2021 Yuletide Letter

[anabelissima]

Hello, dear author! I'm Anabel. I'm so psyched that we share one of these fandoms, and I'm so excited to see what you create! :)

Quick-jumps to fandom sections
Kim's Convenience (TV) || Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) || Marvel Phase Four RPF

What I most love to read about in fic is people who are happy, or in the process of becoming happy. This could mean having adventures, or falling in love, or being fulfilled in their career, or snuggling in bed with their partner, or fighting sky-pirates from outer space. Or perhaps all of these things in the same fanwork! This doesn’t necessarily mean unrelieved fluff – I’m a big fan of plot, smut, and adventures as well – but a focus on a character’s melancholy inner doubts (for instance), or on infidelity and betrayal and pain, wouldn’t appeal to me. I am absolutely addicted to happy endings. (Or "happy for now," in canons where outright happy endings are implausible!)

DNWs: eye injury, vomiting, infidelity, miscarriages, child or animal harm, noncon or dubcon, death of a requested character, underage (under 16), mentions of dick size, virgin characters, people being cornered and yelled at (they can be yelled at as long as they would be able to escape if they want/needed to), women being victimized by men without being able to fight back, women being denied agency, setting-divergence AUs (aka modern AUs, different-profession AUs, a/b/o, etc.), transphobia or anti-trans characters (even if condemned in narrative). [I welcome any of my requested characters being trans, but for personal reasons please don't have any conflict in the fic have to do with their transness.]

General note: Any and all prompts in this letter, whether general or fandom-specific, are only ideas! If nothing here inspires you, please feel free to use your own ideas. As long as you don't hit a DNW, I seriously will not mind.

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GENERAL PROMPTS:

• Friends-to-lovers
• Relationships that are chock-full of affection and intimacy and friendship
• Hijinks
• Mysteries (of any size & depth)
• Witness/outsider POV
• People having to think about balancing their duty with their personal happiness.
• Five-times fic
• Chubby and/or fat people, with their size treated respectfully and (if focused on in porn) joyfully
• Going on a journey together! Both the fun parts (picnics! snuggling for warmth!) and the inconvenient parts (ants at picnics! someone comes down with a cold! someone breaks an ankle and they are stranded until rescue arrives, and various confessions of love/criminality/background/etc. are made in the meantime!)
• Falling in love with a rogue
• Gentleness, patience, and/or sweetness being attribute(s) that attract one person to another
• Kick-ass, competent women
• Giving a lover symbolic jewelry
• Secret identities
• Soulmates, whether played straight, subverted, or complicated in some way
• Otherness and outsider status
• Happy, fluffy first-time fic (first-time for a particular ship or for a particular sex act, not virginity)
• Twist endings (I love The Queen's Thief series, for example)
• People falling in love who don't share a language and have to communicate in other ways
• People from different cultures falling in love
• People making food together; detailed descriptions of delicious food welcome but not required
• A person having a nightmare and being comforted by their lover afterwards
• Same-sex lovers who are 'hiding in plain sight' in a non-accepting society (whether they're pretty blatant and the society 'pretends' not to notice, or whether they're truly excellent at hiding & it amuses them to pull the wool over everybody's eyes)
• Canon-divergence AUs

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SMUT LIKES:

