(no subject)

[sholio]

Somehow it delights me to find out that S.E. Hinton (of The Outsiders) writes Outsiders fanfic (under a pen name), and also wrote to her favorite Outsiders fanfic author to tell them that she liked their work. ("It took her a while to believe that it was really me." I'll bet.) So in case you're in that fandom, the author is probably reading your fic, and some of the fic you're reading might be by her, too.

I finished a writing project today (a side story planned to be a mailing list extra ... though I might end up incorporating it in the main book; I'm not sure now) and I'm feeling somewhat at loose ends, so - you know what I love talking about and haven't talked about lately? Hurt/comfort. :D

If h/c is not your thing, no worries. If it is your thing ... or if aspects of it are ...

What are your favorite things in hurt/comfort? And is there a type of hurt/comfort you love that nobody ever seems to write?


... you know what I've been thinking about lately that you never seem to see in fic anymore? Comas. This was such a huge trope in '80s TV - it's on my mind because there's a great example in Wiseguy. And I remember a little of this in SGA fic, which was so huge it had everything. But I can't really ever remember seeing it anywhere else, even in White Collar which was a very h/c-intensive fandom that did basically everything to Neal - there MUST have been coma fic, but I don't remember any.

Possibly one reason for this, I guess, is that a realistically written coma isn't actually that much fun, because the recovery is so arduous and the likelihood of permanent, severe long-term health effects is so high. But, then, that's also true of concussions and a bunch of other things fandom really loves.

So yeah. #bringbackcomas2K20

It has also occurred to me that nobody ever writes altitude sickness. The only fic I've ever read that deals with it is the one I wrote; it's not even a canonical tag on AO3. And yet it's so perfectly tailor-made for it! It's debilitating, miserable, and life-threatening, and yet, with the right treatment it's easily curable with no lingering after-effects: get oxygen, go back to normal. If you were going to custom-design a fictional disease for hurt/comfort writers, you couldn't really do better. C'mon, fandom, don't leave me all alone here.


Anyway, favorite things - there's a lot that I love, but I think for me the best-of-the-best really comes down to the general categories of "woozy and out of it", and "desperately worried." And therefore, things that produce one or both of those conditions: head injuries, fevers, and drugs (among other things) in the first case, and for the latter, just about anything really life-threatening: getting shot, getting stabbed, being stranded far from medical help, drowning, heart attacks, etc.

(Oh yeah, that last one is another one I really would enjoy reading more of. Heart attacks. It's another one that rarely seems to get written, but has symptoms that lend themselves excellently to h/c. White Collar did have some, since Peter has one in canon.)

I think I like both of those classes of things because ... well, partly because sometimes you just like things and clearly I am wired that way, but there's just so much you can do with it from a character perspective. They both involve a sort of emotional stripping down of barriers -- pushing people to reveal a little of their inner selves without actually being pushed by the people they're around, if that makes any sense.

Comments

[frith_in_thorns]

White Collar had a surprising number of fics where Neal had a heart condition! I mean, for a very low baseline XD Also I still love that enormous sorted-by-hurt list that makes it easy to find particular categories XD

"Woozy and out of it" really does sum up my favourite hc so well. It's the main thing I enjoy about concussion fic. And fever, drugged, etc. Guardian does a good line in magically exhausted too (well I keep writing it at great length anyway).

I wrote magical coma last year! Focused on the excruciating waiting of the other character. I've done the sort of cliche POV coma fic too where you hear snapshots of what's going on around, but not since CSI NY I think. I'm actually surprised I didn't write this for White Collar, I'm pretty sure I must have a WIP or something because it feels so familiar!

[sholio]

I totally forgot about that sorted-by-category hurt/comfort list! I don't suppose you happen to have a handy link to it, do you? (No need to search if not. I just can't remember in the slightest who made it or where it was. I was just curious if comas were on there ...)

I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED that you've written comas in Guardian. xD I am also genuinely surprised that neither of us ever wrote it in White Collar. I think the only fandom in which I specifically remember finding fic that had comas with the particular set of tropey plot/character elements surrounding it (anxious bedside vigils, etc) was SGA.

