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.)
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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
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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...
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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.
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Date: 2019-10-01 09:32 pm (UTC)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\
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Date: 2019-10-01 09:58 pm (UTC)- Panic attacks! Especially with competent characters who have to keep up a front and look like they're totally Fine (tm) it just gets me every time
- Migraines (being taken care of with a migraine is something I don't actually want in RL, because I just want to sleep it off, but in fic it really works for me when the character is looked after, very quietly, by someone they love)
- Hypothermia (CUDDLING!)
- Serious injury (i.e. gunshot, stab wound) and then the care-taker is the one that's freaking out while the comfortee is trying to be strong through incredible pain (yes please)
- Altered state stuff (i.e. the person is hallucinating but won't admit it/tries to act normal. In general, trying to act normal works for me)
- Someone falling down in a cave and having to make their way out (except in cases where claustrophobia gets really vividly described, then I can get a little twitchy)
- Recovery from noncon (mostly emotional)
- Sickfic in an established relationship, or if it's not established then ALL the awkwardness of the "would they want me to do this?" type and "I don't know what I'm doing!!" from the caretaker (In general I tend to love the reversal of the caretaker freaking out XD )
- In long fic, I will always enjoy any kind of "they're lost in the wilderness and thus steadily accumulating injuries that all culminate in a serious situation"
- Every other kind of h/c :D It's hard to go wrong!
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Date: 2019-10-01 10:03 pm (UTC)That said, I'm very much enjoying writing ZYL in some serious physical shit with Ghost Story.
I can't fall down the rabbit hole of thinking of fics to rec right now (I still have to get some writing done today before dinner), but...has everyone seen sisabet's vid On the Prowl? (warnings for everything, esp. after the 1:30 mark)
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Date: 2019-10-01 10:44 pm (UTC)Ahhh, the "trying to act normal" is really bulletproof h/c for me in any context -- altered states especially but also concealing a serious injury (they're bleeding out but no one knows until they keel over and their jacket is soaked with blood)!
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Date: 2019-10-01 10:52 pm (UTC)One of my favorite tropes for h/c overall is presumed dead -- I can't take real deathfics, but the emotional agony of a character believing they're lost someone, and then the catharsis of return -- and often some physical h/c thrown in there too, depending on how the 'death' went down -- it gets to me.
Also, characters covering up how hurt they are (whatever the cause of the hurt) -- maybe especially when they're hiding it even from themselves, so they think they're doing okay and then they stagger and have to reach out to catch themselves...
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Date: 2019-10-01 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 11:06 pm (UTC)In Guardian I definitely lean more towards wanting Shen Wei hurt, both for the aesthetics and also for the emotionals reasons -- him being vulnerable, and also wanting to see Zhao Yunlan taking care of him. Though I like it both ways (and a number of my favorite scenes in the show are Zhao Yunlan hurt and Shen Wei taking care, though it's the interactions I like there, while as Shen Wei I enjoy seeing hurt and coughing up blood even when no one is around for it...)
There is the case for me sometimes that I have characters I like who I'm not especially interested in h/c for, or only want them in the caretaking role, never the hurt? Guardian's not like that for me, but there have been others. I think some of it depends on the nature of the characters, and how I read them...I like h/c best when I perceive it will help develop or advance the character in some way. Like, characters who have poor self-esteem, getting affirmation that people care about them can be really good for them; characters who are extremely self-sufficient can learn to entrust themselves to someone else. I kind of think this might be the difference between liking h/c vs whump -- whump characters are more those who need different lessons, like, they need to know they're strong enough on their own? (which for me is why Shen Wei especially is such a good h/c target, because he knows how strong he is, he knows he can do things on his own; what he needs to learn is that he doesn't have to...)
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Date: 2019-10-02 12:05 am (UTC)omg concussions! especially with the trying to hide it yesssss ♥
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Date: 2019-10-02 12:08 am (UTC)i find altered states really appealing too, although i have to be careful bc unstable experience of reality can sometimes touch upon a (triggery for me) experience of certain types of mental illness. but fever is great, and so are drugs. while i'm open to alternatives, i generally find it easier to read h/c when the hurt is temporary and doesn't have long-term effects (other than scars - i do enjoy scars).
re: pain, it can be a very useful tool for unsettling characters who need to be, well, disrupted in a specific way so that they can reevaluate their situation/strength/life choices etc - and all the more so when they seek it out, consciously or not. for example, it was SUCH a pleasure to watch chris pine's kirk get his ass kicked a bunch of times in the star trek reboot because he, uh, really knows how to take a beating - in so many ways. :D
btw, while the show has left me with a super intense need for shen wei h/c (emphasis on "c" lol), the seeking-out-pain thing is what makes zhao yunlan a good candidate too in my head. maybe it's part of his whole danger kink package (as someone brilliantly called it on twitter recently). i'm also 100% down when it falls under the "this might help people/shen wei, so of course i'll willingly throw myself into pain" setup.
i think the further the type of pain is from my personal experience, the more likely i am to go along with it & be able to enjoy its description in fic (and fever can be kind of enjoyable? idk, that may be just me). so bullet wounds and stab wounds and magical injuries - sure! but headaches and sleep deprivation - no thanks. too real!
