Mistletoe Exchange Letter 2021
Oct. 22nd, 2021 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitsunerei88Dear Mistletoe Creator:
Thank you for creating for me! I hope something in my likes or prompts sparks your interest and that you enjoy writing as much as I’m sure I’ll enjoy reading! If anything is confusing, please feel free to reach out to the mod for help, as I’m usually quick to answer questions!
You’ll notice that some of my prompt sections are longer than others—that doesn’t mean anything except that I’ve requested them often enough that I’ve had time to hammer out a proper paragraph for them. I will love pretty much any pairing that I’ve requested equally, so don’t worry about length of the prompts!
General
General Likes:
General Dislikes:
In general, I don't take well to crack fic, soapbox fic/issuefic, amnesia fic, body swaps, cringe comedy, and plots based on miscommunication or jealousy. If there is hurt, I would like comfort, or I often just can't get through it—same goes for angst (unless explicitly requested, of course!). That said, these are general dislikes--they're not DNWs, I’ve liked fics with all these themes, and if you have an idea that you’re worried might come close to one of these but where these aren’t the focus, don’t worry and go for it.
Hard DNWs:
Please note that these are my general hard DNWs. In some cases, there may be sections where some (or all!) of them won't apply (especially in OW), and in that case follow what was in the sign up.
Skip Beat!
Tsuruga Ren/Mogami Kyoko
I’ve always loved this pairing! From their start as enemies, through to a mentorship relationship, then onwards to being in love but basically having Too Many Issues and Not Enough Emotional Intelligence to cope. I love that Kyoko’s aiming for the top of her profession—and that Ren is helping her with it.
For these two, I would love some winter-themed fluff! Snow, and hot chocolate, and having to deal with Christmas Specials, and giant poofy coats and all the things! I’m happy with tropey set-ups like “the power went out” or “there was only one bed”, or on the other romantic end, I’m also good with smut or PWP on this request. Look, there have been over 250 chapters of this manga and sexy times for this couple are overdue.
Bridgerton Series
Francesca Bridgerton/Michael Stirling (Bridgerton - Quinn)
Francesca’s story is, without a doubt, the hardest hitting of the Bridgerton series. I don’t think I’ve gotten through this a single time without crying, because there’s just so much grief wrapped up in the romance. It feels serious, and it is serious, and therefore I have a special place in my heart for it.
For Francesca and Michael, I’d love something lighter—something that shows they’ve fully come through on the other side. Given the theme of this exchange, I’d love something appropriately holiday-themed, with snow and ice and hot tea or cider, or even the luxury of hot chocolate (which must have been rare given the time period)! Alternatively, I’ve read the epilogues, so kidfic with John (and Janet) would be wonderful too! Or—Modern AU? Honestly, I love these two, just make them happy because they’ve gone through so much misery.
Tortall
Kora Ingensra/Ersken Westover (Tortall)
Kora and Ersken come from such different worlds—Kora is a mage in the Court of the Rogue, while Ersken comes from a respectable family and serves as one of the Provost’s Dogs. Where do they draw the line between home and work? How does Ersken’s family react to Kora if he ever takes her home?
I’m also happy with more on how they got together, or everyday fluff. Their first Midwinter together would be great, too!
Yukimi noh Daiomoru/Nealan of Queenscove (Tortall)
If I have an OTP, it may be this pairing. I love Neal as a character because he’s got so much going on behind him—he’s the oldest page in years, and reading between the lines, it’s clear that he entered knight-training because his two elder brothers died and left him as the heir to the duchy. He occupies a position of high privilege, being heir to a duchy, and he isn’t afraid to wield that authority if it suits him. He’s also funny, and he’s self-deprecating—in short, he’s complicated, and I love complicated characters.
And there’s Yuki, and everything we know about Yuki can be summed up in a few sentences. She’s Yamani, one of Princess Shinkokami’s closest friends; she’s from the noh Daiomoru house, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious houses in the Yamani Isles. She’s a mage, because she goes to the Midwinter mages party. She’s “plump and peppery”, and she can wield the shukusen and naginata, and the bow. She joins the Queen’s Riders.
