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we heard crimes often and softly ([personal profile] badritual) wrote2025-10-16 04:29 am
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🎄🎁 Yuletide 2025 🎁🎄

Dear Yulegoat,

Sorry it's taken me so long to finish this letter!

Welcome! I'm giallos and I can also be found at [tumblr.com profile] michaelormewood. I'm very excited we matched up for this challenge! I'm sure I'll be thrilled with whatever you decide to write, and I hope something here pings your interest! Gifts are enabled if anyone wishes to leave extra treats.

I like gen, het, slash, femslash, poly-ships (poly-v too), etc. You're welcome to interpret my character noms as any, rather than all, though you're free to include all characters in a fic if you want! I'm also okay with not including all of the nominated characters. Also, if you want to include unnominated characters, I'm okay with that too! I can be flexible.

I have used parts of previous letters to compose the body of this letter. If anything is confusing, or you have any questions or need clarification, you can reach me through the mods or you can anonymously message me via tumblr!

Table of Contents


  1. What I Love
  2. DNWs
  3. Stuff I Like
  4. Companion (2025)
  5. Don't Worry Darling (2022)
  6. Gone Girl (2014)
  7. The Lion in Winter (1968)
  8. Quantico (TV)
  9. Ready or Not (2019)
  10. Will Trent Series - Karin Slaughter
  11. Will Trent (TV)
  12. Mini Challenges


What I Love:

I'm really, really into gothic romance/gothic horror/horror of any stripe. I also love ambiguous/happy for now/sad endings. I love things that are not necessarily tied up with a neat pretty bow. That's not to say I don't enjoy a happy ending, though! This is mostly just to reassure you, the author, that if a happy ending doesn't seem to fit the story, or isn't coming, don't stress about it. I love endings that fit the story being told, regardless of whether or not they're happy. Aside from horror, I like romcoms, romcoms/comedies of errors, found family/families of choice, strong platonic friendships, broad comedy, understated/subtle comedy, cats (characters adopting/owning cats, turning into cats, caring for cats, cat familiars, werecats, etc.), religious and philosophical themes, postmodernism, and pastiche/epistolary to name just a few.

Stories don't necessarily have to feature the holidays, but if you want to write a festive story I celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah!

My main DNWs are listed below. Exceptions will be noted within the body of the letter:

DNWs:
• domestic violence/abuse
• violence against animals/animal death
• A/B/O, BDSM, and kneeling 'verses (fine with these tropes appearing as "one offs", not interested in universes structured around them)
• mpreg
• watersports/omorashi/scat
• mundane AUs (i.e. coffee shop, flower shop, cafe, high school/college, etc)
• vampire/werewolf AUs for non-supernatural fandoms/fandoms where they don't appear or exist (canon vampires/werewolves in supernatural-based fandoms are fine!)
• horror that centers on mental institutions/hospitals/etc.
• inclusion of current real world events (i.e. war, US politics, global pandemics, and so forth)

Some Stuff I Like:
• gothic/gothic romance/horror/ghost stories!!!
• southern gothic/midwestern gothic/suburban gothic/urban gothic/regional gothic in general
• space gothic (think Event Horizon and the Alien series)
• cosmic horror
• body horror
• monsters!!! sentient monsters!!! monsters that just wanna eat things!!!
• eldritch architecture/houses/houses that want to eat you
• eldritch nature/nature that wants to eat you
• eldritch spaceships/planets/etc. (that want to eat you)
• bodyswap
• gray morality/shady ethics/etc.
• forced/close proximity
• time travel/time loops/time fuckery
• pining
• ghosts/hauntings/etc.
• miscommunication (within reason)
• poly/poly-v relationships
• enemies to lovers
• friends to lovers to enemies to lovers
• friends to enemies to lovers
• unhealthy/codependent relationships
• obsession/obsessive relationships
• relationships with a power imbalance (i.e. mentor/pupil, priest/parishioner, older partner/younger partner, queen/subject, etc.)
• power imbalances/power dynamics inverted (i.e. the student in the professor/student relationship has/gains the power, parishioner has/gains power over the priest, subject controls the queen, etc.)
• manipulation/mindgames/brainwashing (especially mutual manipulation/mindgames)
• characters facing/dealing with mortality (of their lives, their livelihoods, careers, etc.)
• age gap
• platonic soulmates
• amnesiafic
• epistolary/social media pastiche
• future fic
• casefic
• ensemble fic
• found family/families of choice
• complicated relationships
• professional/career-related jealousy
• ritual sex/resurrection rituals
• public consummation of marriage
• witchcraft/witches
• scary/creepy/spooky interpretations of fairytales/mythology/folklore/etc.
• deals gone wrong (supernatural demon deals/deals with the devil literally or figuratively... not talking like business deals that fall through, although if that was a metaphor for something...)
• small town AUs (small town in the suburban gothic sense rather than cute, quaint villages and whatnot)

