Dear Yuletide author

First of all, thank you. Yuletide is a gift we give each other, every year. Strangers reaching out through the dark to say, "I see you and I share your love for these small precious things. Here. Have one, just for you."

So, thank you.

Second, additional content and/or stocking stuffers are always welcome.

Third, I'm sorry.

If you are writing for me, this Yuletide, I ... I picked the requested fandoms a little bit randomly? I'm not really into anything this year, except KPop, but I REALLY do not want RPF about my stans and ults, so I didn't request it.

In fact...

In fact, I am writing this ahead of time, before I've even made my selections. Because that doesn't matter. Here's what I want.

No specific requests, just vibes.

I want to feel hope. Not the hope of a young person who is optimistic about the future, but the hope of someone who has seen worlds come to an end and understands that ends are not finality, endings are change. I want to read about people who understand that when calamity occurs, people still need hot tea and a change of socks, and providing those things saves people just as much as waving a sword or staking a vampire. I want characters who understand that gardens take time, art takes time, raising children takes time, baking bread takes time, and all of these endeavors may turn out in ways we did not intend or expect regardless of the intensity of our efforts.

Whatever fandoms I end up requesting, do what you need to do to get this vibe. Make the characters older, or an AU (I LOVE AUs) make a crossover with another (reasonably popular and well-known) fandom (I LOVE CROSSOVERS.)

Not just quiet reflections, though, please. Not a character sitting on a hillside pondering their life and watching grandchildren play, nothing like that. PLEASE write a plot. Casefic? I love casefic. Curtainfic? Also love those! Bad things can happen to the characters, that's fine! I'm thinking, like, the vibe I am thinking is Ursula Vernon, Naomi Kritzer, Naomi Novik's recent stuff, T. Kingfisher, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books, or Star Trek Discovery.

DO NOT WANT: Incest, on-page sexual violence (though it can be part of a character's life and/or the canon,) any violence to animals, sexual jealousy or competition, no graphic sexual content.

Thank you again.

Happy Yuletide, dear writer!