2025 Yuletide Letter

[donutsweeper]

Thank you for creating for me!

I am donutsweeper. I have gifts enabled and welcome treats.

In general I like stories that focus on character development and interactions, hurt/comfort, competence (it's always great to read stories where people do their jobs and do them well even under extreme circumstances), missing scenes, or plotty adventures. Humor, snappy dialog and/or snark are all wonderful and canon type violence is fine. When it comes to worldbuilding, I love it when tiny asides or minor details are fleshed out or anytime a "wait, but how does that work/what did they mean when they said 'X'?" kind of thing or situation is explained. And, please note, while the length of my babble might differ between my various requests I will be equally excited to receive something for any of them.

All Souls (TV) Any (characters in tagset: Mitchell Grace, Glory St. Clair, Worldbuilding)

Haunted hospitals and unethical experimentation are perfect stepping stones for good storytelling and there was such potential in the ones we saw in "All Souls." There was so many things hinted at in this show that I'd loved to see explored further. What other sorts of ghosts or otherworldly things wander the halls of All Souls? There are times that it really seems the hospital has some sort of sentience and is alive, is it? What other experiments have been done there through the years, have any left their mark on All Souls? How does Mitch tie in to it all and what role does Glory play?

On the less supernatural side of things, I loved the interactions between Mitch and Grace and their implied, only briefly touched upon, history together. A story between Grace and a young Mitch from back then or something where they reminisce about his father would be wonderful as would just an everyday kind of slice of life snippet now that they've reconnected.

DNW covid/pandemic references or situations, genderswap, graphic violence, mpreg, permanent character death, omegaverse, rape or xeno.

Only six episodes of this show were ever made, which is such a shame because the world it build in that short amount of time was fascinating but so much was left unexplained and unanswered. Just how prevalent were the hospital's hauntings? How is All Souls a "special place" and what did Glory mean when she said "the dead have power here"? Is Glory actually just a normal, everyday person and if not who/what was she? Why do we see her talking with/acknowledging the ghosts and sometimes the hospital itself? How is she tied to All Souls? What is All Souls? What was the story behind the black veiled lady with the pram? How often does Lazarus make appearances? Why is Mitch the spitting image of the doctor in the picture from the Civil War? Has Doctor Ambrosius really been there that whole time and if so what are his powers? What exactly was that creature he was commanding in "The Deal" and are there similar creatures elsewhere in the hospital? Do the staff and patients notice all the hospital's oddities or is it just people like Mitch and Glory who do? I have so many questions and I'd love to receive a work that went into... well, any of that.

Unfortunately All Souls has never been released on DVD but all episodes have been put up on youtube. The order they aired was: the pilot, "Spineless", "The Deal", "Bad Blood", "Running Scared", and "One Step Closer to Roger".

Vampire Gastelbrau (2011) Gastelbrau, Gabi, Gerta

This animated short is just so cute! I love everything about it and the vague teases it gives of its world in general. Greta and Gabi didn't seem overly scared or surprised to see Gastelbrau and knew enough to ward him off with the garlic and to offer the umbrella to shade him from the sun so are vampires commonplace in their world? Are they unusual in not being scared? What sort of adventures and things do the three of them get up to after Gastelbrau returns?

General DNWs: covid/pandemic references or situations, genderswap, graphic violence, mpreg, omegaverse, rape or xeno.
Fandom specific DNWs: Gabi or Greta being badly injured, dying or being turned into vampires themselves.

Everything about this animation was just so cute and I would love to see whatever anyone created for it. Anything would be amazing, but a few other specific prompts that might be fun are: Are there other supernatural creatures that Gastelbrau knows or Gabi and Gerta befriend? Do the three of them corner the market on dried (well, liquid removed via Gastelbrau's tooth anyway) tomatoes? Does Gastelbrau ever show Gabi and Gerta his castle?

Vampire Gastelbrau can be watched on youtube here or vimeo here.

看見愛 | See Your Love (TV) Jiang Shaopeng, Yang Zixiang

"See Your Love" is such a sweet, wonderful story about overcoming life's obstacles and finding happiness in spite of them and generally just accepting who you are and becoming the person you want to be and standing up to those who refuse to do the same. I love how it showed Jiang Shaopeng and Yang Zixiang taking very different paths along that journey and how they found love with each other along the way.

And basically, I'd just love to see more of the two of them. What sort of adventures do they have together? Does Jiang Shaopeng take Yang Zixiang to his dad's dojo and teach him to fight so he can protect himself in case another situation occurs where he'd need to? Does Yang Zixiang continue to draw Jiang Shaopeng cute comic stories? Jiang Shaopeng is the trained care attendant and helped Yang Zixiang when he was injured, how would things play out if the tables were turned?

General DNWs: character death, covid/pandemic references or situations, genderswap, graphic violence, mpreg, omegaverse, PWP, rape or xeno.
Fandom specific DNWs: Any kind of AU (particularly having Jiang Shaopeng no longer being a deaf-mute or his parents no longer being supportive of him and/or his relationship with Yang Zixiang). Anything where Jiang Shaopeng and Yang Zixiang cheat on each other or mistakenly thinking the other is cheating or where there is a post-canon breakup. (Not focusing, or even mentioning, their relationship is fine, just don't break them up.)

