howlingmoonrise | Dear Yuletide Writer (2023)

Hello and welcome to my long rambling letter!

I hope you have a lot of fun participating this year, and the below is meant to help you with that! As usual, the only things that are hard lines are the squicks listed on the Yuletide form, but I'd prefer if you respected my other dislikes/squicks as well, even if our likes don't match and you chose not to use any of these prompts! Feel free to mix and match what you like ;)

I tried to place things mostly under bullet points in an effort to cut down on my rambling but, uh, I'm a very wordy person overall. I'd rather you have plenty to choose from and a good grasp on my likes/dislikes if you don't have an idea in mind already, than you wanting ideas and not finding any you like, though!!

I hope you have an excellent time!

--

GENERAL LIKES:

Truly egregious amounts of pining! Truly egregious amounts of increasingly obvious denial!
Non-established relationships - what I love most is the progression of the dynamics between two characters!
Fake dating! This applies to all the fandoms, it's one of my favourite tropes if you want to give it a whirl. Same for time loop fics;
Despite the first three items above, either gen or romance is fine! What really does it for me is the dynamics between the characters, and how they find unprecedented levels of kinship and trust and intimacy and comfort and understanding with each other, not necessarily romantic acts. In fact, I don't particularly like huge romantic acts either, and would love a more subtle sort of thing if you're going down the romance road!
Bickering/banter is great! Doubly so if the characters are already a bit petty by nature!
Sticking to the tone of the original characterizations/canon/humour is definitely a plus! I love when ways of speaking and running gags and references to the original material show up!
Casual intimacy! CASUAL INTIMACY! I'm a sucker for this and it's super fun, especially if placed amidst the bickering - it throws a whole different depth to their interactions and really shows how comfortable the characters are with each other. DOUBLY so if they have some enmity going on at that point since that makes it downright hilarious with the other half not really knowing how to react. A pair that communicates without needing to use words is also so intimate and great! I love this kind of thing;
Trope subversion all the way!!!
Usually smooth characters going tongue-tied when faced with the possibility of feelings or the presence of their crush, I'm so weak for that;
Characters getting roped into shenanigans, the wilder the better. Double points if they have no clue how they got themselves into this and are very much bewildered at how the situation went this sideways;
Enemies/rivals-to-reluctant-allies-(to-maybe-friends?)-to-lovers are *chef's kiss*;
Idiots to lovers. Idiots to lovers. It's really, really important and hilarious to me that they're huge dumbasses about it if your gift isn't the serious poetical prose sort, even if the "to lovers" part doesn't get all the way there;
I really need to emphasize how much I don't need a full romantic resolution or even a full story/ending resolution - like I said, what I like the most is how the dynamics between the characters evolve, both in gen and in romance! Ambiguous endings are fine both in terms of relationships and plot.

GENERAL YIKES:

