hurt/comfort 2024!!!!!!!!
Mar. 14th, 2024 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
belledamnOk I don’t know why writing this felt like going through medieval torture, but truly I crawled through the desert over the past few days trying to think of ways to describe what I’d like to read that didn’t make me want to immediately fling myself from a tower. And honestly I didn’t quite succeed, but I did my best and hopefully this is helpful to you!
First of all: thank you so much for writing something for me!!!!! As a huge hurt/comfort fan, I’m sure whatever you come up with, I will love it!! I mostly typed this up to give you some ideas or starting points, but if you have your own thoughts based on the tags — please run with that! My only main ask is that you keep it gen-ish (like undertones of a relationship are fine! I just don’t like overt romance) and as true to the characters as possible, because a big lure for me is reading about people who have extreme difficulty accepting tenderness being forced to do so because of [insert cliched fanfiction circumstance here]. I think my ultimate favourite hurt/comfort setup is when the person can't actually say what happened / what's wrong with them — the growing horror as it comes out anyway and they're forced to confront it / do something about it??? That's the good shit, baby! The slow, dawning horror on the part of the person who loves them as they realize exactly what the person is trying to say (or trying not to say)... god. Hits like crazy every time.
More general likes: a quiet moment of comfort, a subtle display of care, an interaction that doesn’t change much in the long run but means everything in that moment, a late night conversation, a shared cigarette break, a good stitching-each-other-up-in-the-bathroom (physically or emotionally!) moment. A late-night drive, particularly after a “Can you come get me?” phone call. One party acting as an outside witness (to what? you choose! a breakdown, a dissolving relationship, a moment of hurt). Care administered in a very practical way. Honesty over sentimentality. A good touching-someone's-face "honey what'd you take????" situation, or, relatedly, the "what happened to you???" classic.
General dislikes: romance used as a resolution to a bigger problem, explicit violence, unhappy endings (ambiguous or open is totally fine!!! I like realism!! just please don’t end it on a huge bummer), babying/infantilization of characters, toothless AUs (like coffee shop type AUs where the meat of the canon gets lost in translation).
BtVS
1. Buffy/Faith: my dream is something post-show, the two of them trying to work together/relate to each other as deeply traumatized adults who are trying to keep it together (as opposed to deeply traumatized teens lashing out in radically different ways). I’d really like it if Buffy was the one kind of “out of control” or having the post-series full breakdown I think she’s honestly entitled to, but I’m pretty flexible on the scenario! The hurt can be physical or emotional (or both! both would be great); there’s so much violent history that I think it could be really interesting and fraught. Buffy has such a complex about being strong in front of others and I think it’s particularly strong with Faith, so I’d love to see a situation in which she’s forced to spill her guts (again, physically or emotionally or both!!!), the more painful the better, honestly — there’s so much festering backstory with them that the deeper you cut, the more comes to the surface, and I think that is honestly so delicious.
2. Buffy & Giles: I’m obsessed with their relationship and how deeply messy it is, particular in later seasons when they really break from each other. Once again, I’d love to see something post-season where they’re maybe trying to patch it back up, or better yet, a situation where they’re not really trying but forced into proximity anyway. I think Buffy has a lot of issues about how much she needed Giles to be a father figure and how he ultimately failed to do so, but I’m not really interested in blaming either one of them for it. To me, both of them did what they were capable of doing as people, and in the end it wasn’t really enough, and they both hurt each other (Giles more than Buffy, maybe, but I do think Buffy’s actions after Jenny’s death hurt him deeply), but I’d like to think in the end there’s still time to try and mend it. The actual hurt/comfort situation could be physical or mental; again I’m very drawn to the Buffy post-canon breakdown, because I’ve been watching the show from the beginning and she very clearly has a whole host of mental health issues that are not being dealt with from the start, none of which Giles is equipped to deal with, as a repressed middle-aged British man with sub-zero emotional intelligence, and I think it would be interesting to kinda dig into what has been sort of been buried and left to fester. Semi-relatedly, it was rare on the show but I liked when they had heart-to-hearts on the show (the scene where Buffy tells him about Dawn comes to mind), so something along those lines, but maybe getting to dig in a little deeper to the things they could never make themselves talk about. By the end of the show Buffy’s used to pushing things down and being the adult / acting like it’s fine, and I think at a certain point in adulthood you accept the role you have to play (and the roles others aren’t capable of playing for you), so I’d like to see a situation that forces her to accept help from someone she’s grown to think she needs to be strong/invulnerable in front of, because in the past he's always been uncomfortable (or just straight up left lmfao) when she was struggling in a way that made her difficult or hard for others to handle. But genuinely, go with whatever you feel in your heart!!! I typed all that up but really, if you wrote him awkwardly yet semi-tenderly patching her up after a bad patrol I’d eat it up with a spoon and enjoy every bite. It truly does not need to be deep!