Though I guess a lot of magical and sci-fi fandoms have various conditions that are vaguely similar, e.g. being trapped in VR, and possibly those end up getting substituted. I think you can tell the difference between true, tropey coma fic (which it sounds like is what you wrote, regardless of the cause) and fic in which something else is merely simulating some of the symptoms of a coma with other things going on around it, though.

[rachelmanija]

I've never been that big on comas because you don't get two-way interaction till they come out of it. Though I do like the coming out part. Especially when someone's been sitting by their bedside until they've fallen asleep, or has been sitting there for days while barely eating. But you can get that without a coma per se.

TBH I think I got burned out on comas due to them being SO common in 80s TV - I hit the point where I would start giggling whenever some doctor solemnly said about yet another character, "They are in a COMA."

I have however never ever gotten burned out on gunshot wounds. Especially if they were received by jumping in front of someone.

[sholio]

I really don't mind the lack of two-way interaction because I'm so thoroughly into the "desperate worry" aspect - sitting at bedsides, waiting to hear news of someone who's missing, that kind of thing. (Though I really would prefer if they DID have someone else to interact with, and weren't just sitting alone ... but the person with them doesn't need to be the one who is being worried about.)

You're really not wrong about the general hilarity of comas as an 80s trope, though. I mean ... I loved them, I ate them up with a spoon; I think coma episodes were one of the few times when TV of that era really catered to my particular needs, since in those cases you typically got a WHOLE ENTIRE EPISODE that was character-based with wall-to-wall worry and h/c. But yeah ... I was watching a lot of soap operas at that time, too, and you almost couldn't turn around in those soap opera towns without tripping over someone in a coma.

I am also very much into the entire trope of someone taking a bullet for someone else. Someone even wrote it for me recently in DD Exchange, so clearly they have my number.

[rachelmanija]

Oh! And I really like delirium, fevers, drugged against their will - anything where characters will blurt out truths along with just random stuff. It's such a nice combination of h/c with character revelations. And then they have to decide if they're going to pretend they recall nothing... or not.

[sholio]

It's such a nice combination of h/c with character revelations.

Yeah, that, exactly. It's a good vehicle for character exploration, particularly since the character themselves is, usually, not responsible for being in this state, or even if they did somehow get themselves here, they really didn't plan to be doing all this TALKING. (Or cuddling. Or whatever.) So you get to show a side of them they wouldn't normally choose to reveal, without needing them to go OOC for it.

[conuly]

Wait, does it count as fanfic if the author is writing it?

[sholio]

I'd say it depends on what they're writing. If it's non-canonical events written under a pen name ... I'd call that fanfic. There's a pretty large gray area though.

[sovay]

Somehow it delights me to find out that S.E. Hinton (of The Outsiders) writes Outsiders fanfic (under a pen name), and also wrote to her favorite Outsiders fanfic author to tell them that she liked their work.

Thank you for sharing this information; it delights me also.

[sholio]

It makes me happy to know this. :D

[lilacsigil]

I knew S.E. Hinton had written Supernatural fanfic (and got to visit the set!) but I didn't know she also wrote fanfic for her own work! That's adorable!

My favourite kind of hurt-comfort is when you have very competent - possibly even medically skilled - characters who for some reason are unable to access modern medical care. They have to hide out! They're in the wilderness! It's a condition that won't respond to hospital care! They're mutants/fugitives and can't go to the authorities! A villain is looking for them! Then they have to work together to help the injured or sick person while also escaping or carrying out their plan or defeating the villain while injured or whatever. Bonus points if the most experienced and/or powerful person in that circumstance is the injured one.

This is a thing I like about X-Men *not* having healers (who always get killed off anyway) or Shi'ar technology - they have to figure things out themselves.

[sholio]

Ooooh, yes. I LOVE that entire "stranded far from help" suite of tropes. It's also another of those infinitely versatile things to write, because it changes so much depending on who you have caught out in the middle of nowhere, exactly -- military/law enforcement types or ordinary civilians, people with various skill sets ...