• Most important: that everyone is having a helluva good time and fully consenting.
• Couples who are friends as well as lovers. Friendly banter, cuddling, just the general sense that both really like each other as well as wanting to tear each other’s clothes off.
• People who can't stay quiet during sex; dirty talk, moaning, little cut-off noises, reverent invocation of the lover’s name, distracted chattering, all of it!
• Women taking the lead in bed, anywhere on the spectrum between just In Charge to all the way femdom.
• Morning cuddles and/or sex.
• Silly/fun sex roleplaying.
• One partner reading to the other one in bed, which eventually gets abandoned in favor of sex.
• Eager cunnilingus – a giver who is not only super into it for their partner’s sake, but super turned on by the experience of giving it.
• Multiple orgasms, including but not limited to the point of exhaustion. Also orgasm imbalance – aka one partner gets a lot, the other only gets the one – as long as all parties enjoy this dynamic. And orgasm delay – being turned-on all day, and just having to wait, and probably interact with other people and pretend to be normal, and then eventually finally get back to the bedroom…
• Both penetrative and not-penetrative sex! Sex for me definitely doesn’t have to include penetration. I also enjoy that too, but a less-conventional progression in bed is always something I’ll like.
• One partner deliberately turning on the other partner in public, especially if there's a reason they can't immediately get alone together and down to business. The teasing and heightened anticipation = A+.
• Strong people and athletic prowess, and that strength being a big turn-on in bed.
• Wall sex.
• Bathing together, and/or bathing one’s lover.
• Undressing one’s lover after a ball or fancy event; could also lead to urgent, half-clothed sex, which I also greatly enjoy.
• Face-sitting.
• Bodyswap for a day.
• Hurt/comfort, with the “hurt” only minor and the focus on the comfort. “Sprained ankle” side of the spectrum, definitely not “brutal beating” side.
• Happiness and laughter – in general, and also during sex.
• Sex that doesn’t go as planned/sexual mishaps (preferably ones that don’t have any exceptional or lasting effects, and with everything eventually ending happily)
• Tipsy sex in an established relationship
• Reunion sex
• Characters being walked in on during sex (treated comically, no angst/violence/etc.)
• “Nowadays-Vanilla sex things” being treated as transgressive and the transgression kinked on; I’m not actually into many seriously transgressive things, but I love the dynamic of pushing taboos, if that makes sense. In the historical eras and cultures of some canons, even things like cunnilingus or non-missionary positions might be “transgressive” according to their contemporary social norms (and/or according to an inexperienced character). I love the dynamic of one or both of the characters feeling Super Daring at pushing the boundaries/disobeying a taboo, and (whatever the taboo is) being an amazing experience for both.
• “Missing porn scenes”. Any missing scenes from a canon that were actually porn interludes.

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~*~

Here are the fandoms and characters I'm requesting for Yuletide this year:

Kim’s Convenience (TV) – Jung Kim, Kimchee Han, “Appa” Kim
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) – Katy Chen, Xu Xialing, Xu Shang-Chi
Marvel Phase Four RPF - Anthony Mackie, Simu Liu

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Fandom 1:Kim’s Convenience (TV)
My Requested Characters: Jung Kim, Kimchee Han, “Appa” Kim
What Do I Ship? Jung/Kimchee and Jung & Appa reconciliation.

This show. THIS SHOW. I find it immensely frustrating at times, especially now that we know the behind-the-scenes drama and how hard the Asian actors were fighting to get the overwhelmingly-white production and writing room to listen to them, to improve the show, and to give it a strong future. To have it be cancelled out of nowhere when Ins Choi walked away, even though it had already been renewed and was nowhere near a stopping point, and even though the actors were begging for a chance to take it over and run it themselves for a wonderful final season, is just so – GAH. (To get a feel for the cast's POV, see Simu Liu's short, heartfelt comments in this interview.)

But despite all that frustration, I still love this show to death. Particularly the first two seasons, before some of the character development stagnated or went backwards. And fanfic is where we can do our best to fix these sorts of things anyways! :)

So! I have requested three characters: Jung, Kimchee, and Appa. Feel free to bring in others, especially Janet and Umma, but also any of the others in the tagset if they fit your story!

[[Also, like I said up top, I primarily ship Jung/Kimchee and Jung & Appa reconciliation. Both could fit in the same story, but if there’s one there doesn’t have to be the other. A Jungchee story can have Appa only be a minor character, or even omit him entirely (I give explicit permission for this). And a Jung & Appa reconciliation story can have any Jung or Kimchee ship (canon pairings of Jung/Shannon and Gwen/Kimchee are both cool, and so is Janet/Kimchee, which I have a soft spot for. Or surprise me!), and/or omit Kimchee entirely (I also give explicit permission for this).]]

