Dear Yuletide Author

[lacksley]

(complete as of 10/27/2020)

lacksley

Hello dear creator! Thanks for offering at least one of my ships! Below are a list of my general likes and Do Not Wants, but I also wanted to say a few things up here first.

I realize I ask a lot of questions in my prompts; don't feel like you have to answer them! They are thoughts I have about canon, about character interactions, that can be a guide for what I want to see in a work and how you can think about what you want to create. This isn't a test, I'm not going to be checking to see if every question has an answer! I am always okay with other characters being included that weren't specifically requested, as long as they aren't the focus of the work.

I'm okay with smut or no smut, but I usually prefer at least 50% of the work to not be smut (aka Porn With Plot). For threesomes and moresomes, I'm totally fine reading polyamory or "one night stands", aka committed relationships with 3+ people or single sexual ventures with 3+ people. Either is fine! There are interesting aspects to both that I love to read.

Please remember that optional details are optional! If you are unsure about something that you are writing, you can always contact my friend pugglemuggle, who can give you advice without spoiling anything for me! I do also have anonymous messaging turned on on tumblr, but do note that the mods discourage contacting your recipient directly, even if anonymously.


General likes (in no particular order):

• Reincarnation/past lives: I love when people are so destined for each other that they keep meeting even after they die and are reborn. Not even death can keep them apart.
• Soulmates: seeing colors (gray scale to colorful world, or not being able to see the color of their soulmates eyes until they meet), marks (names, first/last words, non-permanent markings, where they are first touched by each other), countdown timers. Bonus points for society having structure about these things: do arranged marriages still exist? Should you hide your marks from other people? Is it frowned upon if you date people other than your soulmate? Are soulmates determined by fate, or is it that the person you fall in love with becomes your soulmate?
• Mundane superpowers ("gifts"), like being able to stay warm when it's cold, or small object summoning. Little superpowers.
• In-universe crossovers: characters that have never met in canon (but are part of the same canon) randomly meeting without knowing how they are connected, but they're in line at the grocery store, or waiting for the bus, something mundane and unexpected instead of some amazing climactic meeting.
• In anime fandoms (or wherever applicable), characters still on a last name basis using the first name of a character they care about in times of crisis, like when they're sick or if they're unconscious and can't hear the other person. See this tweet: https://twitter.com/kzabrekker/status/1190735345819758592
• Identity porn
• Magical realism: improbable things that are just probable enough to happen without magic, but it really is magic. Things that wouldn't work in real life, like rituals or wishes or prayers, that work here, in fiction.
• Epistolary/multimedia: whether that be incorporating social media elements, a series of letters, text message exchanges, images what have you, I like it! I would prefer that the entire work not be all texting/messaging, (as I am exhausted by the glut of textfics/chatfics), and that there at least be some overarching narrative if there is no typical prose included.
• A "lightbulb" moment: when character A does something that's so endearing/typical/unexpected that character B just instantly falls in love with them, so quickly that it's like a lightbulb turning on. "Oh! I love them." (a fun variation is "oh no, they're hot")

Tropes that I like (in no particular order):

• emotional hurt/comfort
• secret relationships (bonus for long term)/established relationships
• character A has nightmares that only stop when they share a bed with character B
• angst with happy endings (there can be as much suffering as you want in the beginning and middle but I always want a happy, or tending towards happy ending)
• plenty of healthy communication (though miscommunication followed by communication is fine)
• size difference
• things that are realistically awkward being awkward
• mutual pining
• sharing a bed
• snowed in
• ferris wheel dates/confessions

Do Not Wants:

• character/ship bashing
• permanent break-ups (either of relationships or friendships)
• rape/non-con
• incest (including adopted relatives and step-relatives)
• snuff/necrophilia
• non-canonical major character death (unless otherwise specified)
• scat/vomit
• vore/guro/sexual gore/cannibalism
• torture (exceptions will be explicitly stated)
• daddy kink/pet play/dom-sub lifestyle dynamics/slavery (mentions of canonical slavery is okay)
• de-aging/age regression/kidfic
• pregnancy/mpreg
• texting/chatfics (I do not want to read a log of your discord/skype/RP conversation with your friend that has the usernames changed)
• intentional badfic (crack errs on this, so please don't write it if you don't know me well)

Now that that's out of the way, on to the requests! (don't worry about the additional comments being empty, that's just a place for me to put any extra thoughts if I have any after sign ups, but I usually don't). If you have matched with me on more than one request, please know that I have not listed these in order of preference. Unfortunately this year I wasn't able to get all of my request optional details into the sign up form, which is why some of them are blank, but not to worry! I have provided them here.