One thing that hasn't really come up for me lately is writing it with medically skilled characters (I believe this is the cue for sheron to drop in and tell me I need to write Claire more, and she's not wrong XD) but that certainly adds an extra frisson of emotional complications. Having to do surgery on your friends! Or talk them through doing surgery on you ...

[rydra_wong]

... you know what I've been thinking about lately that you never seem to see in fic anymore? Comas.

Come to The Magnus Archives, we have canon magic coma!

We even have canon "crying by the bedside of the person in the coma and begging them to wake up because you need them".

[sholio]

These are indeed excellent tropes for which I am weak. :D

[philomytha]

Like rachelmanija, I like the drugged/out of it/delirium tropes where the character reveals things they wouldn't have otherwise, I can write and read that all day long (and this is a problem I am having writing this Alys/Illyan fic because I do not know when to stop with writing Alys sitting with Simon while he fast-forwards through his entire life, I can keep coming up with stuff and I love it all but at some point this story has to move on). Even better is if the out-of-it character also has to try to do something complicated, for Important Plot Reasons, but is struggling to focus or concentrate or remember what they're trying to do. I love h/c when the hurt character has to keep going anyway, for me h/c gets less interesting once the hurt character is tucked up in bed being cared for properly. The only catch is having to come up with plot to make this work, which I don't find easy.

Altitude sickness does sound perfectly suited to h/c, with the added bonus that by its nature it happens when your characters are at the top of a mountain, so you get all the injured-in-the-wilderness tropes which are so excellent.

Coma storylines are less interesting to me, I think because nothing's actively happening with the hurt character. I guess in h/c I want the hurt character to be, well, hurting, and for a coma storyline it's almost inverted: the hurt character is the one watching and waiting, and the comatose characters is the one who arrives with comfort at the end. Now magical/SF comas where the character appears to be in a coma but is actually trapped in a parallel dimension/lost in nightmare-land/etc, and the watcher has to enter the coma and fetch them out, that is a storyline I will read as often as anyone else will write it.

[xparrot]

Now magical/SF comas where the character appears to be in a coma but is actually trapped in a parallel dimension/lost in nightmare-land/etc, and the watcher has to enter the coma and fetch them out, that is a storyline I will read as often as anyone else will write it.

Ahahah I was just coming in to mention that I'd written exactly this scenario (the first half is coma-fic, then they discover he's trapped in a lethal nightmare and his partner has to go in and get him out) for my current fandom XD

Even better is if the out-of-it character also has to try to do something complicated, for Important Plot Reasons, but is struggling to focus or concentrate or remember what they're trying to do.

This is one of my favorite things. Especially when they're so far gone they don't remember what's wrong with them but are trying so hard anyway...

[lunabee34]

Die Hard is so good for h/c. I love the classic Matt and McClane getting together template in which Matt coes to live with McClane after the fire sale, and Matt's knee is all fucked up, and McClane takes care of him. This works because Matt is so incredulous that big, bad, gruff McClane could ever want to even be his friend, or help him down the stairs, much less fall in love with him and want to feed him and massage his leg and make sure he takes his meds. I eat it up with a spoon.

[sholio]

Interestingly enough, I have never thought about Die Hard in reference to h/c! I think mainly because I only ever tend to think of it in terms of the first movie and he's kind of a lone wolf in that. A lone wolf who goes through absolute hell, it's true. xD

[xparrot]

The lack of altitude sickness surprises me because as you say it's tailor-made for h/c! Though I didn't really know about it myself, so I'm guessing lack of knowledge might be one of the reasons it doesn't appear as much? (Also, unlike hypothermia, it can't be fixed by cuddling, so...!)

For me, I've been realizing that I don't really like actual medical scenarios in h/c so much. Okay, I've written a ton of hospital/sickbay scenes in my day. But I much prefer when characters can't get proper medical treatment, either because they're stranded somewhere, or they have a magical/scifi condition that can't be treated by modern medicine. I don't really enjoy strangers intruding on the character dynamics, even if they're medical professionals helping out!

