Yuletide letter 2025

[celamity]

Dear Yuletide author,

Thank you for offering to write for one of my small fandoms! I am Celamity on AO3 as well, and this letter, barring some formatting differences, is fairly identical to my signup.

Treats are accepted and always very welcome.

General Likes:

* Romance, pairings with strong emotional bonds, battle couples, strong teamwork
* Gentle physicality: hand holding, soft supportive touches, eyes meeting, light kisses, etc.
* Hurt/comfort with emphasis comfort
* Angst or pining that has a hopeful/happy ending
* Character studies, slice of life, humour
* Missing moments in canon
* Canon divergences within a given setting
* Wintery settings
* Midwinter celebration themed stories: preparing, or celebrating, or maybe enjoying a quiet midwinter night once things have settled down. I'd want something warm and cheery and maybe a bit funny, and there'd be nothing wrong with good-natured shenanigans. And maybe some reminiscing and feels.

Minichallenges:
With regards to Yuletide minichallenges, I have posted a few art prompts for the Wrapping Paper minichallenge, and would be delighted to receive anything for the Season's Treatings minichallenge or the Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational.

General Do Not Wants:

* Sex scenes - fade to black is fine
* Explicit violence and gore, maiming - canon typical violence up to borderline M rating is fine
* Cruelty to animals - horses being felled in combat is ok
* Cruelty to children, child death - as a rule of thumb, canonical child deaths and child mistreatment may be referred to, but I generally won't want to see it happening
* Non/dubcon, incest, omegaverse, reader fic, anachronistic therapyspeak
* AU setting, genderswap, isekai, crossover
* Downer/irrevocably hopeless ending, main character death
* Character bashing

Fandoms:

* 长歌行 | The Long Ballad (TV)
* 星汉灿烂 | Love Like the Galaxy (TV)
* Baldur's Gate I and II (Video Games)

1. 长歌行 | The Long Ballad (TV)

Li Changge, Ashile Sun. All.

Changge and Sun do not both have to be actively present in the story; one of them thinking or talking about the other is also fine.

I love the show's overarching themes of grief and growth. I love the bond between Changge and Sun and how they waste as little time as possible in becoming ride-or-die for each other, and I absolutely adore their slow burn, subtle, dorky and obtuse yet deeply devoted romance. I love their drift compatibility in both strategizing and combat, and how well they both understand each other's concerns and priorities, even when they disagree. I love their individual character growth over the course of the series, with her gaining clarity and him gaining independence, and I love how deeply they both care for their friends and their peoples.

I would love both gen and shippy stories involving these two.

Prompts:
* Moonlight talks: philosophical, strategic, romantic, or a mix
* Either of them saving the other
* Either of them taking care of the other
* Post-canon settling down - or finding something new to involve themselves with
* The two of them talking about lost friends and allies and loved ones, such as Gongsun Hen, or their mothers
* Relationships with their living friends and families
* Interactions with little Yuan
* Bandaging skills, and Changge's improvement in that regard

* Sun's perspective of the surrender at Shuozhou, and the time that followed
* How exasperated is Sun by her early antics, while he is just trying to keep her alive while she is still dead set on revenge?
* Something centered on Changge's time in the temple and all that she learns there, both about healing others and finding herself
* What if Sun had noticed the paper in the temple with his name written all over it?
* What if Changge told Sun, despite not needing further red tape, that she had already claimed him as her husband before her mother's tablet?
* When exactly did Sun start admiring her, how soon did that become smittenness, and how did that align with finding out that Shisi was no man?
* When and how did Changge start to grow feelings, and was falling off a roof involved?
* Changge's slow and arduous path towards learning How To Be Hugged By Your Man

Fandom specific Do Not Wants: Gender dysphoric or trans interpretations of Changge, non-canonical character deaths, Li Changge or Ashile Sun shipped romantically with anyone except each other, endgame Changge/Sun being made impossible, plot elements or details from the manhua that are not in the TV series

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2. 星汉灿烂 | Love Like the Galaxy (TV)

Cheng Shaoshang, Ling Buyi | Huo Zisheng. All, with exceptions

Shaoshang is required, Zisheng is optional.

(For simplicity, I'll refer to Ling Buyi/Huo Buyi/Zisheng etc. as Zisheng throughout this letter. If he is in your story, use whichever names that fit.)

Shaoshang: I love this impish little engineer, and I love her ultimate growth as a person and the progression of her relationship with another dysfunctional person who also was broken by his upbringing. I also love the way her enemies tend to get handled, how caring and careful she is when she finds something to care about, and the way she's more like her mother than either of them realizes.

Zisheng: Now here's a train wreck of a man. I love how competent and focused he is when he's being a general, how diligently he works to uncover the truth about Gu City, and the unswerving loyalty of his men. I love how subtly he begins to melt when exposed to Shaoshang, and how absolutely inept his first attempts at ingratiating himself with her and her family are. His path is a painful one, but in the end, he does make it through, and his renewed relationship with Shaoshang has a far stronger foundation, and a far better balance, than the mess they left behind.

