Yuletide 2025

It's actually happening. After a couple of years of false starts, I'm actually gonna do Yuletide this year. I hope you share my excitement, and are forgiving with any mistakes I might make in this letter.
Anyway, hi! I am also starcunning on AO3. I'm starting this early but will probably tinker with it basically until signups close and I finalize my requests (e: we're done! I'm locked!). Please know that my ideas are meant to inspire and never to constrict. If my prompts are helpful, great. If not, I'm sure I'll be delighted by your ideas.
I realize that Yuletide is not a pairing-focused exchange, but I have the heart of a shipper, and I don't mind a little smut. I am open to treats, including art treats/Wrapping Paper challenge fills! Some prompts are called out for their appropriate mini-challenges, but I also collected my comments in those challenges below.

Here are the general likes and dislikes.

DNW:

• Generative AI, whether text or art. As I understand it, it's against Yuletide guidelines anyway.
• M/M as a main focus, except where specifically requested.
• Rape. I'm pretty lenient about dubcon, but don't want persistence/wearing down resistance style dubcon. In the cases of supernatural influence, characters should end up enjoying themselves and not resent/regret the experience afterwards.
• Second-person POV or 'x Reader' style interpretations.
• Sexuality/gender angst; homophobia; etc. Characters should be at peace with their identities and any conflict or strife should not be on the basis of these things. I'll be more lenient about period-typical bigotry but definitely don't want it from the 'good guys' or any romantic interests, and queer characters should generally like themselves despite others' attitudes.
• Jealousy or infidelity as a major part of the emotional landscape.
• NSFW with characters under 16 years of age. If they are underage/teens, don't overemphasize their age.
• A/B/O dynamics.
• Unrequested setting swaps.
• No watersports/scat; menses; vomit; etc.
• Feederism.
• Somnophilia.

Likes:

• Canon-compliant fic and canon-divergent AUs.
• Interiority (lots of focus on a character's thoughts and emotional landscape).
• Explorations of complicated relationships and the ways they can grow and change over time.
• Characters torn between love and duty.
• Characters with a strong sense of loyalty.
• Reincarnation romance.
• Finding comfort in adversity.
• Angst (but with hope).
• Intertextuality.
• Trans and nonbinary characters, even in historical settings.

Smut likes:

• F/F
• M/F
• M/F/M
• Vanilla sex (100% okay! please don't feel you absolutely have to cater to the kinks I list here!)
• Femdom 
• Dirty talk
• Orgasm denial / edging / ruined orgasm
• Rope bondage
• Impact play (spanking, flogging, caning)
• Blindfolds
• Praise kink
• Semi-public sex (the thrill of maybe getting caught is especially crucial)
• Clothed/semi-clothed sex
• Guided masturbation
• Upending the assumed power dynamics of a given sex act. It's not inherently submissive to suck a cock, for example!

Art likes:

• Whatever you've got to offer!
• Nonstandard mediums! If you somehow crochet a Tsukihime-themed doily, I'm going to be floored.
• In the cases I've written fic for requested fandoms (I think just the Abnett series), you are welcome to draw a moment from my fic, if you feel so moved.

Mini-Challenge Comments:
There are definitely prompts in these that aren't replicated in my letter below, so if you have a particular theme in mind, perhaps there'll be a plotbunny there for you?

• Crueltide
• Yulebuilding
• Yuleporn
• Family Matters
• Unconventionyule
• Wrapping Paper
• Season's Treatings

Okay! I think that covers the basics. Let's talk about the fandoms I've requested.


Tsukihime
Characters Requested: All (Arcueid Brunestud, Hisui, Inui Arihiko, Kohaku, Original Tohno SHIKI, Tohno Akiha, Tohno Shiki, Yumizuka Satsuki)

Tsukihime is a visual novel by TYPE-MOON (writer Nasu Kinoko and artist Takeuchi Takashi), who would go on to become much better known for the Fate series, which nominally takes place in the same continuity. It has a couple of related properties--dubiously canonical sequel VN Kagetsu Tohya, and the fighting game Melty Blood, which has had several versions and enjoys grassroots popularity in the fighting game community. In 2021, the first two routes received a remake, and their first official English translation. The remaining routes are due to be released in the other half of the remake at some unspecified point in the future. It also has an anime adaptation that everyone likes to pretend doesn't exist, and a manga adaptation that synthesizes various routes together to try to create one cohesive narrative.