The following prompts are meant as suggestions. I'll be perfectly happy with any combination of Stuff I Like, if none of the ideas I've offered grab your attention. I also probably won't have prompts/ideas for every iteration of the characters I've nominated, but if you would prefer to focus on an individual character rather than a friendship or romantic pairing that's fine too!

Companion (2025)

Character(s):
Iris

Pairs/groups:
I didn't pick any other characters but if you'd like to include characters like Teddy, Patrick, Kat, Eli or Josh (or original human or companion characters) feel free to

Prompts/ideas:
I'd really like something set post-canon for Iris. What does she do after the credits roll? Does she try to rally other companions to revolt? Does she make a life for herself among humans? Maybe she teams up with Teddy? what if Iris tries to create a companion for herself?

Additional Notes:
Totally fine with something touching on the movie's themes, and I'll make an exception for this fandom wrt abusive relationships/intimate partner violence. I'd prefer it not be graphically depicted, though.

Don't Worry Darling (2022)

Character(s):
Alice Chambers
Frank
Jack Chambers

Pairs/groups:
Alice/Frank
Alice/Jack

Ideas/prompts:
Alice/Frank

I was very intrigued by the potential of Alice/Frank, and I'd love to see either a deleted/missing scene where they do hook up or a canon divergence or post-canon story set either in the real world or in Victory. I'm necessarily not looking for happy endings here; I love bittersweet or even "bad end" endings for a fandom and pairing like this (think something like Stepford Wives or Number 12 Looks Just Like You). Erotic sci-fi horror? Erotic sci-fi horror!

Alice/Jack
While watching the movie, I was struck by a "what if" scenario: what if Alice and Jack didn't actually know each other prior to entering Victory? What if the relationship was as much a fantasy as Victory was? (I was thinking something like, Jack and Alice know each other but Jack is interested in more while Alice isn't, and he believes Victory can give him what he wants.)

Additional notes:
I didn't pick any of the other characters, but feel free to sprinkle them in in the background. Background/past Frank/Shelley is fine too!

Gone Girl (2014)

Character(s):
Nick Dunne
Amy Elliott Dunne
Margo Dunne

Pairs/groups:
Nick/Amy
Nick & Margo

Ideas/prompts:
Nick/Amy

I'm really interested in post-canon stories. Is Nick as trapped as the book's final lines/movie's final scenes make it seem? If he is trapped is it something he's resigned himself to or something he welcomes? What happens to their relationship with the introduction of a child? What if Amy gets into a mommy vlogging/influencer era? 😂

Nick & Margo
I'm also interested in post-canon stories for Nick and Go too. Does Go hang around after the events of the movie or does she try to escape Nick and Amy's toxic web? Does she feel some sense of obligation because of the introduction of a child into the family? What happens to their relationship as the years progress? Does Go try to help Nick leave Amy? Does she, knowing Nick as well as she does, side with Amy?

Additional notes:
N/A


The Lion in Winter (1968)

Character(s):
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Richard I of England
Henry II of England

Pairs/groups:
Eleanor/Henry
Eleanor & Henry & Richard
Eleanor & Richard
Eleanor/Richard

Prompts/ideas:
More dysfunctional codependent family dynamics please! Transport Eleanor, Henry and Richard into a medieval-set Succession AU! Maybe they're a fucked up figure skating family, or Henry's a mob boss trying to pick the right son to take over his empire (while passing over his very capable wife)!

A few more ideas:

Eleanor/Henry
◊ Despite their contentious relationship, Henry and Eleanor did once love each other and reluctantly respect one another. Show a moment of respect and/or love between them.
◊ What happens the following year? Does Henry hold another Christmas Court with Eleanor?