I really cannot overstate how much I don't want to see pregnancy or motherhood related stuff, mpreg and babies/toddlers included. Kidfics, babyfics, next gen fics, anything related to pregnancy or kids at all. This is my biggest squick alongside scat;
Unhappy endings (ambiguous or hopeful endings are more than okay!);
On the completely opposite direction, the stereotypical 2.5 kids white picket fence sort of happy ending;
For these fandoms, I'd pass on playing around with gender when it comes to characters that aren't canonically prone to it (Loki), and even for those nothing permanent;
Most hard AUs (further detailed under each fandom) but you can assume stuff like merpeople AU or high fantasy AUs are a pass from me, they rely too much on setting and often lose all which makes the setting and the characters… them. Further specified under each fandom;
No going into the hows and whys of a character's sexuality or gender or huge discussions of it - if they're bi/ace/etc, then they're bi/ace/etc and that's that, going into the backstory of it and other people's reactions (including their own) is a no from me. I would prefer if there were no depictions of homophobia, sexism, racism, transphobia, etc, even from the mouths of villain/background antagonistic characters;
Huge dramatic declarations of love (unless it's for a con or a bit);
Huge time skips. Except for some specific situations it makes me feel as if I've missed way too much development, which is my favourite part when it comes to relationships and character development;
Angst is.... *waggles hand*. I don't dislike angst, but it really depends on the kind of angst and it can often be overdone (to my tastes, YMMV). I'll give it a hard pass on stuff to do with major character death (unless canon or they get better), sexual abuse, self-harm, gender/sexuality angst, and the like. I'd also rather not read one long torture/depression fic. Other than that, feel free to go ahead (but definitely don't give it an unambiguously bad ending!);
Huge non-canon past trauma;
Cheating and infidelity are HUGE no-nos;
Sickfics, dysphoria, deep dives into mental illness and other disorders;
Script-based or roleplay fic is not really my preferred format, I really enjoy prose instead of nearly 100% dialogue!
Tons of gore, permanent disabilitating injury (it's fine if it's like... one limb of your chosing or one eye getting fucked up, but more than that I'll pass), etc. I don't generally mind it, for these fandoms/characters in particular it's not really my scene. Note that I mean this for the main characters in particular, if you want to get really into writinh random Order people exploding into little bits in a Runemarks fic I'm not stopping you;
Fully unrequited love between the main characters;
Flashback/nightmare/dream sequences.

IF YOU'RE GOING FOR SMUT

Kinks

Moderate masochism (pain is nice - anything from spanking to knife-play is A-OK - but maiming or an actual beating not so much. Dry penetration with no prep is no good, but the character being underprepped/understretched or too little lube used if M/M is);
Bondage (especially predicament bondage or unconvencional bindings, AKA got stuck in a compromising position somewhere or some way normally no one would get stuck);
Breathplay, knifeplay (preferably no blood drawn during specifically this for these character sets except for Runemarks, would also rather not see knife-play in GSNK), nails digging/dragging on/breaking skin;
Edging/desperation play. If bottoming/subbing, David/Wakamatsu/Loki in particular being super flustered, red-faced, maybe a bit teary-eyed is *chef's kiss*;
Ladies topping and calling the shots!
Lowkey cannibalism imagery and hunger, biting.

Squicks

I already put an entire bucket list on the form so. yeah. those. I'll repeat some here just in case;
Scat, vomit, bed-wetting, farting, wound-fucking, castration, CBT (myth for Loki already went there so. pass in general);
Dehumanization, slavery, pet-play, A/B/O;
Mommy/daddy/baby kinks, age play, anything involving diapers, pregnancy kink, mpreg or pregnancy of any sort;
Praise kink (this one isn't exactly a hard line but I'd pass on this);
Forced feminization;
Stuff very involved with body hair;
Outright vore and/or shrinking;
Super big breasts (unless we're talking about Cobra Bubbles, in which case... further down in the section for that fandom), super small breasts, microdicks;
Humiliation or degradation to do with any physical characteristics of a character;
Non-con betwen these characters or with others. Dub-con such as fuck-or-die or sex pollen is fine;
Would rather have no anal sex if a female character is the one being penetrated

RUNEMARKS

Runemarks! Runemarks, my beloved. It's been so long, and I didn't read the Loki prequels/sequels/spinoffs because it'd been so long I needed a reread of the series to properly appreciate them, and I have no clue where I placed Runelight.

(That being said, please do disregard Runelight while writing my request. I didn't entirely dislike it, but not only do I not remember it well, there also were some iffy things about it that didn't fit my tastes (crazy!possessive!Sigyn, Maggie/Adam, the Big Betrayal with no further resolution, lack of major Loki&Maddy interaction outside of that), and for me the essence of Runemarks lays, in fact, with the original book). You can of course add in details from the books I haven't read, I just won't recognize them or appreciate your references properly. If you could avoid those things in particular I'd be thankful.

