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Yuletide 2025 Letter
Oct. 22nd, 2025 08:57 pmHi! I am also ardentaislinn on AO3. Thank you so much for volunteering to write one of my chosen fandoms! I really can’t wait to see what you come up with. Most importantly, I hope you have fun writing whichever of my fandoms it is. Any suggestions I make here are optional.
Here you’ll find:
My general likes | My DNWs
And prompts for the following fandoms:
반도 | Peninsula (2020) (aka Train to Busan 2) - Any (Characters in the tagset: Jung Seok, Min Jung, Joon Yi, Yoo Jin)
북극성 | Tempest - Paik San-ho, Seo Mun-ju
Round and Round (Hallmark TV movie 2023) - Rachel Landau, Zach Rubin
夜色倾心 | Night of Love with You (TV) - Leng Yehan, Qiqi
연애대전 | Love to Hate You (TV) - Yeo Mi Ran, Nam Kang Ho
My likes:
I love getting together fics most of all. I love almost every kind of trope (fake dating, slow burn, enemies/rivals-to-lovers, trapped together, there’s only one bed, “unrequited” pining (that is really requited), found families, etc.) I also like casefic, epistolary fic, consent, beta heroes, competence, communication, U/RST, positive endings.
I enjoy many kinds of genres, including romance, comedy, action, adventure, spy shenanigans, and more.
You may notice from the below that my likes/ships mostly involve broken but good-hearted men pining for amazing, fierce women, (and usually not feeling worthy). So that dynamic is strongly encouraged.
I also seem to be a bit preoccupied by characters who have been lonely for a long time finally experiencing intimacy again (or for the first time). And I don’t mean just kissing and sex (though that’s part of it, of course) but also everything from holding hands and hugging, to emotional connection and building relationships and families. I’m also perennially into the idea of exploring how faking intimacy (or being placed in an “intimate” situation) - through say, a fake relationship, or forced proximity - can create feelings that might not have developed otherwise. Particularly how that can tie into feelings around loneliness and relief from the particular ache that comes with that.
Happy endings (or at least hopeful endings) are preferred. Like, super, super preferred. I don’t mind angst at all, but it kinda has to be on the way out of the darkness by the end.
I also like smut, but it certainly isn’t a necessity. For smut, I’m (sadly) fairly vanilla. But I also like light bondage, cunnilingus, shower sex, and accidental/consensual voyeurism, (Particularly guys taking matters into their own hands when they think they can’t be with their lady, and the woman stumbling across him mid-act. Writer’s choice whether the woman joins in or gets embarrassed)
Dislikes/DNWs:
Miserable endings. Death of a requested character. Humiliation. Drug use/drug mentions/addiction. Self harm/abuse. Non-con/rape. Heavy kink. Incest. Animal harm. Underage sexual content.
반도 | Peninsula (2020) (aka Train to Busan 2)
Any (Characters in the tagset: Jung Seok, Min Jung, Joon Yi, Yoo Jin)
(Available various places)
While maybe objectively not as good a film as the first one, I still enjoyed the hell out of it. Given that it was essentially a cross between Escape From New York and Mad Max, what isn’t to love? I loved the expansion of the world and the clever uses of zombies in the chase scenes. And I really liked the idea that anything can mean happiness when you love and are loved in return - particularly in regards to Joon Yi, but also Jung Seok (and his found family?). Sometimes happiness is fucking up zombies with your loved ones in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, you know? I also really like that they didn’t allow the characters - Min Jung in particular - to make noble sacrifices. They all kept fighting and made it out alive.
I also have a secret weakness for underground fight ring movies, so the human vs zombie cage fights were fun to watch. But really what I liked most about this film was the characters and their potential. Jung Seok was tortured with guilt over what happened with his own family, and Min Jung’s, and he found some personal redemption through helping and protecting his found family. I also think about what Min Jung, Joon Yi and Yoo Jin must have gone through, individually and together, and how that will continue to affect them. And I have an awful lot of feelings about them all becoming a found family.
What would interest me the most in this fandom is post-movie fics. But if you wanna do a canon divergent/au thing, I’d be cool with that, too.
Some prompts:
- Joon Yi struggles a lot more than her sister to readjust to a “normal” life
- In order to stay together after being rescued, Jung Seok and Min Jung have to pretend to be married
- After four long years of loneliness, Min Jung just wants to be touched
- Jung Seok isn’t surprised to find himself in love with Min Jung - and wanting to be a father to her girls - but is he good enough for them? He’s left them behind once - can he forgive himself? Can Min Jung?
