Candy Hearts Exchange Letter 2026
Jan. 7th, 2026 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slowpartsDear Candy Hearts writer,
Well, we are still here, somehow! And still rotating our blorbos. Happy New Year. <3
So glad to be cruising through this lowkey exchange that is all about love with you. Love forever!
You can find me these days on Tumblr from time to time, and I am brella on AO3.
If you want a quick and easy prompt generator, just glue any of my likes below onto any of my requested ships, and you'll be golden. As golden, perhaps, as Giorno Giovanna...
I LOVE:
I LOVE (NSFW EDITION):
Final Fantasy XIV
Arenvald/Fordola, Y'shtola/Lyse, Y'shtola/Runar
Arenvald and Fordola have maybe the most interesting dynamic in the game for me. I understand this can be a VERY thorny relationship to explore so I am fine if you'd be more comfortable just writing gen, but I really crave something that gets to the meat of their problems: how the empire has wounded them both, how Fordola grapples with her identity as a perpetuator of violence against her own people under colonial rule, how she comes to accept the unacceptable truth that she deserves to keep living and atone, how Arenvald exists with and learns his disabled body and how Fordola might, against all odds, help him to do that. You also don't have to get into all of this and can just write about them carving out a life together post-EW. Sharing Ala Mhigan folk tales. Traveling through Ala Mhigo to reacquaint themselves with their homeland. Five times Fordola helped Arenvald into bed nd one time she stayed in the bed with him.
I miss Y'shtola/Lyse so much. I miss Lyse in general. I just want Y'shtola to catch her up on what's been happening; I want them to find each other after the apocalypse is averted, I want Y'shtola to tell her about dying in Ultima Thule, I want Lyse to kiss her eyelids. I want their early Scion days, I want them as gay grad students in Sharlayan, I want Y'shtola trying to teach Lyse thaumaturgy and Lyse trying to teach Y'shtola pugilism, I want them to find a way to celebrate Heavensturn together, Y'shtola slipping quietly into the old city to steal Lyse away from her diplomatic duties, Lyse accompanying Y'shtola on a research expedition.
Y'shtola/Runar is one of the most real ships in FFXIV aside from Wuk Lamat/Sphene but the latter unfortunately was not nominated this year. Anyway, I'd love something in Slitherbough before the WoL shows up, how Y'shtola adjusted to being there, how Runar came to know her as Master Matoya, quiet domestic moments at the end of the world. Or, of course, Y'shtola finding her way back to The First. Or making the WoL her go-between in a game of interdimensional telephone with her lion boyfriend.
Final Fantasy XVI
Jote/Joshua
These two are INSANE! "Do not dirty your hands." WHAT! Joshua and Jote and their insane loyalty/devotion kink, more about their dynamic, traveling together, maybe he comes back to life with amnesia and Jote looks after him/helps him remember himself. Joshua protecting Jote, Jote cutting down heaven and earth to protect Joshua. General broad prompt for a gentler world where Joshua and Clive both survive and get to have a life together and with Jote and Jill. But, you know, maybe it isn't all sunshine and roses and there's still so much trauma and so much to heal from. How does Phoenix feel about Jote? Possessive? Awed? Afraid?
Hades II
Melinoë/Icarus
I will be nourished by any and all Melinoë/Icarus explorations. I'm not picky. Would love pre-canon, post-canon, intra-canon, or a nonlinear mélange of all of them because they're immortal beings and time is a mortal construct (sorry peepaw). Would love a relationship study, a meaningful examination of how they explore Melinoë's poly-ness, a study in how each of them loves.
GIVE ME THE ARM INCIDENT! I had a pet headcanon that Melinoë's ghost arm could actually touch Icarus in a way that the rest of her body could not because it was dead. This does not seem to be the case but if you'd like to play with that, I would be beatifically happy.
Would love to see Icarus POV around the experience of having a physical body again thanks to the ectoplasmic draught, the ephemerality of that, the sensations he rediscovers. An index of touches, across the many times he and Melinoë hook up. The ones he remembers the most. The ones that startle him.
I'm obsessed with the anecdote Icarus shared wherein Daedalus called him a failed experiment. HELLO? I think this must be something Melinoë feels in dark moments as well: like Hecate's failed experiment.