What do I like? Loki! Maddy! Loki and Maddy! Not even necessarily romantically, but their dynamic is the thing that most grabbed me about the books and had me crazy about them. We love two unhinged, super tricky individuals who aren't used to others seeing through them and who end up terribly fond of each other because they're both so dishonest that when you put them together it flips all the way back into actual honesty. They SEE each other, your honour!!! Not as archetypes or what others expect of them, but as people!!! Plus, the banter. Can't forget about the banter.

What I would like to see/possible prompts:

Exploration of the dynamics between those two. I really can't say this enough. I don't care if it's gen or romantic or somewhere ambiguously in between (in fact, somewhere ambiguously in between is my favourite), but the ideal fic would dive into the relationship between these two and how similar yet different they are to each other.
Soft AUs/Canon-verse AUs: the Runemarks world placed slightly to the left - an added, unseen scene that might have happened in canon, or a world where some of the canon events didn't happen, or even the Runemarks world minus all the plot with a different meeting. Examples:

Canon-verse Maddy running into "The Captain"/"Lucky" post-identity reveal in some other (potentially hilarious) situation where Loki is really really hoping he didn't piss Maddy off enough on their last meeting that she'll spill the beans, and her having the time of her life teasing him with double-meanings and puns about his identity to make him (deservedly) sweat a bit;
Canon-verse (or not) Loki and Maddy falling simultaneously into the same troublesome scenario, shenanigans ensue;
Soft AU where the canon plot didn't happen and Maddy may or may not have moved away from the village (the Order did not come for her, or they did and she got away, etc), and runs into Loki-as-Captain/Lucky, or under some other job he's lying low in (bartender, soldier down on his luck, charming thief, etc), and they get in and out of trouble together, as some fun alternate first meeting;
Soft AU where the Order did come for Maddy, and Loki (who was in the surroundings and may or may not have had a snarky altercation with Maddy just before, where he felt Seen™) is begrudgingly roped into helping her escape them;
Canon-verse or soft AU where Maddy and Loki are linked somehow (time loop, some supernatural/god bullshit, a curse/geas, etc) while pretty far apart and with no clue of what it means or possibly even who each other are (depending on whether or not they've met already, dealer's choice) and try to figure it out/find each other/get rid of it while growing close or empathetic to one another during it.

TONS of banter, if possible. That sardonic tone of canon is fantastic, and doubly so with underlying fondness;
If going down the romantic route, I do like things more subtle - no grand declarations of love, but that sense of comfort and belonging and understanding with each other that they don't get with anyone else. I would rather have pink ears and flustered feelings at a brushed touch or a more flirty-bantery remark rather than outright romantic kissing, but this is entirely up to you. What I really like is the journey getting there, and the relationship being already established tends to skip over all those parts;
That being said, I'm definitely not opposed to some sexual tension. I mean, *gestures vaguely towards their interactions* it's them;
Moral ambiguity! I think they should be gay-- er, bi, and do crime, or at least seriously annoy people. Especially Loki. I love that little bastard.
If you'd rather not write within the Runemarks universe, I'd rather not a full fantasy AU (merpeople AU, magic school AU, etc), but for example a modern era AU with the characters being placed into relatively equivalent roles/settings is OK too, so long as their dynamics remain the same! A role reversal AU could also be interesting if their personalities/roles in the story remained relatively the same but adapted to fit it (Loki is a trickster menace to the gods, Maddy upheaved the world as they know it and people/gods might not like her for it, much like the villagers in the OG version, but then stuff like the Maddy/Modi thing could parallel with the Loki/Lucky/Captain thing, for example). Overall, the focus should be on the relationships and the characters instead of the background setting.