Last year I finally wrote an h/c scenario that I'd been wanting for a long time but hadn't had much luck finding -- the "in heat" smut scenario, only played as h/c instead. I tend to enjoy a lot of dubcon scenarios like sex pollen, but a good part of my enjoyment really comes from reading them more like h/c -- there's the worry, the loss of control and delirium, sometimes physical torment. I mean, the first time I saw "Amok Time" was one of my seminal fannish experiences as a kid, but it wasn't the slashy aspects that caught me then; it was the worry and the presumed dead! I'd love more of that, but it's hard to come by, as shippers tend to want the sex (for obvious reasons) and more gen-leaning h/c fans tend not to be interested in the scenario (for equally obvious reasons!)

[philomytha]

Oh, yes, that's really the important part of sex pollen for me too, the physical and emotional distress and all the ensuing drama from that, rather than the strictly sexual parts. I like the sex as literal healing sex: the character is suffering, the sex is the treatment. It's hard to describe the difference between this and traditional romance sex pollen, I think it's in what the story chooses to emphasise.

Impromptu and improvised medical care is vastly more interesting to write about than standard hospital scenes, and yes, I completely agree about not wanting strangers intruding on the character dynamics.

[trobadora]

What are your favorite things in hurt/comfort? And is there a type of hurt/comfort you love that nobody ever seems to write?

I love some kinds of h/c A LOT - mostly they're whump!fic with added comfort, I guess. But you seem to write my flavour of h/c a lot, so. :p

Hmmm, one thing I really like is where the characters have to deliberately injure themselves or each other for some goal, or to get out of a trap, or to lay a trap. I don't see that much, where the hurt is a choice and the characters may feel that because of that, they shouldn't need comfort. Oh, and mutual h/c is always great. And the ones where the uninjured character has a breakdown and needs to be comforted ...

I guess I'm not so much into altered mental states because things get complicated when you take the characters outside of their normal state of mind and behaviour. When it's done well it can be very good ... but unless we have a frame of reference in canon, five different fans may well have five different opinions on how that character might behave under those circumstances. *g*

Coma fic really is a lot more rare these days! But the kind I remember most wasn't really h/c, more like angstfic for the non-comatose character, where the other character waking up was likely to be the ending. From what I recall when this used to be common, I tended to not like those much because my favourite tended to be the comatose one and therefore was entirely passive for the entire fic.

[sholio]

Hmmm, one thing I really like is where the characters have to deliberately injure themselves or each other for some goal, or to get out of a trap, or to lay a trap. I don't see that much, where the hurt is a choice and the characters may feel that because of that, they shouldn't need comfort. Oh, and mutual h/c is always great. And the ones where the uninjured character has a breakdown and needs to be comforted ...

Oooh yeah, the "hurting yourself for a good reason" thing! You're right, that's kind of rare. (There is, by the way, a fantastic canon example in the first season of Legends of Tomorrow - the show in general is really a mixed bag, but sometimes it will just nail something, and that particular scene was a great payoff for various character threads building up to it.) But yeah, I don't see that much in fic.

(This entire discussion is very good for making a list of things to write - either things I love writing and need to write more, or things I've never/rarely written and want to try ... xD)

[abyssinia]

I love hearing about authors who appreciate fanfic!

My h/c weaknesses were always some sort of temporary mobility-related injury (arms or legs), generally paired with characters stranded/stuck somewhere and having to take care of each other while trying to survive/get home. Bonus points if the injury affects a particular character's needed skillset and they have to talk the other character through doing something they would normally be doing.

(and you make a great point about altitude sickness being pretty perfect h/c...just gotta get the characters up a mountain)

[sholio]

Bonus points if the injury affects a particular character's needed skillset and they have to talk the other character through doing something they would normally be doing.

Yessss. That's such a great trope.

[ivyfic]

My favorite kind of hurt/comfort is where only one person is aware of the truth of the situation, and the story is about the other person finding out. So--someone is injured or sick and hiding it. Or one person is under psychic attack (demon possession, mind control, something) and hiding that they're slowly going insane. Because I love that moment where the other person finds out and then suddenly first is no longer alone in their suffering.

