Candy Hearts Letter 2024

[suburban_sun]

Dear Candy Hearts Writer,

Thanks for signing up for this exchange! I'm glad something filled the gap of Chocolate Box, which I've participated in for a few years now. I'm looking forward to reading whatever you write! (And for anyone else stumbling across this letter, know that treats are always welcomed.)

Below you’ll find the following:

• My Requests
• About Me
• General Likes/Kinks
• General DNWs
• Fandom Specifics/Prompts

My Requests:

• Mythic Quest - Ian Grimm, Poppy Li
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson
• Mad Men - Peggy Olson/Stan Rizzo
• Lovesick - Luke Curran/Maria "Jonesy" Jones

I’ve tried to list a couple of prompts for each fandom, but please don’t feel like you have to stick to those. If the rest of my letter gives you another idea you’d like to write, I’d love to read it!


A little about me to start:

My AO3 name is SuburbanSun; you can also check out my Tumblr if you’d like: unbreakablejemmasimmons.


General Likes/Kinks:

Fave shippy tropes:

• Rivals/enemies to lovers
• Secret dating/sneaking around
• FWBs that turns into something more
• Fake dating
• Mutual pining
• “The love is requited they’re just idiots"/idiots to lovers
• Truth serum/in vino veritas

Fave gen tropes and story elements:

• Found family dynamics
• Competency/mutual respect
• Shenanigans/heists
• Time travel
• Time loops

Subversions of tropes are also great!

Most of my prompts tend toward canon universe ideas because that’s just what I tend to think of first, but I enjoy AUs too, and here are a few types that I’m always a sucker for:

• Secret Service/bodyguard/witness protection AUs
• Private eye AUs
• Politics AUs (like my requested characters running for office or working on a campaign)
• Vampire slayer AUs
• Food truck or food critic AUs

Epistolary style, either as a small part of a story or as all of it, is always fun to me, if it’s up your alley. Phone calls! Emails! Letters! Post-It notes! I love it all!

General DNWs:

DNWs: Superangst and sad endings. Babyfic/kidfic/pregnancy. First person POV (except in epistolary elements).

Fandom Specifics/Prompts:

Mythic Quest
Ian Grimm & Poppy Li

This show was such a fun discovery for me as I browsed Apple+. I’d heard good things, but the first episode hadn’t grabbed me, and I’m glad I stuck around because by episode 3 I was cackling out loud. Then the quarantine episode had me crying, followed by Everlight, which buoyed my heart. It’s been a wild ride!

I love the relationship between Ian and Poppy so much. I don’t necessarily ship them romantically, but I love their prickly partnership, their codependency, and the way that they are maybe the only people in the world who really, begrudgingly, get each other. I love everyone in this bar, so any other characters are welcome.

Prompts:

• I’d love something that explores either of the characters’ personal lives, since we see so few glimpses of them in the show.
• It really tugged on my dumb heartstrings when Ian sought out Poppy when he was in the hospital in season 2, or when he showed up--unexpectedly, but right when she needed him--at her doorstep in the quarantine episode, so while I don't really ship them romantically, I would welcome more of that neediness and comfort.
• Sarian made me cry. Happy to get more flashbacks with these two, from the early stages of their partnership or from even before that.

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano

I just watched Clone Wars for the first time as part of watching through all of Star Wars last summer, and by far my favorite things about it was the dynamic between Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka.

I love how caring about and training Ahsoka humanizes Anakin (seriously never expected I'd have positive feelings toward Anakin Skywalker but here we are with a true problematic fave). I love how Obi-Wan and Anakin work together, and how Anakin's brashness balances out Obi-Wan's more adult, cautious approach to adventures. And I just love Ahsoka in general; she's become one of my fave characters in the canon.

Note that canon-level angst, or the bittersweetness of knowing what's to come, is perfectly fine for this fandom.

Prompts:

• A rare bit of downtime during the Clone Wars. Surely they had a few moments in between messes and battles to do something fun?
• Ahsoka trains or teaches Anakin and Obi-Wan something that surprises them.
• Anything that plays on the dramatic irony of what Anakin comes to be, and how much Obi-Wan and Ahsoka both love him as he is in the present, would be lovely!

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The Falcon & the Winter Soldier
Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson

I always enjoyed their dynamic, but these two didn't take over my heart and soul until a couple eps into The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, when I thought to myself, "huh, I wonder if people ship them." I looked up fic and almost immediately, I shipped them too. I really love how Bucky was completely on board with Steve handing off the shield to Sam, no doubts whatsoever, because he knows how truly good Sam Wilson is. I think at this point in their relationship Bucky is Sam Wilson's #1 fan and I love it.

Prompts:

• More of Sam and Bucky working on the boat!
• Maybe Bucky moves down to Delacroix, gets a little place near the Wilsons', but it's not like that means he has feelings for Sam or anything. No, of course not. They're partners, that's all.
• What's going on with the Avengers these days? Is Sam the new official or unofficial team leader? Is Bucky an actual Avenger, and if so, how do his and Sam's feelings for each other (whether they realize that's what they are or not) get in the way of day-to-day Avengers stuff? Cameos from other Marvel characters are welcomed!
• Sam, Bucky and Avengers thirst tweets.

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Mad Men
Peggy Olson/Stan Rizzo

I love and miss this show so much. It was so smart and made me feel so many things, and in truth, Peggy Olson is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. I know I request this show and these characters every year, but I truly always want more of these two!

Peggy/Stan is such a great ship, to me, and one I was on board with from the very beginning. Omitting his boorish behavior early on, once they established a rapport, they were such equals, and he seemed to respect her so much, and vice versa. They got on each other’s nerves and knew how to push each other’s buttons, but that’s just because they connected so well and really got each other.

 

Prompts:

• I adore the time period where they’re basically phone buddies. Maybe an AU where they get together earlier in the series, during that time? How their phone conversations evolve from discussing work to discussing everything to falling for each other (or realizing they already had)? Phone sex (or getting ever-so-close to it before realizing they’re in the office and it’s inappropriate) is a-okay here too.
• In the same vein, epistolary fic could be really fun to play around with here. Maybe a story told through a series of interoffice memos, messages, notes in the margins of copy pitches and along the edges of spec art?
• They’re working through the weekend on some pitch or another, holed up in the office with a stash of booze and half-empty cartons of Chinese food, but they can’t focus on work ALL night, can they?

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Lovesick
Luke Curran/Maria "Jonesy" Jones

I just watched this show for the first time, and it was so lovely and fun! I really fell hard for Luke, though. I loved watching him figure out in real-time how to be a different sort of person, and what sort of person he wanted to be. I'd love anything that explores that further: more Luke in therapy, more Luke trying to be a good boyfriend to Jonesy, more Luke fighting his impulses to revert to his old ways.

Also, I feel bad saying I care about Luke more than Jonesy, but I feel like that's kind of natural when she's not a main character, right? So, if you have an idea for something focused on Luke without her, that's fine with me!

 

 

Prompts:

• Luke and Jonesy have their first fight as a couple, over something probably ridiculous.
• Luke convinces Jonesy to come to his therapy session--even though his therapist insists this is decidedly not couple's therapy.
• A flashback to some classic Luke and Jonesy shenanigans.

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So, that’s that! I really hope you enjoy the whole process this Candy Hearts season, and thanks for participating! Happy writing!