Candy Hearts Exchange Letter 2024

[slumber]

{{ Dear Candy Heart }}

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 I hope you're as excited about this exchange as I am!

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 }}

Ratings: G to E are fine!

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 over AUs. I love magical realism, but especially when it's baked into canon settings!

Tonally I gravitate to lighter fare, but I'm also very happy with 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!

Opt-in stuff that people might be hesitant about that are totally okay with me: (stealing this from marks because I found this very helpful) any form of dubcon (sex pollen, somno, drunken shenanigans, mistaken identities, etc), omegaverse, trans characters, rule 63, infidelity (as long as ships requested are endgame, I don't mind if they're cheating on other people to be together), feet, needles, blood/gore mention, canon-typical violence, abusive pasts/parents, unhealthy coping mechanisms, reckless sexual behavior, pregnancy, vomit/emeto, incest -- like, I'm not sure if/how any of these would somehow pop up, but if you end up with something that does, don't worry about it?? XD

DNWs:
- COVID settings
- first-person POV
- noncon (dubcon and dubcon-adjacent situations are fine — as long as everyone's having a good time by the end works for me)
- kink-centered PWPs
- explicitly saying "I love you"
- unhappy endings (bittersweet/hopeful/ambiguous endings okay)

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!

{{ BecomeAManAgain (Twitter) }} {{ Hirano to Kagiura }} {{ I Ship My Adversary X Me }}
{{ Sasaki to Miyano }} {{ Scum Villain }} {{ Shota Oni }} {{ Seeing Double }}
{{ Tian Guan Ci Fu }} {{ Your Wish is my Command }}

{{ BecomeAManAgain (Twitter) }}

Alpha Male/Beta Male

General: ODAO! If you're not familiar with this "canon", I mean specifically these tweets. I just think we need to break the sexual tension that's clearly building between Beta Male and Alpha Male. Please pick any of their tweets as inspiration, or branch off entirely. I'd love it all! (This does not have to be omegaverse, by the way, but I wouldn't be mad if it is. They can be named Alpha and Beta, or have actual names of their own. Please don't use identifiable names from existing canons/ships! I didn't nominate a tag for worldbuilding because honestly, I'm not 100% sure I understand what that entails, but if you want to build out the lore of this BecomeAManAgain universe, I would platonically kiss you on the lips in gratitude.)

Possible prompts:
+ None of Alpha Male's usual moves seem to work on Beta Male. Are they just speaking different languages??

+ Beta Male and Alpha Male and their different love languages.

+ Beta Male in a tight red dress, with heels and those earrings ;)

+ Beta Male is tired of the way Alpha Male treats him, and decides changes are in order.

{{ Hirano to Kagiura }}

Hirano Taiga/Kagiura Akira

General: These boys are all so precious and cute! I love how soft and sweet this series is, and especially how Hirano and Kagiura are ready to bring their own strong brand of slow burn to the Pining Olympics aren't they? I'm pretty caught up to their manga story too, if that helps!

Possible prompts:
+ Feelings realization and/or getting together: Please I don't care what it is, I'm dying to know what you think would make Hirano realize he not just doesn't mind Kagiura's affections but maybe even welcomes?? or likes?? them???

+ A date: whether or not they're on the same page feelings-wise yet, maybe Kagiura manages to talk Hirano into going out with him on something more date-like~

+ Valentine's (or other holidays): Special occasions sure have a different meaning/feel a different way when you've got a kouhai with a massive crush on you, who you haven't fully rejected yet, huh?

{{ I Ship My Adversary X Me }}

Gu Yiliang/Wei Yanzi

General: ODAO! NIANGZI IS RIO!!!

TBH I don't know what I'd like here because I don't know how far the story's gotten, so I don't know what I'm missing so far? I got up to the translations until they were on hiatus, though, and I'm caught up with the manhua! But I adore how WYZ is such a sweetheart, and just the comedy of miscommunication that's going on with them so far!

Possible prompts:
+ NiangZi fall into bed together for reasons, but are confused about what it means. Cue confusion and mutual pining and mild angst that is ultimately resolved :'3

+ A scandal threatens Gu Yiliang's reputation, but Wei Yanzi comes in to..... save the day...?? Even he is surprised how!

+ Xianxia AU? Niangzi are disciples from competing sects that must work together after some kind of accident at a Sect Alliance Conference. Wei Yanzi, who has held many assumptions about Gu Yiliang, begin to see each of them challenged and broken down :'3

{{ Sasaki to Miyano }}

Hirano Taiga/Kagiura Akira

General: These boys are all so precious and cute! I love how soft and sweet this series is, and especially how Hirano and Kagiura are ready to bring their own strong brand of slow burn to the Pining Olympics aren't they? I'm pretty caught up to their manga story too, if that helps!

Possible prompts:
+ Feelings realization and/or getting together: Please I don't care what it is, I'm dying to know what you think would make Hirano realize he not just doesn't mind Kagiura's affections but maybe even welcomes?? or likes?? them???

+ A date: whether or not they're on the same page feelings-wise yet, maybe Kagiura manages to talk Hirano into going out with him on something more date-like~

+ Valentine's (or other holidays): Special occasions sure have a different meaning/feel a different way when you've got a kouhai with a massive crush on you, who you haven't fully rejected yet, huh?

{{ Scum Villain's Self-Saving System }}

Liu Qingge/Yang Yixuan

General: This was the first of the mxtx novels I read and MY GOD it was unhinged and hysterical and I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. The world that's geared toward ensuring everyone papapas, leaning into every kind of trope possible, the way BingQiu are Just Like That and everyone has to suffer around them. For SVSSS, while I'd also adore Modern AUs for them, I actually have fewer ideas about how those would go -- I imagine a lot of corporate AU, heist AU, etc would be fun to play with, but I have less specifics to go with, mostly because in canon, a) everyone stays alive >.>, and b) the world is so META already that it seems ripe for playing.