This goes double for emotional hurt/comfort, but I don't know if my favorite tropes of that really fall into the h/c categorization? Like, I love stories where one person is fairly oblivious in their relationship and slowly realizes how much emotional work the other person has taken on. Really, my favorite type is adultery stories where the story is the main couple working it out so they stay together, but it's unbelievably rare that someone writes one of those that isn't squicky in one way or another.

[sheron]

I love that moment where the other person finds out and then suddenly first is no longer alone in their suffering

This is one of my absolute favourite scenarios as well, with a bit of unreliable narrator thrown in.

I love stories where one person is fairly oblivious in their relationship and slowly realizes how much emotional work the other person has taken on

And this! Love this!

[scioscribe]

I am still so delighted to be the recipient of the altitude sickness fic--it's so lovely, and yep, the phenomenon is so perfectly tailor-made for an h/c lover's needs.

One of my absolute favorite hurt/comfort tropes (in addition to wooziness, fever, delirium, etc. that everyone mentioned, for that excellent secret-spilling and emotional openness) is someone having to slog on through terrible circumstances, especially if they're doing it for the sake of someone else/other people--there's a M*A*S*H episode where everyone has the flu, and Hawkeye is the one who gets sick last, so he has to stay on his feet and keep operating even as he's feverish and exhausted, and it's amaaaazing.

I also always love hurt/comfort after noncon or rape recovery. And the weird thing that I used to see a lot and now don't quite as much--dislocated shoulders. There's something about the seemingly minor nature of it + the tendency for it to happen more often after it's happened once that just works for me. Plus, it was the subject of one my all-time favorite fic h/c scenes, in Mag7 fandom (modern AU):

Then, in the same second it took to wonder where the man had got off to, a heavy, dull thud broke the relative quiet that surrounded them. This immediately followed by an abbreviated scream of pain, choked back and cut off, and Chris knew.

Knew instantly...

"Ezra!" Chris turned the flashlight into the dark at his back and found Ezra's face. White and bloodless and tight with intense agony. "Jesus, Ezra," he whispered aloud, knowing immediately that the man had slammed his dislocated shoulder back into place by himself.

All by himself.

The bright light of the beam drove painfully into his eyes, and Ezra closed them tightly. He knew Chris was turned toward him, and, if he could've spoken aloud, he would have. Would have said those words that came so naturally to him whenever he felt pain and knew someone was watching. But he couldn't speak, could hardly even think of speaking. It was all he could do to just breathe, and for a few moments, he concentrated on doing just that.

In and out...riding with the pain...breathe in slowly and let it out even more so...

He lifted a hand to let Chris know not to bother with him, that everything--that he--would be, as always, just fine.

Fine. He didn't need the concern.

He'd be fine.

But apparently Chris read something else entirely in that small hand gesture, or maybe, Ezra thought, he really didn't possess the impassive poker face the others were always iimpressing upon him he really didn't have. Whatever it was, Chris rushed over best he could and grabbed for Ezra's good hand, holding it tightly, yet gently, as though hoping to impart at least some measure of comfort toward the obvious agony Ezra was enduring.

Comfort. From Chris. Chris Larabee.

Ezra was rather stunned.

"Jesus, Ezra," Chris said again and placed his other hand lightly against the back of Ezra's neck. Holding on. Not letting go.

Ezra focused on the hands...on his hand held by Chris's. He panted through the pain in his upper body, breathing hard through his nose, then out through his mouth, hoping to calm his frantically pounding heart. Still his overactive stomach.

He thought he might just pass out.

"I--" he started but couldn't seem to manage more and he felt like vomiting and then Chris cut his words off anyway.

"Won't do that again. Ever again. Not without my help."

http://www.blackraptor.net/m7fic-21/call/wild1.htm

(I tried to put that beneath spoiler-text that, but it won't work. But it seemed worth pasting.)

[alessandriana]

...which M*A*S*H episode is this? I need it for, uh, reasons.

[sheron]

I've written coma in AC fandom.

(And in Marvel comics we actually have canon coma for Tony while HydraCap stands over him and tells him how much the real Steve Rogers looooved and admiiiiired him, so that's that. XD Comics, right?)

I have also read glorious fic about altitude affecting characters in fanfic (but I'm in a big enough fandom for it).