The first 5 things Melinoë learned about Icarus + the first thing he learned about her, or vice-versa
Stranger Things
Nancy/Jonathan, Mike & Nancy
I never ever lose. Nancy and Jonathan broke up, because they needed to, and they're going to get back together again now that they've found themselves and Nancy has found Anne Carson. I have an infinite appetite for getting-back-together stories. The deep agonized yearning, the thinking the other has moved on. The opportunity to fuck without Murray the Nasty telling them to WHEN THEY ARE TEENAGERs. Put them on a road trip, put them on Joyce's sagging couch at 2 AM baked out of their minds, put them at a hotel after a film festival where Jonathan's first movie screens, put them in Indiana at Christmastime, put them at Robin's secret gay wedding.
The Wheeler siblings are my everything and the show robbed me of them. I want them to remember that they're related and, also, so alike.
Does Mike ever convince Nancy to dress up as an elf again for their campaign? Do Mike and Nancy ever wake up at 3 AM after a nightmare and go down to the kitchen for a glass of water only to find that the other is there, too—for the same reason? Does Nancy call him from MA? Do these middle-of-the-night encounters ever lead to Talks? Does Mike ever ask her about Barb? Does Mike ever go to Nancy for advice on like, existing in the world, now? Does he write a campaign just for the two of them that's a thinly veiled catharsis for everything they went through? Is Mike the first person she tells that she's going to drop out?
The Bear
Sydney/Carmy
Ugh they get tastier and tastier every season, sorry. I know the truth. For two seasons I've been fantasizing about them getting the fuck away from each other so Sydney can shine and Carmy can heal and they can come back to each other as better people. This to me has felt absolutely mandatory from the get-go for them to have any kind of romantic relationship. And now it's happening because I am always right! Please write about it. What are Sydney's years at The Bear like without Carrmy? When do they see each other again, what are the circumstances of their reunion? Does Sydney fly off the handle when a critic say The Bear is better without Carmy Berzatto? Does Carmy send emails to other chefs praising Sydney's cooking and promise? DOES HE EVER FIND OUT ABOUT THE MEAL HE MADE FOR HER IN NEW YORK? Is there any context, ever, EVER, in which they take a road trip together?
"I know I don't need you, but that's not the point." Whew!!!!
I love that Sydney has this grounding presence for Carmy but is still a blazingly ambitious person herself. I love that they drive each other to do better in a way that's not reliant on fear or intimidation (which Carmy in particular has been made by). I love the inherent romanticism of cooking... and the choice to do it for someone close to you when it's your 24/7 exhausting JOB to do it for strangers day in and day out.
I have a specific DNW for this fandom and I will try to phrase it succinctly. If you are not Black, I would prefer that you not write Sydney's POV. If you are not Black, and are writing Carmy's POV, I would prefer that you have a working understanding of misogynoir and how not to do it, especially when portraying physical/sexual attraction. That's all!
I also prefer that Claire is talked about like a rounded and complex person and not a caricature of a narcissistic abuser or whatever we've decided she is.
The Newsroom
Jim/Maggie, Jim/Don/Maggie, Jim/MacKenzie
Artemis/Wally, Artemis/Wally/Dick, Wally & Bart
Fake dating for the mission/undercover as a couple, training exercise fall-out, sparring, after-mission patch-ups, any configuration of Wally/Artemis/Dick torturing themselves over each other, WALLY CHARACTER STUDY, ARTEMIS CHARACTER STUDY, SPEEDSTER STUDIES. Wally coming back from "the dead" and him and Artemis finding their way back to each other again. Hate Wally's canon death & choose to ignore it but if he was in the speed force and you want to bring him back different that's sexy. Wally finding solace in the oddest of places e.g. Bart after coming back from the speedforce and not knowing how to, like, function around normal people anymore. Bart coming to Wally for advice on asking Jaime out and Wally not knowing a goddamn thing. Bart helping Wally find his way back into loving his powers instead of feeling inferior. Wally being Bart's family.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Narancia/Trish
My top ship, my #1, unfortunately. They're REALLY in love and I'm almost never not thinking about it, nor am I ever not thinking about Narancia having a montage envisioning his future and seeing protecting Trish for his whole life as a part of it, nor am I ever not thinking about him swimming after the boat and saying that the wound on her arm is his own. The romance! Love to read about them like tentatively connecting over GriefTrauma or discussing the Narancia death that may or may not have happened as much as I love to read about them post-canon dancing around their feelings for each other in the most aggravating possible way for all involved (read: Mista).
