to angsty fic about infertility that does not end with the character becoming pregnant (or, equally, fic where people do manage to get pregnant despite fertility issues). I prefer not to receive something that features miscarriages after 12 weeks for exchange gifts however, unless the character does manage to carry a pregnancy to term by the end of the story and the miscarriages are not depicted graphically. I am pro-choice, so where abortion is discussed (if, for example, the pregnancy was unplanned and the potential parent is thinking about options) I would strongly prefer that it was in a pro-choice context unless you really feel that one or more of the characters would be pro-life and the overall narrative itself did not endorse them on this. I have some pregnancy related DNWs at the link here, if you want to check to see what I do not want from this kind of story.
• Since I mentioned it briefly in the above bullet point: speculative or canon alien physiology in settings where this is relevant.
  additional details (mildly NSFW?)

  Can be related to non-human typical genital configurations or more along the lines of Spock's heart being where a human's liver would be and him having copper based blood
• Inclusion of sensory and sensual details (which may or may not be erotic) in the descriptions
Primarily NSFW likes start here
Getting together and/or stuff with a first kiss or first time having sex. I particularly like if first time sex scenes (and sex scenes generally) aren't Perfect™ and things are a little awkward in a way that the characters can laugh about
Oral sex of all varieties. I don't particularly care about erotica being historical accurate or not (or, indeed, about erotica being strictly realistic in general—it can be fun to write realistic sex, but if you want to write impromptu anal fisting, go for it! I have, lol), so feel free to include it in a setting where it would be unlikely, e.g. the Golden Age of Piracy
Friends with benefits/platonic sex. This can turn into fuckbuddies-to-lovers, but it doesn't have to. I am particularly partial to a character who wingmans for their fuckbuddy and gets them together with another love interest (whether or not the two friends continue to have platonic sex afterwards is fine either way)
Non-penetrative sex.
additional details
The characters can be actively choosing not to have non-penetrative sex specifically because of practical concerns, such as them don't want to risk pregnancy, or them wanting to fuck right the fuck now and not wanting to wait for an opportune time for anal, or a character having vaginismus, or one or more of the characters just doesn't like penetration. It can also just be something with non-penetrative sex. In particular, I really like when stories don't make a distinction between penetrative and non-penetrative sex in terms of what is considered to be "real" sex, e.g. things like characters referring to a time they had oral sex as, "When we fucked" or similar small nods to non-penetrative sex also being sex
Intercrural sex. This can transition into penetrative sex or not
First time bottoming and, more generally, first time doing X sex act or kink and/or characters realising that something they hadn't given much thought to, or had assumed they wouldn't be into, is something they're really into. I'd prefer they go into it with a "Sure, I'll try anything once" attitude rather than a "I'll do it For You" attitude
Virginity kink, especially if the fic itself doesn't buy into the social construction of virginity as a concept

Vid specific likes:

• Humourous lyrics or ironic pairings of clips with lyrics for a humorous effect
• I prefer if you use dialogue that it doesn't overlap with any lyrics and that there is no score from the canon source audible
• Character study vids
• Ensemble vids
• Uptempo vids with lots of quick cuts on the beat and a sense of movement
• But also: slower, contemplative vids with long clips

Other vid notes: I don't have any physical triggers you need to worry about and I don't mind "talky face." Subtitles would be nice, but are not essential. I'm not a huge Taylor Swift fan, so I'd prefer not to have a vid set to a TSwift song, but it's not a dealbreaker if you have an idea you really love for one and I'm sure that I could be won over.

Podfic specific likes: I love podfics where there is a clear delineation between the "narration" voice and the dialogue. I don't necessarily mean character voices and, honestly, I would prefer that you don't do imitate accents or the specific vocal "sound" of a canon character's voice, if that makes sense. I prefer podfic where the reader evokes different characters by their tone and where they put pauses and emphasis, etc—that said, if you are keen to do character voices, do not let me hold you back! I have a blanket permission statement regarding transformative works and you are more than welcome to make a podfic based on any of my fics, if you want and that's easier than hunting down an appropriate fic that fits the assignment from someone else who's open to podfics of their work, but I don't specifically prefer podfic of my own work to podfics of other people's work. I'd be delighted to get a podfic of any of the fics I have linked in this letter that would fit the assignment, or if there's something else that you think would be good then I'm very happy to listen to something new! I'm not a great bookmarker, I'm afraid, but you're more than welcome to have a dig through my AO3 bookmarks to see if there's anything that would be suitable that you want to make a podfic of.

