Dear Yuletide Writer 2025

General info/likes/DNWs

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I'm so excited to see what you make for any of these much-loved pairings. This letter contains prompts that are entirely optional, so do feel free to ignore everything else I've written here if you have an idea of your own (just minding my few DNWs!). However, if you do want to read my more specific thoughts and a few prompts to follow as closely as you want or just use as jumping-off points for your own ideas, keep reading! Mostly, I hope you'll write something that you enjoy.

My AO3 profile is GratiaAngelorum. I am opting in to treats, including art treats if you're so inclined!

General Likes:
+Age-difference relationships, also power-difference, status-difference, all kinds of differences
+Canon-divergent AUs and/or AUs that add something to the setting without changing the basic setting/context the characters inhabit in canon (e.g. I'm less into total AUs, more into 'a character made one different choice' or 'everything is the same except there are also werewolves' type AUs)
+Casefic or adventure of the week type plots
+Crossdressing, as a disguise for plot purposes or just for fun and sexy roleplay (or anything else -- you really cannot go wrong with ANY kind of crossdressing for me!)
+Getting together, first times, feelings reveals, making a new relationship public or seeking the approval of friends/families
+Established relationship that has been hidden is revealed, whether on-purpose or accidentally
+Fixit fic that gives happy or hopeful endings to characters who don't get that in canon
+Fluff, happiness, and sweetness especially for characters whose lives are otherwise not so happy
+Hurt/comfort with an emphasis on the comfort rather than the hurt
+Kissing: gentle kisses, rough kisses, languid kisses, desperate kisses, cheek kisses, tongue kisses, hand kisses, ALL kisses
+Loyalty, one-sided or mutual
+Marriage, especially arranged, forced, of convenience, of necessity
+Mpreg, whether common in-universe, rare, or so unheard of that they didn't even know it was possible
+One night stands, only/last chance with someone they've pined for, supposed to be a fling but they can't stop thinking about it
+Outside perspective on a surprising/unexpected/secret relationship reveal
+Pining that turns out to be requited
+Smut, with or without plot
+Stoic/taciturn/grim characters who have given up on love finding themselves unexpectedly head over heels for sunshiney characters despite their reservations
+Time travel or time loop plots
+Touch-starved characters overwhelmed with their reaction to simple, innocuous physical contact

+++My tastes are many and wide-ranging and include so many more things than I've thought of to put here. Basically, if I didn't DNW it, I'm open to receiving it, so if you have an idea that is none of these things, please feel free to go with it!

General DNWs:
-Breakup of requested pairing
-Death of a requested character
-Body fluids other than spit or come involved in sex (outside of sex blood, etc. is fine)
-Harm to non-sapient animals (characters eating meat is fine, but e.g. no hunting scenes please)
-Omegaverse, biological D/s verse, modern AUs for historical canons
-Romance/sex involving characters under 14
-Trans/genderbent characters unless canonical via in-universe or Word of God confirmation

Brides of Chance Creek Series - Cora Seton

Emerson Myers
Augustus Reed
+ My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

I'm really fond of this series, and especially the crotchety old General and his extraordinarily devoted young Sergeant, and I ship them so much. So many of my favorite things going on between those two: the age difference, the power-dynamics relationship, the hurt/comfort, the loyalty...!

-Any kind of domestic fluff where Emerson gets to be loved and supported and know that he belongs (and whom he belongs to)! He's such a sad lonely woobie for so much of his book and I adore him finally finding his home at the ranch and with the General.

-AU where Emerson does get married at the end of his book -- but not to Wye! I'd love a rewrite of that weirdly truncated wedding scene that ends differently... does the General stand up to object? Does Wye herself stop the wedding because she knows Emerson doesn't really love her? What do his daughters and the entire town think of the events?

-Backstory for the pair of them would also be amazing! How they met, how Emerson impressed the General enough to become his aide, how they became so intertwined and intimate... I will never be over that casual reveal in this otherwise everyone-is-assumed-het series that everyone at the military base thought Emerson got his job because he was sleeping with the General: how did that rumor start, and what were they doing that made everyone believe it?! I'd love an outsider-perspective on the pair of them. I'm just so curious what everyone else thinks of Emerson's fanatical devotion to his commanding officer.