Our protagonist and narrator, Tohno Shiki, is a seventeen year old student who was in a near-fatal accident eight years prior. It left him in fragile health, so he was sent away to live with a cadet branch of the family, and his younger sister Akiha was chosen as heir to the family legacy instead. When the game begins (October 20th, 1999), the father who sent him away has passed, Akiha has become the head of the family, and Shiki has been recalled to the Tohno family home. Meanwhile, in town, a series of mysterious killings has been described by the news as the work of a "modern day vampire," but of course such things don't really exist, do they?

Realizing that Tsukihime had exactly two Shiki/Arihiko fics was my actual motivation to finally get it together and do Yuletide this year, and get myself in order in time for nominations--it was my timely reminder for just how dire it can be to try and read fic in a rare fandom! I coordinated all the nominations and will probably hit "all characters" but please do not think that you have to write one fic that has all the characters in it.

I played the mirror-moon web version of Tsukihime (2000). (Actually, at time of writing, I am on day 11 of Hisui's route and will be starting Kohaku's route on October 20th so I can play it in 'real time.') I will have finished the game and its epilogue by Christmas, and probably finished the manga, too. I have read sections of Kagetsu Tohya out of context, but playing it is on my to-do. I have not played the 2021 remake and am not familiar with with Tsukire-only characters or Ciel's new route--there's a reason she's not in the tagset. I have also not finished any Melty Blood stories. I have watched basically all the Carnival Phantasm skits, because my priorities are clearly well in order.

I'll be lenient with the 'rape' DNW here--I know it's prominent in backstory and, frankly, in canon. I still DNW it as a main focus and don't want it in ships I'm meant to root for! But it's a horror element in a few routes in the game, and I'm okay with Tsukihime fic leaning pretty dark in tone despite the fluffy-ass prompts I'm about to put out here. Crueltide fills welcome! On the other hand, a comedic take a la Carnival Phantasm or a slice-of-life story is also fine!

• My preferred ships are ... a mess. Shiki goes with almost everyone. So: Shiki/Ahika, Shiki/Arihiko, Shiki/Arcueid, Shiki/Hisui; Shiki/Satsuki; Arihiko/Hisui; I'm now intrigued by the possibility of Shiki/Arihiko/Hisui.
• Season's Treatings: Christmas in Japan is mostly a couples' holiday, so please feel free to give any shippy stuff a seasonal flavor.
• Christmas is also Arcueid's (self-selected! maybe first?) birthday! I would love a fluffy Arcueid birthday fic.
• Make the Yuletide Gay: So, as I mentioned, there's a dearth of Shiki/Arihiko fics, which is crazy to me given how much the game itself makes a meal of their relationship sometimes. I'm thinking friends-to-lovers, a monogamous dyad. Given how in tune Arihiko is to Shiki's "anemia," and Shiki's sidebar about being the designated sober caretaker when Arihiko drinks, caretaking is an obvious theme. I just like them and am shocked there's so little for them!
• Family Matters/Family Affair (Shiki/Ahika; not the twins): The end of the year is also when the Tohno household (Shiki, Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku) were planning to go on vacation.
• btw Arihiko/Hisui is my crackship. Apparently he's actually very sweet and nice, on good terms with his exes, and spends his free time doing sightseeing tours with senior citizens. I just want him to gently take her to a museum or something. :') She never goes outside, so she would need a lot of support, and I want to see her get it!
• Isn't it sad, Sacchin? Isn't it sad that your route never got released? 
• postcanon reunions for true ending Arcueid or Akiha routes with Shiki please. I love dying and being dead, but I also love being. happy
• "Original Tohno Shiki," or Capslock-kun, as he is affectionately known, is in the tagset for Tohno angst purposes (and Crueltide bait?)!

Time of Iron Series - Sarah Rees Brennan
Characters Requested: Rae/Rahela, Key, Worldbuilding

Time of Iron is an ongoing book series by Sarah Rees Brennan. The first book, Long Live Evil, was released in 2024. It was SRB's debut adult novel, and her return to publishing after a long period of illness. The second book, All Hail Chaos, is due out April 2026. A third entry is under contract.

Our main character, Rae, has been fighting cancer since high school. When she was sick, her sister Alice often read to her from her favorite fantasy-series-turned-cultural-juggernaut. Now, suddenly, Rae has been transported into the novels as Rahela Domitia, the Beauty Dipped in Blood--who doesn't even make it to the end of the first book. Determined to not just survive, but return home and get well, Rae rallies the other villains of the setting around her to change the narrative. Now if only she'd been actually paying better attention when her sister read her those early entries ...