Other podfic notes: If you are recording a podfic based on one of my fics, feel free to make minor edits (that don't change the intended meaning) to correct typos or if there's something that would give you an easier line reading or if you'd like to add dialogue tags in to make it clear who's speaking. If you want to podfic something that incorporates music or a soundscape, or other sound effects, that would be awesome and you don't have to worry that I would have a hard time processing it, but you also are in no way obligated to do something like that.

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DNWs

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• First or second person narration, unless that is canon typical
Mundane modern AUs, e.g. college or coffee shop AUs, etc., especially AUs where the characters are aged down (return to where you left off in General Likes) Historical AUs set in the real world are fine
• Dark fic. I'm fine with angsty or bittersweet fic or with stories that are framed as tragedies, but I do not want something that is primary intended to be disturbing or that is unrelentingly miserable with no reprieve and no catharsis
• Consensual non-consent or other rape fantasies
• 24-7 D/s relationships; Master/slave relationships
• Humiliation kink. Non-kinky humiliation is fine
• Degrading or insulting language in a kink context
• Erotic asphyxiation. Non-erotic choking is okay
• Heavy pain play. Light impact kink or discomfort from restraints is fine
• Sadism
• Sounding
• Generally err on the side of caution with kinks I haven't specifically requested
• More than passing depictions of bigotry. I enjoy things that engage with the broader social contexts of various fandom settings, but I do not want something centred primarily around experiences of bigotry in the context of an exchange
• Fetishisation or romanticisation of a marginalised group e.g. race play, fetishisation of trans people, fat fetishism, fetishisation of physically disabled people's bodies, romanticisation of mental illness, etc. I do have a weakness for clueless class privileged characters who are poverty tourists, à la the woman in the song Common People, so I will say that I'm okay with this one, provided the character whose socioeconomic circumstances they are romanticising explicitly thinks they're being a dick by doing so (regardless of whether they also still have, or want to have, sex and/or a relationship with them)
• Non-con or dub-con
• Characters consenting to sex they think they won't like, whether they turn out to be right about this or not
• Detailed descriptions of sex that is painful or unpleasant
• Intimate partner violence or other related forms of abuse
• Pregnancy related DNWs
• Unwanted pregnancy
• Stories where a character is coerced into becoming pregnant
• Stories where the overall narrative explicitly promotes a pro-life sentiment
• Pregnancy fic where the pregnancy ends in abortion or miscarriage (I'm pro-choice, but I also really like pregnancy fic, so for me this is like using the "there was only one bed" trope and then resolving it with someone sleeping on the couch)

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Before I get into the requests, just a quick note to say that I have written more for some of these for others, but that's more a function of how many tags I requested in each fandom and how many ideas I had for them than it is how much I want one specific fandom or requested tag. I'd be delighted to get something based on any of my requests!

Requests, Prompts and Fandom Specific Exceptions to DNWS

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Requested fanworks mediums I have requested fic, podfic or a vid for all of my requested fandoms.

Requested Fandoms

DS9

Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Requested tags: Worldbuilding: Consequences of reassociation (DS9), Relationship: Kira Nerys & Tora Ziyal (DS9), Relationship: Kira Nerys & Jake Sisko (DS9), Relationship: Kira Nerys & Benjamin Sisko & Jake Sisko (DS9), Relationship: Ezri Dax & Kira Nerys (DS9), Worldbuilding: PTSD post occupation of Bajor (DS9), Worldbuilding: Polyamory in the 24th century (DS9), Worldbuilding: Inter species relationships (DS9), Relationship: Kira Nerys/Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien (DS9), Relationship: Kira Nerys/Keiko O'Brien (DS9), Relationship: Jadzia Dax/Lenara Kahn (DS9), Relationship: Ezri Dax/Lenara Kahn (DS9), Relationship: Ezri Dax/Kira Nerys (DS9), Relationship: Jadzia Dax/Kira Nerys (DS9)

Prompts and fandom specific likes: I love DS9 soooo much. I once sold it to a friend as, "It's amazing: everyone has PTSD!" I also think the fact that they stay in one place and have to live with the same situations and consequences of earlier decisions for the whole show gives it a very distinct flavour.

