Dear Yuletide Author 2025

[scifihobbit]

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thanks so much for writing for me!

I’ve been participating in Yuletide incredibly sporadically since 2009. I love it here! I'm scifihobbit on AO3 and tumblr as well. I am very open to treats. Thanks for reading my letter!

We all know the mantra, optional details are entirely optional, so, don't feel beholden to anything you read here, just use it as a jumping off point if you're so inclined. I’ve only requested one or two characters per fandom, but if I’m asking for a fandom, I probably love everyone in it, so it’s not that I don’t want other characters in my fic, it’s just that I need the requested characters in my fic.

I enjoy yuletide for so many different reasons. The gift work isn't the end-all be-all of it. (It's about the stories we found along the way!) So, if you're feeling anxious, know that I'm going to have a great time no matter what, so, have fun with it!

 

Things I'm a sucker for in general

• Character studies
• Missing scenes/episode tags
• Found families
• Angst with a happy ending
• Hurt/Comfort
• Broken characters finding ways to heal each other in general
• World-building
• Queers and queerness and queering
• Characters using smarm to hide wildly low self-esteem
• Extremely close, unhealthily codependent, friendships

DNWs:

• PWP (I’m not particularly prudish, I just like plot!)
• Modern (coffeeshop, bakery, etc.) AUs
• A/B/O, soulmates
• 1^st/2^nd person narration
• Major character death
• Graphic depictions of violence
• mpreg (well, Lower Decks pulled it off, but, in general…)
• Unrequested romantic relationships (secondary characters in canonical relationships is fine)
• Rape/non-con
• Water sports/scat play
• Reader insert
• Anything AI-generated

 

Fandom: Star Trek Lower Decks (Cartoon)

Characters: Samanthan Rutherford

Request: It is hard to explain how much I adore this show. I’m crushed that we only got 5 (short!) seasons. I’ve been a Trekkie since birth and Lower Decks astounded me with how loving and irreverent and hilarious and heart-felt it could be all at once. I love the entire crew, so even though I’ve specifically requested Rutherford, feel free to bring in any other characters, as well!

So, about Rutherford, the most criminally underexplored character in all of Star Trek. (I said what I said.) I want so desperately to know more about this guy. I love him and his optimism and enthusiasm and giant heart. And then they wipe his memory at the end of season one? And then they reveal that he was a whole entirely different version of himself in season three? And then he has a cave baby?? Write me anything about this loving, nerdy goofball and I’ll be happy, but below are some ideas for spring boarding off if you want.

Explore his relationship with Shaxs. Shaxs is amazing and I love him taking Rutherford under his wing, but then Rutherford also knowing how to re-center Shaxs when he’s hit with some rage. Does Shaxs teach him something about Bajoran spirituality and meditation? Do they celebrate the Gratitude festival together?

Explore his relationship with Billups. (Okay, I still ship the two of them a little. At the very least I’m obsessed with Rutherford’s competency crush on Billups.) Do they have to engineer their way out a tight spot? A holodeck malfunction? Does Billups’s mom show up and Rutherford runs interference?

Tell me more about his and T’ana’s cave baby!

Tell me literally anything about Rutherford’s life before forcibly (!!) getting the cybernetic implant. Who is his family? Does he still talk to them? Did he have a class with Miles O’Brien? Does he ever feel weird about the fact that who he is now was forced on him by Starfleet admirals?

More Feelings: I asked for Lower Decks in 2023, too. So, you can check out my 2023 Yuletide letter if you want even more of my giddy delight. Also, my Star Trek and LWD tags are overflowing on tumblr. My Star Trek knowledge runs deep, and I love an Easter Egg! (I'll admit I gave up on Discovery around the beginning of season 4, didn't finish Prodigy, have never seen The Animated Series, skipped the second season of Picard, and am not touching the Section 31 movie with a 31-foot pole.)

Fandom Specific DNWs: Please don’t ship Rutherford with Tendi. I’ve done enough mental gymnastics to explain away the ending of the show as platonic. I don’t ship any of the Warp Core 4 in any combination. In general, Vulcans are not my jam. I find Jennifer kind of irritating. The less said about Garak the better. (I wouldn’t even mention him, but—in true Garak fashion—he snuck into the tag set, so…)

 

Fandom: Some Like it Hot - Shaiman/Wittman & Shaiman/López & Ruffin

Characters: Jerry | Daphne

Request: I’ve loved the movie Some Like It Hot for a long time (I’ve written and received it for Yuletide in the past.) When I heard they were making a musical I dragged a friend along with me to go see it on Broadway, and from the opening chords (and tap number!) I knew I was going to love it. And I did. I’ve seen it twice on tour and listening to the soundtrack is one of my go-to pick-me-ups. As with Lower Decks, I love all the characters in this show, so, bring in whoever you want, I just need a fic about Jerry/Daphne.

I love that the show gave Jerry/Daphne and Joe a backstory! Anything exploring that backstory would be fun. I also love her friendships with the other girls in the band. Them getting up to some sort of antics at a stop on their tour, or killing time on the train between stops, or anything else would be a delight. Something set post-show would be a lot of fun, too. What's running Daphnecita's like? Do they cater to Hollywood’s closeted stars? I love a classic Hollywood cameo or crossover!

The show also made me care so much more about Daphne's relationship with Osgood--and Osgood in general! Anything about them learning about each other and growing in their relationship could be nice. Does Daphne meet Osgood's mother? Do the two of them ever visit Chicago?

Feel free to play with Daphne’s gender identity any which way feels right to you. The show makes her more explicitly trans (though they were as genderqueer as was possible in the 1950s in the movie) and I love that for her, but I also love her being comfortable enough in herself to be all sorts of gender fluid.

Fandom specific DNWs: Kidfic. Please don’t have Daphne (or Sugar, or anyone) finding meaning through parenting.

 

Fandom: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead – Stoppard

Characters: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern

Request: I’ve loved this play since before I even knew what post-modernism was. I performed a monologue from it (terribly) at an acting summer camp when I was a teenager. It’s another show that I dragged that same friend to. When I found out Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd were starring in it I had to go, never mind that it was in a different country. And it was amazing. So, while, that version is near the top of my mind now, my history with this play is long, so any interpretation of it will be a delight.

I’ve also just recently read Ryan North’s To Be or Not To Be, so a thousand goofy canon divergences for Hamlet are bouncing around in my brain. Feel free to make this fic as surreal or grounded as you like. I know a decent bit of Shakespeare (but will miss some of the deeper cuts) so feel free to bring in other tidbits if you want. (As mentioned above, I love an Easter Egg!)

I love Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s banter, and their continual befuddlement, and the world’s refusal to answer any of their questions. I also love their tragedy. Feel free to ship them or keep it platonic, just set the two to talking and I’ll be there. I’d love to see them piecing together more of their past, or a fix-it fic where they escape their doom somehow. Do they stumble into other shows?