I especially enjoy Jung in the first couple of seasons, before he kind of goes backwards and the writers kneecap his character development a few times, but a later-season Jung would work too (particularly if your Jung’s character development is less stagnant than the show’s version). I love his friendship with Kimchee (and was always rooting for it to become something more), and of course like most people I was really really hoping for Jung & Appa to come to a fuller reconciliation. They only gave us such small crumbs – I am greedy and want more! (Obviously it’s not realistic to get to perfect harmony, but I’ll take as much of a reconciliation as I can get.)

Jung/Kimchee ideas (in addition to my general & smut likes at the beginning of this letter):

Jung tells himself that the reason he’s currently in a dry spell is because he’s still crushing on Shannon, who’s dating Alejandro. But he’s gradually beginning to realize that maybe it has something to do with the weird thoughts he’s been having about Kimchee lately…

Jung and Kimchee run into each other in a gay club and it’s awkward. Until it’s not.

Jung ruins another of Kimchee’s dates by being Hot Jung, and a mock-fight/play-wrestling after the debacle turns into something more.

Jung and Kimchee theme their Halloween outfits, and only when all of Handy compliments them on their couples’ costumes does Jung realize that Handy thinks they’re dating. He’s never thought of it before and it does weird things to his stomach.

Jung and Kimchee have to share a hotel bed on a work trip. It should be totally fine, but Jung is just right there being ridiculously hot and it’s driving Kimchee crazy.

Jung and Kimchee get stuck in the supply closet at Handy, remember the time Shannon & Alejandro were hooking up in there, and start joking/horsing around – only it turns into making out for reals.

Kimchee has finally surrendered to the inevitability of the fact that he has a crush on Jung. He thinks he’s doing a good job of hiding it, but then Appa gives him the gay discount. Now Jung is looking at Kimchee weird, and Kimchee is trying not to look at Jung, and Appa is making Appa comments…

The various ways the Kim family members (and/or the Handy team) find out that Jung and Kimchee have started dating. Like, does Janet figure it out because Jung's room is too clean, almost like he's not sleeping in his own bed? Does Umma find new naked pictures while tidying up Jung & Kimchee's apartment? Does Appa catch an unguarded hair ruffle after a soccer game? Does Jung or Kimchee have a cute picture of the other/a couple picture as their lockscreen, or does a photo pop up in their photos gallery, like the time Appa saw all those photos on Jung's laptop? (We even have a candidate for a good photo!)

Jung is canonically a lady magnet, but Kimchee is the first guy he's dated or slept with. Is he shy at all? Fronting with bravado? What are the differences? And how does Kimchee help him adjust?

Five times Jung & Kimchee almost got walked in on, and one time they did.

Of all people, it’s Appa that tells Jung he has a crush on Kimchee and he should make his move. (Jung probably doesn’t take that well, but actually…)

A “what if?”/followup to any episode with great Jung & Kimchee friendship content, that tweaks it or expands it so it becomes something more.

This is sort of a crossover idea, but Simu is a writer as well as an actor and both he and Andrew were super into the Jungchee bromance (and comfortable/playful with fans talking about shipping it as well). At one point, Simu was talking about wanting to write a Kim's spec episode, and when a fan asked if it was the one "where Jungchee go from bromantic to romantic," Simu liked the tweet. So I think it'd be really fun to see a fic where Simu DID write that episode, and Kim's Convenience went a whole different direction! I don't ship Simu & Andrew (and Andrew is happily married), but I think they'd have had a lot of fun filming that, so it'd be fun to see a "RL bromance playing fictional romance" kind of vibe.

Any other way you can think of to get Jungchee together! There is literally only one fic for this ship, and it's really good but I am GREEDY and want ALL the fic. ♥

Jung & Appa ideas (in addition to my general likes at the beginning of this letter):

Any of those little moments of reconciliation from the show, but expanded.

Like, maybe Appa does remember that Jung came to see him in the hospital.