-Emerson's book (Issued to the Bride: One Sergeant for Christmas) surprised me the first time I read it as a Christmas-themed book with a notable lack of Christmas in it for most of the novel, and especially for Yuletide I'd love a fic that has a double helping of festive merriment to make up for it! I'm a sucker for a Hallmark Christmas romance and I'd love any of that kind of trope you want to smush into a rewrite of the General/Sergeant love story, or something from any Christmas classic -- the bah-humbug General meeting the ghosts of Christmas? Poor Emerson thinking no one needs him until his guardian angel shows him what the ranch would be like without him on it? Or I'd also be very into something sadder or bittersweet: what the pair of them did for their Christmases during the years the General was estranged from his daughters, Emerson missing his parents, being separated for Christmas (but reunited for New Year's?). Or: Mistletoe! Snowed in together! Other assorted Christmas things!

-I think the canon magic in the series lends itself to intriguing spooky/dark potential and it would be great to see that explored! The General's precognitive dead wife('s ghost) interacting with Emerson? The low-level horror of the hedge maze with the magical standing stone that knows your future and can trap you inside and mess with your mind? The ranch itself as an entity that entices military men inside and never lets them leave to serve its own purposes? The General's daughters as a coven of witches (whether they're good or evil or just amoral)? Something with werewolves?! I'm very up for any take on the witchy magic in this world, whether cute-spooky or creepy or straight-up horror.

-I'd also be up for any kind of dark take on their relationship: a slavery AU, a Darkfuck Generalworld where officers are entitled to abuse and use the soldiers under their command, a world where the General has groomed Emerson (who apparently did become his aide when he was still a teenager!) and their relationship is coercive or unhealthy in whatever way... I love them being in love, but I also love the General being dark/cruel/evil and Emerson getting whumped, so if you're into that, by all means lay it on me! Dubcon/noncon is totally fine here, do whatever you want with them. :D

-I've requested this pairing many times in other exchanges; if you want to see more(!!!) prompts/likes/freeform tags I'd especially enjoy for them, check out all my previous requests here!

A Biltmore Christmas (2023)

Rebecca
James
Charlie
+ My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags; or it may use exceptions I explain in the form

I love this time-travel Christmas romance a lot, and my interest lies especially in the film-within-the-film, His Merry Wife! (1947). I think the glimpses we got of it in the trailer at the start of the film and the bits and pieces of the production are so intriguing and have a lot of potential for exploration, in any way you want to take it!

-The scene where James and Rebecca are dancing with Charlie hovering over James's shoulder and Cyrano-ing him (purposely badly!) and he spins them around and flirtily calls James 'kid'... the whole thing feels so shippy in all kinds of directions! Let the pining guy kiss the hot visible-only-to-him angel! Or let them all find a way to be together through the magical Christmas hourglass or whatever.

-The proposed alternate endings of the film got me really interested in different paths the movie could have taken, realistic for the era or not: if Charlie had changed his mind earlier and genuinely helped James get the girl before the last minute, if James realized he was in love with the angel instead of (or in addition to) Rebecca, if any of them used the hourglass to turn back time and fix their mistakes, or anything! I think a neat way to explore this would be through William West: his rejected drafts or notes to himself, his musings about love and life and film while struggling with his own marriage on the rocks, the increasingly wild and improbable scenes he comes up with in his stress dreams during the production??! If this interests you, I'd love any kind of metatextual look at the process of the creation of the film as well as/instead of the actual 'canon', so please feel free to go anywhere you like with this.

-In-universe, this was a huge hit film that became a Christmas classic and was very formative for generations of romance fans, and I'm always interested in meta formats and in-universe documents, so if you're at all interested in writing diegetic fic or meta for the film His Merry Wife! that might exist within the universe of A Biltmore Christmas, that would be incredible: did the fans of 1947 who spent many nickels to watch the film again and again see the slash potential between Charlie and James? Maybe a fan from the 1960s had thoughts on Charlie's or James' war service backstories? Or the discussions or fic written by fans in 1990s listservs or 2000s messageboards or 2010s Tumblr, or takes on any of the tropes or AUs that have been popular over the years (Sentinel/Guide, Canadian Shack fic, wingfic, omegaverse, tattoo parlor/flower shop…) literally anything would be so fun, follow your heart!

