Dear Space Swap 2025 Creator

[zvi]

Dear Creator:

Thank you for making something for me. I have given you a lot of ideas below. This list is intended to reduce stress and anxiety for you. Please pick a few suggestions you will find interesting or easy or fun to work with, and feel free to ignore where our kinks and favorites conflict. I hope to get a creation with one or two things I like, do not feel any pressure to cram all of my likes in one piece. (If you get to the bottom of this letter and feel like you don’t have enough insight, here’s the Dear Creator tag on my Dreamwidth account.

Also, if you want to remix, reimagine, podfic, make a derivative work of one of my works, I would welcome it.

If I tagged something (medium, trope, relationship, character) and didn’t talk about it in my letter, it’s to give you permission if you are inspired by it. I think I would actually enjoy it, but I have no incredibly specific desire for the thing tagged. But if you want to do that that tag, please do.

Sincerely,
zvi LikesTV

How this letter is organized

• Some stuff I like in general: themes and tropes I do want
• Media Notes: likes and dislikes for vids, podfic, and art
• Do Not Wants: Broken down by stylistic stuff, themes, genres, sex acts
• Something about what I like in the fandoms I specifically requested: Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Jupiter Ascending, Wayfarers, Farscape, Star Trek Strange New Worlds

Some stuff I like in general:

• Worldbuilding and character backstory: I was a science-fiction fan before I was a slash fan or media fan. I think the interesting stories are “but why does it work like that?” and “what happens when you go like this?” I’m especially interested in gender/family roles, religion, and universal (accessible) design.
• Casefic/could be an episode: I requested these fandoms because I like the fandom, so if you want to write something that could have been canon, I will probably like it.
• Trope inversion and crack treated seriously (but nothing from the POV of inanimate objects).
• AUs: canon divergence (especially fix it), time travel, ABO, soulbond, supernatural masquerade [i.e. people are secretly werewolves, vampires, etc. but it's kept secret from mundanes]), kidfic, pregnancyfic including MPREG. I don’t have strong feelings about rules for ABO or soulbond or magical system; I like seeing what you did with the concept. DNW mundane AUs for magical/science-fiction fandoms.
• Queerness: This does not have to be in the context of romantic or sexual relationships! Queer friendship, queerplatonic relationships, child raising, queer political organising, queer community places, all of that is also good!
• Found family: I like when a found family is bonded by going through unusual circumstances no one outside their circle will understand, and they actually like one another by the end of that bonding adventure.
• Marriage of Convenience: I like meeting someone(s) you don’t know well and are unsure if you can trust them, but you are forced by circumstance into proximity and cooperation, and you learn to appreciate and care for one another over time.
• Stories where the protagonists fit into a broader community, especially but not limited to the other canon characters.
• Relationship negotiations: If the characters are asking and answering “What do you need, what do you want, how do we make this work so we’re all happy and content?”, that is great! I like negotiations in order to agree to try a relationship, I like negotiations to change the status of a relationship, and I like negotiations where people’s needs have changed or been newly recognized, so they need changes in the relationship. I’m not interested in breakup negotiations.
• Sex scenes or kinky/bdsm scenes, especially those that advance the plot or reveal something about character.
• Safer sex, cunnilingus, vaginal fisting, rimming, fingering, sex toys, knife play, and pegging
• Lactation kink, real or simulated; joyfully adopted feminization of male-identifying characters; size kink not related to feminizing or emasculating; informal power imbalance, where it's not that they've explicitly negotiated a scene, just that these two people aren't in equal stations in life, and they both are aware of that, and it's just part of how they relate to each other; watersports and omorashi

Media Notes

Fanvid

Just FYI, I’d rather a shorter, clearer vid using just part of a song than one you wound up padding a bit because you picked a great song that’s too long. Music I like: 80’s and 90’s hip hop, 90’s and 2000’s pop, R&B, pop punk, Lillith Fair music, Christmas music, Quiet Storm music, trip hop, post-rock. I generally avoid male singer-songwriters, folk music you can’t dance to, and country music. Here’s my my pop music pandora station if you want some ideas.

I’m in favor of subtitles or burn in captions if you want me to understand the lyrics or pay attention to a specific bit of dialogue. My auditory processing isn’t amazing, so the clearer any vocalists, the more I can appreciate the vid.

Podfic

My auditory processing isn’t the best, so if you could avoid playing music under where you’re speaking, I would appreciate it. I also tend to play my podfic pretty loudly, so if you can keep the volume consistent across the recording, I would appreciate you. (i.e. Please have music volume match the volume of your speech, please keep quiet/whispered dialogue at practically the same volume as the narration.) I actually really like low production (i.e., just your voice, no music and no sound effects) podfic, but add whatever flourishes make you feel great. I'm happy to receive podfic (and repods!) of my own work (I give blanket permission) and I expect that anyone making me podfic has picked a pre-existing fanfiction to podfic, not that they wrote something just to podfic for me. If permitted in this exchange, please say your pseudonym as the podficcer in the recording.

