Candy Hearts 2026
Dec. 16th, 2025 02:48 amHi! I'm Star. I'm starcunning on AO3 and tumblr; I am barely on anything else.
I thought I would get an early start. I solemnly promise to stop tinkering once I get my assigment email, which should be right around when you get yours.
Anyway, Chocolate Box was the first exchange I took part in, and the only one I've done more than once, so it's dear to my heart, and I'm grateful you'll be part of this new chapter with me. Please know this letter is meant to inform and inspire, not demand. If my prompts are helpful, great! If not, I'm sure your ideas will be delightful too. (I'm going to yap about Tsukihime a lot down below, not because I want to receive it more than other canons but because I think it needs more promo than the other canons. Please let your own enthusiasm be your guide.)
Please don't put too much stock into whose name comes first in the ship tag--even in my own nominations, I used the canonical tags wherever available, and will let you know if I have strong feelings about who does what to whom.
NSFW is okay! Treats are enabled and adored. I am happy to receive art treats even if I didn't request them in signups, but I am not interested in podfic treats. We'll do the general likes and dislikes first, and then: my (rare)pairs, let me show you them.
( General DNWs )
( General Likes )
( Smut Likes )
( Art Likes )
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Ships Requested: Jeritza von Hrym/Female Byleth Eisner; Edelgard von Hresvelg/Female Byleth Eisner/Hubert von Vestra
FE3H is the sixteenth entry in the Fire Emblem series of tactical roleplaying games. Fire Emblem is known for its tactical battle system, and also for its "support" system of rapport and relationship between your PC unit and the NPC recruits. The first act of Three Houses takes place principally at the officers academy of Garreg Mach Monastery, and its second act follows a timeskip and varies based on which of the game's factions you've chosen to ally your PC with.
Unfortunately for all the other leaders, I played Black Eagles first and still love it best.
I have played Three Houses, including the Ashen Wolves DLC, but have not played Three Hopes or any other side material.
Jeritza/F!Byleth
If you put a big, blond, living weapon character in front of me, they're going to become my favorite. This is a pattern I have recognized in myself and one in which I will happily indulge. Jeritza is incredibly into the idea that Byleth could kill him--and possibly she is the only one who could kill him, whether or not that's really true. I love the idea of two people that could (and under other circumstances would, or even should) destroy one another, and them refusing to do so.
( Prompts )
Edelgard/F!Byleth/Hubert
If you set your fic during Act 1 of the game, Edelgard is underage. Feel free to not mention it, age her up, or set it later for your own comfort.
Power throuple supreme! Edelgard and her left and right hands completely rebuilding Fodlan. I think that in public they're extremely stiff and proper, and even if there are rumors that the Emperor is involved with one or the other of them, it's met with skepticism.
( Prompts )
Ships Requested: Harlon Nayl/Kara Swole; Patience Kys/Gideon Ravenor; Patience Kys/Kara Swole
I wrote a promo post for this, explicitly in the hope of luring eyes from the main 40K tag.
The Eisenhorn series (probably more commonly called the Inquisition series outside of AO3) is a Warhammer 40,000 tie-in book series by Dan Abnett. Structured more or less as a trilogy of trilogies, there are currently eight novels, one novella, and a fistful of short stories and audiodramas. Each trilogy follows a different protagonist and their ensemble cast, though old faces have a habit of turning up again and again. If you are a new 40K fan or principally read in the Heresy era, it's an extremely strong introduction to "modern" 40K.
I love these books more for the ensemble casts than the plot, although there are certainly interesting mysteries and a lot of fun action. These people have decades and occasionally centuries of history with one another, and have faced unimaginable things together and have--if not exactly triumphed, certainly survived.
I'm current on the canon, including all the shorts, Advent Calendar drabbles, and what-have-you.
I'm here to put right what Dan Abnett tore asunder. These two were a canon couple in the Eisenhorn era that got broken up for the Ravenor era to do a bunch of unnecessary love triangle nonsense. I like them together and they clearly still have warm feelings for one another in canon, so.
( Prompts )
Patience/Gideon
Gideon Ravenor is my chewtoy, and for me there is no one for him like Patience Kys. You may be saying, "doesn't he spend 99% of his screentime in a box?" and you'd be right, but what I have always known and what Dan Abnett eventually figured out in Penitent is that this is no impediment. I have written most of the fics for this ship and would love to see your take on it. They get a few cute moments in canon, like the one where he realizes she's been reading his books in secret and is too embarrassed to say so, and he is too embarrassed to admit to her that he's extremely flattered by this. He is world-weary and more than a little jaded by the time of his trilogy, so the idea her affections can make him blush tickles me to no end.