[sholio]

I've written coma in AC fandom.

I ... do not remember this at all. LINK ME PLZ? :D Clearly I need a reread! (I love your AC fic so much.)

One of these days I need to get into a big fandom again, with all the tropey fic. instead of paddling around in fandom backwaters. ;___;

[leesa_perrie]

My favourite h/c is more angst and comfort than physical hurt and comfort in itself - ie, whump is great, but please don't leave out the angst side of it!

Of course, I wrote loads of fic with physical whumpage, often leading to angsty angstness (but not always), but I think my favourite is where the angst is something bad from the past that comes back to haunt the present. Like in that WC fic (with Rodney from SGA in it), 'The Past That Haunts Us', where Neal was supposed to shoot someone when he was a teenager and wouldn't, but the guy put his hands over Neal's and pressed the trigger, so he kind of did. All this comes back as an adult, and cue, lots of lovely angst!

Though I also like banter (though my idea of banter isn't the kind that's just plain mean or offensive. There's too much of a trend today to pass off horrible comments as 'just banter' and I don't think that's what banter is at all!), and a touch of humour too! Physical whump for me is secondary to angst. Though that's not to say I haven't read cracking good physical whump fics, because I have, but I'm much more there for the angst.

And yet, I don't cope with suicidal fics at all. So there is a limit to the angst I can handle *shrugs*

Comas might work but it would need to not be my fav character in the coma. I'd want him to be the one worrying. Though worrying about someone and being full of angst aren't quite the same to me, so I guess there'd need to be more. Like if thinks it's his fault the character is in a coma, and then I'd need other characters to be telling him it wasn't - but only when the coma character recovers and tells him it wasn't does he really start to believe it. So yeah, the coma and worrying on its own might not be enough, then again, it might be in the hands of a skilled writer!

[sholio]

I would never have imagined that you were into angst. ;D

... but yeah, I love banter, too, and past trauma coming back to haunt characters in the present! I know people used to do a lot with Rodney's canonically terrible childhood in SGA.

[alessandriana]

And is there a type of hurt/comfort you love that nobody ever seems to write?

This is only applicable for certain fandoms, and I'm not sure I'll explain this well, but: cyborg/robot characters who get hacked OR get badly injured, and as they lose consciousness their emergency programming takes over.

For me the epitome of this trope is Joan D Vinge's novella Fireship, in which (spoilers for something that came out in 1978, if anyone cares) the main character has an AI that basically shares the body. At the end he gets shot, and is forced to drag himself to a rescue ship, but he's bleeding out and losing consciousness, and there's a delightful scene where the AI takes over and gets him there. There's also a good example in Martha Well's most recent Murderbot story, which I won't spoil.

I'm also quite fond of sheer exhaustion as h/c, someone working themselves way past their limits, but when it shows up it's usually as part of some other injury.

[sholio]

I'm also quite fond of sheer exhaustion as h/c, someone working themselves way past their limits, but when it shows up it's usually as part of some other injury.

You know, now that I'm thinking about it, I think the last time I read this was (once again) in SGA, where there was an entire sub-subgenre of fic about Rodney (and occasionally other people) working themselves waayyyyy past their limits, taking stimulants to stay awake and then crashing, etc. I remember multiple fics where the plot was just Rodney getting loopy from lack of sleep and then crashing.

It's kind of interesting other fandoms don't have more of this, because it is totally a thing for any military/medical/first-responder characters. Everybody in WWII took a shitload of stimulants for pretty much the entire war! And they're all workaholics! I ... I should definitely write this.

[dorinda]

This thread is wonderful! Full of such delicious food for thought.

And while I typically don't go for things like coma and heart attacks that feel somehow more constrained by modern medical realism (at least to my id they do), I am very interested to read about them and why others like them...I'd never even thought about coma as basically Enchanted Sleep before, and my horizons are widened.

And really, I should have thought about it in terms of how much I adore the canonical h/c-with-coma-ish episode of Night Court, as in my icon! Goooood stuffffff.

[sholio]

I adore the canonical h/c-with-coma-ish episode of Night Court, as in my icon!