Or, Jung does open up to Appa a little at the Handy graduation when Appa asks him what’s wrong, and they don’t fight after all. And maybe go to that Jays game together.

Or the ping-pong fight doesn’t happen and they have a competitive but great game instead without a sore loser.

Or, an expanded version of the soccer-team episode, and maybe Kimchee doesn’t come home right when he does at the end of the episode, and Jung & Appa hang out for a while and bond.

Appa comes to Jung’s apartment on some pretext. He pretends he’s there for something for Kimchee, but Jung’s home instead and they end up awkwardly spending time together.

Appa or Jung gets hurt or has a big crisis, and the other is there for them (much to the first’s surprise).

Appa and Jung work together to create a surprise for Umma, Janet, or Kimchee.

Kimchee somehow brings about a reconciliation between Jung & Appa.

Jung and Appa are stuck somewhere – broken elevator? Broken-down car in the middle of nowhere with no cell service? Locked basement, with their phones upstairs, waiting for someone to realize they’re trapped? – and they finally, finally talk things out.

Jung realizes that every time he and Appa try to talk about things, they fight. So he ends up writing Appa a letter, not expecting Appa to actually read it and accept/acknowledge what he says. But Appa might surprise him…

Appa or Jung thinks the other one has been in a severe or fatal accident, and the shock brings them together.

Way back at the beginning of the show, before Appa even knows where Jung is, Kimchee starts acting weird. Appa eventually gets him to confess that he’s dating a guy and he wasn’t sure Appa would approve, but even Appa assuring him that he’s not homophobic (a la the gay discount episode) and he should bring his boyfriend around doesn’t seem to be making Kimchee more comfortable. How can Appa fix this, and what happens when he learns exactly who Kimchee’s boyfriend is?

In an alternate universe where the show isn't cancelled and an awesome Season 6 happens (with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as the showrunner and more authentic voices in the writers' room?), where does Jung & Appa's relationship go? What does it look like in the series finale?

But honestly, any story you dream up that has Jungchee and/or a Jung & Appa reconciliation will make me blissfully happy. :)

Canon DNWs:

Jung not being attracted to Kimchee because he's chubby. It's okay if Kimchee is worried about that a little, but not if it's true.

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Fandom 2:
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
My Requested Characters: Katy Chen, Xu Xialing, Xu Shang-Chi
What Do I Ship? Katy/Xialing, Katy/Shang-Chi, Katy & Shang-Chi & Xialing

SPOILERS FOR SHANG-CHI IN THIS PROMPT, PLEASE SKIP IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT

Shang-Chi took me by storm and utterly charmed me. I love everything about it, its characters, and its universe, and I adore the three characters I’ve requested so much.

I ship Katy with both Xialing and Shang-Chi, but not as a threesome or love triangle, and not in the same fic. I want Katy to be great friends with whatever Xu sibling she is not dating. :) And if you don’t ship Katy with either, I would also enjoy a story about the deep and intimate friendship she has with Shang-Chi, and/or the new one she is starting to forge with Xialing.

If you are writing shippy fic for Katy/Xialing or Katy/Shang-Chi, the non-shipped third doesn't have to appear if they don't fit your fic. I'd like it if they did, and I love seeing friendships and relationships co-existing, but if you're struggling to find a way to make the third appear, don't worry about it! :)

Katy/Xialing

I love how they have such fantastic charisma and basically start flirting the moment they meet, how Xialing saves Katy's life on the scaffolding and Katy returns the favor in the final battle, how both of them break out of the molds that their societies try to place them in and find their own path. I love what big fans they are of each other, and how they bond through this epic experience, and how they both save the world. I want to know how they might get together, and how they might face their future side-by-side.

Some ideas (in addition to my general & smut likes at the beginning of this letter):

Katy doesn't fit into her old world any longer. She starts texting with Xialing, wondering if she too feels out of place, and Things Go From There.

Xialing is busy reinventing the Ten Rings. She reaches out to Katy to do the graphic design for her website, but says she can't tell Shang-Chi. Katy's not good at secrets, or at keeping her rapidly-growing crush under wraps...