Eleanor & Richard
◊ What about a glimpse of Richard's childhood, with Eleanor mothering her favored son?
◊ AU. After her death, Eleanor haunts Richard.

Eleanor/Richard
◊ I was really intrigued by the relationship between Eleanor and Richard in the movie. At times it seemed like they might cross the line. Give me one time (or more?) they actually did cross that line.
◊ AU(ish). Eleanor reacts jealously when Richard declares his intention to marry Alais.

Additional Notes:
Feel free to pepper in the other nominated characters if you wish.


Quantico (TV)

Character(s):
Ryan Booth
Alex Parrish
Shelby Wyatt

Pairs/groups:
Ryan/Alex
Ryan/Alex & Shelby / Ryan & Alex & Shelby / Ryan/Alex & Alex/Shelby

Prompts/ideas:
I hate hate haaated the ending of the show, with Alex and Ryan ending up with other people (esp Ryan marrying Alex's best friend and then possibly just dying, what kind of ending is that lmao). Anything that fixes their canon endings, with the two of them ending up together and having a happy (or as happy as possible) life together, would be lovely. Maybe Alex and Ryan raise Isabella together, or maybe just wipe out the entire third season and show how their lives would've gone if Alex hadn't ditched Ryan in Thailand while they were on the run. I'd also love missing scenes from previous seasons, or canon-shift AUs (maybe one or two things go differently; how does that change things for them?)

I'd love casefic featuring Ryan/Alex + Shelby or Ryan, Alex, and Shelby.

I'm not really into the idea of a poly relationship with all three of them together but I could get behind poly-v with both Ryan and Shelby involved with Alex but not each other. How would that dynamic change their relationships to/with each other?

Additional Notes:
I'm only interested in background Ryan/Shelby if it's to reference the past relationship and/or an offscreen divorce. You're welcome to mention past Alex/Mike, Alex/Drew, Alex/Andrea, etc. as much or as little as you want.

Ready or Not (2019)

Character(s):
Grace Le Domas
Daniel Le Domas
Mr. Le Bail

Pairs/groups:
Grace/Daniel
Grace & Mr. Le Bail
Grace & Daniel & Mr. Le Bail

Prompts/ideas:
Grace/Daniel

I love the idea of Grace trying to save Daniel through various means, especially if it veers into the grotesque, horrific, and/or humorous. Time loops/time travel, sex magic, resurrections, demon deals, etc. I'm also interested in stories where they both end up in the afterlife and either try to escape and/or join forces. (Also enjoy a good fuck or die scenario.)

I have a few more specific ideas:

◊ Grace and Daniel survive, but something follows them.
◊ The Le Domas family comes back (as zombies or ghosts?) and Grace has to destroy them all over again, but can she save Daniel this time?
◊ Post-canon AU. After the events of the movie Grace realizes she didn't survive and she's trapped in hell with the Le Domases, but she's given a chance by Mr. Le Bail to save herself- and Daniel.
◊ AU. After the events of the movie, Grace wakes up in the house she lived in with Alex, and believes everything was just a wedding-jitters nightmare. But she soon realizes things aren't as they seem. And what's Daniel's role in everything?

Grace & Mr. Le Bail
◊ Post-movie AU. Grace tries to make a bargain with Mr. Le Bail to save Daniel. Does it work?
◊ Post-movie AU. After she wins, Grace makes a deal with Mr. Le Bail. What does she ask for? Is getting her wish granted a good thing or does she get Monkey's Paw'd?
◊ AU. Mr. Le Bail is Grace's biological father. How does that change things?

Grace & Daniel & Mr. Le Bail
◊ Post-movie AU. Grace and Daniel both survive, but find themselves forced to play a new game for Mr. Le Bail.
◊ Post-movie AU. After Mr. Le Bail saves Grace and Daniel from certain death, they're forced to work off their debt for him by luring other unfortunates into twisted games. Are they able to save themselves?

Grace
◊ Post-movie AU. After she wins, Grace becomes the new Le Domas matriarch. Does this change her for the better or for the worse?
◊ Post-movie AU. Grace starts seeing worrisome signs in her child (conceived with Alex on their wedding day and born posthumously). Or is she just imagining things?
◊ Who was Grace before she met and married Alex?
◊ Post-movie. After the events of the movie, what happens to Grace?

Mr. Le Bail
◊ Is Mr. Le Bail the devil? Is he a demon or a spirit? Or is he something else entirely?

