Dear Author: Yuletide 2025

[poppyseedheart]

Hello dear author! Thank you so much for writing something for me :) I wanted to open this letter by saying that I am generally an easily delighted recipient, so please try not to worry about whether I'll like what you write for me. I love Yuletide and I love gifts and I picked fandoms to request that I'd enjoy a wide variety of stories about!

I also gladly and gratefully accept any treats that someone might feel inspired to write for me! 

If you're looking for some more guidance, here are some general likes/dislikes (and, after those, fandom-specific thoughts).

My likes:

• character studies
• experimental formats or povs — totally open to 1st or 2nd person
• angst and open endings
• (i also enjoy romance and happy endings i am not only an angst monster)
• "what if?" canon divergent experiments
• queer narratives
• explorations of lore or worldbuilding
• humor
• big swings and wild choices
• sex for the sake of character and/or relationship development
• flawed people making mistakes
• breakup/makeup
• bodyguard au (always gotta include it)
• i'm open to mcd! if the spirit moves you feel free to kill people

My dislikes:

• pwp
• pure fluff
• full-on aus with no parallels or ties to the original canon (e.g. a hitman au where they're politicians trying to take out the competition would make sense to me; an au where diana is a barista and 47 is a regular is less of interest to me unless you get really weird with it)
• pregnancy as a central plot point (mentions or subplots totally fine)
• omegaverse
• hybrids

For the fandoms I requested:

Ocean's Echo

• I'd love if you preserved the soulbond and/or an allegory to it! It's my favorite thing about this canon
• Would love a Surit/Tennal focused story, either getting them together in an alternate world, diverging from canon, established relationship post-canon or au stuff, or some combination of those things

Persuasion

• I just ADOOORE these characters, especially Anne girl of all time
• Truly feel free to go nuts here, I could see an au that explores Anne's story from a different angle being incredibly interesting
• Also 100% down for a story that looks at things from a side character's perspective, or from Wentworth's
• Love epistolary stories and this is The Romantic Letter Story of course so again, go nuts

Hitman

• This game is such an enduring hyperfixation for me
• I love Olivia and would love to see her with at least a small role here!
• My favorite thing about this series of games is the blend of seriousness and humor, and I'd love to see a story explore or play with that. It's kind of absurdist (47 somehow rides away on flying dolphins) but keeps the stakes high and grounded (47 in Berlin listening through stolen earpieces)
• My favorite levels for narrative and setting purposes in the most recent games are Paris, Miami, Berlin, Hokkaido, Thailand, Dartmoor, Mendoza, and Isle of Sgail

Elsinore

• What's better than a Hamlet time loop? Nothing. If you just wanted to narrativize a run of this game I'd be perfectly happy
• That said, I think it's ripe for experimentation! A fic with its own loops or choose your own adventure? The events from a different character's perspective? A version where Ophelia becomes aware that time is looping? A plot that's doomed to tragedy?
• What I love most about this game is that there's so much room for discovery and play.
• Also I just love Ophelia! Regardless of what pov you choose I'd love to see lots of her <3

Exordia

• Read an advanced copy of this book before it even came out and I haven't been the same since
• My faves are Anna and Ssrin, but there's soooooo so much to explore with this book and its very open ending!
• You could flash back or play in the first few chapters of bizarro domestic alien life, hang out mid-book or diverge from canon, or show us a snapshot of post-canon life for Anna now that the dust has (temporarily) settled. I was loving her vaguely self-destructive sexual escapades in the denouement.
• I could also see so many fascinating aus of this being interesting, especially considering the book's own emphasis on narrative and storytelling as powerful entities in and of themselves.

The Devil's Plan

• As you may have seen I have tagged Hyungyu and Hyunjoon. Honestly the entire time I was watching season 2 I could not stop thinking about their FASCINATING dynamic. It's so weird competitive toxic in a deeply compelling way. Enemies to lovers who are still not that nice to each other.... I think of it still!
• I was so compelled by Hyungyu's quip about whether the KAIST MATH STUDENT knew how to do math. Diabolical
• No coherent prompts from me, I just need more of these guys
• My only request is no rewrite of the finale to write out Sohui, I love her and would be sad to see her progression to the top get unraveled by my obsession w these dudes and their weird dynamic ;__;

The Safekeep

• Whew! Women, am I right!!
• Would loveee some post-canon snapshots of their life after the events of the novel, because the last half of the book felt like such an intense and powerful whirlwind
• Would also be fully down for smut here <3 especially if it can offer us some glimpses into what makes of each of them tick and draws them to each other
• Could see a cool opportunity for canon divergence and a different way or timing of Isabel finally coming to understand who Eva is and what that means
• Really, anything with these two, I just need more of them

The Masquerade Series

• Disclaimer that I am writing this from page 50 of Tyrant, so you can assume I finished by the time your fic goes up (don't worry about spoilers!) but I can't help you with ideas or thoughts about the rest of that book here, I am so sorry
• This is one of my fave series of all time AND I have needed to take like a year in between reading each book to recover
• I love Baru and want to crawl inside of her brain and also would love to see her get some less wretched wins every now and again
• Baru/Tain Hu ANYTHINGGG would be amazing, including haunting ghost Tain Hu though by all means feel free to have her be alive
• Also adore Baru's relationships with everyone in Falcrest. Messy and fucked up. Love to see it
• Follow your heart here, if you know this series you know that anyone who loves it is super down for betrayal, tragedy, body horror, psychological warfare, anticolonial sentiments, worldbuilding, etc etc

Thank you so much for writing for me! Please truly take all of this as suggestions and prioritize writing something YOU are excited about. Happy Yuletide and good luck with writing!!

Comments

[arundels]

just here to say high five re the devils plan 2 lmao

[poppyseedheart]

there was truly some Sauce in the dynamics