- The zombie plague escapes from Korea - and Jung Seok, Min Jung, and her girls are the closest thing to experts on how to fight back and contain it that the authorities have. Will their nightmare never be over? Or is this a chance to end it once and for all?
- With Min Jung in hospital while her leg heals, Jung Seok suddenly finds himself a surrogate father to two very unruly girls.
- What kind of secrets have Min Jung and Joon Yi had to keep from Yoo Jin to protect her? How will all of them adapt their dynamics now that they’re “safe”?
북극성 | Tempest
Paik San-ho, Seo Mun-ju
(Available on Disney+)
I am very into the strong, silent bodyguard trope, and I really like both these actors, so I was already sold going into this. But then we got early hints that he’s crushed on her for a long time? And then the TRAIN SCENE??? Omg, I was so seated.
While the second half never quite reached the highs of the first half for me, there were still some very excellent moments - their first night together, the kiss in the ocean, etc. I would love more of those epic, intimate, lovely scenes. The way they were longing for each other throughout, I was so invested. Like, he was into her from before they even met because he was impressed by her politics and poise on TV and he probably never planned to make a move after they met. But then they thought they’d die so he went for it. Or even small moments like when she was listening through the necklace to him getting ready for bed and mumbling about her. How could I not be obsessed? I’m clearly a sucker for lonely characters finding each other and I realize that this canon continues this trend, lol. I’m nothing if not predictable.
I also found the politics kind of interesting. As someone who lives in Korea, the possibility of reunification doesn’t seem very likely, and it certainly isn’t a common topic of conversation. But I liked this version of reality where it was a close thing that people were fighting for. And the international effect such a thing might have was also interesting to delve into.
Some prompts:
- Obviously I’d love a post-canon story to tie up their relationship. I read an interview where the writer had deliberately left it vague as to whether he lived or died, and I’m obviously choosing to believe he lived. The cage door was open and he wasn’t in there when the explosion went off, after all. So, why is he staying away?
- I read one person’s theory that he was waiting in hiding until she finished her presidency and I’d be down with that. But I think unless she was 1000000% sure he was dead, she’d keep looking for him even if it risked her position in the government, so if she finds him that could be an interesting conflict to explore. Or maybe he’s protecting her from the shadows and even she’s not sure whether he’s really there or not behind the scenes making sure she’s safe. Until he is forced to reveal himself…
- Maybe you could add some supernatural AU elements to the story, or post-canon. Like, maybe they are separated but start being able to communicate with each other in their dreams and they aren’t sure whether it’s real but they slowly start to trust it until it saves her life, or his.
- She could hear rumors that he’s alive and on the run and she uses her position in government to protect him from the people who want to capture and hurt him. But I don’t imagine he’d want her risking herself like that, so he might be mad about it and confront her.
- Or he could be a prisoner in North Korea or some foreign place and he needs to escape to get back to her and that’s why he’s gone so long.
- Their chemistry/romantic scenes were so excellent I would have loved more of them. I fully bought her sleeping with him that first time (she thought she - and the rest of Korea - was about to be annihilated after all, and who wouldn’t sleep with their hot bodyguard in that situation?) but the jump to full-blown love-of-my-life feelings felt sliiiiightly rushed. I went with it because I was enjoying the shit out of the show, but maybe there could be more filling in the blanks there?
- Some canon divergence AUs could be fun, like maybe Sanho becomes her bodyguard before her husband dies, and they both silently long for each other but can’t betray her vows or something. Or maybe the nuke actually gets dropped and they have to survive in a post-apocalyptic situation to get out of what remains of Korea. (You could even take cues from the Peninsula universe for this one if you wanted haha)
夜色倾心 | Night of Love with You (TV)
Leng Yehan, Qiqi
(Available on Youtube)
This is a super fun mini drama. I love the idea of villains falling in love, and doing so in the realm of a story where they are aware of all the tropes and the author pulling the strings was such a joy to watch. The drama doesn’t take itself seriously and pokes fun at a lot of the ridiculous tropes you see in dramas (to be clear, I unashamedly love the ridiculous tropes, but I’m aware they can also be silly) since Qiqi is very aware of how these stories work. She's so contemptuous of the heroine she's forced to play.
It’s clear that Qiqi and Leng Yehan make an excellent partnership, and it’s really refreshing to see cunning, scheming characters take the lead in a C-drama because it feels like they are a little more proactive in their own stories, you know? And they admire each other for their smarts and problem-solving abilities. But they are both equally clueless about their feelings because they've never been characters with a loveline before. They have great chemistry, too. I love that sequence when she keeps causing him trouble in an effort to get him to kill her and he just blithely takes it in stride (until she brings in the chair to watch him bathe haha).