What I wouldn't like to see:

Please no more humiliation and pain for Loki - give him a break! It's fine if he gets in a sticky situation (who is even Loki if he's not in some sort of trouble lmfao), but he should be able to get out of it basically unscathed (some light stabbing and jokes about it are fine, so long as he shakes it off easily and not too long is spent dwelling on the pain). This applies to Maddy too, but a special emphasis on Loki for this;
No female form/dress jokes, it's one thing for him to assume that form or wear a dress (that is fine), it's another to make it the butt of the situation or make it sound as if it's humiliating;
That being said, I wouldn't like to see a fic fully focused on gender-flipped Loki, or one that went super into gender or sexuality dynamics. Treat it as commonplace if possible!
Most hard AUs (such as a merpeople AU, magic school AU, etc) would not be favourites (check the section above for details on AUs I would not mind seeing);
Please no love triangles or unrequited love! (Unless it's Adam with a creepy crush on Maddy/Maggie getting what's coming to him, that is);
Full Maddy-as-Modi AUs. Which isn't really an AU, but I like Maddy as Maddy - an AU where she grew up as Modi, or a canon-verse continuation where she grows into that role isn't really my thing, except maybe on the role reversal AU I detailed above (in which it would be Modi growing into being Maddy instead of the other way around);
In that line, Loki-that-isn't-Loki. He can (and should!) be under disguise at some point, or under an alias, but even if there's no true reveal we should for sure know that it's him under there, and that person is a little redhead scar-lipped shit-stirrer;
No other ships involving these two! Past relationship mention is fine, though I'd pass on past Odin/Loki;
Would probably pass on heavy smut for this but not a hard line.

Other notes for this fandom:

No need to follow the plotline of Runemarks, honestly. You can, but it's definitely not a requirement, especially considering how complex it becomes! For me what matters most is really the character dynamics, I don't really need the plot (or any plot), so don't stress about writing an extremely plotty fic in line with it unless it's your kind of thing. I wasn't super into the Order plot Runelight went so far into anyway, but if you want to take any pieces of plot from the book anyway I'd rather you focused on the god drama and interdynamics, which are hilarious to me;
If you must bring Sigyn in, make her OOC - which is something I never thought I'd say about any character, ever! I am actually fond of Sigyn in myth despite there being so little on her (on past Yuletide requests, I've actually requested her and Loki on both the Prose Edda and the Ancient Norse Mythology and Religion fandoms). Be kinder to her than Joanne was! The crazy marriage-obsessed lady is a bit. Uh. Yeah, no. Better to leave her off of it than to bring all of that into the fic;
Bringing in Angrbod, Skadi, Hel, Jormungandr, and other god-related characters is obviously beyond fine, but more fun if Maddy is chill with everyone. Relationships with Loki may vary - possibly going down the disbelieving-look-at-Maddy route when she's clearly more than cool with him around (and would actively oppose it if someone tried to slice his head off, Skadi!) - and this contrast can be the inciting incident for the fic! No matter the relationship the other characters hold with Loki, negative or positive, they all question Maddy's life choices nonetheless, which is a mood.

LILO & STITCH

I'll be real with you, I was desperately looking for a third fandom that I hadn't 1) fallen out of touch to the point where I missed a fuckton of sequels/prequels/spinoffs being released, 2) completely forgot about like 80% of it so I'd write a very vague and nebulous letter among the lines of "I just really like those characters so I want to see more of them!", which would be very unhelpful if my writer (you!) didn't have any ideas in mind and was desperate for a prompt.

I passed by L&S once. I passed by it twice. On the third time, I actually took more than a two second look at the character list, glimpsed Cobra Bubbles and David listed next to each other, and my brain went ding! with "holy shit, new rarepair!!! i wanna read/write about this right the fuck now!". The rest, as they say, is history.

So! You're not here for my random backstory of how we got here! Let's get down to business.

Possible ship/gen configurations:

For gen: Nani&David, Nani&Cobra, Nani&David&Cobra;
For romance: David/Cobra, Cobra/David/Nani;
This is explained more thoroughly on the Yuletide assignment.

