Hihi yuletide gift-giver! Thank you so much for offering to fill my proverbial fic stocking, I'm thrilled to see what you come up with! Below is a little laundry list of things I like — feel free to pick and choose at them as you wish. I hope you can sift through here and find something that you genuinely will have fun writing and exploring!
As a side note, there are major spoilers for all three of these series in this letter, so be warned. I’ve marked the best I can, but if you don’t wish to be spoiled for any of these then take caution.
First off, the general stuff: I’m pretty open to anything in terms of fic style, genre, topic, rating, etc. I don’t have any major triggers either — the more unsavoury stuff is OK with me provided that they fit with the tone of the world that the fandom exists in (ie - violence/death/tragedy is totally fine in TSH and SGRS, but not in chihayafuru, thank you!). I’m also not partial to retellings of canonical events at the moment.
I’d also rather not receive fics that are 100% of either of these things: PWP, fluff, crack, whump, noncon, social media-centric, chatfic. Also please no pandemic fic, I don’t need to relieve that again!
In terms of story structures I enjoy… lately I’ve been really partial to post-canon explorative fic (particularly ten-years-later what-are-they-doing-now kind of stuff), introspective character studies, genre subversions, curtain fic, strong character voices — basically expanding on characters and playing in the setting’s sandbox of potential. I love worldbuilding in the sense that I love fics that explore character-driven spaces and how settings have evolved to suit their characters and vice versa — seeing the mechanics of a character’s life interests me the most, how their habits, rituals, personality have shaped the environment around them.
Overall, frameworks don’t matter too much to me: I really, really don’t mind if there’s no clear plot of a fic at all, so long as there’s something to sink my teeth into within the ideas explored through the characters or the world.
I’m also a big sucker for AUs, especially the really niche ones that fixate on a particular area of interest — sports, restaurants, art, music, mythology, I love them all, especially if I can tell if it’s the author’s own area of expertise! I just love lived-in experiences and anything that can bring to the surface a feeling of authenticity — even if it’s something as menial as, idk. Apple picking on a farm or something lol. All I ask is for a subject that you already love and know well.
As for specific tropes and dynamics: I love slow burn, found family, reunions, enemies-to-lovers. To me, the most romantic stories are punctuated with some kind of chase, some concrete declaration of intent, whether it be an action or a physical object (or marking, lol, sorry, that works for me too…). On that vein, unconditional loyalty between characters (even to an unhealthy extent) is really fascinating to me too and a core part of why I love these three fandoms below.
I do also like messy character stuff, too. Prickly double-crossing, characters behaving badly for the sake of their honest self (and the consequences of that), characters who try to be good and fuck up (and/or eventually succeed)… I love explorations of power dynamics within a relationships, especially when power shifts between individuals over a period of time (or within different areas of life).
… And I especially love characters in codependent relationships. I eat codependency for breakfast.
Again, obviously these tropes don’t apply across to board to all these characters below (ie; Chihaya and Taichi as enemies-to-lovers doesn’t quite fit within their dynamic, at least past canon childhood, but you could interpret some element of codependency to them!) so take each of these contextually - and please don’t cram all of them in one story!