I LOVE THAT EPISODE SO MUCH. And I love that icon. :D I think that episode pretty much hits my entire checklist of everything I'd want in a coma episode - lots of character interaction around it (the "I love you" scene still kills me dead, or at least it did the last time I watched it, which was quite awhile back) and all the worry and one-sided conversation-having while they're comatose. Now that I think about it, I think the classic TV kind of coma actually gets some of the same relationship stuff as drugging a character, because you get someone opening up to somebody who may or may not be able to hear them or remember it (but then maybe they do!).

[yalumesse]

Author goals! That's awesome. I'd feel very very uncomfortable if it happened in my fandoms? I think? But still awesome.

I'd never even heard of altitude sickness, not by that name at least. Heart attacks just get done WRONG so much, and I think there's some growing awareness that media depictions are very narrow and misleading that they're sort of being avoided. Maybe.

I'm glad you made this post because I'm sketching out a fic where (way down the road) the characters end up in exactly these situations: One is injured, feverish, has potential to die, just have to wait, and the other is going mad sitting or pacing at their bedside. Because it's SO GOOD for getting all the feels out - as you say, stripping them down emotionally until it's raw and open and honest in a way that they've got too many barriers up normally to manage.

(It's also annoying because it's so far down the track and I need build-up first, but it's much harder to write characters when they're presenting their protective facades.)

Anyway, I don't have particular favourite h/c tropes, though I do have some I avoid for various squick reasons, so sorry I can't help more.

[sholio]

I'd feel very very uncomfortable if it happened in my fandoms? I think? But still awesome.

I know. XD I think my initial reaction to something like that would be "brb, leaving the internet behind and moving to a cave in remotest Siberia." But also cool! I'm really happy she encourages it.

I'd never even heard of altitude sickness, not by that name at least.

I wonder if that's one reason why it's rarely written - a lot of people just haven't heard of it! And the symptoms are not well known either. Not like something such as hypothermia, where even if you don't live in an area where that's a risk, you've probably at least heard of it (and lots more people live in places where they would reasonably encounter preparation/training or at least people talking about it ...)

[recessional]

For me the most affecting h/c always ends up orienting around safe-not-safe: one character in lack of safety (for whatever reason - physical, mental, emotional) and the other(s) as source or potential source thereof.

There's lots of other stuff that depending on the mood are like . . . seasonings? But that's like the core ingredient of it. Which means I tend to want there to be some basic . . . element of the situation or setup wherein that potential refuge is genuine and where at some point the hurt character will be able to perceive it as genuine, whereas I actually tend to find uncomfortable* situations where it's not - where either what's being offered/available in that sanctuary sense is false, or where even if it was true, the hurt character would not be able to experience it as true/would experience it as detrimental.

Which can also run into neutral: like there are scenarios where technically someone is having a hurt tended by someone else that are 100% just . . . there? they might as well be making lunch, because there's no exchange on that emotional level. If that makes any sense.


And of course it gets very complicated! Because sometimes the character who appears to be the comforting character is also desperately seeking safety it's just the safety they're seeking is "this other person will be ok", so that's also a thing. >.> And sometimes it becomes iterative in a spiral. That's the best kind.



*I originally said "dislike" but that's not true: sometimes it's a perfect moment for the story, but it's not COMFORTABLE and while I may enjoy it as part of enjoying the whole story, I will not enjoy that specific moment as h/c.

[sholio]

For me the most affecting h/c always ends up orienting around safe-not-safe: one character in lack of safety (for whatever reason - physical, mental, emotional) and the other(s) as source or potential source thereof.

... you know, thinking about it, I think that's actually a big part of it for me too. I mean, not always, and maybe not quite in the same way it is for you, but I think there's a very strong element of "finding the person/people who means 'home' to you" in a lot of what I write, and that's a strong aspect of it, and also of hurt/comfort that really works for me.

Which can also run into neutral: like there are scenarios where technically someone is having a hurt tended by someone else that are 100% just . . . there? they might as well be making lunch, because there's no exchange on that emotional level. If that makes any sense.