As you can probably tell from my requested tags, I am a big fan of Kira! I tend to read her as gay, but this is not essential if you don't see her that way. I think that pairing a Kira tag with something involving the "Worldbuilding: PTSD post occupation of Bajor" would work really well if you wanted to go that route, particularly the "Relationship: Kira Nerys & Tora Ziyal" tag. I think Kira and Ziyal's relationship is very compelling. Re: Kira and Ziyal, I wish we had been able to see more of this relationship in canon! I think that Kira's gentleness with Ziyal (even to the point of trying not to damage her relationship with her father, a man who would have killed her if Kira hadn't intervened (along with the many other legitimate reasons Kira has to despise Dukat)) is such an important part of her character. She is less optimistic than Ziyal, as a character, but she never tries to change her. Ziyal's relationship to the Cardassian occupation of Bajor would also be a really interesting thing to dig into. I would also love to see something more general about post-occupation Bajor though and how the population and subsequent generations of Bajor processed the occupation. Other tags that might be fun to combine would be the "Worldbuilding: Polyamory in the 24th century (DS9)" tag and the "Relationship: Kira Nerys/Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien (DS9)" tag. Miles is probably the only man who I really ship Kira with tbh and it is a genuine tragedy that the two of them didn't pick up on Keiko's many hints that she was trying to set them up. But Keiko/Kira is, itself, very lovely and not to be overlooked! I think that something set when Kira was pregant, or possibly shortly after she'd given birth to Yoshi, would be really sweet. I feel like she should have gotten to live with the O'Briens for longer after her pregancy, because it must have been very difficult to be separated from Yoshi when she was post-partum. Even though she knew the whole time that he was not her baby and she never expected to be able to keep him, physiologically her body must have been like "Where is my baby???" So something where Keiko asked her to stay longer, and either Kira/Keiko or Kira/Keiko/Miles grew out of that, would be really nice. I would prefer that you don't break Keiko and Miles up even if you don't ship Kira with Miles, so a sort of vee-shaped polycule would be great in that case. Re: the Kira & Jake tag and the Kira & Jake & Ben tag, I am really interested in how Benjamin is like... both Kira's colleague and a major figure in her religion and how she keeps space for both of those ideas in her head. Kira and Jake's relationship post-canon is also something that really interests me. I feel that they would be a big comfort to each other, adjusting to the loss of Ben when he left linear time. I often think about that last shot in season seven of the two of them looking out at the wormhole together.

Re: the Dax ships I have requested, as you can see I have both the Jadzia and Ezri version of both of these relationships. The ways that Jadzia and Ezri are different and the ways that their relationships with the same characters parallel and diverge are really, really interesting to me. I am facinated by how Dax hosts "inherit" relationships from previous hosts (e.g. Curzon's friendship with Ben being passed down to Jadzia and then Jadzia's friendship with Ben being passed on in turn to Ezri) and that the boundaries are there with what counts as "reassociation" and what doesn't. Ezri didn't seem to worry about this being a problem when she slept with Worf, so I am inclined to think that the reassociation taboo is Trill-specific (and is possibly to try and avoid a class of joined Trill who only associate with each other and don't seek out new experiences and relationships with non-joined lifeforms). One of my favourite fics of all time involves the reassociation taboo (katiemariie's "turn a little faster; the world will follow after") and uses Ezri/Lenara as a focal point for that, which really hooked me on Ezri/Lenara. I also love Jadzia/Lenara though! I think it's so lovely that they fell in love with each other again in a way that was distinct from the relationship that Dax and Kahn had had in the past. A canon-divergent story where the end of Rejoined went differently would be lovely, as would something where the characters were reunited again after that episode (either as Jadzia and Lenara or as Ezri and Lenara). And, in terms of my other requested Dax ships, Kira/Dax (both flavours) are both so interesting. I think that Kira really loosened Jadzia up from her more buttoned up science officer recently-graduated persona and paved the way for Jadzia's later characterisation. The "seat of your pants technology" scene lives rent free in my head. Ezri/Kira is, in some ways, the better version of Ezri/Julian for me. I love Julian, but I prefer his relationship with Dax to be platonic and I felt that reintroducing his romantic feelings for Jadzia later in the series was a bad move on the writers part and that pairing him with Ezri as a kind of reward/consolation prize was a disservice to both characters. But, back to Ezri/Kira! I generally imagine that Kira had feelings for Jadzia that she didn't act on and that she is conflicted about pursuing a relationship with Ezri in part because of that. She doesn't want to treat her like discount-Jadzia, but it's hard for the spectre of what-might-have-been with Jadzia not to loom large over her feelings for Ezri. If you wanted to go with a different take on this relationship though, I love different interpretations of things I ship and I'm always happy to be won over to a new headcanon.