What I would like to see/possible prompts:

Canon-verse-ish instead of a huge AU would be great! Post the first movie or during the show (if possible ignore the movie sequels, I barely remember anything about them);
If you want to write an AU, keep the characters in roles/dynamics as similar as possible;
Would love to see some alien shenanigans (not restricted to the experiments). In general would love to see some more of Cobra Bubbles' work on the interplanetary level;
Lilo and Stitch should at least be referenced even if they've, idk, gone off to college or to go have wild space adventures together if you don't want to write them, since they are/were such a huge pat of the characters' lives;
I love the fixer-upper space tech DIY vibe of the house and equipment, bonus points for mentioning how they live with/around some of those modifications in a casual way instead of it being a normal human house;

FOR GEN FIC:
Ideally I'd love to see a fic of the three of them (or Nani and one of the boys) tiredly bonding over a day of alien shenanigans and raising Lilo;
Seriously, there are way too many plasma explosions involved on a so-called "normal day";
This is not covered in any parenting manuals;
Or government ones;
Alternatively, Nani and David accidentally-on-purpose get Cobra Bubbles (in denial about this) to lowkey adopt an experiment and it's adorable (bonus points if the experiment's appearance and personality is entirely at odds with what the average bystander would think Cobra Bubbles would tolerate. the average bystander would be very wrong);

FOR ROMANCE (DAVID/COBRA EDITION):
David is thirsty and extremely oblivious to this;
At some point he noticed one of these on Cobra Bubbles: his large hands, his massive tits, and his tender heart. Whichever one it was, the other two quickly followed;
Very likely, David is not exactly conscious of this. He just. Keeps looking? There is A Lot to look at. Cobra Bubbles is a big man. Objectively.
His hands are very big, objectively. And warm. And kinda calloused, but in a way different to his own, and Cobra picked him up and moved him aside like it was nothing one day and David now lies awake at night thinking about it all the time;
His heart is very soft and very tender and, like, hypotethically David already knew this by virtue of *gestures towards L&S movie end* but. Somehow it's a lot harder to face when you just had a hell of a day and your first instinct when you see a guy that scowl-y and intimidating and official looking is not great, but then you see him doing the equivalent of saving an alien kitty from a tree, or being really good with handling Lilo despite her not being an easy kid no matter how much you love her, and suddenly his heart is speeding up and his day is a whole lot brighter and it definitely doesn't mean anything, right?
Listen, I know I just wrote about the hands and the heart but the things David thirsts over are entirely negotiable other than the massive pecs, okay? Just. Huge titties. Big bahonkadonks. He walks into them once and almost says 'thank you' instead of 'sorry'. He might have actually said it, he doesn't remember. He spent all day walking into things afterwards. He wants to walk into them again;
Incidentally, the crush-that-is-not-a-crush makes him clumsy as hell;
He may or may not set himself on fire more than once. Again;
How he manages to keep being in denial despite having entire raging wet dreams of suffocating himself on Cobra's pecs is beyond human or alien comprehension;
And many many thoughts of the muscles that go all pillowy when relaxed but he's so BIG;
Meanwhile, Cobra Bubbles could be either extremely awkward in that quiet way of his OR panicking behind his stoic glasses but not letting the world see SHIT;
If you go the full idiots to lovers, Cobra could be completely oblivious to the way David is basically performing a bird of paradise mating dance while stumbling into things along the way;
Otherwise, a smooth operator kinda amused Cobra that just stoicly doesn't look like he's noticing anything until David shoves his foot too far into his mouth and then hms a monosyllable and handles ~~everything~~ David to its logical conclusion could also be funny as hell;
A possible prompt/inciting event: road trip! Some experiment or alien breaks free, Cobra is called to action (Lilo&Stitch usual team not available due to age/distance/whatever). Whether by accident or as the only backup that was left, David ends up coming along (for example, Cobra had to take a vehicle, David could have lended it or had been napping on it and only realized the van/spaceship/whatever was moving AGES after they were in hot pursuit, ergo no turning back), offering chips and terrible puns as his contribution to the chase. Cobra is extremely done and likely very annoyed, all the way until he's not.
Look, I don't have a lot of thoughts on smut for this other than: 1) David being super desperate is THE most important thing; 2) Cobra might have some alien body mods or alien tech at hand; 3) maybe predicament bondage with loose cables on a spaceship?; 4) neither of them should be mean/cruel about it, I think? unless you're writing an AU scenario where their relationship is not the same, but this would not be preferred; 5) alien plants can come in for predicament bondage and/or sex pollen, if that's your kind of thing;

