Yuletide Letter (2023)

[millepertuis]

(Any treats are welcome!)


Dear Writer,

Hello and a happy Yuletide to you! I hope you like what we got matched on as much as I do.

I want to stress that my optional details and this letter are very much optional indeed and are only meant to serve as additional information in case you're looking for ideas. Aside of DNWs, you can go wherever your inspiration takes you and I'll be absolutely delighted with your gift.

I hope you have fun writing, and thank you!




GENERAL LIKES:

canon/canon divergence settings, character/relationship studies, unreliable narrators, mutual obsession!!, codependency, characters learning to be happy, identity porn, found families, best friends in love, antagonists in love, slow build, competence porn, female friendships and female agency

on the more light-hearted side of things, i love banter and silly antics and domesticity and i love all the usual cliché tropes (mutual pining, mistaken to be dating, fake relationship, accidental relationship, accidental marriage, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, soulbonding, bed-sharing, temporary amnesia, mistaken identity shenanigans, etc.)

on the more serious side of things: loyalty kink!!, king and lionheart dynamics!, people on a mission, morally gray characters, amoral characters, righteous characters, where do you put the line and what do you believe in and what are you willing to compromise on and what are you wiling to sacrifice, just the different ways people relate to right and wrong and guilt and responsibility and all that jazz; time travel shenanigans; unhealthy dynamics as long as they're recognized as such by the text if not by the characters; characters who aren't quite there yet—there being a healthy dynamic or being good or happiness—but want to work together or push each other towards it


GENERAL DISLIKES:

unhappy or generally depressing endings, character bashing, rape/non-con, (permanent) major character deaths, unrequited love, cheating*, outright PWPs, nominated characters being romantically or sexually involved with people outside of the ships requested
*a bit inevitable in some of the prompts but i'd rather it wasn't the focus
**you are welcome to bash, kill off or straight up never mention choi yoo jin's husband, or bumseok's father, or juwon's father

• BEYOND EVIL; han juwon, lee dongsik

Watched it twice in two months, so as you can imagine I feel totally normal about this show.

they literally rewrote my brain chemistry, i am forever changed as a person, etc. etc.

cat-and-mouse psychosexual games with your murder suspect? mutual annoyances to partners? breaking and entering as a love language? kneeling at someone's feet in the rain and vowing to follow them into hell? emotionally fraught hand-holding? they really do have it all.

i cannot rhapsodize about all the reasons i love them without spoiling the hell out of any innocent passer-by but the OBSESSION and the MANIPULATION and the TRUST and the GUILT and the HURT/COMFORT. i want to unpeel their psyche. i would read anything about them at any stage in canon/post-canon. working together, working against each other, the break-up, the busan trip(s). they can kiss, they can punch, they can hug, they can arrest each other--i'll be happy to read about them in any shape or form!

 

possible prompts if you're looking for inspiration:

→ the one where han juwon decides to befriend / seduce / move in next to / move in with lee dongsik in order to learn all his secrets

→ the one where they're handcuffed together (it should have lasted LONGER)

→ the one with the canon-typical interrogations and/or stalking, bonus points if it's in front of everyone's salad

→ the one where only han juwon is allowed to accuse lee dongsik of crimes

→ the one where han juwon decides to date the worst/most annoying person he knows to piss off his dad

→ the one where han juwon didn't see the message on lee dongsik's phone and lee dongsik did end up framed

→ the one where han juwon is now minjeong's stepdad

→ the one where something happened between them before all the reveals and now the GUILT

• THE K2; choi yoo jin, kim je ha

My favorite noona romance!! Haha, I'm kidding... unless?

I just fell madly in love with their dynamic right from their first scenes together. She tries to have him killed but he escapes and goes to warn her off but she's laid a trap for him but he's prepared for it and takes her hostage to escape but then someone tries to kill her and he protects her and carries her out of a burning car??? The umbrella??? The way they grapple with each other, try to outsmart each other even once they agree to work together, the way they try to protect each other but are ultimately unwilling to compromise?

*chef's kiss*

I do ship the hell out of it but I'd be perfectly happy to read about them trying and failing to outsmart / kill each other, or you can wrap up a moral conflict in a bow and let them have fun with it, whatever you like!

(evil) queen and lionheart! *sobs* the umbrella!! *sobs*

i do not need them to kiss. i need them to know they have found their perfect match/greatest enemy in each other. i need them to know beyond doubt there can never be any common ground between his unwavering integrity and her need for power and control, and i need them to try to find it anyway. (they can also kiss)

 

possible prompts if you're looking for inspiration:

→ the one where she didn't [spoilers] and he's supposed to leave but doesn't

→ the one where he does stop working for her but keeps stopping her more morally dubious plans

→ the one where she divorced her husband or never married and still end up hiring kim jeha

→ the one where idk there's a mole in her organization and a dire threat to her life and they have to go on the run together and there's probably only one bed

→ the one where they have to pretend he's her boytoy for [reason]

→ the one where someone leaks to the press that they've having an affair, haha, how awkward, why would anyone think that!