Additional Notes:
Mentions of past Grace/Alex are fine!

Will Trent Series - Karin Slaughter

Character(s):
Angie Polaski
Lena Adams
Sara Linton
Will Trent

Pairings/groups:
Will & Lena
Sara & Lena
Sara & Angie
Lena & Angie
Will/Angie / Will & Angie

Ideas/prompts:
Lena & Angie

Lena is a really fascinating character whose trajectory we follow throughout both the Grant County and Will Trent series. She has a real tragic character arc and her story is one of hardship, struggle, self-destruction, abuse, and misunderstanding until her final appearance in the Will Trent books. Given how the other characters tend to view Lena (as a fuckup, a murderer, a victim, a monster, etc.) I think the one character she never interacted with that she would really be able to relate to would be Angie Polaski. Lena seems to take her trauma and turn her pain inward, hurting herself, while Angie takes her trauma and turns her pain outward, hurting others. I think they'd be an interesting dynamic to explore.

I'd love to see something with Lena and Angie finally meeting: do they understand each other? Are they able to sympathize with each other? Or is it one of those things where they see themselves too much in the other person and decide to attack the mirror rather than face their pasts?

Lena & Sara
It's interesting to read Lena and Sara's interactions in the two different series because while they never truly get along, they seem to understand each other and sympathize in the Grant County books. After Jeffrey's death, Sara develops a vendetta against Lena. I'd really love to see something set during the time period of the later Will Trent books, after Sara and Will marry and Sara finally lets herself move on from Jeffrey's death, and Lena and Jared (Jeffrey's son) marry and start a family; will they ever be able to come to terms with their connected past? Or will these two always be at odds?

Sara & Angie
Angie is like Lena but on steroids. Naturally, Sara hates her too and Angie hates her just as strongly, to the point of stalking Sara, breaking into her home, and stealing from her. I'd love a story set during the earlier books, before Sara and Will nail down their relationship, when Angie is still a part of Will's life as his estranged wife. What if Angie and Sara met face-to-face prior to their meeting in The Kept Woman?

Will & Lena
Will seems to have a soft spot for Lena throughout most of her appearances in the Will Trent series, despite her self-destructiveness and the fact Sara hates her and blames her for the death of her husband. Why is that? Is it because he sees shades of Angie in her? Or even shades of himself? (Will doesn't turn on Lena until her final appearance, in The Silent Wife, and despite his loyalty to Sara his reaction to Lena seems very much tangled up with his past and his former relationship with Angie, more so than Lena herself.)

Will/Ange / Will & Angie
Will and Angie have a very complicated, toxic, emotionally and physically abusive relationship in the books and I'm not really looking for anything glorifying or romanticizing it. I'm more interested in something exploring some of the quieter or less chaotic moments, either when they were younger in the children's home or as missing scenes in the book. Or, perhaps, a post-canon thing where Angie comes into Will's life for a final time and they're forced to reckon with their pasts and their impact on each other once and for all?

I feel like a 5+1 format would work with Angie and Will's relationship too. 5 times Angie made it clear she didn't need Will in her life and 1 time she did? 5 times they helped each other and 1 time Will or Angie walked away? Knock yourself out!

Additional notes:
I'm fine with depictions of dysfunction, emotional/psychological abuse, manipulation, past sexual assault, etc. because... well, consider the source material. Not interested in graphic depictions of physical abuse or sexual assault,

Will Trent (TV)

Character(s):
Will Trent
Faith Mitchell
Angie Polaski
Michael Ormewood

Pairings/groups:
Will/Angie
Will & Faith
Faith/Ormewood / Faith & Ormewood
Angie & Ormewood
Faith & Angie

Ideas/prompts:
I love this show and I love the relationships between the main characters. They all just care about each other deeply, in different ways, which is great! Will and Angie has all that painful history and their romantic past as a framework for their current relationship, Faith and Ormewood knew each other pre-canon and were friendly but genuinely became friends during the most recent season, Will and Faith started off prickly and distrusting but have an almost family-like bond now, Angie and Ormewood have a sexual history and are partners but come off more like siblings now, and so on. All the relationships and dynamics are so good and I adore them all.

I really love casefic, canon-typical or canon-adjacent stories, darker takes that hew closer to the source material, trapped-together-and-forced-to-survive, and whatnot.