Visual art

My favorite comic book artists are Jen Bartel, Sophie Campbell, Elsa Charetier, Sarah Graley, Stephanie Hans, Ariela Kristantina, Phil Noto, Stepan Seijic, Sana Takeda, Brittney Williams.

If I had to summarize what I like about them, it’s that they have active scenes, vivid colors with interesting and detailed fashion, diversity of body type and skin shades, and really, really expressive faces. There’s also a lot of clarity, I always feel like I can immediately tell what I’m looking at, rather than having to decipher the visual.

I like art with detailed objects around the subjects and semi-detailed to detailed backgrounds that reflect the characters. (But if the objects are more symbolic and less “stuff the characters would use and like”, a symbolism cheat sheet would help me appreciate your work more completely.)

Some of the objects I like are food, tools, furniture, tableware.

For fandoms with actors, I like art that references the physical features of the actors over their descriptions in other/original canons, e.g. for The Babysitters Club, I’d like Mary Anne to look more like her actor Malia Baker and less like the book description of the character.

Do Not Wants

Vid music: male singer-songwriters, folk music you can’t dance to, country music, any and all versions of Cohen’s Hallelujah, including the original

 

Podfic: changing volume levels, music under spoken word

Art: a lot of green or orange

Stylistic

1st person POV/ 2nd person POV; lapslock (all lowercase writing), songfic, poetry

Referring to characters as “the older” or “the taller”. Preferably just use their name, but if you need to use an epithet, please call them the [adjective] [noun] , inanimate object POV stories

Themes or plot points:

Unhappy endings, Extended pining, Requested characters disliking each other (They can be annoyed by /upset with each other, but not really dislike each other), unrequited romantic feelings, Romantic breakups, Infidelity (roleplay or misunderstandings as requested in freeform tags are ok)

Grief, Jealousy, Abuse, Yandere

Slaves, Rape, Rape recovery, Non-con

Major Character death, permanent non-canonical death of requested characters (even if they’re only a minor character in the fic), suicide, self-harm, addiction, illness (graphic descriptions), injury (graphic descriptions)

Genres

Angst, whump, horror, genderswap*, cisswap*, body horror, hurt/comfort, wingfic, D/S au, mundane AUs for fantastic/science-fiction fandoms, character bashing.

*I am happy for characters discovering they prefer to be gender non-comforming or have complicated gender feels. I’m also happy for characters written as already trans in canon, so if a male character is written as a trans man or a girl character is written as a trans girl, that’s great. I don’t want a male character written as a trans woman.

Miscellaneous

Gore, torture, vomit, Brain damage, Cannibalism, zombies, battle scenes, 24/7 BDSM, Total Power Exchange BDSM, Domestic Discipline, quarantine, hanahaki disease

Sex DNWs

• Breath play, including oral knotting, choking, constricting clothes or jewelry on throat, hands creating any pressure on throat
• Age: Fetishizing age difference, sexual activity by or with characters under 14, xexual/romantic relationship between actual guardian/ward, teacher/student, mentor/mentee, etc. (Roleplay is fine)
• Humiliation
• Force-feeding
• Forced feminization
• Feminization as humiliation
• Sugary foods in/near/on genitals/anus
• Vomit
• Scat
• Guro
• Vore
• Spit
• Saliva as lube
• Anal sex without lube
• Menstrual blood during sex, menstruation kink
• Risk Aware Consensual Kink
• Impact play hard enough to break skin
• Figging
• Gunplay
• Body part fetish not requested in tags

Fandom

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Requests: Relationship: Julian Bashir/Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien (DS9), Worldbuilding: Religions (DS9), Worldbuilding: Other businesses on the Prominade (ST:DS9), Worldbuilding: Popular culture on the station (ST:DS9)

I like how Miles is exasperated by everything and Keiko is the only rational adult and Julian is very enthusiastic about everything. I like that Miles has two very clear and different relationships within the context of this triad. Writing this as a V would be great or having a triad develop as Julian and Keiko feel each other out as metamours and then become more intimate would also be great.

If you are not just writing an extended porn story (a story I would be pleased to receive!), please, at a minimum, include the kids in the evolving family dynamics, and, also, possibly Kira in her role as person who feels protective of Kirayoshi’s interests sometimes. I like stories where Julian and Miles are two silly boys playing games and they gradually draw Keiko into their shenanigans, while at the same time everyone maintains their grown up responsibilities and takes care of the children.

Familiarity with canon: I haven’t watched DS9 in a serious way since the finale season, and what I watched before that was sort of spotty, so, um, if you do anything extremely cool with canon, I will probably miss it. I will like it! But I may not recognize it. Feel free to tell me which episodes to watch in order to appreciate your intertextual genius. Also, Next Gen and DS9 are the shows I watched the most of. I’ve seen seasons 1 and 2 of Discovery and Strange New Worlds, a little of Voyager, a smattering of The Original Series and Lower Decks, and nothing from Picard or Prodigy.