Don Estevan's Honor - Eleanor M. Ingram

Estevan de Lucena
Luís de Lucena
+ My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

-I ship Luís/Estevan with the power of a thousand burning suns! They love each other so much and always have, and I would love any kind of exploration of backstory for them: their years together on the sea, sleeping under the same cloak while at war, sharing a cabin while at sea, facing down storms and enemies and captivity for each other, trusting each other, adoring each other...! Or their future together, post-canon -- what does their relationship look like after they're both married (or in an alternate future where they marry each other instead)?

-The contrast between ascetic minimalist Luís and colorful maximalist Estevan, and how much Luís indulges his young cousin and how much pleasure it gives him to see him enjoying all his beautiful treasures, makes me really want Luís to be constantly giving Estevan extravagant gifts of jewelry and clothes and whatever! He's a pirate lord, he can get anything for his lover. Any kind of luxury porn and romantic fluff, or just cozy curtainfic with their mundane life together in between pirating and fighting and whatnot, would be amazing.

-Literally just let them fuck on Luís's fur-covered divan from the beginning of the story. Or in the gorgeous gem-like cabin on the ship. Or Estevan's sumptuous blue apartment in the castle. Or under that cloak while on campaign together. Anywhere!

Mercury Company Stories - Eleanor M. Ingram

Any [Corrie Rose, Jack Rupert, Jes Floyd, Ralph Stanton]
+ My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

These are four of my very favorite characters and two of my very favorite ships from Ingram's sexy-racecar-guy books, and I'd love anything about these characters, separately or in any combination, whether obvious or unexpected!

-Rupert is so wonderful and I just want more of him, whether on his own (how did he get into cars in the first place, does he have any family, what's his social life like in the city after the racing season?) or with literally any other character, because I think he goes with everybody: any driver he's raced with or helped train, any other mechanician at the factory or a rival mechanician on the racing circuit, any existing or original character from the Mercury stories or the wider Eleanor M. universe or crossovers with any other canon you like! I just think he's neat. (I also ship him with wild abandon with men and women alike, so seriously, go wild if you're into this.)

-Corrie, my blorbo, my sad whumpy boy with his big feelings and passion and all that beautiful suffering in silence, ahhh. I love him always. I'd love to know about his early love for cars and determination to race, his speedrun through college before he was seventeen, his relationship with his father and sister, or his races as a 'kid amateur' in the rose-pink car before he met Allan Gerard and his life changed forever! Or post-canon, his racing career, his relationships with other drivers (I'm very fond of George, specifically!)... or the end of his racing career and what happens when his father makes him quit -- this is so tragic to me and I'd love to weep over poor Corrie in the Business Factory where he has to work, staring out the window dreaming about cars. (I also ship him with every guy imaginable, so if you feel like it, feel free to give him a boyfriend, or two, or five, from anywhere!)

-I'm very wild about Rupert/Corrie, whose relationship is deliciously complicated -- I think they were really close to being actual friends (and Corrie for one seemed like he wanted to be more!) before the accident, and then of course everything was wrong, but I love Rupert's gradual road to respecting and liking Corrie again; any of the steps on that road would be amazing to see explored! Or after the events of the novel, when Corrie is welcomed home again -- we know from The Unafraid that they keep racing together, but is Rupert, the city boy who doesn't think much of the country, bound to stay on Long Island out of love of his driver(s)? Or does Corrie leave the rose-tinted Rose mansion to experience new things in the city? I'd love to see their futures both on and off the racetrack, especially if they end up together. ...Or just the pair of them fucking nasty in the Titan. :D (And speaking of The Unafraid, I'm so fascinated with Rupert's feelings about both Corrie and Danilo -- what if Corrie goes to Montenegro as well, or if Danilo survives and comes back to New York with Rupert? Is there ANY way the three of them could negotiate a relationship, either mutual all around or V-shaped? I think yes, and I'd love to read about that!)