Fake dating! For what reason? YOU DECIDE! Mission cover? Trish needs a convenient boyfriend for some pop star function so that people will leave her alone? Endless possibilities.
Spice Girl having a soft spot (HA) for Narancia, especially before Trish's feelings for him have become Public Knowledge. Aerosmith honing in on Trish at all times.
Hurt/comfort of any kind from either side (physical or emotional); I am never not here for Narancia patching up Trish's busted face after some Passione business.
The HEALING from TRAUMA. Fraught clubbing. Fancy restaurants. Comparing dance styles; Narancia touring with Trish as a back-up dancer. Narancia showing Trish around Naples or Trish showing Narancia around rural Calabria... the Places That Made Them. Their respective relationships to violence. Talking about their parents.
Thank you so much for writing for me, whether it's an assignment or a treat! I love you!
Brella
Well, we are still here, somehow! And still rotating our blorbos. Happy New Year. <3
So glad to be cruising through this lowkey exchange that is all about love with you. Love forever!
You can find me these days on Tumblr from time to time, and I am brella on AO3.
If you want a quick and easy prompt generator, just glue any of my likes below onto any of my requested ships, and you'll be golden. As golden, perhaps, as Giorno Giovanna...
I LOVE:
- the pining-longing-yearning triptych
- breaking up and getting back together years later
- character studies, ship studies, the studying of LOVE and BEING
- the 5 times + 1 time format
- epistolary fic
- girls and their burdens
- journeys, transit, travelogues
- nonlinear narratives
- almost kisses
- confessions under the influence e.g. alcohol or injury
- angst with a happy ending
- emotional hurt/comfort
- fake/pretend relationships
- found families
- friends to lovers
- worldbuilding
- unresolved romantic/emotional tension
- WOMEN, WOMEN!
- competency porn especially: first aid, cooking, or some art form
- the tender miracle of human connection in whatever form it may take
- nature imagery
- "What Comes After" as a concept (basically anything post-canon)
I LOVE (NSFW EDITION):
- pegging
- femdom
- power imbalance
- devotion kink, body worship
- praise kink
- phone sex, telepathic sex, psychic sex
- friends with benefits
- sensory overload
- consensual mind control
- somebody's fingers being in somebody's mouth
- endearing human clumsiness
- crying lol
- face-sitting (and cunnilingus from any angle tbh)
- guided masturbation
- distraction—like, someone's trying to concentrate on doing something else, and their partner is trying to distract them
Final Fantasy XIV
Arenvald/Fordola, Y'shtola/Lyse, Y'shtola/Runar
Arenvald and Fordola have maybe the most interesting dynamic in the game for me. I understand this can be a VERY thorny relationship to explore so I am fine if you'd be more comfortable just writing gen, but I really crave something that gets to the meat of their problems: how the empire has wounded them both, how Fordola grapples with her identity as a perpetuator of violence against her own people under colonial rule, how she comes to accept the unacceptable truth that she deserves to keep living and atone, how Arenvald exists with and learns his disabled body and how Fordola might, against all odds, help him to do that. You also don't have to get into all of this and can just write about them carving out a life together post-EW. Sharing Ala Mhigan folk tales. Traveling through Ala Mhigo to reacquaint themselves with their homeland. Five times Fordola helped Arenvald into bed nd one time she stayed in the bed with him.
I miss Y'shtola/Lyse so much. I miss Lyse in general. I just want Y'shtola to catch her up on what's been happening; I want them to find each other after the apocalypse is averted, I want Y'shtola to tell her about dying in Ultima Thule, I want Lyse to kiss her eyelids. I want their early Scion days, I want them as gay grad students in Sharlayan, I want Y'shtola trying to teach Lyse thaumaturgy and Lyse trying to teach Y'shtola pugilism, I want them to find a way to celebrate Heavensturn together, Y'shtola slipping quietly into the old city to steal Lyse away from her diplomatic duties, Lyse accompanying Y'shtola on a research expedition.
