Let's chat about h/c today!
Oct. 1st, 2019 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frith_in_thornsTo go with naye's lovely post about comfort tropes, tell me your favourite kinds of hurt for your fictional characters! Do you have ones you like to read but not write, or vice versa? Are there some you will read endlessly in any fandom you're in? Are there some h/c tropes you can bash out a 2k oneshot for at the drop of a hat?
Also, do you find you're equal-opportunity with your hurt, or do you hoard it all for one particular character or character archetype?
I'll start, and say that I'm really into hurt resulting in altered-state, as provided by many things but especially concussion/drugged/fever etc. It's something I find endlessly enjoyable to write -- the vulnerability caused by the skewed perspective, and how that plays out in character interactions, but also I... just like... the hurt bit itself *gg* And currently I have a definite Thing for Shen Wei magically exhausting himself and coughing blood and stumbling in a floppy way and having to be supported by Zhao Yunlan. (I don't suppose this is a revelation to anyone. But I'm so glad to know that I'm not alone!)
Anyway, please share your own likes! And recs!
(This is a positivity-only post. Very uninterested in hearing how h/c is OOC or a moral failing or how some people write it badly or whatever, thanks.)
naye's lovely post about comfort tropes, tell me your favourite kinds of hurt for your fictional characters! Do you have ones you like to read but not write, or vice versa? Are there some you will read endlessly in any fandom you're in? Are there some h/c tropes you can bash out a 2k oneshot for at the drop of a hat?Also, do you find you're equal-opportunity with your hurt, or do you hoard it all for one particular character or character archetype?
I'll start, and say that I'm really into hurt resulting in altered-state, as provided by many things but especially concussion/drugged/fever etc. It's something I find endlessly enjoyable to write -- the vulnerability caused by the skewed perspective, and how that plays out in character interactions, but also I... just like... the hurt bit itself *gg* And currently I have a definite Thing for Shen Wei magically exhausting himself and coughing blood and stumbling in a floppy way and having to be supported by Zhao Yunlan. (I don't suppose this is a revelation to anyone. But I'm so glad to know that I'm not alone!)
Anyway, please share your own likes! And recs!
(This is a positivity-only post. Very uninterested in hearing how h/c is OOC or a moral failing or how some people write it badly or whatever, thanks.)
no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 08:04 pm (UTC)That said, I am right there with you when it comes to the altered state! Anything from sleep deprivation to drugs. Nightmares are fantastic. Waking up not knowing what's real, needing comfort but being afraid to trust.
In general, I like those kind of effects that linger after the hurt is done? Not because I want the character to stay hurt, but when something leaves traces - alters a character's behavior, so that they might be skittish, or very tightly controlled. (This then takes lots of loving patience to sort out and then then you get that moment of catharsis when they are back to being relaxed and trusting again! Yay!)
Panic attacks. Panic attacks are so good to me. Either as part of comfort, where they can break down safely and someone can help them through it, or as panic attacks they're having to manage because everything is terrible and they're trying so hard to keep it together because it's too dangerous not to.
Panic attack recs for Guardian:
If Life Was A Movie We'd Have A Better Soundtrack by
Deep Waters Closing Over Our Heads by
Both are long (gorgeous & fantastic) fics where the panic attack is just one scene, but in both cases those scenes made a huge impression on me.
Um. Also imprisonment usually gives me aspects of altered states together with the long-term effects so yes. Definitely a thing I will read. (Honestly just being held captive is enough "hurt" for me, though this can work to various degrees with all sorts of other kind of hurts.)
Looking at my poor neglected h/c bingo for inspiration, "accepting injury to protect someone else" is one of my bulletproof h/c tropes. (I don't have any recs off the top of my head for Guardian other than OH WAIT: CANON. But I would like recs? ♥)
And going back to the general meta of h/c, I would love to have something I can bash out a 2k oneshot for at the drop of a hat, but alas. I usually have more of a struggle accessing that sweet spot of "I really like this a LOT" and "it's totally okay to write what you like". IDK getting to that point is a work in progress?
Finally: I'm the ultimate in equal-opportunity hurt? I have written numerous fics where characters either trade off being hurt (not just figuratively, because this is Guardian, so...), or where one character has to watch another be hurt. Which then hurts them both! (I did mention the bulletproof narrative kink right?)
Which I think makes me a minority, because I am as invested in Shen Wei flopping prettily as the next fan, but I also do love trying to crack Zhao Yunlan's knowingly casual composure. :D
no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 08:42 pm (UTC)Ooh, panic attacks are a good one! I haven't seen them so much in this fandom compared to others. Both those fics you recced I agree are extremely good examples of the them. And they're great because they're so intense and then there's the shakiness afterwards, and also whatever actually caused the attack. We need more!
I definitely do have tropes I can just bash out because I love them and I've written them so many times they're comfortable and familiar by now. The concussion-fic I wrote for Detective L was an example of that, it was super quick and fun to do. And also the sickfic I wrote for your birthday -- I felt a little bad, actually, because I didn't have much time to do it in so I just went for a trope I knew I could just write super fast! (But that was ~cheating~ oh no.) So yeah, concussion, sickfic, and drugged are all ones that I will always write a million times in whatever fandom I end up in.
I do strive for some vague balance in my hurt... but I always play favourites. In Guardian I'm afraid I'm chiefly interested in hurting Zhao Yunlan as a way to indirectly hurt Shen Wei XD (Sorry, Yunlan! I do love you! ...but Shen Wei is just SO appealing to me in that way.)
I feel like I should definitely know some "accepting hurt to protect the other" fics, but I can't think of any off the top of my head! Not the sort of in-the-moment examples I assume you mean, rather than just Shen Wei making poor decisions...
no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 09:11 pm (UTC)I got sickfic for my birthday!!! ♥♥♥♥♥
Not the sort of in-the-moment examples I assume you mean, rather than just Shen Wei making poor decisions...
I mean, I am also here for Shen Wei making poor decisions!
But hurt of the exchanging yourself for someone else in a hostage situation (look, Shen Wei tried with Zhu Jiu and I'm still mad we didn't get to see that play out), or accepting a punishment in someone else's stead. (Yes, Hunger Games got me super hard when I read the "I volunteer as a tribute" part.)
Yes anyway please rec me all of the fic for this. (Or books! Seriously, I love this, so much.)
Trying to think of other ones I always go for - I mean, hypothermia! Obviously.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 09:54 pm (UTC)I don't have any recs off the top of my head for Guardian other than OH WAIT: CANON.
ha ha ha ha /o\
no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 10:53 pm (UTC)