The world-building was quite clever and there is so much scope here to explore the world and the characters within it! (I’ve also seen W: Two Worlds and Extraordinary You if you want the characters from those shows to make cameos. They could all bond over their similar experiences!)
Some prompts:
Post-canon:
- Now that Qiqi and Leng Yehan have to repeat the same story again, do they work together with relish to manipulate things behind the scenes where the author and audience hopefully won’t notice? Or do they play their parts on screen like it’s a job they aren’t too fond of, and just do their own thing outside of that when they can’t be seen? How do they navigate a relationship together when one or both of them might be pulled away to do the story’s bidding at any given moment? It would definitely ruin a date night, or make things frustrating if they were in the middle of an argument and one of them disappeared to play their part in a scene or time jumped forward. Do they ever get uninterrupted time just to themselves? Or perhaps they leave notes for the other to find when they aren't "onstage"?
- Do they try to break out of the story loops? Maybe even find themselves in the real world? Perhaps there is another villain - a real, omniscient one - pulling the strings behind the scenes, and they have to work together to solve it and save themselves (and everyone else, I suppose haha)
- Do they eventually end up in a different story? Is it a different genre, or do they feel like they are rehashing the same tired stories in slightly different ways? Maybe there’s another glitch and this time Leng Yehan is playing a good guy/the hero. Or maybe he's still a villain but has a loveline. No doubt QiQi would get jealous and try to sabotage the relationship even knowing it’ll mess up the entire universe! What happens if an author writes the two of them a happy ending? Would it break the loop and free them? Or would it just be a joyful memory as they move on to the next story and become villains once again?
What If/Canon Divergence:
- A missing scene from the story, such as their first time or more from any of the moments they were "forced" to share a bed. Or, what if he'd been unwilling to concede, and actually let her watch him bathe? How far would he take it trying to get her to flinch? That could be a fun power play between them. They actually have quite a few moments where things could have easily become steamy - bed sharing, the "medicine" kisses, etc. Or maybe just show the morning after they’ve spent the night together.
World Building ideas:
- I’m really curious about how the Comic Book Center works. Because according to her early scenes, the way the process should work is that Qiqi doesn’t have a consciousness when she’s in the story world, it just kind of plays out how it should. But she is sentient/has consciousness when she’s in the white room in the beginning. Is there like a waiting room where characters sit and chill until it’s time to go into a story? Do they have real lives there, and just go from story to story like they are actors in a play? What happens if you have a lot of these people playing similar archetypes - like, do all the female villains hang out together and reminisce about weird moments in their jobs? Or is the villainess best friends with the good girl heroine “off camera”? What’s Leng Yehan’s real name?
- The hint at the end with the coffee is that Mu Nan Chen is becoming somewhat sentient, too. What does that do to the comic book world if all the characters start waking up? It would be utter chaos. But on the other hand, it seems kind of weird to have them be puppets in a story with their memories wiped, right?
Round and Round (Hallmark TV Movie 2023)
Rachel Landau, Zach Rubin
(Available on Youtube)
Okay, so this movie was a lot more delightful than it had any right to be. The script was surprisingly fun and charming. There was depth and specificity to the circumstances and the characters and how they all developed that I really enjoyed. I love that Zach was unashamedly a nerd but still hot and charming (I’ve liked Bryan Greenburg for a very long time, but I’m only slightly biased). And Rachel was hilariously snarky and had some growing to do, but was still very funny and a great person and had such a wonderful relationship with her family. The two of them together had such sweet, funny, sexy chemistry that made me totally believe they were destined for each other. And I LOVED that they let him remember all their adventures together at the end, or it would have been wasted character development and an uneven relationship between them. I also loved the nerd and 80s references sprinkled throughout.
Some prompts:
- So there are clearly more time loops that we didn’t see - Rachel references that they beat a game together that we didn’t see, among others. What happened during those loops? No matter how many times I watch this movie, I can’t quite decide if it’s canon that they only get 7 loops, or if there are infinite possible loops. Both explore interesting options! Anyway, what happens on these loops?
- I’d love to see more from Zach’s POV. There are so many little moments that make me love him. That bit where they first meet again in the first loop and they have some banter before Rachel walks away - and he makes this expression that shows he knows he’s blown it. Or even just the way he looks at Rachel all throughout - so my jam. Maybe we can see some of the scenes again from his POV and his reaction to the weirdness. He seems to take everything in stride, but that’s just an act?
