#how fun and crazy that that was literally a result of mutuals to christmas card senders to letter pen pals!

[its-tortle]

btw i have made two lovely friends by going from mutuals to pen pals so, dear mutuals, please hit me up if you want to take up correspondence. i really love writing letters :)

#one of said friends came to visit me in berlin last summer and we had such a lovely time #how fun and crazy that that was literally a result of mutuals to christmas card senders to letter pen pals! #i just love being silly and old fashioned and sending letters across the world #shut up tortle

[ven-archived]

Dear Author Letter!

Dear Author,

Happy (upcoming) holidays, and thank you for writing for me as a part of this exchange! I hope that one or several of the things I’ve written down here sparks some ideas that we’ll both enjoy! As in my request through the AO3 exchange, I’m putting some general likes and dislikes, followed by some prompts for each of the requested ships I put down. Feel free to run with anything that calls to you - I can only hope that writing this will be as fun for you as I know that reading it will be for me!

Likes: 

- Rom-com and meet-cute tropes (fake relationships, accidental marriage, sex before feelings) - Magic and magical realism (hockey magic such as curses, superstitions, literal witches in the NHL, actual hockey gods are all FANTASTIC, though I love me a good magic AU where they don’t play hockey as well!) - Soulmate AUs/tropes of pretty much every variety (can you tell I’m a sap yet?) - Mutual pining - Banter between main characters, humor, puns - Alternate Universe fic in general (including but not limited to historical settings, fantasy/mythology, not-a-hockey-player!AUs, omegaverse) - Happy endings!  - Anything wintery/holiday/Christmas related. Dear Author, I’ll say it a billion times: the holiday season is my absolute favorite time of year, so anything you want to work into your story in terms of it being set around the holidays, holiday themes and tropes like getting snowed in, huddling for warmth, sledding, hot chocolate, gift exchanges - I love it all.  (The only thing I'm not as crazy about is bringing home someone to meet the family around the holidays in fake relationship stories.) - Smut (as long as it’s consensual and none of the below - but seriously, no pressure if that’s not the kind of thing you’re comfortable writing!)

Dislikes:

- Character death, violence/gore, body horror, self harm - Rape/Noncon/Dubcon - Mpreg - Underage - Infidelity, jealousy, break-up fic, angst without a happy ending - BDSM and D/s themes - Poly relationships/threesomes - A heavy focus on homophobia or internalized homophobia - High school AUs, Coffeeshop AUs that have no plot direction  - Rule 63/cisswaps - Established relationships - Demonizing IRL wags/spouses/former girlfriends etc.(although I’d really prefer them not present/included very little) - kidfic

My dislikes are pretty clear-cut in that I don't enjoy unresolved angst, scary/dark/horror themes, violence and gore for the sake of gore, and darker fic in general.  Just a small note on the “established relationship” dislike: a lot of the enjoyment I get out of fic is seeing my faves figure out their shit and get together (finally!) or fall in love, so established relationships at the start of the story just don’t do it for me. Also, as much as I like fluff and fun AUs, high school AU and coffeeshop AU have become too saturated to me and I'm not as interested in those tropes!

TL;DR: I'm here for all manner of fun stuff with the above pairings, and as a romantic-at-heart, Christmas-loving hockey fan, any combination of the above likes would be very enjoyable to me!

PROMPTS!

Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

- Anything around the resolved contract signing situation finally playing out - maybe Jamie finally making a move now that it’s clear Tyler is staying in Dallas? If set around Christmas, maybe with a gift exchange involved? - Christmas/holiday fic with these two would be my kryptonite! Really, almost any fun wintery/holiday tropes are delightful, maybe some mutual pining/rom-com shenanigans that finally resolve around the holidays. - Accidentally bonded (soul-bonded or anything else magic-related) and then getting together is tried-and-true fantastic trope with these two! - Anything with the rest of the team involved in/very aware of their crushes on each other, trying to help set them up, etc. I love all the Starboys. Background Stars rarepairs also welcome! 

Tyson Barrie/Gabriel Landeskog

- These two were MADE for fun rom-com tropes, if you ask me, Tyson especially. He’s ridiculous and I love him. Any rom-com or meet-cute and lack of communication that results in pining (that finally gets resolved) is just A+ - I don’t think I’ve ever seen a soulmate AU with this pairing, and I would absolutely LOVE one. Maybe not name-on-skin, but any other variation of these two figuring out that they are soulmates would be amazing! - Colorado in winter and Tyson enjoying DQ regardless of the season seems like a really fun match up - maybe some snowed in/cuddle for warmth shenanigans too?

Erik Johnnson/Nathan MacKinnon (There are less than ten fics of these two on Ao3 so I wouldn’t be picky at ALL if this is what you end up going with! I’ll just rain my love down on you forever.)

- Mutual pining with a dash of Tyson and Gabe as exasperated best friends is. SO delightful. - Fitness instructor AU where one of them teaches a class the other ends up attending (yoga? zumba? anything that seems mildly ridiculous for someone over 6ft and built like a hockey player to be teaching and/or taking is fair game) - actually ANY of these pairings would be super fun with this AU - Anything with American EJ/Canadian Nate shenanigans - do they need to get married because Nate needs a green card? Bantering about American vs Canadian Thanksgiving? Is it a rivalry thing? Love it.

Brett Ritchie/Devin Shore (Another pairing that is criminally overlooked and has too few fics! Anything with these two would be amazing.)

- Childhood best friends ending up on the same team together - either finally reunited, or just their long-term friendship getting deeper! Also good: the physical changes that come with being adults now, watching the other going from cute kid to NHL player (insert eye emojis here) - Possessive and/or protective behavior on the ice, maybe coming to a head as a result of one of them getting injured? Brett fighting for Devin would be awesome, but the reverse would also be interesting to see! - Also anything fluffy and holiday-themed for these two!  - Fake dating in which their families get really excited they are together after so long, which makes them realize how perfect for each other they really are

That’s about all I can think of! Again, anything holiday-themed would just be absolutely delightful to me (seriously, lift from the Hallmark holiday movies if you want to - I love wintery/rom-com/holiday tropes!) and overall, I just love seeing my faves get together and find their happy ending. Feel free to mix and match any of the above, regardless of pairing, if you see something that inspires you!

If you have any questions about preferences as you write, my inbox is open to anon messages! (Or you can ask @jamiebengal14, who knows my brain very well and will absolutely keep your secrets.)

Thank you again, dear author, for signing up for this exchange and writing something for me! I hope something here is inspirational and excites you for whatever you choose to write! ♥♥

- ven