I watched See Your Love as the episodes were dropping week by week and then immediately watched the whole show in its entirely straight through once they'd all come out, I just enjoyed it that much. It's by no means a perfect show (the whole mob(?) storyline, for example, doesn't hold together very well despite it being as barebones as it is) but I was absolutely entranced by Jiang Shaopeng and his story and Yang Zixiang's character arc. I love this drama and I love Jiang Shaopeng and there's so much potential for interesting stories to be told about about him and Yang Zixiang. I'm open to pretty much anything but some vague prompt ideas are:

Having to rely on vision and a clear head to read lips and signs leaves Jiang Shaopeng ripe for so many hurt/comfort or even bad weather scenarios where he'd be more vulnerable than someone who wasn't deaf- like that scene in the opening of e8 when, after the lights went out, Jiang Shaopeng seemed to have a brief panic attack before his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he was able to calm himself. They happened to be near a window when the house lost power, but what if they hadn't been? What would happen in a situation where it was too dark to see or if Jiang Shaopeng wasn't able to write on Yang Zixiang's hand (or Yang Zixiang on his hand) or he was too injured or ill to manage to communicate? Or there were the times when Jiang Shaopeng wouldn't look at Yang Zixiang for various reasons (like due to being annoyed in the laundry room or due to embarrassment after the contract signing party), does anything like that happen again?

Another interesting story would be Yang Zixiang having to support or help Jiang Shaopeng walk considering the height difference. Honestly, they're just such a cute couple in general, anything about would be great.

And while I didn't nominate them, I loved Jiang Shaopeng's parents, Jiang Zhengyuan and Wang Wenling. They were just great, not only supportive as hell, but fun; I love his mom and her waky costumes and the way the dad helps her with them! Feel free to include them if so desired, they way they took to Yang Zixiang (especially the 'well, if you don't want him as a son, I'll happily take him' scene with Yang Zixiang's father) was just so heartening. They're wonderful.

See Your Love can be found on GagaOOLala, iQIYI, Viki, and WeTv if you have subscriptions to them as well as without a subscription here.

雪迷宫 | The First Shot (TV) Gu Yiran, Zheng Bei (either both characters or just Gu Yiran)

Gu Yiran's character arc from his introduction as a student and then academy instructor and chemical specialist in Huazhou to being a vital member of a team in Halan was so well done and I loved watching all the steps and growth and fumbles as he found his place with the team (and Zheng Bei) in the north. There are so many stories to be told either to fill in untold moments in canon (Gu Yiran's recovery from any of his beatings, a discussion about the fight that preceded his kidnapping, a look at how Zheng Bei and Gu Yiran adjusted to sharing their place, etc) as well as plenty that canon never had time to delve into (like how Gu Yiran reacted to winters in Halan, or how they dealt with cases other than the Lucifer production one, etc)

For this request I clicked "My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags; or it may use exceptions I explain in the form" and I am asking for my gift to include either just Gu Yiran or both Gu Yiran and Zheng Bei. (I loved the entire team as well as Zheng Bei's parents, please feel free to include any of them as well, as long as Gu Yiran is the focus I'm sure I'll love it.)

General DNWs: covid/pandemic references or situations, explicitly detailed torture, genderswap, mpreg, noncanonical character deaths, omegaverse, permanent injury, PWP, rape or xeno.
Fandom specific DNWs: Any pairings for Gu Yiran and Zeng Bei other than Gu Yiran/Zeng Bei. (Just Gu Yiran or Gu Yiran & Zeng Bei friendship with no pairings at all is fine.)

I really love how well (and often) Gu Yiran's intelligence was shown. There wasn't just the science smarts, although the chemistry and lessons on the various aspects of the drugs showed that well, but we also saw things like how quickly he noticed there was something off about Shen Li and his friends in the restaurant and how he was able to pass Zheng Bei the message about them without attracting suspicion or the whole 'build a bomb out of some chemicals and a pair of socks' incident.

And then there's everything going on between him and Zheng Bei! They canonically share a small place with only one bed. Zheng Bei's family and their restaurant were saved by Gu Yiran's quick thinking, intelligence and fighting skills. When Gu Yiran was kidnapped and tortured the second he (momentarily) escaped he called Zeng Bei who not only rescued him but then princess carried him outside and stayed at his bedside in the hospital until he woke up. So much happened in canon and there's so much potential for so much more! (Like, for example, the never delved into issue that the kidnapping happened after Zheng Bei lost his temper with Gu Yiran and basically told him he didn't know anything about drugs or drug addicts and to leave Halan if he wasn't happy with how Zheng Bei did things.)

Zheng Bei is used to being (and having to be) the strong one, the reliable big brother to not only his sister but everyone at the station and there's the wonderful scene where Gu Yiran calls him out on that basically says he's not going to do be that way with him (with, as many have said, the sluttiest pronunciation of da-ge possible) which I interpret as him explaining there won't be that power imbalance between them but rather that they'll be partners, equals. How does Zheng Bei react to this shifting dynamic?

For those with a subscription The First Shot is available on youku or without a subscription the first 19 episodes (somewhat truncated) are on youtube here or in its entirety here.