Katy and Xialing have a lot of humming adrenalin left over from the final battle. They find each other and burn it off.

Katy introduces her girlfriend Xialing to her family or Soo.

How does Shang-Chi find out that his sister and BFF are dating? Does he walk in on them? Catch a flirty text? Find them kissing in a karaoke booth? Notice Xialing's clothes in Katy's room?

Katy, Xialing, Shang-Chi, and an Avenger of your choice (any gender) go out for dinner. Gradually, Shang-Chi realizes that Katy (or Xialing) has set him up on a date. And then the 4th person says something that makes him realize it's a double date and he's been missing something right in front of his face.

Five ways Katy could have fallen in love with Xialing, and one way she did. (Or Xialing with Katy.)

Katy/Shang-Chi

I adore the close, intimate friendship these two have with each other, and the warm lived-in feel to their intimacy. It’s palpable how deeply they care about each other, and while I love the gen version of that friendship, I’d also love to see it develop into something more. I really like the interpretation that the move from friends to lovers was never possible before because they both knew, consciously or subconsciously, that Shaun was holding something back; now that the truth has been laid bare and they have no secrets from each other, the next dimension of their relationship has become possible.

Some ideas (in addition to my general & smut likes at the beginning of this letter):

How do they take that fateful first step? Who’s the brave one?

Katy thinks back to that intense, wary young teenager she first befriended and the happy, carefree young man he became, and watches the grieving, burdened superhero she sometimes feels she scarcely knows. How does she reconcile the three Shauns, and when/how does he become the one who wakes from nightmares in her arms?

What does the post-movie landscape look like for them? Obviously their jobs are toast. But what do they tell Katy’s family, for example, and what does Katy’s family think of the fact that she ran off to Macao with Shaun for a couple weeks? Do they try to get new jobs, or has Xialing and/or the Avengers set them up with a salary? And how do they negotiate the new dimensions to their relationship in the meantime?

Three times Katy almost kissed Shang-Chi, and one time she did.

Outside perspective on their relationship – any character except Trevor.

Shang-Chi and/or Katy playing with the rings in the bedroom.

After their intense and emotional conversation by the lake, Katy seeks Shaun out later for some wordless comfort snuggles, in the darkness before the dawn and Wenwu's impending arrival. However, one thing leads to another...

Shang-Chi processing the fact that he nearly lost Katy (twice - once on the scaffolding and then in the Battle of Ta-Lo), and realizing just how much she means to him. But can she possibly feel the same way?

Some ideas for either ship, or for gen

I am all here for canon-divergence AUs! Maybe Shang-Chi insists on sharing the rings with Xialing, so they each have five and all three of them go to the conference with Wong. Maybe Shang-Chi died trying to protect their mother, and it was Xialing who Wenwu trained and Xialing who ended up on the run in San Francisco and befriending Katy. Maybe Wenwu lived, and Katy ends up living in the Ten Rings compound for a while as Xialing and Shang-Chi are trying to rebuild their family and delicately make sure their father isn't going to become a supervillain again anytime soon. (How might an emboldened Katy talk to Wenwu about how he treats the woman she's falling in love with? And does Wenwu guess her secret?)

Canon-specific DNWs:

Shang-Chi being a sheltered virgin or de-masculinized in any way. I’ve seen this interpretation popping up here and there in fandom because he is not in a relationship in the film, and I feel like it plays into stereotypes about Asian men and into problematic approaches to masculinity more generally. I feel that Shang-Chi is tremendously masculine, in fact in a refreshingly healthy way with how respectfully and equally he treats the women in his life. So again, please no virgin!Shang-Chi who doesn’t know how sex works. Or Katy or Xialing for that matter – I’d rather all three be experienced and confident in their sexuality.

Please no mention of the fan theory that the gang leader Shang-Chi killed at fourteen was actually Katy’s grandfather.

Please no Razor Fist (except as a background enforcer role for Wenwu or Xialing).