Jupiter Ascending

Relationship: Abraxas Family (Jupiter Ascending), Relationship: Caine Wise/Jupiter Jones (Jupiter Ascending), Relationship: Caine Wise/Jupiter Jones/Stinger (Jupiter Ascending), Relationship: Caine Wise/Stinger (Jupiter Ascending), Worldbuilding: Childrearing Practices (Jupiter Ascending), Worldbuilding: Religions (Jupiter Ascending)

I feel like this movie was designed to generate a lore as expansive as Star Wars, but then it didn’t make any money and I didn’t get any art books. Make up stuff about cool alien culture and politics, and I will be your biggest fan. I’m especially interested in how people’s biology affects their relationship. What does it mean for a dogman and a beeman to be friends? Does Kiza ever feel an existential longing for a hive, or has she recreated one at some mundane, human place she goes to? Is Jupiter really fine cleaning toilets, or does she figure out some way to use her galactic wealth without killing people?

Wayfarers

Relationship: Speaker & Tracker (Wayfarers Series)

These two characters are only in book 4, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, so if we matched on something else and then you panic, this is a good one shot fandom to fill in with.

These two characters are sisters, and I would love a showcase of how they interact. How do other members of their species react to them individually or together? Might they think about joining a larger crew? What does doing the work to spread the tech that comes up at the end of the book look like?

Familiarity with canon: I have read all four books in the series in 2024. Some of the character names run together a bit, but I liked most of the characters from across the series and would welcome cameos from other named characters or from original characters in some of the non-human species she referenced.

Farscape

Character: Aeryn Sun (Farscape), Character: Zotoh Zhaan (Farscape), Relationship: Aeryn Sun & Pilot (Farscape), Relationship: Bialar Crais & Talyn (Farscape), Relationship: John Crichton/Aeryn Sun (Farscape), Relationship: Moya & Pilot (Farscape), Worldbuilding: Childrearing (Farscape), Worldbuilding: Delvian Seek (Farscape), Worldbuilding: impact of first contact on Earth religions (Farscape), Worldbuilding: Religions (Farscape)

I like the cool alien interactions and I sometimes wish they’d played even more with how biological realities affected people’s family life, politics, desires, abilities, etc. No need to write a Crichton-centric or Crichton POV story, but I would like the focus to be on Moya and her crew (or Talyn). My favorite parts of the show are the John/Aeryn relationship, John&D’Argo relationship, Zhaan, the extremely scrappy nature of everything, and when the crew is getting along more than when they’re squabbling. I know Farscape episodes can end with Pyrrhic victories, but I’d prefer a happier ending.

Familiarity with canon: I have watched the whole series, but not in the past 5 years. If you tie into a specific episode or group of episodes, please tag it.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds

Character: Erica Ortegas (STSNW), Character: La'an Noonien-Singh (ST SNW), Relationship: Christine Chapel & Erica Ortegas & Nyota Uhura (STSNW), Relationship: Christine Chapel/La'an Noonien-Singh (ST: SNW), Relationship: Christine Chapel/Nyota Uhura (ST: SNW), Relationship: Erica Ortegas/Christine Chapel (ST:SNW), Relationship: La'an Noonien-Singh & Erica Ortegas & Sam Kirk & Joseph M'Benga (ST:SNW), Relationship: Una Chin-Riley/Neera Ketoul (ST: SNW), Worldbuilding: Anti-Illyrian discrimination (STSNW), Worldbuilding: discrimination against Noonien-Singh descendants (STSNW), Worldbuilding: Emotional/mental health therapy practices (STSNW), Worldbuilding: Fun & Recreation (STSNW), Worldbuilding: Religion (STSNW)

I love everyone in this bar! All of the characters and their relationships. You could make me so happy if we got to see Erica on an away team, or see her solve a problem on the surface by what she can do on the ship. You could write about friends hanging out or people trying to date or just living their life shipboard. You could have the Enterprise do a cool first contact with a species we meet later in canon, but it winds up ~classified~ for some reason. Have fun, do character work, and I’ll be happy.

Familiarity with canon: I have watched both seasons at least twice and listened to the musical soundtrack A Lot. I have watched the Discovery episodes with Spock and Pike./p>

Original work

Relationship: Alien Spaceship Crew & New Human Crewmate (OW), Relationship: Alien who always wanted a pet/Human pet (OW), Relationship: Lonely Alien Retiree/Young Human Mail Order Spouse (OW), Relationships: Human Man Who Just Moved Off Earth/His New Alien Neighbour With Tentacles (M/M) (OW), Relationships: Human Space Empress/Alien Space Empress She Marries To End War (F/F) (OW), Relationships: Human/Last Member of Alien Species That Can Get Mpregnant By Any Species (M/M) (OW), Relationships: Old Human Space General/Her Alien General Old Friend (F/F) (OW), Worldbuilding: Curiously Mobile Alien Flora (OW), Worldbuilding: Zero-G Adapted Civilization

I like worldbuilding and weird biology. Lay it on me.