Regarding the interspecies relationships tag, I am very happy for you to explore this in the context of either canon relationships or non-canon ones (including ones that I haven't mentioned in my letter). I don't have a lot of specific ideas for this one, because a lot would depend on the characters and the species involved and I don't want to box you in, but I love cultural clashes (either along the lines of "Um, why are you wearing shoes in your house?" or on a larger scale) and/or resonances between cultures (a Vulcan who counted cards because it was illogical not to having a relationship with a Ferengi gambler maybe?) as well as things based on less cultural and more biological factors, like differences in life span or difficulty conceiving or, on the less angsty side of things, learning exciting new ways to have sex that aren't a thing in your species of origin.

Fandom specific exceptions to DNWs: If you are writing about the Cardassian occupation of Bajor or about the consequences of reassociation, I waive my DNW about not wanting a story primarily about bigotry.

Spaceballs

Fandom: Spaceballs (1987)

Requested tags: Relationship: Lone Starr/Princess Vespa (Spaceballs), Character: Lone Starr (Spaceballs)

Prompts and fandom specific likes: I love Spaceballs and have done from childhood. I love all of the dumb jokes and the pastiches of other sci-fi properties. I'd like something similar in tone to the movie, so feel free to be as broad and silly as you want here. If you would like to do something a little more serious though, go for it! Deconstructions are also very fun.

Lower Decks

Fandom: Star Trek: Lower Decks (Cartoon)

Requested tags: Relationship: Samanthan Rutherford & D'Vana Tendi (ST: LD), Character: Samanthan Rutherford (ST: LD), Character: D'Vana Tendi (ST: LD), Relationship: Petra Aberdeen/Beckett Mariner (ST: LD), Relationship: Beckett Mariner/T'Lyn (ST: LD)

Prompts and fandom specific likes: Lower Decks is definitely my favourite of 2020s Trek. It's so funny, but never in a way that feels disrespectful to more straight takes on Trek. I really love Rutherford and Tendi's friendship and how well this show writes platonic friendships in general that feel weightier than how strictly platonic f/m friendships are sometimes treated in TV and movies. If you went with Rutherford specifically, I'm very interested in both his dark and troubled past and his lighthearted goofball present and the ways he reconciles the two. For Tendi, I think something pre-canon about her getting into Starfleet would be really interesting! Or something about her being a black sheep on Orion, with stuff like her doing little science experiments while her family is being floridly piratical in the background.

Regarding Petra/Beckett, I remain convinced that they had sex in that ship at least once on top of a pile of treasure. I don't think that either of them caught feelings, as such, but I definitely think they had fun.

With Beckett/T'Lyn, I think that Beckett recognising T'Lyn as a fellow loose canon would be amazing, especially if everyone else thinks T'Lyn might be a moderating influence on Beckett.