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Date: 2019-10-02 12:12 am (UTC)(notable exception: zombie bites, where trying to act normal/hiding the injury puts everyone else in danger. i don't even like the zombie, uh, subgenre? and yet i have this very specific quirk. go figure.)
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Date: 2019-10-02 12:34 am (UTC)--actually, because of that, the exception to the exception for me would be if the char temporarily conceals a zombie bite because they already have a contingency plan to go kill themselves and fear their friends would try to stop them and risk their own lives...
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Date: 2019-10-02 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 02:43 am (UTC)Altered states is a big one for me too -- concussions especially, because the dazed/woozy/out of it aspect also goes along with splitting headaches and the other person worrying that there's real, lasting damage. But also drugs, fevers, hypothermia, poison ... anything that makes them dizzy and floppy and unable to walk about without help. ♥
Presumed dead is another huge one for me; it's got all the desperate angst and worry plus a basically instant recovery period once the person turns out not to be dead -- I mean, depending on what's wrong with them, but it usually means you can get instant emotional comfort for the person who thought they were dead plus the presumed-dead person realizing how much they're loved. (Or 20 chapters of avoiding talking about it, depending ...)
Shooting/stabbing/drowning -- really any kind of acute, don't-die-on-me!! h/c also Does Things to me. I recently discovered altitude sickness is tailor-made for h/c and yet, no one ever writes it! But it combines woozy/sick with the possibility of escalating to lethality before anyone can do anything about it (so, desperate worry gets in there) but is also quickly and easily treatable with the right supplies.
I also really like scenarios where they're stranded far from help, or have to get out of a difficult situation where no help is coming, and particularly if both people are hurt in different ways and have to rely on each other. I'm fond of prisoner/torture scenarios, characters trapped places, that kind of thing.
I've also noticed an increasing fondness recently for emotional h/c. I mean, I've always liked it, but I don't think I ever realized it's actually a really big happy button for me until recently -- characters being comforted after nightmares, phobias, or panic attacks; characters being able to talk about their trauma with each other and feeling safe with someone else; hugging/touching for people who aren't used to it; emotional comfort for the person who was distressed in a presumed-dead scenario ...
This is a lovely topic, and very inspiring for Whumptober; thank you for bringing it up! ♥
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Date: 2019-10-02 02:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 02:51 am (UTC)- Altered state stuff (i.e. the person is hallucinating but won't admit it/tries to act normal. In general, trying to act normal works for me)
You know, when I was thinking of altered states I was mostly thinking of dazed/confused but not outright hallucinating. But now I really want more of that -- the character not sure what parts of their environment are real and what's not, but someone else's voice being a lifeline for them ... yessss.
- Recovery from noncon (mostly emotional)
This is one that feels so indulgent/OTT that I've never actually written it (I don't think? I will probably think of 5 examples in the next 10 minutes XD) but I like fantasizing about it. Just ... being reassured that they're still loved and it's not their fault and they didn't do anything wrong, and someone being there for them through nightmares and listening if they want to talk ... DO WANT.
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Date: 2019-10-02 02:53 am (UTC)--My list has more on it, these are just the things that tend to float to the top, and that hadn't been talked about already (like, panic attacks are definitely A+++ for me but that's already discussed above!)
...all right, I can get sometimes why h/c seems weird to people when you have all of us going "Concussions! :D Panic attacks! :D :D :D"
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Date: 2019-10-02 03:14 am (UTC)LOLOL, I was just thinking that reading the above comments. XD I mean, within the context of a discussion about h/c, everyone knows exactly what everyone else is talking about; it's no stranger than a discussion about BDSM where people are like "beating or caning?? BOTH IS GOOD! :DDD" CONTEXT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE. But yeah. XD
This whole conversation is so inspiring, though. I want to write 50 different things, oh nooooo ...
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Date: 2019-10-02 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 10:18 am (UTC)This is one that feels so indulgent/OTT that I've never actually written it ... but I like fantasizing about it.
aaaah it's not just meeee
This one is one of those that feel like it would be too much for a lot of people and I don't want the fact that a story exists making others feel bad...but my thing for dealing with long-term effects of a trauma means this is perfectly up my alley.
And possibly in my 'won't ever post this' drafts.And I can understand why the trope has gotten a lot of pushback, and that it would have to be handed deftly and with all the warnings necessary but on an iddy level I am disappointed that it's so rare in the fandoms I've been in.
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Date: 2019-10-02 10:26 am (UTC)(THAT SAID I am very much looking forward to seeing what you do with Zhao Yunlan in Ghost Story!!)
And AHHH thank you for that lovely, lovely rec - I'd seen it before but it's always time to watch it again. ♥