Dear Yuletide Writer 2023
This letter is for Napkins, which is my name on AO3 as well!
First off, thank you so, so much for signing up and for offering one of the fandoms we matched on! Hopefully this letter will be useful to you -- I’m generally really easy to please; I like the whole gamut of fiction and a whole mess of tropes in there.
Continuing with my trend, as requesting femslashy canons resulted in some beautiful work that I loved the past few years, I thought why stop a good thing! Some returning fandoms, some new, but again with the theme of close female friendships that could easily hint at something more but for Reasons the canon didn’t go there (or did!). There's a ship in each request that I would be so thrilled to get shipfic from, but at its core are nuanced friendship dynamics that are fascinating to me if you want to keep it platonic that I would be equally thrilled to receive fic about.
My dislikes are pretty few, so let’s start off with them: character death/permanent injury (can be ignored for canon events), pregnancy/kidfic, and serious issues not already brought up in canon (think homophobia, political stands, self-harm, abuse, trans headcanons, etc). I am all for sexual content, and rough sex is fine, but none of these relationships should be antagonistic, so no dubcon/noncon or sex with violence at its core, please. Also no bodily fluids that don't have a standard place in sexual encounters, please.
I’ll talk about the fandoms I requested and some specific prompts below, and please feel free to ignore or add anything as you want, but here are some general tropes and prompts I enjoy:
AUs of all shapes and sizes, fake dating, taking care of someone while sick, Christmas/other holidays, winter or other cold-weather activities, domesticity, hurt/comfort - especially with illnesses, character introspection/exploration, friends to lovers, banter that can easily accidentally slip into hints about actual feelings, and found family. I really will love anything that you write, this is more to give you an idea of my likes and reasons for them, so thank you so much again!
The Aquatope on White Sand
Requested characters: Kukuru and Fuuka
This series just captivated me right from the start! Beautiful animation, life lessons, and aquariums! I felt so spoiled to get a whole anime about aquariums and marine life so gorgeously treated. Plus Fuuka and Kukuru together are such a wonderful combination - they both support each other and rely deeply on believing in the other to help themselves get through the hurdles in their lives. I appreciate that the series takes a fairly realistic view of aquariums and having to care for other living creatures and that presents a lot of the drama and opportunities for growth. I enjoyed that the whole storyline wasn't actually about saving Gama Gama, but learning how to turn that passion into something to carry forward to continue the spirit of it. On that note, the fact that Fuuka and Kukuru are neighbors is just so thrilling! There's so much there! I see them as more than friends - Fuuka came back because she couldn't stop picturing Kukuru crying alone - but there are so many facets and good things about their relationship and where they could go in the future that I'm just happy to be along for the ride! I would love anything from either series events or post-canon, with both of them working in conservation and marine biology - easy beach dates!
Barbie (2023)
Requested characters: Margot Robbie's Barbie, Gloria
I'm so fond of this movie! There's something so fun about the juxtaposition of Barbieland with the real world and watching Barbie grow in her confidence as her own person. I'd love to see what happens next! It seems she's living with Gloria and her family - what is that like? Speaking of which, I love that she draws Gloria's confidence back, along with a lot of feelings and emotions that she'd repressed to more fit what she thinks will be easier for her to live with. How is Gloria's life different after experiencing all of that? I'd be here for Gloria teaching Barbie more about life in the real world and all of the things that come with being human instead of a doll - sad emotions, for one, having a bad day, finding a favorite food, and maybe Barbie continues to bring more sparkle and fun into everyday life! I would absolutely be here for it if you wanted to write shipfic for Barbie and Gloria, however you'd like to imagine that!
Lycoris Recoil
Requested characters: Takina and Chisato
I felt so, so spoiled this past anime season with all of the great female-centric series, but LycoReco really stood out to me with Chisato and Takina! Chisato clearly has more going on to her than you get at first impressions, but that she's able to pull Takina out of her shell even before everything about her comes to light made that moment when they both subsequently risk themselves for the other that much more poignant. The episode of Chisato taking Takina underwear shopping absolutely made my day - I loved the touch of slice-of-life moments, since that's what they're fighting to protect as Lycoris, and seeing them get to enjoy that peace and enjoy time with each other was wonderful. I'd love fic from any point - Takina becoming more comfortable with Chisato and the LycoReco crowd, the time while Chisato was off on her own, or post-canon in Hawaii! There's so much I love about this series, but I love that Chisato and Takina are the heart of it the most.