Voyager

Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager

Requested tags: Relationship: Tom Paris & Kathryn Janeway (ST: VOY), Relationship: Kathryn Janeway & Tuvok (ST: VOY), Relationship: B'Elanna Torres & Kathryn Janeway (ST: VOY), Character: Kathryn Janeway (ST: VOY), Worldbuilding: Coming to terms with being multi-species (Voyager), Worldbuilding: Interspecies relationships (Voyager), Relationship: B'Elanna Torres/Seven of Nine (Voyager)

Prompts and fandom specific likes: Voyager's premise is so interesting and I think that it leant itself to really compelling relationships within the crew. I love both post-canon things after they have returned home, but also stuff set in the Delta Quadrant when they were kind of in their own little bubble.

I think Tom & Janeway is really interesting because she recognised his potential when he himself didn't and she didn't take any shit from him on his road to living up to that potential. I think that Tom's relationship with his father has maybe led to him looking for a mentor figure he could look up to that he didn't have that family baggage with and that Janeway was that person for him.

I loooove Janeway & Tuvok. I requested it both times I participated in Star Trek Frienship Fest (may she rest in peace). They're so different and yet they are so loyal to each other and clearly have a lot of love for each other. I don't have a strong preference for a pre- during or post-canon setting on this one, but maybe something about Tuvok's daughter's Kohlinar, which Janeway attended? But I am wide open to anything you see for this.

Janeway & B'Elanna is so so compelling to me. There's so much there, from butting heads over Starfleet vs. Maquis issues to geeking out about science together to supporting each other as crewmates. I also love that Janeway is initially sceptical of B'Elanna's ability to lead, given that she didn't finish the programme at the academy and that she learns how wrong she was to have doubted her ("She could teach at the academy!" is a great Chakotay line and I'm very glad that he had his Maquis crew's backs and specifically B'Elanna's in the those early days). I think that they have a lot in common, both being brilliant and hardheaded, as well as being quite different from each other.

Speaking of B'Elanna, I looooove B'Elanna/Seven (either instead of or in addition to Tom/B'Elanna—I am not a fan of Seven's canonical relationship with Chakotay though). I'm so so invested in the journey that their relationship goes on from B'Elanna hating Seven's guts and thinking she's rude and high handed (and Seven thinking B'Elanna is inefficient and irrational) to them having a deeper understanding and respect for each other. I would love to see an evolution from "I hate her, she's so rude and terrible" to "If anyone even looks at Seven I will murder them" or, perhaps, something more along the lines of a hatefucking turned tender kind of thing 👀. I think they also have a lot of experience with being othered due to their perceived inhumanity and that's something that they could relate to each other over.

B'Elanna is the natural fit for something about coming to terms with being multi-species, but it might be fun to include Naomi Wildman in the mix here. What is her relationship to being part Ktarian? She is the only Ktarian that she knows for the first part of her life, not even having a Ktarian parent around to help with that part of her identity. I think that B'Elanna's line about how most of the crew on Voyager is human, even if there are Vulcans and Bolians and Talaxians on board too, is something that's very relevant here.

Similar to what I said for interspecies relationships in the context of DS9, I'm reluctant to go into too great detail for this, because I don't want to box you in. Again, I'm very happy for both silly and serious interactions between different cultures and biologies here.

Fandom specific exceptions to DNWs: I am okay with something about bigotry that B'Elanna and Seven face for being Klingon and Borg respectively.

TNG

Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Requested tags: Relationship: Jean-Luc Picard & Q (ST: TNG), Relationship: Guinan & Jean-Luc Picard (ST: TNG), Relationship: Data & Geordi La Forge (ST: TNG), Relationship: Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard (ST: TNG), Relationship: Worf & Kurn (TNG), Relationship: William Riker/Worf (TNG), Character: Simon Tarses (TNG), Relationship: William Riker/Deanna Troi (TNG), Character: Guinan (TNG), Worldbuilding: Planetside Trips for Recreation (TNG)

Prompts and fandom specific likes: Picard and Q is a perennial delight. I love how Picard is just so done with Q at his every appearance and that Q is delighted with this and genuinely seems to like Picard. Something set during the time when Q was stripped of his powers might be fun!