( Prompts )
Patience/Kara
They're friends. They should be friends more, and maybe hook up about it. There's definitely a time in canon where Patience is extremely wary of men early in her canon appearance, and I've definitely written stuff where Kara has a friendly concern for Patience's sexual health after trauma and difficulty. This is kind of an extension of that.
( Prompts )
Tsukihime
Ships Requested: Inui Arihiko/Tohno Shiki; Inui Arihiko/Hisui; Inui Arihiko/Tohno Shiki/Hisui; Tohno Akiha/Tohno Shiki
I wrote a promo post here. Since this is my journal, I can freely link you the web-playable version of the VN.
( Tsukihime promo and recap )
Please play Tsukihime. I got into it because a friend was insane about it and would occasionally talk about it and I wanted to understand. Now I am the insane one who wants more people to talk to about it. The list of content warnings is ... extensive (mild spoilers at link), so prepare yourself as necessary.
I played the web version of the game using the mirror moon fan translation linked above. I have completed all routes, with the epilogue, and have read most of the bonus content included on the fan disk. I have started but not finished the manga, and have read some bits of Kagetsu Tohya out of context (thanks to my insane friend). I've watched all of the Carnival Phantasm skits about Tsukihime characters. I have played a little Melty Blood (Actress Again Current Code) but am not broadly familiar with Melty Blood stories.
I have not played the 2021 remake, including Ciel's new route, and do not expect this to change before reveals.
I like Arcueid a lot, but most of my interest in Tsukihime is in the Far Side routes and dynamics. The feats are cool, the fight scenes are stylish, the vampire lore is intricate, but everyone in the Tohno mansion is a grade-a weirdo and I want to study all of them.
Fandom-specific DNW: Remake-only characters or plot elements. As I mentioned, I haven't played it, and understand that some changes are substantial.
Arihiko/Shiki
This ship is canonically underage; both characters are seventeen. Feel free to not mention it, age them up, or set it slightly later for your own comfort.
Shiki and Arihiko have been friends since middle school--a feat, considering how few other school friends Shiki has to speak of. Arihiko is probably the most normal person in this entire VN, and a steady and selfless presence in Shiki's life that contrasts with the psychological torments that the plot throws at him. The little hints and glimpses we get in canon of the history of their friendship show that these two are actually good caretakers of one another, and when even the game itself jokes about the assumption they're a couple, it seems natural to want to see them together.
( Prompts )
Arihiko/Hisui
This ship is canonically underage; both characters are seventeen. Feel free to not mention it, age them up, or set it slightly later for your own comfort.
They never even meet in canon, but they should! Arihiko and Hisui are maybe the only two really good people in the VN--everyone else at one time or another puts their needs and wants for and from Shiki ahead of his well-being, and Shiki is far from an innocent. Hisui has a great deal of guilt over what Kohaku went through to spare her, and a powerful distrust of men that makes it difficult to even go outside. Arihiko looks like a reckless playboy at first, but his concern for Shiki's health and a few hints toward what he gets up to when he's not at school reveal a conscientious and kind young man. Hisui deserves to be treated right, and Arihiko's the guy that can do that.
( Prompts )
Arihiko/Shiki/Hisui
This ship is canonically underage; all three characters are seventeen. Feel free to not mention it, age them up, or set it slightly later for your own comfort.
Two great tastes that taste great together, basically.
( Prompts )
Shiki/Akiha
This ship is canonically underage; Shiki is seventeen and Akiha is sixteen. Feel free to not mention it, age them up, or set it later for your own comfort. They are also adoptive siblings, and depending on when it's set relative to canon, Shiki may think they are blood relations. If you are uncomfortable with this relationship, please write for another ship; I don't want any changes to their canonical family status.
I think that Akiha has been in love with Shiki since she was six years old. I also think that she feels a profound amount of guilt about the "accident" (and about everything that happened to Kohaku that she didn't notice) and a great deal of bitterness and anger about being functionally alone in that house with her father for eight years. She is angry with Shiki for rejecting her attempts to reach out to him, regardless of the validity of his reasons for not replying. But she's afraid to show any of this to the brother she just got back, because if he leaves again she thinks that it'll be for good. So she'll lean on any tie she has to him--including and especially that familial one--to make sure he stays, even when this is cruel of her. I think that maybe, in another world, this could have been beautiful, and in the world of canon, it ain't that, but damned if it ain't compelling.
( Prompts )
I think that about does it. Thank you for taking a look at my letter. I hope it was helpful to you, and that you have a wonderful time with the exchange.