Y'shtola/Runar is one of the most real ships in FFXIV aside from Wuk Lamat/Sphene but the latter unfortunately was not nominated this year. Anyway, I'd love something in Slitherbough before the WoL shows up, how Y'shtola adjusted to being there, how Runar came to know her as Master Matoya, quiet domestic moments at the end of the world. Or, of course, Y'shtola finding her way back to The First. Or making the WoL her go-between in a game of interdimensional telephone with her lion boyfriend.
Final Fantasy XVI
Jote/Joshua
These two are INSANE! "Do not dirty your hands." WHAT! Joshua and Jote and their insane loyalty/devotion kink, more about their dynamic, traveling together, maybe he comes back to life with amnesia and Jote looks after him/helps him remember himself. Joshua protecting Jote, Jote cutting down heaven and earth to protect Joshua. General broad prompt for a gentler world where Joshua and Clive both survive and get to have a life together and with Jote and Jill. But, you know, maybe it isn't all sunshine and roses and there's still so much trauma and so much to heal from. How does Phoenix feel about Jote? Possessive? Awed? Afraid?
Hades II
Melinoë/Icarus
I will be nourished by any and all Melinoë/Icarus explorations. I'm not picky. Would love pre-canon, post-canon, intra-canon, or a nonlinear mélange of all of them because they're immortal beings and time is a mortal construct (sorry peepaw). Would love a relationship study, a meaningful examination of how they explore Melinoë's poly-ness, a study in how each of them loves.
GIVE ME THE ARM INCIDENT! I had a pet headcanon that Melinoë's ghost arm could actually touch Icarus in a way that the rest of her body could not because it was dead. This does not seem to be the case but if you'd like to play with that, I would be beatifically happy.
Would love to see Icarus POV around the experience of having a physical body again thanks to the ectoplasmic draught, the ephemerality of that, the sensations he rediscovers. An index of touches, across the many times he and Melinoë hook up. The ones he remembers the most. The ones that startle him.
I'm obsessed with the anecdote Icarus shared wherein Daedalus called him a failed experiment. HELLO? I think this must be something Melinoë feels in dark moments as well: like Hecate's failed experiment.
The first 5 things Melinoë learned about Icarus + the first thing he learned about her, or vice-versa
Stranger Things
Nancy/Jonathan, Mike & Nancy
I never ever lose. Nancy and Jonathan broke up, because they needed to, and they're going to get back together again now that they've found themselves and Nancy has found Anne Carson. I have an infinite appetite for getting-back-together stories. The deep agonized yearning, the thinking the other has moved on. The opportunity to fuck without Murray the Nasty telling them to WHEN THEY ARE TEENAGERs. Put them on a road trip, put them on Joyce's sagging couch at 2 AM baked out of their minds, put them at a hotel after a film festival where Jonathan's first movie screens, put them in Indiana at Christmastime, put them at Robin's secret gay wedding.
The Wheeler siblings are my everything and the show robbed me of them. I want them to remember that they're related and, also, so alike.
Does Mike ever convince Nancy to dress up as an elf again for their campaign? Do Mike and Nancy ever wake up at 3 AM after a nightmare and go down to the kitchen for a glass of water only to find that the other is there, too—for the same reason? Does Nancy call him from MA? Do these middle-of-the-night encounters ever lead to Talks? Does Mike ever ask her about Barb? Does Mike ever go to Nancy for advice on like, existing in the world, now? Does he write a campaign just for the two of them that's a thinly veiled catharsis for everything they went through? Is Mike the first person she tells that she's going to drop out?
The Bear
Sydney/Carmy
Ugh they get tastier and tastier every season, sorry. I know the truth. For two seasons I've been fantasizing about them getting the fuck away from each other so Sydney can shine and Carmy can heal and they can come back to each other as better people. This to me has felt absolutely mandatory from the get-go for them to have any kind of romantic relationship. And now it's happening because I am always right! Please write about it. What are Sydney's years at The Bear like without Carrmy? When do they see each other again, what are the circumstances of their reunion? Does Sydney fly off the handle when a critic say The Bear is better without Carmy Berzatto? Does Carmy send emails to other chefs praising Sydney's cooking and promise? DOES HE EVER FIND OUT ABOUT THE MEAL HE MADE FOR HER IN NEW YORK? Is there any context, ever, EVER, in which they take a road trip together?
"I know I don't need you, but that's not the point." Whew!!!!
