Minor Yuletide Annoyances

You know, when you list characters on your Yuletide prompt?  That means you want a story with those characters.  All of them.  If you list characters W, X, Y, Z, it means you want a story with characters W, X, Y, and Z.  If you would like either a story with W and X before they met Y and Z, or a story about Y and Z before they met W and X, please either make two separate requests or state clearly in your optional details that your author doesn't have to include all of the characters in your request as long as either of the two pairs is the focus, that would make it much easier for your author to figure out what to write.  Because otherwise, your author is left scratching her head and wondering how the heck to write you a story about four characters years before they meet, or if she should only write a story about one of the pairs and not include the others, and needing to contact the mods to get them to clarify the request, or if she should just toss out the optional details altogether and write a story with all four requested characters after they've met each other in canon.

This is the second yuletide I've had that problem.  This time, I don't think I will need to do so (besides the fact that I've come up with what I think will be a workable solution, my requester said in their optional details that they would be happy with a story about any character from canon, regardless of whether they were in the request.)  I'm glad; I don't like bothering the mods if I don't have to, which I had to do before.  They're busy enough as it is, this time of year.

On the bright side, last time I had this problem I ended up writing The Storyteller, which is one of my favorite stories I've written.  And I haven't had my usual ficathon panic attack (they want me to write what?  how will I ever be able to do that!)