And somewhere in Squire, Neal and Yuki have a whole romance that culminates in their engagement at the end of his Order that we just don’t see. It’s aggravating enough that I have written their romance three separate times (in Unwilling, call me a fool, and two swallows) and it’s not enough, damn it.
So please: write me an intense Neal/Yuki romance. Make it full of chivalric courtly love, make it a full medieval-style courtship, give me a dreamy medieval romance where they’re both conscious of their status and there are chaperones and sneaking hand-holding, let alone a kiss, is a big fucking deal. Fill it with wistful, yearning vibes, and all the pining. All the dramatic, angsty pining, especially when Neal goes off to war.
Or: blow up the sparks and give me their first night together. Are they shy? Established-relationship fic also works for me—give me Yuki’s first visit to Queenscove! Pregnancy and kidfic are also wonderful, and certainly in Neal and Yuki’s future since he is the heir to the duchy, and I’d love to see them being deeply in love around their first pregnancy and child.
Or: screw the rest of that, Modern AU would also be excellent. Is Neal a rising fencing star struggling to balance his tournament schedule with the demands of medical school? What about his brothers in this case; are they setting the standard for him, having both gone to the Olympics? What about Yuki—is she an international student recruited for her own skill with the blade or other athletic skill? How do they meet, and how do sparks fly? Though, if you do this, while I’m very partial to fencing, that’s because I actually fence, so… unless you also fence, it might be easier if you just picked hockey. Or rugby. Or another sport on the violent end that I know absolutely nothing about, because fencing culture is special.
Numair Salmalín/Veralidaine Sarrasri (Tortall)
If Neal and Yuki are not my OTP, then it’s probably Numair and Daine. Despite their age difference, I think they work in a way that neither of them could work with anyone else. Numair is one of the most powerful mages in the world, which sets him in a class apart; Daine is half-divine and also one of the most powerful mages in the world. Both of them are slightly terrifying to everyone else around them. They can understand each other in a way that no one else can, and I love that for them. And I also love the fact that their age difference causes conflict.
I’d love more on their romance! Unlike many of the others, theirs plays out more or less within The Immortals, but I want more. Tell me about when Numair realizes his feelings; we know that six months before they end up in the Realms of the Gods, Daine has unicorn fever and is delirious and he swipes a bit of hair for his locket. What was his thought process there? Or, tell me about the immediate aftermath of the Immortals War—outside the desperation there, how do they find their place together? When does Daine move into Numair’s rooms in the Palace, and when does she finally agree to marry him and why? Smut is also fine, though for Tortall in general, I prefer first-times and gentle sex.
Or: Modern AUs for these two are also fun, because they really blow up the age difference issue since, well, a 14-year age gap might not have actually been that startling in the time period of Tortall, but today it certainly is. I love having this set on a university campus too, because it works for these two so well because they are dorks, and I also loved my university years. So set Numair the biology grad student/professor against Daine, the precocious freshman, and all the drama!
Original Works
Knight/Lady (M/F), Prince/Princess (M/F)
These ones are very plain and are an invitation for any sort of historical or historical/fantasy romance. I really love medieval (or faux-medieval) settings, filled with all the chivalry and not-touching-each-other and formality. I particularly like the medieval setting because women of this period had more power than they did in later Regency and Victorian eras, both owning land and signing contracts under their own name—the main reason we don’t believe they did is because our view of the medieval era is shaped by the Victorians. For more on this, see this article!
Therefore, I’d really like to see a fic that shows the lady and princess not as helpless, but as agents acting within the confines of their society. No, they can’t vote—but they hold the power of land, and the power of family, and often the power of religion, and I’d like to see the men around them respecting that and negotiating around that on those terms.
Princess Deprived of Her Throne/Coup Leader Who Caught Feelings (M/F), Princess Deprived of Her Throne/Loyal Knight with a Dark Secret (M/F)
If the above is a request for straight up historical romance with marriage negotiations, this is a request for the same but with everything having gone wrong. There are coups! Princesses who have lost their land! Knights who may or may not have been involved and who may or may not regret it based on the circumstances! There are coup leaders who are either using the princess to consolidate power, or who have genuinely fallen for her! Honestly, I love fic that handles the consequences of coups, war, revolutions, etc.
For these pairings in particular, I explicitly opt into graphic violence (look, I like my wars messy), noncon and dubcon (because… I like my post-wars messy).
Teenager/Irritatingly Attractive New Step-Sibiing (M/F)
When I was a teen, I discovered someone on Fictionpress who wrote a fic that I really liked off this premise. Unfortunately, they removed it some years later, and there is now a hole in my heart where that fic should be. So please: I would love some stepsiblings falling in desperate love and dealing with the complications within their family. I particularly love an enemies-to-lovers trope here, or hate-sex turning to actual affection, or something along those lines. Open to PWP on this prompt as well.
Happy holidays and I hope you enjoy creating!
Thank you for creating for me! I hope something in my likes or prompts sparks your interest and that you enjoy writing as much as I’m sure I’ll enjoy reading! If anything is confusing, please feel free to reach out to the mod for help, as I’m usually quick to answer questions!
You’ll notice that some of my prompt sections are longer than others—that doesn’t mean anything except that I’ve requested them often enough that I’ve had time to hammer out a proper paragraph for them. I will love pretty much any pairing that I’ve requested equally, so don’t worry about length of the prompts!
General
General Likes:
- Fics that are character-focused, character-driven, and deal with character exploration or character development. Show me aspects of a character I never considered before, or explorations of how a character's upbringing influences their worldview!
- Fics as challenge, whether it be a challenge on canon, on fanon, on fandom, or a comment on our own reality!
- A focus on relationships, particularly how a character interacts with the world around them and other characters based on their upbringing and worldview.
- Thematically, I love when characters are put in a tough spot, moral ambiguity, and themes around honour, duty, and responsibility.
- All flavours of AU. Canon-divergence, Modern AUs, Mundane AUs, crossovers, etc, especially if it interacts with one of the above.
- Worldbuilding, especially through in-universe documents (please consider this an opt-in to pretty much whatever in-universe document or weird in-universe storytelling device you can dream up).
- Romance of all varieties: fluff, happy endings, drunken confessions, friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, fake marriage, arranged marriages, established relationships, slow-burn, shovel talk, shotgun weddings, and pining (mutual or otherwise). In general, I prefer M/F pairings.
- Smut-wise, I love first times, gentle sex, rough sex, possessive themes, mild BDSM (e.g. bondage, spanking with a hand), D/s with femsub, impregnation and pregnancy.
General Dislikes:
In general, I don't take well to crack fic, soapbox fic/issuefic, amnesia fic, body swaps, cringe comedy, and plots based on miscommunication or jealousy. If there is hurt, I would like comfort, or I often just can't get through it—same goes for angst (unless explicitly requested, of course!). That said, these are general dislikes--they're not DNWs, I’ve liked fics with all these themes, and if you have an idea that you’re worried might come close to one of these but where these aren’t the focus, don’t worry and go for it.
Hard DNWs:
Please note that these are my general hard DNWs. In some cases, there may be sections where some (or all!) of them won't apply (especially in OW), and in that case follow what was in the sign up.
- Character bashing. In general, I like to imagine that all characters are like people—they're complex, and they have an array of good points and bad points.
- Except otherwise indicated, non-canonical major character death, graphic violence and torture (graphic being “more than what is in canon”), non-con or dub-con, PWP or large age differences (>15)
- Adultery or infidelity (specifically, this is mostly about the betrayal--if you have a plot where two people are married for convenience and happen to have other relationships, that wouldn't trigger as long as everyone knows and doesn't care)
- Smut-wise, unless it’s indicated above in my likes, I’m likely not going to appreciate anything kinky. To be more specific, I DNW A/B/O, age play, humiliation, bloodplay, cannibalism or vore, watersports, scat, mpreg, snuff, or underage (<15).
Skip Beat!
Tsuruga Ren/Mogami Kyoko
I’ve always loved this pairing! From their start as enemies, through to a mentorship relationship, then onwards to being in love but basically having Too Many Issues and Not Enough Emotional Intelligence to cope. I love that Kyoko’s aiming for the top of her profession—and that Ren is helping her with it.
For these two, I would love some winter-themed fluff! Snow, and hot chocolate, and having to deal with Christmas Specials, and giant poofy coats and all the things! I’m happy with tropey set-ups like “the power went out” or “there was only one bed”, or on the other romantic end, I’m also good with smut or PWP on this request. Look, there have been over 250 chapters of this manga and sexy times for this couple are overdue.
Bridgerton Series
Francesca Bridgerton/Michael Stirling (Bridgerton - Quinn)
Francesca’s story is, without a doubt, the hardest hitting of the Bridgerton series. I don’t think I’ve gotten through this a single time without crying, because there’s just so much grief wrapped up in the romance. It feels serious, and it is serious, and therefore I have a special place in my heart for it.
For Francesca and Michael, I’d love something lighter—something that shows they’ve fully come through on the other side. Given the theme of this exchange, I’d love something appropriately holiday-themed, with snow and ice and hot tea or cider, or even the luxury of hot chocolate (which must have been rare given the time period)! Alternatively, I’ve read the epilogues, so kidfic with John (and Janet) would be wonderful too! Or—Modern AU? Honestly, I love these two, just make them happy because they’ve gone through so much misery.
Tortall
Kora Ingensra/Ersken Westover (Tortall)
Kora and Ersken come from such different worlds—Kora is a mage in the Court of the Rogue, while Ersken comes from a respectable family and serves as one of the Provost’s Dogs. Where do they draw the line between home and work? How does Ersken’s family react to Kora if he ever takes her home?
I’m also happy with more on how they got together, or everyday fluff. Their first Midwinter together would be great, too!
Yukimi noh Daiomoru/Nealan of Queenscove (Tortall)
If I have an OTP, it may be this pairing. I love Neal as a character because he’s got so much going on behind him—he’s the oldest page in years, and reading between the lines, it’s clear that he entered knight-training because his two elder brothers died and left him as the heir to the duchy. He occupies a position of high privilege, being heir to a duchy, and he isn’t afraid to wield that authority if it suits him. He’s also funny, and he’s self-deprecating—in short, he’s complicated, and I love complicated characters.
And there’s Yuki, and everything we know about Yuki can be summed up in a few sentences. She’s Yamani, one of Princess Shinkokami’s closest friends; she’s from the noh Daiomoru house, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious houses in the Yamani Isles. She’s a mage, because she goes to the Midwinter mages party. She’s “plump and peppery”, and she can wield the shukusen and naginata, and the bow. She joins the Queen’s Riders.
And somewhere in Squire, Neal and Yuki have a whole romance that culminates in their engagement at the end of his Order that we just don’t see. It’s aggravating enough that I have written their romance three separate times (in Unwilling, call me a fool, and two swallows) and it’s not enough, damn it.
So please: write me an intense Neal/Yuki romance. Make it full of chivalric courtly love, make it a full medieval-style courtship, give me a dreamy medieval romance where they’re both conscious of their status and there are chaperones and sneaking hand-holding, let alone a kiss, is a big fucking deal. Fill it with wistful, yearning vibes, and all the pining. All the dramatic, angsty pining, especially when Neal goes off to war.
Or: blow up the sparks and give me their first night together. Are they shy? Established-relationship fic also works for me—give me Yuki’s first visit to Queenscove! Pregnancy and kidfic are also wonderful, and certainly in Neal and Yuki’s future since he is the heir to the duchy, and I’d love to see them being deeply in love around their first pregnancy and child.