-I'm so into the Beauty and the Beast story that is antisocial asshole Ralph Stanton discovering emotions and bisexuality and becoming a better person through love of a sunshiney young man* (*terms and conditions may apply) :') Anything about either of them or both of them together would make me so happy -- backstory, missing moments during the novel (those two days they spent together in happy seclusion on the train, did they not kiss even once?? I must know) or their future together! The novel tantalizingly ends on Stanton and the newly-christened, somewhat-gender-ambiguous Jess going off to get married and I'd love absolutely anything about their marriage: the wedding night, the two of them working out how to be the socially-acceptable Mr. and Mrs. Stanton when the situation requires it while also allowing Jes to follow his mechanical passions and Stanton to get the man he fell in love with in the first place. Which is his real victory in the book's title! Stanton Stays Winning <3

-I'd also just love outsider perspective fic about Stanton/Floyd and how the other racecar folks see their relationship, especially with everyone knowing that Stanton has never had a friend before and now he can't bear to let Floyd out of his sight and gets jealous over other drivers flirting talking with him? Boy. I love his utter lack of chill and subtlety when it comes to Jes and I want everyone else to notice this, too. Also! Someone on meme once suggested a reversed-situation AU where Jes is really a boy who has to masquerade as a girl for reasons, and I think that's delicious and would love to read anything in that 'verse! Especially Stanton taking his big gay realization in stride and just being over the moon at the knowledge that Jes loves him back as himself, not just as "Jessica", aww. (And they can still get married! No one's going to know!)

The Twice American - Eleanor M. Ingram

Any [Abel, Corey Bruce, Nilo Valdez, Vasili Arloff]
+ My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)

I'm most interested in either of the two obvious romantic pairings here, Corey/Nilo and Vasili/Abel, but also any of these characters on their own or in whatever combination you want would be lovely! Corey must have known Vasili before his accident when he was a child and it would be fascinating to see their reunion, or I bet Nilo and Vasili will hit it off immediately at the little shoe house, or maybe Abel's silent strength and beautiful cello playing are a comfort to Nilo when he stays at home while Corey is off in the war? I love all these characters and would love any story you can imagine about any of them.

-Corey/Nilo surprised me by becoming my biggest OTP in a book chock-full of shippiness in all directions. They honestly read as a romance to me throughout the book, from all Nilo's playful flirting and urging Corey out of his awkward shell, to the two of them holding hands so often and looking at each other for reassurance in tense moments, to Nilo's guilt and self-reproach over his unintentional betrayal of Corey and Corey's tender reassurances that he never blamed him, to the reveal of THE RING!!!! God, that ring still has me boggling. I sincerely think they're just straight up in love and basically engaged at the end of the book and it's delightful. Nilo has been in love so many times before, but it was never real before; Corey spent his whole life in hopeless boyish love with his cousin, but now he's a man and understands what love really is; man, I just love them so much I can't even. I'd love any glimpse of their relationship from its beginning to Corey going off to war (do they write each other passionate pining letters across the ocean? PLEASE yes, I would love this!), to him coming home, hopefully more or less whole, and them building a future together. Maybe having something like a wedding just for them, even though it can never be real. Or anything!

-I love Rosalind's two dads so much :') They have such a bittersweet, fairy-tale-like relationship going on in the background, the tragic beautiful prince locked in his own mind after his accident, and his faithful, silent caretaker who's never left his side and protects his daughter, not to mention the wildly romantic artistic drama of Abel's music and Vasili's dancing... ahhh, they're so lovely. Anything with the two of them would be so amazing, honestly: backstory from their first dramatic meeting (Vasili saving Abel's life!), or their secret romance when Rosalind was young before Vasili's accident! The hard times after the accident and how Abel holds it together and cares for him while their future looks so uncertain, or bright moments once they have Rosalind back and are living in genteel poverty together, with nothing but each other... or what their future looks like when they move to the little shoe house! I think a fairy-tale AU, or very bittersweetly, Vasili's perspective where his life seems like a fairy tale where he's always young and beautiful and dancing and his daughter is always a child and Abel is always playing his cello for him would be so lovely. ;____; Please make me cry about them! Or smile! Or both!