I love that Sydney has this grounding presence for Carmy but is still a blazingly ambitious person herself. I love that they drive each other to do better in a way that's not reliant on fear or intimidation (which Carmy in particular has been made by). I love the inherent romanticism of cooking... and the choice to do it for someone close to you when it's your 24/7 exhausting JOB to do it for strangers day in and day out.
I have a specific DNW for this fandom and I will try to phrase it succinctly. If you are not Black, I would prefer that you not write Sydney's POV. If you are not Black, and are writing Carmy's POV, I would prefer that you have a working understanding of misogynoir and how not to do it, especially when portraying physical/sexual attraction. That's all!
I also prefer that Claire is talked about like a rounded and complex person and not a caricature of a narcissistic abuser or whatever we've decided she is.
The Newsroom
Jim/Maggie, Jim/Don/Maggie, Jim/MacKenzie
I think I might just be attracted to John Gallagher Jr. Who isn't?! ANYWAY I loved The Newsroom and I loved Jim Harper and I loved how bad he and Maggie Jordan were at figuring each other out. The Uganda plotline was offensively bad but I did find the angle of Maggie's alcoholism + poor coping mechanisms leveraged against Jim's absence + heartbreak very interesting. That he was not there when she was at her worst... that she blames him for that... it's interesting. How does Jim show up for her when she's recovering from all that?
The throuple of Jim/Don/Maggie is amazing. Don and Jim totally have a thing for each other and also have a thing for how each of them has a thing for Maggie and also have a thing for Maggie, independently, that I find very sweet. I love Sloan Sabbith so much but S1 Don was in love with Maggie and Jim and he should have made more of a problem out of it. Put the three of them on the same story—Don assigning Maggie and Jim to work on something together and going Producer Mode which they both find very handsome. Jim getting too drunk at Hang Chew's one night and Maggie and Don (dating at the time) taking him to their place to crash. Don getting like, appendicitis and Jim and Maggie taking care of him.
I think Jim and Mac hooked up while embedded. I would love to read about that time in their lives, Jim's crush on Mac, Mac's protectiveness of Jim, the hunger they both share, the amicable break-up.
Artemis/Wally, Artemis/Wally/Dick, Wally & Bart
Fake dating for the mission/undercover as a couple, training exercise fall-out, sparring, after-mission patch-ups, any configuration of Wally/Artemis/Dick torturing themselves over each other, WALLY CHARACTER STUDY, ARTEMIS CHARACTER STUDY, SPEEDSTER STUDIES. Wally coming back from "the dead" and him and Artemis finding their way back to each other again. Hate Wally's canon death & choose to ignore it but if he was in the speed force and you want to bring him back different that's sexy. Wally finding solace in the oddest of places e.g. Bart after coming back from the speedforce and not knowing how to, like, function around normal people anymore. Bart coming to Wally for advice on asking Jaime out and Wally not knowing a goddamn thing. Bart helping Wally find his way back into loving his powers instead of feeling inferior. Wally being Bart's family.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Narancia/Trish
My top ship, my #1, unfortunately. They're REALLY in love and I'm almost never not thinking about it, nor am I ever not thinking about Narancia having a montage envisioning his future and seeing protecting Trish for his whole life as a part of it, nor am I ever not thinking about him swimming after the boat and saying that the wound on her arm is his own. The romance! Love to read about them like tentatively connecting over GriefTrauma or discussing the Narancia death that may or may not have happened as much as I love to read about them post-canon dancing around their feelings for each other in the most aggravating possible way for all involved (read: Mista).
Fake dating! For what reason? YOU DECIDE! Mission cover? Trish needs a convenient boyfriend for some pop star function so that people will leave her alone? Endless possibilities.
Spice Girl having a soft spot (HA) for Narancia, especially before Trish's feelings for him have become Public Knowledge. Aerosmith honing in on Trish at all times.
Hurt/comfort of any kind from either side (physical or emotional); I am never not here for Narancia patching up Trish's busted face after some Passione business.
The HEALING from TRAUMA. Fraught clubbing. Fancy restaurants. Comparing dance styles; Narancia touring with Trish as a back-up dancer. Narancia showing Trish around Naples or Trish showing Narancia around rural Calabria... the Places That Made Them. Their respective relationships to violence. Talking about their parents.
Thank you so much for writing for me, whether it's an assignment or a treat! I love you!
Brella