Request 1: Kanata no Astra | Astra Lost in Space

• Characters: Ulgar Zweig, Luca Esposito, Kanata Hoshijima, Aries Spring
• Request: "I really love the relationship potential between Luca and Ulgar, they had to put such vulnerable parts of themselves out there before they even really knew each other and I think that's a really interesting basis for a relationship.
  
  Aries and Kanata are very cute together too, and I would love to see them going on dates/wacky hijinks and being blushing idiots at each other."
   
• Additional comments:

Request 2: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!

• Characters: Mihashi Ren, Abe Takaya, Tajima Yuuichirou, Hanai Azusa
• Request: "I would like to note that I have seen the entirety of the anime canon, but have not read the manga.
  
  Something I would love to see is the exploration of a new relationship with someone that's never been in one before (I'm thinking Mihashi or Hanai). The thoughts of "do I really deserve this?" "does this person really love me?" "can I have what I see in the movies?" "what if I like them more than they like me?" and then the reassuring answers to those irrational thoughts of anxiety. Exploring new things in romantic relationships, like holding hands, going on dates, kissing, sex? How do they go about starting to do these things? How do you balance school and baseball with dating? Do you tell your classmates? Your team?
  
  I'm happy with seeing Abe/Mihashi, or Tajima/Hanai, or Tajima/Mihashi (listed in order of preference)."
   
• Additional comments: I forgot to mention this on AO3, but I've only seen the anime! I would greatly appreciate no specific manga spoilers!

Request 3: Gokushufudou | The Way of the House Husband

• Characters: Tatsu, Miku
• Request: "This manga is so cute and funny and though I haven't read all of it I just want more! I would love to see something with Miku and Tatsu... how they first met, how they started dating, how they got married! They're such a cute odd couple and it seems like the narrative focuses on Tatsu a lot more than Tatsu and Miku together. Give me something fluffy and cute!"
   
• Additional comments:

Request 4: Castlevania

• Characters: Lisa, Dracula
• Request: "Pregnancy re:Alucard is okay for this request, it is not a DNW for this request, should you choose to include it.
  
  I love Dracula and Lisa, I honestly was smitten with them in the first minute of the show and I just want to see more! I just want them to be together and be happy ;A; I would love to see some of their life together, getting to know each other and falling in love... I also have to wonder what would have happened if he'd gotten to Lisa in time to save her? How that experience would have changed them, and what Drac's response to humanity might have been; is he still "kill all humans"?"
   
• Additional comments: I'm only asking for Dracula/Lisa because I have yet to see season 3, but I do love Alucard/Trevor/Sypha, so if you wanted to write something with them I'm totally for it! As long as it's non-spoilery. If you want my thoughts on them, see my letter from last Yuletide.

Request 5: Wotaku ni Koi Wa Muzukashii | Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

• Characters: Koyanagi Hanako, Kabakura Tarou, Momose Narumi, Nifuji Hirotaka
• Request: "I really love seeing how people who've known each other for a long time navigate intimacy. Honestly I just want more of the show but with a bit more detail (for example, does Narumi ever wear matching underwear, and does Hirotaka ever see it?)"
   
• Additional comments: I also forgot to mention on AO3 here that I have only seen the anime, but I have seen the extremely recent spoilers of a marriage-y kind. I guess I don't really mind manga spoilers, but if you reference a specific event in the manga I am unlikely to understand. Also! Take my prompt above and feel free to ctrl + F the names of Koyanagi and Kabakura, I have the same feelings about both ships.