I don't know. It's a really fun and indulgent book and I just like to swan around in it! I've read Long Live Evil, and my edition included the bonus short "Letters to My Lady from the Abyss."

• I do ship Rae/Key!
• Yulebuilding: I want someone to write fanfiction for the Time of Iron franchise as it exists in canon.
• Hell, I want someone to write a long reddit/BBS/whatever argument about the Time of Iron franchise the way people would effortpost about ASOIAF/Game of Thrones in its heyday. What's the canon's equivalent of R+L=J or whatever? I need to know.
• Yuleporn?: Okay, but Rae got sick before she got serious with her boyfriend in the real world, right? So everyone thinks Rahela's this femme fatale, but she and Key get down to business and she's actually an awkward virgin.

Eisenhorn Series - Dan Abnett
Characters Requested: Gideon Ravenor, Patience Kys, Wystan Frauka, Eleena Koi

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.

The first three books (the "Eisenhorn trilogy:" Xenos, Malleus, and Hereticus) follow the career of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, tasked with hunting down threats to the Imperium of Man. Aided by the colorful characters of his retinue, his centuries of service take him across the sector and into the darkest corridors of the Halo Stars.

The second set of three books (the "Ravenor trilogy:" Ravenor, Ravenor Returned, and Ravenor Rogue) follow Gideon Ravenor--once Eisenhorn's star pupil, a terrible accident left his physical body entombed in the hermetic tomb of his life support apparatus, but could not stop his ascension to Inquisitor. Many members of his retinue are familiar from the Eisenhorn era, but he relies on them in ways Gregor never did.

The third set of books (the "Bequin trilogy:" Pariah, Penitent, and Pandaemonium) are an ongoing concern, with Pandaemonium set to release someday, if we all behave. Beta Bequin is a young woman who is in training to serve the Inquisition, and a person of great interest to both Eisenhorn and Ravenor, who are now set at odds about what to do with her, the people who trained her, each other, and basically everything they once agreed on. Lots of other old friends make new appearances, and Alizabeth has allies of her own.

The novella, The Magos, was released after Pariah but bridges the gap between the end of the Ravenor books, the decades-long fallow period that followed their denouement, and the inciting incident that brings our old friends out to investigate the events on Sancour that comprise the Bequin books.

I'm current on the canon, including all the shorts, Advent Calendar drabbles, and what-have-you. My requests are principally for Ravenor characters because that era has my favorite ensemble, but don't feel restricted at all to the period of time that the Ravenor books cover! Casefic is great, but I also love thinking about them in their downtime.

I have one DNW for this fandom: I do not want fic that specifically focuses on Gideon's romantic relationship with Arianrhod esw Swedyr. It's fine to mention it or even ruminate on it as a past event, or as a background element in fic set when she's alive, but I just don't want it to be the main feature.

As 40K is the originator of Grimdark, Crueltide pairs well with this fandom!

• My preferred ship is Gideon/Patience; I also nominated Wystan/Eleena for shipbait.
• Gideon Ravenor is my chew toy. I often think of him, and of what the hell he did all that time he was mothballed.
• Gideon/Patience is my little canoe; it used to be that I knew everyone aboard personally, or near enough, but a second writer finally appeared. Huzzah. I think I have three fics on my page and a few more little drabbles that never made it over from tumblr (I'm starcunning there, too). This tag may be the best way to find them, though it has other things, too.
• Hey, what do you think happens if and when Patience finds out that Gideon didn't definitely know her sisters were dead? Could be a Family Matters fill if she goes looking.
• I'd also love anything about Patience and Kara's friendship.
• Wystan Frauka is my other chew-toy. The narrative has little time and less regard for him, but I'd love to know how he got picked up, why he is the way he is, anything, really.
• Yule Be First: Eleena Koi does not currently have a canonical tag. She takes over the Distaff after Bequin, and Wys was particularly upset about her loss at Majeskus. Blanks probably can't feel other Blanks, so it makes sense they'd be close. I also wrote a short thing about them ...
• Anyway, what do you do when you were an Untouchable for so long and now you're not? Now that doing the job has burned the one and only useful thing about you right out of your being? What becomes of Wystan Frauka after the Novena?
• And a Partridge in a Pear Tree: I also have a huge soft spot for Kara/Harlon. Treats only on these two--they didn't fit in my signup!