FOR ROMANCE (COBRA/DAVID/NANI EDITION):
Most of the above applies;
David/Nani can be established or not, and Cobra is the one (eventually) brought into the fold;
Nani is very cool with David thirsting over Cobra Bubbles and thinks it's super fucking funny since he's even more of a disaster than he was with her;
The trio slowly starting to nest on the Pelekai house would be amazing. The kind of slow moving in you don't even realize until there's three brushes in the cup, and other people's clothes occupying full shelves in the closet, and they're there every morning cooking and eating breakfast with you and bringing you that thing you forgot to work without you having to say so.

What I wouldn't like to see:

Love triangles or cheating. As I said above, a poly relationship with Nani is fine though (all participants must be aware and OK with it, or at least this is implied);
Lilo, Stitch, or Cobra Bubbles in an established relationship;
Please no Nani/David unless it's pre-poly with Cobra Bubbles;
On a similar note, no Cobra Bubbles/Nani without David already being in the mix;
Would not love to see a focus on the Cobra/Nani even on a poly context (some is fine but not the majority);
No relationships between any of the tagged characters and other characters, or dwelling a lot on past relationships;
…Is it xenophobia if it applies to literal aliens? No xenophobia from either of the main family please, Cobra (especially!) included;
Cobra as a cop or cop-like character;
Species-bending? Is that a thing? Basically if you're writing an AU, the human characters should remain human, and the aliens should remain non-human.

GEKKAN SHOUJO NOZAKI-KUN

What I would like to see/possible prompts:

To put it short and sweet: let Waka lowkey bully Seo back 2k23! I cannot overstate how much I absolutely adore that Seo is weak to Waka's affection, we seem to have gotten past that point in the manga but the chapter where she kept getting flustered and running away when Waka flatly confessed over and over again is one of my favourites! There's no need to go to such great lengths as it happened in that chapter, but one (1) little moment where something like that happened for 0.5 seconds within the fic would make me super happy! Revenge! Vindication! Retribution rights for Waka! (cue him being super flustered when the situation reverses on him again);