Emelan
Requested characters: Lark and Rosethorn
This series has been one that I’ve returned to time and time again, even though I get a different enjoyment out of it as an adult than as a preteen/teenager, obviously. Since the kids are the focus of the series, there’s a lot left to the imagination when it comes to their mentors! I’m especially drawn to the relationship between Lark and Rosethorn, whether you want to interpret their relationship as a deep platonic friendship or something more. I will eat up with a spoon anything having to do with the two of them and their relationship and feel like I will always want things with them, even if it's just different variations of the same thing over and over again. I love how both of them embody strength and discipline in very different ways and how they are very much at the core of this found family, even as the kids start to split off and have their own adventures and apprentices. How’d this all start? I'm absolutely fascinated with the tidbits about Lark's early travels and adventures - maybe their paths crossed long before Winding Circle! How’d they decide that they wanted to stay at Discipline? How much changed after Rosethorn’s stroke? Did Lark have to find out the hard way how particular Rosethorn is about her garden? How do they find a moment’s peace/spend that moment together when the kids are around? This could be set any time in their friendship/relationship, really I just think it would be something neat to explore! If you do want to go shippy, I am all for sexual content here.
Dracula (Novel)
Requested characters: Mina and Lucy
Reading Dracula as an adult versus an edgy teenager, you notice more things that you'd kind of shrugged off as quirks of the era, like Lucy and Mina's...very close friendship. Mostly how it's put on the same level as Mina and Jonathan's marriage and love, and that that love is held up as an example of a deep and enduring love. I don't need Mina and Jonathan to be broken up or worked around, but I would love to see more of Mina and Lucy! I'm totally here for AUs if that's the route you want to go down, and there are so many! Both of them vampires, except Lucy got to Mina first, Lucy as a vampire and Mina human, or even both of them just in the times leading up to the events of the novel. Mina is so competent that I can't help but think that things might've turned out very differently if she'd known about vampires sooner...
The Night Circus
Requested characters: Hinata and Tsukiko
I am just so fascinated by these two! Between being drawn together by the challenge either way, they're clearly meant to balance each other, with the sun and moon/fire and water theming. I would love to see literally anything for them, either from their challenge or earlier. How long did they know their love was doomed? What was the final spark to cause Hinata to intentionally lose? How hard was it for Tsukiko to change her magic from water to fire? I'm especially intrigued by their challenge, set in a country still closed off to foreigners - how were things different for magicians?
First off, thank you so, so much for signing up and for offering one of the fandoms we matched on! Hopefully this letter will be useful to you -- I’m generally really easy to please; I like the whole gamut of fiction and a whole mess of tropes in there.
Continuing with my trend, as requesting femslashy canons resulted in some beautiful work that I loved the past few years, I thought why stop a good thing! Some returning fandoms, some new, but again with the theme of close female friendships that could easily hint at something more but for Reasons the canon didn’t go there (or did!). There's a ship in each request that I would be so thrilled to get shipfic from, but at its core are nuanced friendship dynamics that are fascinating to me if you want to keep it platonic that I would be equally thrilled to receive fic about.
My dislikes are pretty few, so let’s start off with them: character death/permanent injury (can be ignored for canon events), pregnancy/kidfic, and serious issues not already brought up in canon (think homophobia, political stands, self-harm, abuse, trans headcanons, etc). I am all for sexual content, and rough sex is fine, but none of these relationships should be antagonistic, so no dubcon/noncon or sex with violence at its core, please. Also no bodily fluids that don't have a standard place in sexual encounters, please.
I’ll talk about the fandoms I requested and some specific prompts below, and please feel free to ignore or add anything as you want, but here are some general tropes and prompts I enjoy:
AUs of all shapes and sizes, fake dating, taking care of someone while sick, Christmas/other holidays, winter or other cold-weather activities, domesticity, hurt/comfort - especially with illnesses, character introspection/exploration, friends to lovers, banter that can easily accidentally slip into hints about actual feelings, and found family. I really will love anything that you write, this is more to give you an idea of my likes and reasons for them, so thank you so much again!
The Aquatope on White Sand
Requested characters: Kukuru and Fuuka
This series just captivated me right from the start! Beautiful animation, life lessons, and aquariums! I felt so spoiled to get a whole anime about aquariums and marine life so gorgeously treated. Plus Fuuka and Kukuru together are such a wonderful combination - they both support each other and rely deeply on believing in the other to help themselves get through the hurdles in their lives. I appreciate that the series takes a fairly realistic view of aquariums and having to care for other living creatures and that presents a lot of the drama and opportunities for growth. I enjoyed that the whole storyline wasn't actually about saving Gama Gama, but learning how to turn that passion into something to carry forward to continue the spirit of it. On that note, the fact that Fuuka and Kukuru are neighbors is just so thrilling! There's so much there! I see them as more than friends - Fuuka came back because she couldn't stop picturing Kukuru crying alone - but there are so many facets and good things about their relationship and where they could go in the future that I'm just happy to be along for the ride! I would love anything from either series events or post-canon, with both of them working in conservation and marine biology - easy beach dates!