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Fandom 3: Marvel Phase Four RPF
My Requested Characters: Anthony Mackie, Simu Liu
What Do I Ship? Anthony/Simu, Anthony & Simu

I really enjoy the work of both of these actors and their presence in the Marvel universe!! What made me want to request them for Yuletide was Simu’s jubilant excitement about joining the MCU, particularly the way it manifested in his anticipation of meeting & possibly working with Anthony.

For example, when a fan asked Simu, “[what was] Your reaction when finding out you’ll be starring in a Marvel movie?”, Simu said, “Imagining what my secret handshake with Anthony Mackie would look like.”

And in an interview with the Associated Press (video is here), Simu not only gushed about Anthony’s work in TFATWS, beaming the whole time, but talked about how much he’d love to work with him:

“...I thought his monologue at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was just so fantastic, and the way that he embodies that role, and the poise, I just think he’s – I mean, what a perfect, what a perfect way to wrap up the arc of the Falcon, and then what a beautiful way to begin another chapter as the new Captain America. Again, this is a purely hypothetical thing, but I would, hypothetically, love to -- potentially, perhaps, maybe, someday -- work with him. If that was in the cards. Maybe. Again, not sure. Cannot confirm nor deny. I’ve already said too much. [makes whooshing sound, covers mouth with hands]”

So, what I would most love to read about for these two guys would be them becoming friends and/or lovers, and/or working together on a project (Marvel or otherwise!) Totally fine for it to stay gen (no other ships for either in that case, please), or to get shippy. [Light smut is great too, but please see my note about ratings for RPF in that case.]

Some ideas (in addition to my general & smut likes at the beginning of this letter):

Simu or Anthony slides into the other’s DMs to congratulate them about the success of TFATWS or Shang-Chi. Shippy or gen.

Simu and Anthony are filming the next Avengers movie, and Simu takes some downtime to teach Anthony acrobatic tricks (and flirt while they’re doing it?) Much to the worry/despair of their trainers, who are sure somebody’s gonna bust an ankle.

Simu or Anthony gets pitched a new script for an indie romcom with a love triangle that takes a shocking twist at the end (aka the two guys ditch the lady and get together instead). When they hear that the other has already signed up, they’re totally in.

Simu and Anthony write a sketch for Youtube together. What is it?

Simu and Anthony come up with a viral marketing campaign idea to promote one of their next projects. What is it, and how do they execute it?

Three times Simu thought Anthony might possibly be flirting with him, and one time he was sure. (Or vice versa!)

Fun and/or shippy times filming a buddy movie together (either a Marvel crossover with Captain America and Shang-Chi, or a different movie completely).

It’s the premiere of Captain America 4 or Shang-Chi 2, and the star of the movie shows up to the red carpet with his fellow Marvel star on his arm. The reporters aren’t quite sure exactly what’s happening here…

Simu and Anthony play an April Fool’s joke on Marvel fans. What is it?

Any idea that you have that captures the playfulness, enthusiasm, and dedication of these two awesome actors!

Canon DNWs:

For RPF, I’m not comfortable with explicit fic. A low-M level is absolutely fine and in fact I'd love it – kissing, making out, necking, clothed grinding, lusting over and/or caressing abs, fade-to-black bed scenes, etc. It's just the outright explicit fic that's the line for me. And please no physical descriptions of dicks, it really squicks me in this context.

Please no cameos by “too-famous” Marvel actors like Sebastian Stan – cameos are fine as long as the cameo person would also qualify for Yuletide. Famous people coming up in passing is ok (like Simu identifying all the Marvel actors by their abs, for example – if he and Anthony get competitive about abs and say they want to outdo Hemsworth, that’s totally fine.)

Please no meta about them finding RPF and/or reading fics about their characters.

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~*~

Thank you again, dear author! ♥ If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask them through the mods (or if it’s before signups close, you can ask them in the comments below!) Alternatively, you can message my friend polkadot, who knows my preferences & fandom feels extremely well at this point. :)