3. Giles/Anya: tbh I added this on a whim because I love their vibes but mostly in a vague, formless way. I don’t have any particular ideas but when I think of them, I always think about the scene where the kids show up at the airport to say goodbye to Giles and Anya promises to take care of his money — as much as he’s annoyed by her, I kind of think that’s the most genuinely I’ve seen him laugh on the whole show??? It’s so weirdly sweet. I’d be okay with a small moment set in canon, even something silly like a papercut doing invoices or an injury stocking the shop, or a more serious post-canon with the ending rewritten — whatever you can come up with! I think they’re perfect for a situation that seems light at first and then becomes more serious, because there’s that banter and back-and-forth, but again. I’d be happy with any of the tags applied to them!
DS9
1. Ezri/Kira: they are my secret preferred f/f Kira ship — their scenes together in S7 are genuinely so sweet to me ;; I saw this tag on tumblr that was like “does Ezri know Kira smiles at her like that” for one of the scenes where they’re together at Quark’s and I genuinely think about it so often — does Ezri know that Kira smiles at her like that???? I’m not sure she does!!! When I saw the possession tag I immediately thought of when Kira became a vessel of the prophets, which wasn’t played as a definitively traumatic experience for her BUT was a hella cool concept, so I think something similar but with a more malicious force could be a very meaty fic premise!!! I’d also love to see some fallout of them having a fraught capture/torture/what have you situation, especially one where they had to say things that they wouldn’t have ordinarily said to one another. Or honestly just a straight up injury recovery situation where Kira feels guilty could really hit.
SG-1
1. Daniel/Vala: ok they are SUCH a “loser/hot girl who ruins his life” ship archetype and I do like that for the most part they are trainwrecks who are genuinely quite awful to each other, BUT also I have rewatched that scene where she wakes up from being burned alive and he’s holding her soooooo gently SO many times lmao. So. That sort of instinctive tenderness he has towards her is so interesting to me, given how combative and awful he can be when she isn’t vulnerable, you know? I do think that’s more his natural inclination than all the fighting, it’s that Vala is always, always provoking him to push past it and meet her on her horrible level (god bless). ANYWAY I feel like SG-1 is so easy to write hurt/comfort scenarios for because you literally just have to stick them on a planet and make something horrible happen, so seriously go crazy with it…
2. Jack/Sam: idk what to say here that hasn’t been said a million times before… I literally just want them to go through hell on an alien planet and then have to deal with it using their horribly repressed and militarily regulated coping mechanisms afterwards. The way Jack cares about her SO much but can only express it through gruff admonishments and silent gestures… The way Sam can’t show weakness because even after everything, she’s scared it’ll make him think less of her… like it genuinely always hits. You can set it any time during the run of the show — I’m not picky! I just miss my guys and wanna read about them!!
First of all: thank you so much for writing something for me!!!!! As a huge hurt/comfort fan, I’m sure whatever you come up with, I will love it!! I mostly typed this up to give you some ideas or starting points, but if you have your own thoughts based on the tags — please run with that! My only main ask is that you keep it gen-ish (like undertones of a relationship are fine! I just don’t like overt romance) and as true to the characters as possible, because a big lure for me is reading about people who have extreme difficulty accepting tenderness being forced to do so because of [insert cliched fanfiction circumstance here]. I think my ultimate favourite hurt/comfort setup is when the person can't actually say what happened / what's wrong with them — the growing horror as it comes out anyway and they're forced to confront it / do something about it??? That's the good shit, baby! The slow, dawning horror on the part of the person who loves them as they realize exactly what the person is trying to say (or trying not to say)... god. Hits like crazy every time.
More general likes: a quiet moment of comfort, a subtle display of care, an interaction that doesn’t change much in the long run but means everything in that moment, a late night conversation, a shared cigarette break, a good stitching-each-other-up-in-the-bathroom (physically or emotionally!) moment. A late-night drive, particularly after a “Can you come get me?” phone call. One party acting as an outside witness (to what? you choose! a breakdown, a dissolving relationship, a moment of hurt). Care administered in a very practical way. Honesty over sentimentality. A good touching-someone's-face "honey what'd you take????" situation, or, relatedly, the "what happened to you???" classic.
General dislikes: romance used as a resolution to a bigger problem, explicit violence, unhappy endings (ambiguous or open is totally fine!!! I like realism!! just please don’t end it on a huge bummer), babying/infantilization of characters, toothless AUs (like coffee shop type AUs where the meat of the canon gets lost in translation).
BtVS
1. Buffy/Faith: my dream is something post-show, the two of them trying to work together/relate to each other as deeply traumatized adults who are trying to keep it together (as opposed to deeply traumatized teens lashing out in radically different ways). I’d really like it if Buffy was the one kind of “out of control” or having the post-series full breakdown I think she’s honestly entitled to, but I’m pretty flexible on the scenario! The hurt can be physical or emotional (or both! both would be great); there’s so much violent history that I think it could be really interesting and fraught. Buffy has such a complex about being strong in front of others and I think it’s particularly strong with Faith, so I’d love to see a situation in which she’s forced to spill her guts (again, physically or emotionally or both!!!), the more painful the better, honestly — there’s so much festering backstory with them that the deeper you cut, the more comes to the surface, and I think that is honestly so delicious.