- After all the build up… will we get to see Zach use his “most beautiful hands”?? ;)
- What if they end up in a different time loop, but this time together? Why did they get there and how will they get out? Are they going through marital difficulties? Does one need to save the other’s life?
- I don’t know much about Judaism but perhaps seeing a series of their first celebrations together could be fun. Or see them growing together over the years.
- More of Grandma Rosie! And Seth and Cynthia! Bex and Shoshanna! The way Rachel and Zach interacted with everyone was super fun. I’d love to see Zach integrating more into her family, who he clearly adores.
- Did Rachel get her book published? Did Zach illustrate the cover? How does their future progress together?
연애대전 | Love to Hate You (TV)
Yeo Mi Ran, Nam Kang Ho
(Available on Netflix)
Despite the initial marketing of this show leaning into the “battle of the sexes” element which made me hesitant to start it, Love to Hate You has become such a comfort watch for me. I mean, I was always going to love a show where a guy falls in love with a woman because of her independence, strength (both of the physical and personality variety), capability, and questionable past - not in spite of it.
But I love that these two are not only strong, but also complex and vulnerable and grow so much over the course of the series. Kang Ho had anxiety around women after some bad experiences which made him a little bitter, but I think he was willing from the beginning to be proven wrong in his attitude to them. He was all heart eyes over Mi Ran from very early on, anyway. (Definitely since the boomerang and martial arts demonstration, but I think he was kind of intrigued by her after she tripped him.) I’m obsessed by how smitten he is with her. And given his mother and the fact that he was surrounded by people in the entertainment industry, I can see how that might give you a negative impression of humanity, you know?
And Mi Ran is just…I love her so much. She’s practical in her attitude toward life, she gets shit done even if her methods are questionable, and has this overwhelming sense of justice that drives basically everything she does. She was the one that was actually the more prejudiced of the two of them, since she was so utterly reluctant to consider the idea that Kang Ho was in any way a decent guy. But she grew and opened herself up and found an equal partnership that really felt worthy of her.
I just love them so much!
Some prompts:
- I’m not sure if I imagined this since I can’t find the interview now, but I remember ages ago reading about how P!nk, who had always been kind of anti-marriage, decided she wanted to marry Carey Hart. They’d been together a while and she always thought that if you were committed you didn’t really need rings, you know? But then he’d had some kind of medical emergency, and when they got to the hospital, she wasn’t allowed to make any decisions about his treatment or care because she was only his “girlfriend”, not his “wife” - a word that carried a lot more weight both socially and legally. And it really changed her perspective. I can see the same thing happening for Mi Ran. Particularly if Kang Ho’s mother tries to take over - he’s not very fond of her, and I can see her looking down on Mi Ran and trying to box her out.
- Or maybe she meets his family in a different way. How do Mi Ran and Kang Ho navigate that together? How does the rest of his family feel about her? I can see Kang Ho’s niece and her friends secretly thinking Mi Ran is the coolest and even wanting to emulate her.
- Watching the trailer for this show before it came out, I thought there would be a lot more of the fake dating stuff, but it didn’t play as big of a role as I thought. Maybe some missing scenes or canon divergence that has more of that?
- Post-canon, the two of them have to solve a mystery together. Did something get stolen? Did someone die? Or maybe some shadowy government agency asks Kang Ho for help with some international diplomacy or mission and Mi Ran can’t help but get involved and they have to pretend not to know each other? I don’t know, I just love seeing them work as a team and would love more of it!
- Epistolary fic - Kang Ho has to travel to film a movie, what kind of messages do they send each other to keep in touch? Do they try sexting or phone sex?
- I feel like we were somewhat robbed of more sparring/training sessions between the two of them. Were there some missing scenes? Or do they start doing that together again after they are together? I can totally see them sparring as foreplay, too. Her physical prowess was something that really attracted him in the first place so it’d be nice to see more of it!
- I really love how Kang Ho relishes in the small moments of intimacy he has with Mi Ran after being deprived of them for so long. Whether it’s a hug, or a kiss on the cheek, or holding her through the night, it all seems to mean so much to him. Even when they start kissing before sleeping together for the first time, it’s almost like his shoulders loosen imperceptibly and then he smiles with joy. So what goes through his head in moments like that? Does he eventually get used to it, or is it always a precious gift for him?
- There’s a line in the show where Mi Ran says something to the effect of believing love only lasts 3 months to a year. How does she feel now that she’s approaching their one year anniversary? Does she start getting anxious, or is she confident in her feelings for the first time ever?
Treats are welcome and I have them turned on in my profile.
Thank you so much!!