→ the one with groundhog day or time travel fix-it?
→ the one with the identity porn where she's very happy with new bodyguard / secretary kim je ha, but who could possibly be this mysterious agent defeating all her plans?
→ or possibly the one with the identity porn where je ha is starting to get very attached to his new boss, but who could possibly be the evil mastermind working from the shadows?

• LIFE WITH DEREK; casey mcdonald, derek venturi

one of my oldest ships! if you're still into this show in 2023 you're probably also into them, but i am perfectly happy to read about their platonic obsession to defeat each other if it's not your thing! and i am also very happy getting into the thorny issues of stepsiblings falling in love. and also very happy to side-step the issues and bask in a love story complicated only by their terrible personalities. so go where your heart leads you!

i loved how on paper they're polar opposites--he's the popular slacker who doesn't care about anything! she's the nerdy rule-follower who cares about everything!--but their core is the same: the eldest child of a ditzy single-parent household who must have Absolute and Undisputed Control of their Life, the House and also their Friend Group at All Times.

i loved every ridiculous conflict and shenanigans they had, i loved their family trying to navigate their all-out war, i loved every time they banded together against another enemy.

 

possible prompts if you're looking for inspiration:

→ the one where the venturis moved with the mcdonalds instead

→ the one where their war continues on to college

→ the one where they ruin accidentally-on-purpose each other's romantic prospects (....so canon)

→ the one where they pretend not to know each other in college and/or everyone thinks they're dating or had a bad break-up

→ the one where george and nora break up (temporarily or not) and they are.... no longer..... forced to deal with each other?? what a relief! (?)

→ the one where derek moves with his mom or casey with her dad and they are.... no longer..... forced to deal with each other?? what a relief! (?)

→ the one where they met and started to date before they found out their parents were getting married

→ the one where they PRETEND to date in order to get their parents to break up

→ the one where they take a road trip to (insert location)

• MY MISTER; lee ji an, park dong hoon

This drama. This drama!!

this show and these characters and this relationship ruined me as a person. we see these two people who are so incredibly sad brought together by circumstances and helping each other through the most difficult moments of their lives, and then letting each other go, and it fucked me up.

i also do not need them to kiss. i need them to sit quietly in the same place and draw strength from each other. i need them to recognize themselves in each other. i need them to choose to be kind to each other. (they can also kiss)

i’d love just anything featuring the two of them. post-canon reunion? missing scene? canon with magical realism? a quiet moment in the neighborhood? i /would/ read an entire fic of park dong hoon walking somewhere in silence while she listens to him breathe.

 

possible prompts if you're looking for inspiration:

→ the one where their ‘affair’ was exposed

→ the one where he found out she was spying on him differently

→ the one where they run away for idk bad debt collector reasons

→ the one where they work together post-canon

→ the one where the neighborhood tries to matchmake them. are they good at it? they could be! are they discreet about it? no.

→ the one where they end up living together with her grandma

• TURING'S CODE; guan yue, wen tianhe

I keep up with the manhua and I'm caught up to the English TL (around chapter 50) so if you've finished the novel one way or the other, I'd appreciate it if you could avoid specific spoilers?

the ultimate exes to lovers. each and every one of their scenes feels like balancing your heart on the edge of a very, very sharp knife. they loved each other so much, and they tried so hard to hold onto each other, and they couldn’t anymore but they still love each other /so goddamn much/.

i'd love to read just about any stage of their relationship, when they’re kids, when they’re living together in england pre-relationship, their early days as a couple, during their break-up, after their break-up, anytime, anyplace.

 

possible prompts if you're looking for inspiration:

→ the classic ‘we broke up but we have to pretend to still be together for Reasons’

→ the one where they woke up married (get them drunk in vegas and you KNOW they would)

→ the one where there’s a terrible storm right when they go their separate way in (was it Tibet?) and the airport has shut down and they’ve broken up but there is Only One Bed at the nearest hotel

→ the sci-fi AU where wen tianhe is an engineer and guan yue an android (sorry, prometheus who i didn’t even think to nominate)

→ the one where prometheus tries to matchmake (even more) (results may vary)

→ the one where one of them has amnesia and forgets they broke up

→ the one where they have to get married for (insert reason)

• WEAK CLASS HERO ONE; ahn suho, yeon sieun

me during the first few episodes: some people should be allowed to just snap
canon: you got it

boy who needs a nap like no one i've ever seen in my life and boy who naps a lot make friends/fall in love and beat up bullies: the series. sometimes it lasts in friendship and sometimes it [incoherent sobbing]: the series. grown-ups are evil: the series.

i can't really say anything more about this show or these profundly beloved characters without spoiling anything and/or running off crying, so don't take this lack of verbiage as a lack of love but as a surplus of it!

i cannot possibly express how much i NEED some hurt/comfort, hold the hurt. happy missing scene? post-canon fix-it? canon divergence fix-it?

 

possible prompts if you're looking for inspiration:

→ the one with post-canon recovery

→ the one with post-canon amnesia

→ the one with the beach episode where nothing hurts?

→ the one where the early stage of their relationship when they're still sizing each other up before the complete and utter devotion lasts a little longer and maybe they fight?

→ you know how they keep taking on bigger bullies? the one where they take on bumseok's dad

→ the one where sieun kind of moves in with suho and his grandma (and youngyi)

→ the one where they go to eunjang together