2. Buffy & Giles: I’m obsessed with their relationship and how deeply messy it is, particular in later seasons when they really break from each other. Once again, I’d love to see something post-season where they’re maybe trying to patch it back up, or better yet, a situation where they’re not really trying but forced into proximity anyway. I think Buffy has a lot of issues about how much she needed Giles to be a father figure and how he ultimately failed to do so, but I’m not really interested in blaming either one of them for it. To me, both of them did what they were capable of doing as people, and in the end it wasn’t really enough, and they both hurt each other (Giles more than Buffy, maybe, but I do think Buffy’s actions after Jenny’s death hurt him deeply), but I’d like to think in the end there’s still time to try and mend it. The actual hurt/comfort situation could be physical or mental; again I’m very drawn to the Buffy post-canon breakdown, because I’ve been watching the show from the beginning and she very clearly has a whole host of mental health issues that are not being dealt with from the start, none of which Giles is equipped to deal with, as a repressed middle-aged British man with sub-zero emotional intelligence, and I think it would be interesting to kinda dig into what has been sort of been buried and left to fester. Semi-relatedly, it was rare on the show but I liked when they had heart-to-hearts on the show (the scene where Buffy tells him about Dawn comes to mind), so something along those lines, but maybe getting to dig in a little deeper to the things they could never make themselves talk about. By the end of the show Buffy’s used to pushing things down and being the adult / acting like it’s fine, and I think at a certain point in adulthood you accept the role you have to play (and the roles others aren’t capable of playing for you), so I’d like to see a situation that forces her to accept help from someone she’s grown to think she needs to be strong/invulnerable in front of, because in the past he's always been uncomfortable (or just straight up left lmfao) when she was struggling in a way that made her difficult or hard for others to handle. But genuinely, go with whatever you feel in your heart!!! I typed all that up but really, if you wrote him awkwardly yet semi-tenderly patching her up after a bad patrol I’d eat it up with a spoon and enjoy every bite. It truly does not need to be deep!
3. Giles/Anya: tbh I added this on a whim because I love their vibes but mostly in a vague, formless way. I don’t have any particular ideas but when I think of them, I always think about the scene where the kids show up at the airport to say goodbye to Giles and Anya promises to take care of his money — as much as he’s annoyed by her, I kind of think that’s the most genuinely I’ve seen him laugh on the whole show??? It’s so weirdly sweet. I’d be okay with a small moment set in canon, even something silly like a papercut doing invoices or an injury stocking the shop, or a more serious post-canon with the ending rewritten — whatever you can come up with! I think they’re perfect for a situation that seems light at first and then becomes more serious, because there’s that banter and back-and-forth, but again. I’d be happy with any of the tags applied to them!
DS9
1. Ezri/Kira: they are my secret preferred f/f Kira ship — their scenes together in S7 are genuinely so sweet to me ;; I saw this tag on tumblr that was like “does Ezri know Kira smiles at her like that” for one of the scenes where they’re together at Quark’s and I genuinely think about it so often — does Ezri know that Kira smiles at her like that???? I’m not sure she does!!! When I saw the possession tag I immediately thought of when Kira became a vessel of the prophets, which wasn’t played as a definitively traumatic experience for her BUT was a hella cool concept, so I think something similar but with a more malicious force could be a very meaty fic premise!!! I’d also love to see some fallout of them having a fraught capture/torture/what have you situation, especially one where they had to say things that they wouldn’t have ordinarily said to one another. Or honestly just a straight up injury recovery situation where Kira feels guilty could really hit.
SG-1
1. Daniel/Vala: ok they are SUCH a “loser/hot girl who ruins his life” ship archetype and I do like that for the most part they are trainwrecks who are genuinely quite awful to each other, BUT also I have rewatched that scene where she wakes up from being burned alive and he’s holding her soooooo gently SO many times lmao. So. That sort of instinctive tenderness he has towards her is so interesting to me, given how combative and awful he can be when she isn’t vulnerable, you know? I do think that’s more his natural inclination than all the fighting, it’s that Vala is always, always provoking him to push past it and meet her on her horrible level (god bless). ANYWAY I feel like SG-1 is so easy to write hurt/comfort scenarios for because you literally just have to stick them on a planet and make something horrible happen, so seriously go crazy with it…
2. Jack/Sam: idk what to say here that hasn’t been said a million times before… I literally just want them to go through hell on an alien planet and then have to deal with it using their horribly repressed and militarily regulated coping mechanisms afterwards. The way Jack cares about her SO much but can only express it through gruff admonishments and silent gestures… The way Sam can’t show weakness because even after everything, she’s scared it’ll make him think less of her… like it genuinely always hits. You can set it any time during the run of the show — I’m not picky! I just miss my guys and wanna read about them!!