Possible prompts:
+ I just think giving LQG his own sticky disciple who ends up winning him over would be nice. For LQG.

+ LQG tries to get heroic and is hit with a papapa plot device that should have gone for LBH. Good news! He doesn't need to cultivate with demon blood to get rid of it! Bad news: whatever he's got to do, well, only YYX is qualified to do it. >:)

{{ Shota Oni (Manga) }}

Tsubaki/Yuu

General: ODAO! This is such a sweet little manga and I think Tsubaki's crush on Yuu is the most adorable thing in the world. I would LOVE to skip ahead to a few years later doesn't have to be THAT far in the future >.> and Tsubaki's all grown up. How does he change? Do his feelings? What about Yuu's? I think growing up, and the changes around how we think, and how other people think of us, is super interesting and would be a fun point of exploration, especially when it comes to developing feelings for someone who you didn't see that way before. (That said, I would also be down for a canon-setting story that follows the same vein of the manga, too, or maybe even wherever else your heart leads you!)

Possible prompts:
+ One of them goes away for a few years and returns to find things have changed in their absence.

+ Many, many, many years later, Tsubaki's crush on Yuu is now a fond little story everyone brings up for nostalgia/fun/light-hearted teasing, sometimes even around Tsubaki's girlfriends, who can't believe the cool, athletic Yuu used to have a crush on his older neighbor! But all kids went through phases like that, and it was always just a phase. Right?

+ Maybe a canon setting fic or just a short bit after canon where Tsubaki tries to act older than he is and make Yuu think differently of him, and how his efforts end~

+ Tsubaki grows closer to friends his own age and Yuu starts feeling some kind of way about this. Can be set anytime.

{{ Seeing Double }}

Lee Jae-woo/Lee Seo-woo/Ra Ohn

General: I loved this triangle as a triangle, yes, but you can't just give me twins and also only expect me to be fine with just ONE of them getting the guy!!!

Possible prompts:
+ Ohn chooses them both!

+ Jae-woo and Seo-woo decide to team up and apologize to Ohn

+ Ohn (or any one of them) has a very naughty dream >:)

{{ Tian Guan Ci Fu }}

Feng Xin/Xie Lian, Pei Ming/Shi Qingxuan, Quan Yizhen/Yin Yu

General: My god do I love so many of these characters, the plot, the nuance between everyone's relationships. I absolutely ADORE HuaLian of course, so if you're hardpressed to come up with anything out of these prompts I am so into any slice-of-life fluff or hurt/comfort or domestic piece you'd like to make of HuaLian post-canon, or maybe even in modern AU settings, but if you're up for it, there are also some rarer fare I've been eyeing!

Anyway feel free to fuck with genders all you want with these too. XD

Possible prompts:
+ Fenglian: Pre-ascension getting together and mutual pining? Forbidden feelings, esp with XL's role as Crown Prince as well as his cultivation style but maybe Feng Xin doesn't care about that, he'll have XL however way he can have him??

+ Pei Ming/Shi Qingxuan: Can we also talk about how Pei Ming is that annoying bestie for an older brother SQX adores??? Who is kind of a dick most of the time but actually, relatively speaking, not the WORST heavenly official there is??? Maybe Pei Ming and Shi Qingxuan have to work together over something and SQX sees a side to PM he hadn't seen before?? Maybe Pei Ming looks for SQX post-canon and just looks over him, whether or not SQX knows/wants him to/etc, and maybe it's more than just because SQX is his dead friend's younger brother? Maybe SQX and PM have one night together they never ever ever ever ever talk about! (OK not to shy away from all the complexities of, yk, Shi Wudu and He Xuan as well! I think acknowledging they exist and the way they make things between PM/SQX all the more complicated adds flavor to this ship as a whole!)

+ QuanYin: I cannot explain how drawn I was to their dynamics. I just LOVE Yizhen SO MUCH, he's such a well-meaning clusterfuck of a bumbling fool, Yin Yu is an overthinker with a heart of gold with a streak of maybe just, idk, the unfortunate luck of being adored by someone who shines so much brighter than he ever could, but wow. WOW. I love how little Yizhen understands that. I love how Yin Yu has so much resentment tied up in admiration AND goodness that just causes him so much frustration. I will take ANY AND ALL QuanYin forms, ngl! Pre-canon fellow disciple days, yes. Pre-canon early godhood days, sure! Post-canon fix-it??? Oh my god, yes, please! Missing scenes from canon? Times when Yin Yu was actually so close to Yizhen but hid away in time, times Yizhen almost, ALMOST found his shixiong again? *grabby hands* ANY modern AU where the dynamics of both these two rising up together but only Yizhen succeeding while Yin Yu falls into obscurity, and the ways they find their way to each other since? (Some kind of celebrity AU, professional sports AU, corporate AU, hell, gangster AU??) When I say I cannot get enough of them, I truly mean it.

{{ Your Wish is my Command }}

Cheon Chiwoo/Jin

General: Gosh this first season started out SO STRONG with all the monsterfucky goodness, and then we got JIN the purple-haired second lead of my heart!! I adored his clear devotion to Chiwoo and how deeply Chiwoo did care for him, even after finding out what he was. :'3

Possible prompts:
+ Mayhaps something in the canon-divergent fix-it vein?

+ No magical powers AU where Jin WAS just a coworker at the cafe and Chiwoo IS just a regular guy, and the two of them just regularly fall in love :'3 (Hwan as a jealous best friend or otherwise harmless plot device is fine here!)

+ What if Jin had gone through the reveal in a more dramatic fashion, despite his apprehensions? And what if Chiwoo defeats him through the power of friendship (and love)?