For this particular fandom I prefer canon compliant, or only slight divergences that won't affect the overall plot.

Prompts:
* Shaoshang inventing things or constructing something
* Shaoshang getting to build their future home
* Either of them saving the other
* Either of them taking care of the other
* The two of them finding clues and unraveling plots together
* Shaoshang and food
* Interactions with friends and family - preferably happy ones
* Shaoshang's growth during her time in Hua county
* Shaoshang's growth during her five years in the Cold Palace
* Shaoshang learning grace and receiving affection from Empress Shen'an, both before and after entering the Cold Palace
* Her starting to actually love Zisheng in the first place
* Her path to forgiving Zisheng afterwards
* Pining (Zisheng can pine most of the time, Shaoshang wouldn't pine until much later), Zisheng thinking about her from early on
* Moments of actual bonding and understanding with Zisheng, before or after the five year break
* Reuniting with her friends after five years away from them
* A little lighthearted impishness from her more mature self in the end, or regaining some of the early delight that she lost
* New year's celebrations

* The mending of Shaoshang's relationship with Xiao Yuanyi: I see it as a process that started with the failed honey cake but was not fully completed until Yuanyi's arrival, assistance, and immediate deference to Shaoshang's command at the village. I would like to see more of the steps that they took on the way to Shaoshang gaining faith and confidence in her mother after their horrible year together.
* It is implied that Shaoshang accepts Lou Yao more for puppy love and his friendly, devoted deference to her, and later Yuan Shanjian more for pragmatic reasons, than for fully loving them. Bearing in mind that her and Zisheng are my OTP and endgame for this canon, I would like to see her feelings for either of her other suitors explored.

Fandom specific DNWs: focus on Shaoshang being punished or neglected by her mother, story set before Shaoshang's parents return, depicting Xiao Yuanyi as entirely bad, AU where Xiao Yuanyi is the perfect mother, Zisheng shipped romantically with anyone except Shaoshang, non-canonical romantic relationships for Shaoshang, endgame Zisheng/Shaoshang being made impossible, details or plot elements from the novel that are not in the TV series

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3. Baldur's Gate I & II (Video Games)

Anomen, Charname, Mazzy. All, with exceptions

I would like a story featuring any two of my three requested characters, or all three of them.

Anomen is a complicated character with so much potential, and I love seeing him grow into one of the many things he can become. I like him as both LG and CN, and also as LN trying to find his way, and I really enjoy seeing his role as a cleric and a guardian of Helm be emphasized.

Mazzy is the honorable and feisty mainstay of virtually all my playthroughs. She knows who she is and what she is worth, and the formal gates to knighthood are not going to stand in the way of her Doing What Is Right any more than her physical stature is going to slow her down. In many ways, she and Anomen are opposite sides of a coin; she has confidence where he has self-doubt, and he has opportunities, albeit lesser ones, where all formal paths are barred to her.

Charname can have a multitude of faces; I prefer my Charnames to be female, and of good or neutral alignment.

My OTP is F!Charname/Anomen and I would be very happy to see them in a budding or established relationship, but I would be equally happy seeing them working together, getting to know each other, or supporting each other in friendship.

I like to see Mazzy and Charname as strong supports for each other.

Mazzy and Anomen get a single, awful conversation in game before his Test, and nothing after. This, to me, has always been a horrible oversight, especially for a LG Sir Anomen; if the conversation was triggered she is owed an apology, and if his alignment takes a good turn, they ought to see things way too eye to eye for complete radio silence. In other words, I like to see them build a solid friendship from a rocky start.

My request is basically half a good-leaning standard party. Feel free to expand the group.

Prompts:
* Reminiscing about lost loved ones, sharing grief and comfort
* AU where Moira can be resurrected (with the party's help; I'd still want Cor to be useless)
* AU where the party learns of Yoshimo's geas before it's too late
* Anomen & Mazzy building friendship and understanding
* People supporting each other and working together as a team
* Conversations about respective deities and religions. Does Charname have a deity?
* Anomen going to Saerk's home - but not entering, not killing anyone, and not going back to his father
* Mazzy gaining more paladin-like powers as a Trueblade
* Mazzy getting accepted or at least recognized by an Order, possibly with Anomen campaigning and vouching for her
* Anomen being denied the Order in a way, and for a reason, that doesn't make him turn chaotic
* AU where Patrick lives


Fandom specific DNWs: BG:EE content, BG3 content, Evil Charname, Anomen portrayed as nothing but a screwup/jerk, Charname or Anomen shipped romantically with anyone but each other, dysfunctional party dynamics

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If you have any questions, please relay them to me via the mods.

Thank you!