That being said, if that particular dynamic is not how you vibe with those two, that's also fine! I LOVE how tsundere Waka is about the entire relationship, one moment complaining about being "forced" to hang out with Seo, and the next jealous over someone else getting to do it, or sulking because she hasn't texted him yet when she's away on a field trip, and don't get me started on the entire plushie chapter thing (incidentally another of my favourites). Needy Waka semi-permanently in denial is adorable;
And I love, love, LOVE how chill they've gotten with each other and how easily they fall into stride together or how they just immediately jump into the other's shenanigans;
THAT BEING SAID, how fucking unhinged is that? Especially in comparison to how they started out? Would love to see an exploration of that (could be an outsider's POV for example), especially since Waka has such good boy vibes and then... keeps sticking to Seo? That Seo? Everyone is trying to give you an out, Waka, why don't you take them?;
Best flavours of Waka: canon!tsundere!Waka, jealous-needy-puppy!Waka, sadistic streak!Waka;
Best flavours of Seo: flustered!Seo (versus sadistic!vengeful!Waka), canon!tsundere!Seo, mindlessly-patting-Waka's-head!Seo, casual-and-chill!Seo, downright-unhinged-cackling-maniac!Seo, canon-lowkey-sugar-mommy!Seo;
You know how sulky pets will pretend they don't want your affection even when they're shoving their face right into your body parts so you'll pet them? Yeah, that's Waka. We (by 'we' I mean 'I') love to see it. A fic where Waka is Like That and Seo comes to a realization while mindlessly indulging him (AKA noogie-ing him which transitions to hair petting or something of the sort) would be *chef's kiss*;
Lorelei reveal shenanigans where Waka desperately tries to conciliate his Lorelei fantasies with... Seo.
(depending on whether that's your thing, the above could be horny! Where Waka used to have pure nice fantasies of a siren singing on a rock suddenly it's Seo with a mermaid tail and sharp teeth and nails pulling him underwater and stealing his breath forever.... but hornily. Bonus points for man-eating mermaid imagery and Waka waking up with a "mark me down as scared AND horny" boner and immediately trying to suffocate himself in his pillow to NOT think about it ever again, because thinking about Seo-senpai that way is a fast track ticket to insanity);
Another soft prompt (pre or post-Lorelei reveal, might be the cause of the reveal itself): one of the times Seo accidentally (or not) puts Waka to sleep and then lets him sleep on her lap, he wakes up but is so slow at doing it that he doesn't move or open his eyes until registering where he is, soft thighs and nice scent and very soothing hair petting and all, and in a move that might or might not send a few bricks of his wall of denial crumbling down, elects to stay there pretending to be asleep for a bit longer;
Look, just give Waka some head pats/hair-petting, he deserves it!
If you're going for smut, Waka bringing his little game of flustering Seo when she doesn't have anywhere to run to would also be gr9;
Otherwise, Seo just barreling forward when it comes to "weird" sex stuff with Waka barely managing to keep up (and being very flustered about it but also reluctantly into it) is excellent. No need to actually go through with the things she'd bring up, could just serve to fluster Waka before going for something less wild or be fade to black for the laughs;
In particular for those two, it would be interesting to see pegging, or a bit of bondage just so Seo can unexpectedly be an extra super gentle dom with Waka while he doesn't know how to react and is flustered and sensitive and squirmy and desperate and a bit teary about it because he doesn't know what the hell is going on but it feels good and it's so tender (while presumably he would have been expecting something completely wild and lowkey unpleasant or embarrassing, but he definitely did not expect to feel this loved and cherished by Seo-senpai of all people, what the hell?).

What I wouldn't like to see:

Love triangles or past/established relationships;
UNLESS the past relationship was with the other, they broke up, and now in the fic they go through completely unhinged shenanigans and get back together, and overall the breakup and the getting back together were both for stupid reasons;
Same or similar amount of focus on non-main characters (such as double dates, same plotline is happening to Seo and Sakura at the same time while they're looking for/saving Waka and Nozaki, lots of time being spent on a B-plot that doesn't have to do with Waka or Seo);
No 100% "bullying" of Waka on Seo's part without the text at least somehow letting us know Waka is not entirely against it. He should get something out of the relationship, even if it's just a very confused/frustrated boner, or a sense of satisfaction at supposedly having triumphed even when it's to his own detriment (such as when he went around shouting love confessions at Seo so she'd run away blushing and flustered, or ended up killing his back to get pets from Seo just so she wouldn't pet his plushie instead);
Not a super hard line, but would rather not see big AUs. Mermaid/Siren!Seo AUs are pretty common, so if you really want to write something like that, a different twist would help sell it. (And if you MUST write a mermaid/siren!Seo AU, i like dangerous man-eating varieties of mermaid the most.) That being said, regardless of whether AU or canon-verse, the focus should be more on the characters and their dynamics than on the setting! These should remain more or less the same regardless of the AU.

Thank you so much for staying with me this far! I hope you have a fantastic time this Yuletide, and that you end up loving your own requested fic as well!