Dear Yuletide Author

[lacksley]

lacksley

Hello dear author! Thanks for offering at least one of my fandoms! 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'm okay with smut or no smut, platonic or romantic, unless otherwise specified, but I usually prefer romance and at least 50% of the work not be smut. Gen is always acceptable if you cannot work with the ships and characters I request. 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 Yuletide 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
• 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")

General 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

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)
• coffeeshop AUs, high school AUs (disregard if canon is in high school)
• 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)



 Request 1: Ookiku Furkiabutte | Big Windup!

• Characters: Abe Takaya, Mihashi Ren, Hanai Azusa, Tajima Yuuichirou
• 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:

Request 2: Mahou Tsukai no Yome | The Ancient Magus Bride

• Characters: Hatori Chise, Elias Ainsworth
• Request: "I would like to note that I have seen the entirety of the anime canon, but have not read the manga.

I would love to see an exploration of Elias and Chise's relationship. What they have, at least at the conclusion of the anime, isn't quite love, but it's something. How could either of them know what love is? Or what they even want/need from each other, in a romantic or even platonic sense? I would absolutely love it if at some point Chise investigates what Elias means by "bride" and it turns out that he thinks that's what you call a woman who lives with you (I can't remember if that's fanon or canon, but I love it regardless). Both of them are new to being cared for and caring for other people, and I'd love to see how they navigate through that and develop real feelings for each other based on mutual trust and respect. Elias obviously has little concept of personal agency in the beginning (and to be honest, Chise isn't great either). How do they realize that's a problem and overcome it? Also, if you want to include Alice, Renfred, Ruth, and Silky, please do! I think it'd be interesting for Chise to talk to Alice about love and relationships and sex.

I would like to request that Chise be at the very least over 18 and serious conversations about consent happen if there is to be any sexual content included." 

• Additional comments: 

Request 3: Violet Evergarden

• Characters: Cattleya Baudelaire, Luculia Marlborough, Violet Evergarden
• Request: "I would like to note that I have seen the entirety of the anime canon, but have not read the light novels. I would also prefer there to be no mature/explicit content involving Violet for this request.
• I really loved Violet and Luculia's friendship through the training program and I would love to see more of them together, going through life as friends, or even friends-to-lovers. Violet doesn't have much experience with people around her own age, or with love, so how would she deal with these feelings? How is her love for Luculia different from Gilbert?

Alternatively, I thought it was so cute that Violet and Cattleya were basically writing letters to each other during the arranged marriage episode. What if, at some point, they stopped writing the "feelings" of the prince and princess, and started writing love letters actually to each other?"

• Additional comments:

Request 4: Koe no Katachi

• Characters: Ishida Shouya, Nagatsuka Tomohiro, Nishimiya Shouko, Sahara Miyoko (any/all)
• Request: "I would like to note that I have seen the movie, but have not read the manga.

This movie has always been particularly interesting to me, with it's unique focus on bullying and karma/consequence among students, particularly in relation to disability. I wish the film had more time to expand on Nishimiya and Sahara's friendship, taking comfort in each other despite the cruelty of their classmates, gradually tearing down the language barrier. The same for Ishida and Nagatsuka, learning how to trust after being hurt by others, overcoming debilitating social anxiety, finding companionship among fellow outcasts. Of course, I would also love to see how Ishida and Nishimiya's relationship develops after the conclusion of the film. Do they help each other live? And in what ways? Does she repeat her confession, and does he understand her? Accept her?"

• Additional comments:

Request 5: Houseki no Kuni | Land of the Lustrous

• Characters: Cairngorm, Cinnabar, Lapis Lazuli, Phosphophyllite
• Request: "I would like to note that I have seen the entirety of the anime canon, and am currently caught up on the manga as of writing this (chapter 71).

Oh, these poor sad gem people. This series gives me a lot of feelings. The loneliness and desperation, the general hopelessness of the early series (and what was covered by the anime) is just so fascinating to me, because the gems are in a sense living through an apocalypse. They're slowly being picked off by an enemy they barely understand, there are already so few of them and gems are being taken to the moon faster than they're being born. Phos has lost so much of themself, and what kills me is that their missing pieces weren't destroyed  or shot into space or anything, they're just lost in the ocean. If the jellyfish people (the Admirabilis?) were able to find Phos's arms and legs and bring them back to the gems, what would Phos do? How does Cinnabar feel, watching Phos destroy themself? (Also, I know Antarc wasn't nominated but feel free to include them as well if you would like to!) How does Phos deal with the echoes of Lapis Lazuli in their head? I also find Cairngorm's struggle with Ghost interesting as well. How would the other gems feel if it was revealed that Cairngorm wasn't really acting of their own free will? How do you even consider that, when you were born separate but inseparable with someone else? And what would they do if Ghost came back?"

• Additional comments:

Request 6: The Shape of Water

• Characters: Elisa Esposito, The Asset
• Request: "I would like to note that I have seen the movie, but not read the novel.
• I was so excited about this movie coming out that I had several dreams about it leading up to the premier, and while I can't exactly recall any of them as a prompt, you could say that I'm very much in love with this film and its characters. I really love the themes of monster romance, female sexuality, and just sincere love that these characters have for each other.

I'd love to see some sort of soulmate AU explored for Elisa and the Asset, especially because of her mysterious gills/scars and whole backstory in general. What is it like, being in love with a god? Having a god love you? What's their future like? I'd also possibly like to see a moment of calm, after escaping their traumas and moving forward to the future together, where nothing hurts and they can just be together."

• Additional comments: