Yuletide Letter

[slumber]

{{ Dear Yuletide Writer }}

Thank you so much for signing up this year, and I’m so excited to have you assigned to me! I'm Slumber on AO3 as well, and this is only my second time signing up for Yuletide, but I loved the energy around rare fandoms this time of year so I hope to start making this a bit of a regular thing.

For what it’s worth I’m incredibly easy to please, so feel free to run away with whatever ideas you may already have! But if you wanted some prompts, I hope this letter helps inspire you.

{{ General Likes and Dislikes }}

Likes. It depends on the ship and the dynamics that attracted me to them in the first place, but I quite love canon-centric studies of relationships and dynamics and seeing the different nuances other people have on a character.

Tonally I gravitate to lighter fare, but most of these fandoms that I’m specifically drawn to (and which I’ve listed here) do get a little heavier as far as topics go! So pieces that go deep into character studies and introspection are more than welcome too!

If you would prefer to do something lighter and warm-hearted, I'm always up for those tried-and-true romcom tropes of idiots in love, mutual pining, friends to lovers, fake dating, didn't know they were dating, practically married, etc. 5+1 fics are great too! I love domesticity but not established relationship, so anything in that vein would be amazing too!

DNWs. There isn’t a lot that I don’t like — name a trope and I’d probably be able to come up with at least one work I’ve read in it that has stayed with me. That said, I don’t always seek out fic with first-person POV, BDSM elements, noncon elements, pregnancy, dark themes for darkness’ sake, and kink-centered PWPs. I've got to be in a specific mood for Major Character Death, terminal illness, wedding fic and kidfic (I know, I know), so I'd rather not have any of them.

The Prompts. Here’s a blanket disclaimer on the prompts here — feel free to absolutely ignore them and run away with your own ideas! If something I’ve said sparks an offshoot kind of idea, please pursue it! All I’d be truly happy for is another round at reliving these characters in their worlds, and I am SO looking forward to what you come up with whether it’s from one of these prompts or not! So please consider them starting points, if anything, or some way to get a sense of what drew me to these characters/fandoms to start. Thank you so much! <3

And with that, feel free to navigate to the fandom that makes sense to you!

{{ Chihayafuru }} {{ Given }}
{{ Ookiku Furikabutte }} {{ Wotakoi }}

{{ Chihayafuru }}

Ayase Chihaya, Mashima Taichi, Suou Hisashi, Wataya Arata

General: Might be gambling here asking for any of these four, but I am DYING and these once-a-month updates for the manga are killing me ahahaha. In general I love the way karuta is a sport for everyone, and I LOVE the way their relationships and friendships have developed over the course of the series. I'm an OT3 shipper, but if push came to shove, I do prefer Chihaya with Taichi (I've always been a sucker for the second lead), ALTHOUGH I would also be happy if she ended up choosing herself, ultimately. I am also very much NOT opposed to Taichi/Hisashi, as I think there's some interesting dynamics there? Nor Taichi/Arata. I love Taichi, and I'm not sorry for it I mean someone's gotta ahahaha.

Possible prompts:
+ OT3? Or gen! PLEASE let Taichi show up for Chihaya and Arata. I want to know your take on that resolution, if you're so inclined?

+ Some years into the future, a retrospective of this time in all their lives. Where are they now? What did they learn from karuta? Friendships? Who they were?

+ Anything dealing with the developing of relationships between either Chihaya/Taichi/Arata, Chihaya/Taichi, Taichi/Hisashi, or Taichi/Arata.

{{ Given }}

Kaji Akihiko, Nakayama Haruki

General: There’s a lot to love about Given in general, and I want to sink myself in the way that the mess of emotions that past relationships, hard relationships, heartbreaking relationships have of affecting how we move forward.

Possible prompts:
+ I'd love to know a little bit about what Kaji think of Haruki? I feel like we’re deep in the way his relationship with Ugetsu affects him, but was there ever a progression in the way he views Haruki from the moment they met?

+ It sounded like Kaji just sometimes crashes at Haruki’s when he’s too drunk or something — maybe a five times sort of fic for these moments?

+ Any kind of established-relationship, domestic cuteness between these two would be amazing as well!

+ Or how about during the early days of their band when there were just the three of them? I’d love to see what else we may not have as far as their relationship and friendship from these moments. Didn’t Haruki have an ex? Did they break up during? How was Kaji with him then? What about the years they have over Uenoyama, maybe a few moments when they were “parenting” him would be cute too!

+ I’m also a huge sucker for outsider POV fic, so if there are any you’d like to write from that focuses on how they view Kaji and Haruki, please go for it!

{{ Ookiku Furikabutte }}

Hanai Azusa, Tajima Yuuichirou

General: Ummmm, I love Hanai with all of my heart. I think it's so cute what kind of captain he is, and the way his rivalry with Tajima influences his approach to baseball is so interesting. And Tajima is HYSTERICAL. And HORNY. He's just got such a confident approach to things and I just love the disparity between the two of them.

Possible prompts:
+ Some kind of training camp/tournament road trip where the two of them are stuck together and get to square away their differences?

+ Future fic/developing relationship. I am not sure when, you can pick! Perhaps when they are third years, perhaps college and they are reuniting/running into each other, perhaps even further after that! When they're older and have a better sense of who they are on their own and around each other.

+ Specific future fic where Hanai is the coach for the high school team (or is helping coach the team) and Tajima's a pro player come to chat with the kiddos. Maybe they had something in the past that never got anywhere, or was broken off suddenly, or was just left unresolved? Or maybe there hadn't been anything before that had developed yet.

{{ Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku }}

Kabakura Tarou, Koyanagi Hanako

General: I love absolutely everyone in Wotakoi — it’s the strongest call-out manga/anime I’ve ever had the pleasure to see — but Hanako and Tarou own my heart. I’m just drawn to couples like them, who bicker constantly but still have moments where you see they obviously care for each other.

Possible prompts:
+ Something about their volleyball backstory? I just think it’s absolutely hysterical that these otaku used to live a sports anime life, and I’d actually love a look at their very own rivals-to-lovers origins!

+ Something domestic and cute in the present time would be absolutely great too! We usually see them from the perspective of Narumi, but I thought that scene where Hanako had fallen asleep on Tarou’s shoulder and he shushed Narumi and Hirotaka so as not to wake her was the absolute cutest! He can be so tender with her, I would love to see the times that happens! I don't know if you're caught up in the latest volume either, but!!! If you are!!! I would love something around that too >.>

+ I’d also love a bit more of a look into how Tarou sees Hanako’s crossplay infamy~ Surely she’s got a few fans as she seems quite popular — does that bother him? How much does he help her with putting costumes together?