It does! I've also noticed that I need to have heavy emotional investment in order to really enjoy it, and the characters need to have heavy emotional investment with each other (or the potential for it), and in order to really get to me, the story needs to do something with that, one way or another. That is, it's not the scenario that does it for me so much as the way it affects the characters. This is not to say I can't enjoy anything else; I love a lot of things with no h/c element at all. But that's the perfect storm of factors for it to really hit me in that h/c kind of way. Otherwise it's just ... well, like you said, someone tending someone else's hurts, and not hurt/comfort (for me) in quite the same way.

[katharos]

I love scenarios where a character who is normally super powerful has to do deal with an out of context problem, or is depowered for some reason, or has a fatal vulnerability, and has to depend and trust on other characters to succeed / survive! With lots of questioning and doubts of I’m being forced to be vulnerable in front of them, can I really trust them not to take advantage? With the answer being yes of course :)

[sholio]

Ahhhh, yeah, that's a good one! :D I don't really think I've encountered it much lately due to not really being in fandoms where the character types and dynamics lend themselves very well to it, but yes, that's one I really like.

[ginger_rude]

omg, that's perfect. SE Hinton is the original original slashfic writer. one of them, anyway, if you are of a Certain Age. -cough-

[sholio]

Haaha, is she? Do you mean in an original-fiction kind of way, or like a "used to write Star Trek slash" kind of thing, or ...?

[blackrook]

I got curious and checked AO3 - in MCU, 414 completed fics with coma in title/tags or summary. Which is not a small number itself, but, considering the abyss which is MCU... :).

Of all my fandoms, the most heavy on h/c were Magnificent Seven (TV show) and The Sentinel, and I think coma was fairly well represented, but, well, those fandoms were oh their heyday in early 2000s:). Actually, I think M7 fandom might have been your cup of tea, because it's all about found family. And since AUs were very popular, you can find any number of stories about any stage of "7 guys meet-become a team-become a family" in any setting, from Ancient Rome to Star Trek. And 4 out of 5 stories have h/c :), and a lot of variety even within one story - 7 main characters with complicated relationship+support system, so you can imagine the possibilities:).

My favorite h/c trope these days comes from Nirvana in Fire (which I recommend greatly, because, well, a TV masterpiece with wonderful storytelling and great visual). Main character there a) is a talented scholar and great strategist, whom 3 princes want as an advisor b) heads a pugilist sect and c) has very poor health - can't fight, is always cold, tires easily, etc. So, watching everyone around him - his adopted younger brother, tough warriors under his command, no-nonsense doctor, his friends and his prince - to try and take care of him, and make him take care of himself while he is busy saving the world with his brain and determination... Well, that's a treat:).

[sholio]

Nirvana in Fire is very high on my list of things to watch; it looks like entirely my thing. :DDD

I just managed to miss Mag7 fandom, even though I know a number of people who were into it. I was in exactly the wrong place for it; I was mainly in anime fandoms at that time, and then it ended up just being one of those things I never went back and got into. But yeah, I totally get the found-family vibe. One of these days, maybe ...!

[secretsolitaire]

Somehow it delights me to find out that S.E. Hinton (of The Outsiders) writes Outsiders fanfic (under a pen name)

OMG, I would love to read those! Darry was my favorite character so those sound right up my alley. :D

[sholio]

I bet they're on AO3. :D The article was from, I think, 2015, so you'd need to look earlier than that, but you might be able to find them from the contextual clues.

ETA: I love your icon; it's gorgeous!

[sallymn]

Hurt-comfort has been one of my Fannish Things since pretty much the first time I ladi eyes on one Kerr Avon (Blakes 7) - that and Beautiful Suffering. Trying to explain the appeal has never been easy, but I tend to love it best when my favourite hurtees are the emotionally shielded or armoured ones, and need to get cracked open to get at the emotional payoff (that sounds a little sadistic, I know... but hey, when you learn h/c with that man, you learn it good :)

[sholio]

It was so fascinating to me to find this was something that other people enjoyed, too! I think it's interesting how you find these things you know you like, even without getting validation from other people, or knowing that it's a thing. But then it's awfully validating to find out that you're not the only one. :D