call for recs: worldbuilding

[snickfic]

Today's call for recs is for any fic or other fanwork that has a tidbit of cosmic MCU worldbuilding that you find interesting. It doesn't have to be the focus of the fic! If it touches on how the Power Stone works or what Nebula's people were like or some aspect of Jotun culture or what seasons are like on Asgard, which is a circular disk instead of a planet - it's great for this rec!

Comments

[lazaefair]

Provider (1030 words) by jackfish
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kraglin Obfonteri/Yondu Udonta
Characters: Kraglin Obfonteri, Yondu Udonta
Additional Tags: Food, Hunters & Hunting, Mating Rituals
Summary:

Only Kraglin gets a share when the captain's been hunting.

[lazaefair]

Lost in Translation (1585 words) by Lasertits
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peter Quill & Yondu Udonta
Characters: Peter Quill, Yondu Udonta, Baby Groot - Character, Gamora
Additional Tags: Angst, PTSD, I can see headcanon for miles up here, Language & Identity, Father-Son Relationship, Fix-It, Grandpa yondu, Ravager Culture
Summary:

To Peter, the whole Galaxy speaks English.
To Yondu, it speaks Kree.

Or, Yondu and his four languages.

[snickfic]

Neat! Thank you for the rec. What in particular did you enjoy about the worldbuilding in this fic?

[lazaefair]

The invention of at least one aspect of Centaurian/Zatoan mating behavior - namely, hand-feeding your mate to take care of them and to demonstrate your claim on them to others. I have no idea if there's any basis to it in the comics, but as far as I can tell it first showed up in fandom in this fic and has since become more-or-less standard fanon.

And I really love it because it fits so well with Yondu and Kraglin's characters - they're space pirates, they're not going to go for the flowery romantic gestures favored by rich city-dwellers who don't have to scrabble for their living. Food and survival are much higher concerns for Ravagers, so for Yondu to 1) give up any portion of his food, and 2) give that food to Kraglin, would have some pretty obvious significance both to Zatoan society (essentially Space Native Americans) and to hard-bitten, unsentimental mercenaries.

[wannabedarklord]

A Failing in Diplomacy by Evandar (13766 words)

I love the jotun culture worlbuilding in this one.

Another Turn of the Wheel by SofiaDragon (series with 227,408 words sort of evenly divided among 4 works)

The worldbuilding for Asgard and the other Nine Realms in this one is great and very detailed. I especially love the way Asgard's magic is formed here.

Paper Tiger, Paper Swords by MatchstickAmmonite (91877 words, unfinished)

More Asgard worldbuilding! More in line with the 'magic is just advanced science' that the early MCU was going for. It's been a while since I've read this one, but I recall thinking that there were some unexpected twists which still totally made sense in the MCU.

tony stark, master of the universe by nefelokokkygia (2 works of 39,056 words, unfinished)

I adore this one for the alien biology worldbuilding, depicting all the subtle and not so subtle ways Asgardians are different from humans.

[snickfic]

Very cool! And I can see how handfeeding could bloom into pretty popular fanon without much coaxing. XD

[snickfic]

Ooooh, all of those sound great! I'm especially a sucker for Jotun worldbuilding - I think I just love that icy, bitterly cold landscape. Thanks for sharing!