I reeeally like Guinan and Picard's almost Doctor and River Song-esq non-linear relationship and how much they respect and like each other. Something set from Guinan's POV about meeting Picard in the old West and then meeting him again on the Enterprise would be really fun. I'm not up to date on Picard, and from what I understand Guinan is on that too, but I can read relevant context from Memory Alpha if you want to include stuff from that.

Data & Geordi! Best friendship of my heart! I really like that Geordi doesn't condescend to Data, even when he's amused by Data getting the wrong impression of things. Geordi is so very human and it's easy to see why Data, who aspires towards humanity, values his friendship so highly. Maybe something along the lines of "Five times Data used Geordi as a model for human behaviour" would be fun?

Crusher/Picard is soooo goooood. The angstiness of Jack's death hanging between them, the distance that is created by their need to have a professional relationship, the fact that she is the only person on the ship who can give him an order, his mentorship of her son, their divorce in that alternate timeline where she, too, is Captain Picard. It's just all so good. Again, I have not caught up on Picard yet, but feel free to include anything from that show and I can scout around for context on Memory Alpha if I need to.

Worf & Kurn is so heartbreaking. The fact that Worf didn't even know he had a living brother by blood until Kurn showed up... and then, of course, their inability to have a relationship as adults when they are reunited, with all the political sabotage the House of Mogh suffers and the strife that this causes them. Did Worf ever meet his nieces? Did they ever find out what happened to their own father after the events of the DS9 episode Sons of Mogh? If you want to go with something along the lines of a fix-it for this that would be lovely, but I would also lap up something angsty.

Star Trek: Crossovers

Fandom: Star Trek: Crossovers

Requested tags: Relationship: Nog (DS9) & D'Vana Tendi (LD)

Prompts and fandom specific likes: I saw this in the tagset and squeaked outloud with joy. I feel that they'd have so much to talk about, as two Starfleet academy graduates from non-Federation homeworlds. Homeworlds, at that, that have a very specific reputation within the Federation. Nog graduated the academy in 2374 and Lower Decks is set in 2380, so I don't think they would have overlapped in the academy, but I think that Tendi could very well have looked up to him as a role model and maybe he corresponded with her in a demi-mentorship kind of role? He graduated in two years, rather than the usual four, so I think he definitely would have been held up as an example of the model non-Federation Starfleet cadet at the academy, for better or for worse. Actually, since as a non-Federation citizen Tendi would have needed a letter of sponsorship from a command level officer to apply to the academy, maybe Nog sponsered her? Paying forward what Sisko did for him. The timeline of Nog making that rank between 2374 and whenever Tendi joined Starfleet is maybe a bit tight, but I think that you can either fudge it or make Nog a super high flyer and feature that as part of the story and either would work. If you went with the latter then I think that the pressure to live up to that standard for both of them would be a fun theme to explore.

Fandom specific exceptions to DNWs: Given that my prompts here feature Nog and Tendi's alienation within the Federation, I'm open to receiving a work about bigotry that they face within Starfleet.

SGA

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis

Requested tags: Relationship: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay (SGA)

Prompts and fandom specific likes: I really love fic that explores John's "Yeah, I passed the Mensa test, so what?" side and how that intrigues and infuriates Rodney. I feel that he's smart enough in a pragmatic way to know that paying membership fees to Mensa every year is a bit of a racket and that I.Q. is an accident of birth, so (in the words of Stephen Hawking) only losers brag about their I.Q. and the fact that Rodney is so invested in his own brilliance is a delightful contrast between them. Something STEM-y for this fandom would be amazing, especially if John got in on the action in an academic way.

Fandom specific exceptions to DNWs: I would actually goggle up a college AU in for this fandom! Or, if you wanted to keep it canon, Rodney teaching in a university post-canon and John hanging around his office often enough and helping undergrads during office hours that Rodney didn't bother to go to often enough that the student body thinks that he works there.

I have also said in the past that I think that the point in time that SGA occupies, before DADT was repealed, combined with its military setting, lends itself to stories about being closeted in the military.

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To anyone else reading letters to look for people to treat, hi there! I have gifts enabled on my AO3 account, so treat away if you so desire, and thank you for the kind thought.
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