Yuletide 2025 Letter

[soveryaverageme]

Updated: October 29, 2025

NAVIGATION
Things I'm Not Into (DNWs)			Things I'm Into (Likes)
Fandom Specific
The Half of It (2020)		Mighty Ducks (Movies)		Gossip Girl (TV 2021)
Elsewhere on the Internet
SoVeryAverageMe			soveryaverageme

Hello Author!

Thank you so much for spending time to create something for me! I’m excited to see what you come up with! First off, this letter doesn’t cover everything that I like, but rather focuses on broad themes. Also, please don’t feel pressured to fit your creation to every little thing included – optional details are optional, of course!

For transparency, I’ve historically been a (very) late commenter on exchange fics. If I don’t leave kudos/comments right away, it’s not you, it’s most definitely me. I promise a comment is coming, it might just take me awhile. (I’ve actually gotten a lot better over the last few years, but I’m afraid of deleting this paragraph and jinxing myself).

Also, apologies for not having this letter ready on time this year (especially since I ended up using 90% of my letter from last year). Some years I’m on top of Yuletide sign-ups, while others the deadline sneaks up on me. Thank you for your patience!

Things I'm Not Into (DNWs) ꜛ

• Rape/Non-con (Recovery, okay)
• PWP/Explicit Sex (Fade-to-black and implied sex are fine [e.g., nothing more than you’d see in most R-rated movies])
• Incest
• Descriptions of Graphic Violence
• Descriptions of Asphyxiation/Choking/Strangulation/Graphic Neck Injuries
• Unhappy Endings/Hopeless Endings (Angst is fine, though)
• Non-Canonical Named Character Death (Characters who are dead in canon are fair game; random henchmen or OCs needed for casefic, etc. are fine)
• Apocalypse/Dystopia AUs

Things I'm Into (Likes) ꜛ

Below are a few tropes/themes/etc. that I enjoy that can be applied to any fandom. In general, I’m not super prescriptive with my prompts, but rather dig into broad themes that I enjoy reading and try to give you some sense of “why” I like them. I don’t elaborate on every single like I listed, but please be assured that if I put on the list I do, in fact, like it!

I’ve made a lot of changes to the format of this section compared to my previous letters (and I'm not sure I like it, yet), so please feel free to look at previous letters.

THEMES
Friendship/Deep Platonic Relationships				Healthy Communication				Trust
Relationship Negotiation (romantic or platonic)				Learning to be Vulnerable				Facing Insecurities
Domesticity			Redemption			Recovery			Navigating Complex Power Dynamics or Class Differences

Gen fics are my jam. I’m always a sucker for platonic cuddling, hair ruffling, and just people being protective/supportive of each other. I love characters that feel comfortable sharing their vulnerabilities and trusting each other.

I also really love characters having to define and establish their relationships (both platonic and romantic), especially when they have to navigate an inherent uneven power dynamic (e.g., monetary differences, class differences, other complex relationships, etc.). I love, love reading about characters having to work at learning how to understand each other’s perspective and negotiation how to be together. I love when characters have to choose to love each other, regardless of everything else that might be making it more complicated.

Finally, one of my favorite themes of all time is anything that focuses on trust and/or the building of trust between two (or more) characters. People accepting the unconditional love and trust of another person and realizing it’s real is one of my favorite things. A character explicitly or implicitly declaring their trust in someone will make me squee every single time.

TROPES
Found Family/Families of Choice	Emotional Hurt/Comfort	Fluff	Protective/Supportive Friends
Touch-Starved	Romantic Comedy	Casual Platonic Intimacy	Expressions of Trust

Families of choice/found families is pretty much my favorite trope of all time. People choosing to be each other’s families and just platonically loving each other is my favorite thing in the entire world. Hair ruffling and forehead kisses are like my ultimate weakness. There’s something about platonic casual affection that gets me every time.

My love of emotional hurt/comfort goes hand-in-hand with my love of fics exploring the themes of healthy communication, trust, and relationship negotiation. I love the intimacy of emotional hurt/comfort. Emotional hurt/comfort has always hit me in the feels a lot stronger than physical whump hurt/comfort. I think this is because it forces characters to trust and be vulnerable with each other. I love being able to read characters bare their entire selves on the way to a resolution.