Or: screw the rest of that, Modern AU would also be excellent. Is Neal a rising fencing star struggling to balance his tournament schedule with the demands of medical school? What about his brothers in this case; are they setting the standard for him, having both gone to the Olympics? What about Yuki—is she an international student recruited for her own skill with the blade or other athletic skill? How do they meet, and how do sparks fly? Though, if you do this, while I’m very partial to fencing, that’s because I actually fence, so… unless you also fence, it might be easier if you just picked hockey. Or rugby. Or another sport on the violent end that I know absolutely nothing about, because fencing culture is special.
Numair Salmalín/Veralidaine Sarrasri (Tortall)
If Neal and Yuki are not my OTP, then it’s probably Numair and Daine. Despite their age difference, I think they work in a way that neither of them could work with anyone else. Numair is one of the most powerful mages in the world, which sets him in a class apart; Daine is half-divine and also one of the most powerful mages in the world. Both of them are slightly terrifying to everyone else around them. They can understand each other in a way that no one else can, and I love that for them. And I also love the fact that their age difference causes conflict.
I’d love more on their romance! Unlike many of the others, theirs plays out more or less within The Immortals, but I want more. Tell me about when Numair realizes his feelings; we know that six months before they end up in the Realms of the Gods, Daine has unicorn fever and is delirious and he swipes a bit of hair for his locket. What was his thought process there? Or, tell me about the immediate aftermath of the Immortals War—outside the desperation there, how do they find their place together? When does Daine move into Numair’s rooms in the Palace, and when does she finally agree to marry him and why? Smut is also fine, though for Tortall in general, I prefer first-times and gentle sex.
Or: Modern AUs for these two are also fun, because they really blow up the age difference issue since, well, a 14-year age gap might not have actually been that startling in the time period of Tortall, but today it certainly is. I love having this set on a university campus too, because it works for these two so well because they are dorks, and I also loved my university years. So set Numair the biology grad student/professor against Daine, the precocious freshman, and all the drama!
Original Works
Knight/Lady (M/F), Prince/Princess (M/F)
These ones are very plain and are an invitation for any sort of historical or historical/fantasy romance. I really love medieval (or faux-medieval) settings, filled with all the chivalry and not-touching-each-other and formality. I particularly like the medieval setting because women of this period had more power than they did in later Regency and Victorian eras, both owning land and signing contracts under their own name—the main reason we don’t believe they did is because our view of the medieval era is shaped by the Victorians. For more on this, see this article!
Therefore, I’d really like to see a fic that shows the lady and princess not as helpless, but as agents acting within the confines of their society. No, they can’t vote—but they hold the power of land, and the power of family, and often the power of religion, and I’d like to see the men around them respecting that and negotiating around that on those terms.
Princess Deprived of Her Throne/Coup Leader Who Caught Feelings (M/F), Princess Deprived of Her Throne/Loyal Knight with a Dark Secret (M/F)
If the above is a request for straight up historical romance with marriage negotiations, this is a request for the same but with everything having gone wrong. There are coups! Princesses who have lost their land! Knights who may or may not have been involved and who may or may not regret it based on the circumstances! There are coup leaders who are either using the princess to consolidate power, or who have genuinely fallen for her! Honestly, I love fic that handles the consequences of coups, war, revolutions, etc.
For these pairings in particular, I explicitly opt into graphic violence (look, I like my wars messy), noncon and dubcon (because… I like my post-wars messy).
Teenager/Irritatingly Attractive New Step-Sibiing (M/F)
When I was a teen, I discovered someone on Fictionpress who wrote a fic that I really liked off this premise. Unfortunately, they removed it some years later, and there is now a hole in my heart where that fic should be. So please: I would love some stepsiblings falling in desperate love and dealing with the complications within their family. I particularly love an enemies-to-lovers trope here, or hate-sex turning to actual affection, or something along those lines. Open to PWP on this prompt as well.
Happy holidays and I hope you enjoy creating!