Barbie (2023)
Requested characters: Margot Robbie's Barbie, Gloria
I'm so fond of this movie! There's something so fun about the juxtaposition of Barbieland with the real world and watching Barbie grow in her confidence as her own person. I'd love to see what happens next! It seems she's living with Gloria and her family - what is that like? Speaking of which, I love that she draws Gloria's confidence back, along with a lot of feelings and emotions that she'd repressed to more fit what she thinks will be easier for her to live with. How is Gloria's life different after experiencing all of that? I'd be here for Gloria teaching Barbie more about life in the real world and all of the things that come with being human instead of a doll - sad emotions, for one, having a bad day, finding a favorite food, and maybe Barbie continues to bring more sparkle and fun into everyday life! I would absolutely be here for it if you wanted to write shipfic for Barbie and Gloria, however you'd like to imagine that!
Lycoris Recoil
Requested characters: Takina and Chisato
I felt so, so spoiled this past anime season with all of the great female-centric series, but LycoReco really stood out to me with Chisato and Takina! Chisato clearly has more going on to her than you get at first impressions, but that she's able to pull Takina out of her shell even before everything about her comes to light made that moment when they both subsequently risk themselves for the other that much more poignant. The episode of Chisato taking Takina underwear shopping absolutely made my day - I loved the touch of slice-of-life moments, since that's what they're fighting to protect as Lycoris, and seeing them get to enjoy that peace and enjoy time with each other was wonderful. I'd love fic from any point - Takina becoming more comfortable with Chisato and the LycoReco crowd, the time while Chisato was off on her own, or post-canon in Hawaii! There's so much I love about this series, but I love that Chisato and Takina are the heart of it the most.
Emelan
Requested characters: Lark and Rosethorn
This series has been one that I’ve returned to time and time again, even though I get a different enjoyment out of it as an adult than as a preteen/teenager, obviously. Since the kids are the focus of the series, there’s a lot left to the imagination when it comes to their mentors! I’m especially drawn to the relationship between Lark and Rosethorn, whether you want to interpret their relationship as a deep platonic friendship or something more. I will eat up with a spoon anything having to do with the two of them and their relationship and feel like I will always want things with them, even if it's just different variations of the same thing over and over again. I love how both of them embody strength and discipline in very different ways and how they are very much at the core of this found family, even as the kids start to split off and have their own adventures and apprentices. How’d this all start? I'm absolutely fascinated with the tidbits about Lark's early travels and adventures - maybe their paths crossed long before Winding Circle! How’d they decide that they wanted to stay at Discipline? How much changed after Rosethorn’s stroke? Did Lark have to find out the hard way how particular Rosethorn is about her garden? How do they find a moment’s peace/spend that moment together when the kids are around? This could be set any time in their friendship/relationship, really I just think it would be something neat to explore! If you do want to go shippy, I am all for sexual content here.
Dracula (Novel)
Requested characters: Mina and Lucy
Reading Dracula as an adult versus an edgy teenager, you notice more things that you'd kind of shrugged off as quirks of the era, like Lucy and Mina's...very close friendship. Mostly how it's put on the same level as Mina and Jonathan's marriage and love, and that that love is held up as an example of a deep and enduring love. I don't need Mina and Jonathan to be broken up or worked around, but I would love to see more of Mina and Lucy! I'm totally here for AUs if that's the route you want to go down, and there are so many! Both of them vampires, except Lucy got to Mina first, Lucy as a vampire and Mina human, or even both of them just in the times leading up to the events of the novel. Mina is so competent that I can't help but think that things might've turned out very differently if she'd known about vampires sooner...
The Night Circus
Requested characters: Hinata and Tsukiko
I am just so fascinated by these two! Between being drawn together by the challenge either way, they're clearly meant to balance each other, with the sun and moon/fire and water theming. I would love to see literally anything for them, either from their challenge or earlier. How long did they know their love was doomed? What was the final spark to cause Hinata to intentionally lose? How hard was it for Tsukiko to change her magic from water to fire? I'm especially intrigued by their challenge, set in a country still closed off to foreigners - how were things different for magicians?