NON-TRADITIONAL FORMAT OPT-INS
Epistolary Elements	Epigraphs	Social Media Elements
Multi-Media Elements	Vignettes/Drabbles	Magazine/Newspaper Article Elements

I love traditional prose, but I wanted to give you the option to incorporate other elements, if you'd like! I always appreciate when a non-traditional element is incorporated, and I've listed a few examples above. (I generally prefer if these are incorporated with a mix of prose, rather than being the entire fic). I also love when characters’ lives feel lived in and that readers are only getting to see a piece of it, like in a series of vignettes/drabbles or N Things.

I know that some of these format additions can be more difficult to incorporate, so please do not feel pressure to do so!

ALTERNATE UNIVERSES EXAMPLES
Famous/Not Famous	Fae/Fairie	Soulmates (romantic or platonic)
Urban Fantasy	Coffee Shop	Time Skip

If you're not into AUs, that's totally fine, since I also love exploring the relationships and unanswered questions left in the canon worlds of my requested fandoms! If you're into AU's, I wanted to give a few examples of ones that I usually vibe with!

Whether you play it straight or add a twist,I’ve listed a few of my favorite AUs above (but there are probably a bunch that are missing). Any alternate universe which incorporates my liked themes (e.g., trust, relationship negotiation, uneven power dynamics, etc.) is always a win! In general, I tend to find myself drawn to concept (and character) driven fic, so an AU is always a great way to explore that!

Fandom Specific ꜛ

I’m very easy to please, so if you touch on any of the general likes above, I’ll be delighted! I’ve also added specific information below for each of the fandoms I've requested (in alphabetical order). I’m generally not very prescriptive with my prompts, rather preferring to give you broad thematic elements and character relationships to work with.

The Half of It(2020)ꜛ
Characters	Ellie Chu and Paul Munsky
Availability	Netflix
Other Notes	None.

This was one of my favorite movies to come out in 2020 (and was a bright spot of the pandemic year), but I forgot how much I loved it until a few gifsets came across my dashboard earlier this month. I absolutely adored The Half of It, especially the friendship that develops between Paul and Ellie.

I’d love any fic centered around Ellie and Paul’s friendship, whether it’s a bunch of vignettes of their adventures together, a time skip, or just the two of them growing closer. I also like how Paul learns more about Ellie’s culture as the two of them grow closer. I’d also love a fic that explores their insecurities as their friendship grows, especially since they’re no longer living in the same town.

Also, has a Pacific Northwest native, it was fun to see how they portrayed Washington State in the movie, including all the mentions of local landmarks and towns (even if the geography didn’t quite make sense).

Mighty Ducks (Movies)ꜛ
Characters	Adam Banks
Availability	Disney+
Other Notes	I’ve watched the Gamechangers reboot, but feel free to pick/choose how much of it is canon.

Every year, I think to myself “Am I really going to request the same Mighty Ducks prompts again?” And the answer to that has always been a resounding “yes!”

The Mighty Ducks is one of my favorite guilty pleasure movie series and my favorite character is (and always has been) Adam Banks. I’d love to explore his character more, especially regarding the class/wealth differences with him and the other Mighty Ducks. The movies touch on it, but they don’t really ever explore the fact wealth disparity between him and the other Ducks (and the fact that he also goes to another school, pre D3).

I’ve specifically only request Adam because I want you to have freedom to explore his characters and relationships with any of the other requested characters. I’d be happy if you explore his friendship all the OG Ducks during the first movie, if you dig into his experiences on Varsity at Eden Hall in D3, or anything in between! I’d really just love any exploration of Adam’s experiences with the rest of his teammates.

I genuinely just love this franchise and Adam’s character, so I’d be happy with anything you come up with!

Gossip Girl (TV 2021)ꜛ
Characters	Max Wolfe
Availability	HBO Max
Other Notes	I’ve watched most (?) of the original series, but it’s been awhile!

I watched the Gossip Girl reboot a couple of years ago, and while I was a bit disappointed, I always come back to it during Yuletide because I think there are a lot of places that fic could expand upon holes and shortcomings in the show.

I absolutely love Max’s character and all of his relationships with the other characters in the show. I specifically only chose Max has the required character to give you a lot of freedom to write what interests you – I’d be happy with a solo character study of him and his family, the relationship negotiation of him with Audrey and Aki, or exploring his friendship with Luna!

I think the best parts of the reboot were when it was stuck wrestling with the intersectionality of making their cast more diverse than the original (I think of Luna and Max’s conversation about why Aki and Audrey are so nervous to be seen as a couple with him or Monet’s fight with her mother about privilege as good examples of this) , so if you’d like to include some of those themes in the fic, I’d be happy with that as well!

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