Will/Angie
I'll take Will/Angie in whatever form you want to give them to me. Pre-canon Will/Angie set at the children's home, post-canon Will/Angie with them reuniting after they've both had time and space (and therapy) to process their trauma and deal with their pasts. Will/Angie with Will helping Angie raise the baby after her relationship with Seth ends? I just really love Will and Angie and would like to see their relationship work out somewhere, if not in our universe.

Angie & Ormewood
Their friendship/partnership is very important to me, and I love the idea of two characters whose relationship essentially began because they had an extramarital hookup and THEN became work friends and eventually really close. They're the epitome of ride or die. Anything depicting Angie and Ormewood having to rely on each other and/or put their trust in each other would be great. Maybe Angie mother-hens Ormewood after his surgery and they learn some more things about their relationship through it?

Will & Faith
Will and Faith might be my favorite relationship on the show. They went from work annoyance to found family real quick, and while I feel like they both keep each other at a certain amount of distance, I also believe either one of them would take a bullet for the other. I don't quite buy them as a sibling-like relationship, but something close. I feel like in another universe, if Amanda had been able to adopt Will like she'd wanted, they would have grown up as cousins. What about an AU where Will and Faith actually did grow up together and lose touch; how would their prior history affect them after Will "betrays" Evelyn, Faith's mom, and they get partnered up together?

Faith/Ormewood
Faith and Ormewood are the pair that took me by surprise in S3, but now I love the idea of them together. They've been colleagues and friends for years, and now they've seen each other at their most vulnerable. If that's not the ground floor of a potentially really interesting (and good) relationship, I don't know what is.

I would love to see any sort of tropey situation, like undercover-as-a-couple, fake/pretend married (for a case?), secret relationship, hurt/comfort (that leads to more), reluctant attraction, unexpected feelings, second chance romance (either a second chance with each other or characters rebounding from breakups to a second chance at love with someone else), etc. I also love people who have had disappointments in relationships (like newly divorced Ormewood and presumably newly single Faith) or life in general (Ormewood and Faith both being single parents, Faith having a sometimes-difficult relationship with her mom) finding some common ground and making something out of it.

The core four of Will Trent are already sort of tangled up with both Will and Ormewood having previously been involved with Angie and Faith being Will's partner; how would Ormewood and Faith getting together further complicate things? Would either Angie or Will get jealous?

I'm well aware of the differences between book!Ormewood and TV!Ormewood, and the plot of Triptych, so playing around with that could be fun. Maybe Ormewood gets accused of a crime and Faith has to investigate him which leads to the two of them being on "opposite sides" of the law for the first time? And they learn things about themselves and each other? To be clear, I don't want 100% faithful book adaptations of Ormewood's character or trajectory. I'm more into how the show might handle giving Ormewood a similar dark plotline and how that might affect his relationship with Faith (maybe something more along the lines of "My Stupid Detective Brain").

I also enjoy the classic undercover-as-something, fake/pretend relationship, honeypot/seduction, sex pollen/fuck or die/something-made-them-do-it, h/c, emotional h/c, stranded or held captive together, competence kink, frenemies to lovers, fuckbuddies to lovers, secret relationship, mutual pining, reluctant attraction, etc. I'm not hugely into pregnancy/kidfic but I don't mind it for this pairing!

I don't mind slightly unhealthy dynamics, like trauma bonding or codependency. I am not looking for stories that focus heavily on unhealthy dynamics though.

Faith & Angie
Faith and Angie don't have a lot of scenes of just the two of them together, so I'd love to see them becoming closer friends as Angie navigates her surprise pregnancy (and how Faith's past might inform or affect her views as things progress).

Additional notes:
Mentions of background/past canon relationships (Will/Marion, Will/Angie, Faith/Luke, Faith/Charles, Ormewood/Gina, Ormewood/Angie, etc) is fine! Also, feel free to mix-and-match book backstory with show because there's still a bit we don't know about some character's backstories, like Faith and Ormewood.

Mini Challenges
Chromatic Yuletide 2025
Crueltide 2025

Once again, I'd like to emphasize that these prompts/ideas are only suggestions! Please don't feel constrained by them! Mix and match my favs/likes/prompts/etc. as you please, or come up with something completely on your own. Optional details are optional!

If you have any questions don't be afraid to contact the mods! Thank you and happy writing!