hc_bingo card

[thisbluespirit]

trope_bingo has been being rather lovely in terms of giving me reason to type or make things, tying in with already existing prompts and so on, but not in being stressful. So I got tempted into also signing up for hc_bingo - Hurt/Comfort Bingo.

Which may seem a little odd (the complete list of prompts is such a mix of things that really interest and attract me and things that terrify me to death and paralyse my muse), but I do like hurt/comfort, even if I think my definition in my head is not always the same as other people's. And there's a lot of room for interpretation (literal or metaphorical etc. etc.) and it doesn't have to be hurt/comfort, it can be hurt or comfort, and it doesn't have to be shippy. So... could be very interesting. I like working through bad stuff in fic (or at least certain kinds), although not necessarily "fixing" it. I do tend to find it cathartic/helpful. (I was listing what to veto and then realising that some I'd already written - I've got two fics that contain possible suicide attempts, for instance. It just looks much weirder when it's a prompt. "Ooh, let's write a nice torture fic, why not?")

And this morning my card turned up

bodyguards	sacrifice	tentacles	substance addiction	theft
panic attacks	forced soulbonding	trust issues	prostitution	cages
alien abduction	sexual extortion	WILD CARD	torture	loss of vision
bullet wounds	unrequited pining	branding	accidents	plane crash
trapped between realities	natural disasters	tyranny / rebellion	surprise sexswap	runaways

At first sight (and I already did not only the three allowed vetos but begged for no specific rl medical conditions, which the mods clearly and kindly took notice of) I thought it was a horrible card and wanted to send it back. However, I can see at least three possible bingos now, and most of the squares are scaring me less the more I look at them. It might eventually be quite a fun card. Well, for a given definition of fun that includes torture, prostitution, bullet wounds, plane crashes and natural disasters.

(Actually, this is making me think... is there an Apocalypse Bingo? Are there enough end of the world scenarios yet? There must be. That would be kind of depressingly hilarious. End your fandoms one by one by new and inventive means! Or just the old perennials, of course.)

But where trope_bingo has been fitting into lots of things, this is less obvious. I think, if I look, I'll probably come up with some very interesting matches from my 500 Prompts (and, yes, I have not forgotten those. They're just ongoing for as long as I LJ now, probably). However, if anyone's got any suggestions, I'd be interested. (I make no promises, this isn't a meme - this is very much a for-me thing.)

At the moment, I'm thinking the L-R diagonal might be easiest, or vertical down the centre. Both end verticals aren't too bad either, and the R-L diagonal is do-able, too.

The ones that I particularly dislike, because it's hard to be too metaphorical or step away from rl are panic attacks, substance abuse and plane crash. (I think I actually hate plane crash the most. Unless it could be interpreted as "space ship crash" and I suspect not, unless it's very much a space equivalent of a modern plane. Which I suppose it could be...) You can do vids, art, recs, meta, icons, picspams etc., too, though, so it is really very flexible.

The Wild Card, though, will be "Dystopia" because I had a thing I wanted to do for that. And I've got "Trapped between realities". Now there's a really tough one for an S&S fan...

I was going to talk about my trope_bingo progress, but mainly my current plans of what's written in rough go like so:

Indecent proposal - have rough version, too weird to talk about, see how it turns out
Crossover - rough done, but it'd sound too weird to talk about. Or misleadingly more exciting
au: other - such a BAD idea, may not happen, probably will. Can't possibly mention it.
against all odds - so silly and obscure, maybe it doesn't count for the trope? Maybe I should do a House of Eliott Picspam/fandom manifesto instead (because that really does embody the trope. Two women against the world, succeeding when all the annoying men tell them no!!)
deathfic - is this cheating? Probably.
sharing a bed - can't decide who's the funniest pair to focus on. (I'd like to do Five and Tegan, but I kind of did that once before, a long time ago in Storytime. But I haven't done it out in the real fanfic world... Or I could have, say, Vila and Avon snarking at each other all night and probably complaining about the bed, the room, the circumstances, each other, the universe, Blake... And there are probably other equally entertaining mismatched pairs, too.) (What? What? Was I supposed to write pr0n here? Sorry. ;-p)

But I am planning a Metafiction rec-set, and possibly an Epistolary one, which should be fun.

Comments

[john_amend_all]

'Which two characters should share a bed?' seems like a possible discussion post for dw_straybunnies.

Some possibles I thought of: Leela & D84; Brigadier & Three (or the Brigadier and anyone other than Fiona and Doris, really). Rose and Martha would end badly; if Martha thought the Doctor wouldn't shut up about how he misses Rose, it'd be ten times worse the other way round.

I've got a fragment of fic somewhere where Victoria and Zoë find they have to share a bed, and Victoria doesn't see what the big deal is — in her time, it's a much more common practice.

And then there's Ancelyn and Mordred...

"Craven cur, thou hast stolen the covers again. Art thou so weak that thou canst not withstand the cold of the night?"

"Ha! What care I for the words of a man who cannot sleep if his mother tell him not a bedtime story?"

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: I love the Ancelyn and Mordred one - not something I'd be up to writing, but that's just great. :-)

[seriesfive]

One could make a ficathon of it's own out of it. :D

The 'Share-A-Bed_Fest'...

[thisbluespirit]

"There were ten in the bed and the little one said..." :lol:

[john_amend_all]

"Nine rooms, no more," the landlord said,
"Have I to offer you.
To eight of you a single bed,
But the ninth must serve for two!"

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Have fun with that!

[thisbluespirit]

I will! Maybe I won't end up even with a bingo, but we'll see. :-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

You might surprise yourself!

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Sharing a bad is so much more fun without sex in the fic. I'm with you there! :D

[thisbluespirit]

Which, just in case it ever happens to us two in rl, is a relief to know!

;-D

[thisbluespirit]

You're a brave one, far braver than me obviously. The idea of h/c bingo truly terrifies me - in fact more than I thought it would, but after looking at that card...

But I think you're braver than me, because you kink_bingo card frightens the life out of me! And to be honest, that card is scary, especially first thing in the morning, but the more I look at it, the more I see possibilities - and the prompts are defined like the tropes at trope_bingo (and there are plenty of ways to interpret those even so), they're just prompts as stands.

I have an odd relationship with h/c, as in I like it in my own way, but I only rarely find stuff by other people that appeals to me. I can use a trope as a set up for a ship, but not "hurt" - but non shippily, I do explore those issues in my fic anyway, and how people interact as a result, and from there we get to my sort of hurt/comfort. :-)

I always thought I was a cheery sort of writer, but, actually I go quite quietly dark a lot when I'm not watching myself. And I have a few bleak fandoms - B7, S&S, Spooks and so on that have stuff going on canonically.

But, yes, once you kind of turn that "I write this quite a lot" round to having those issues as prompts, it does look really, really weird (to me, anyway). And this doesn't have anything I vetoed.

sharing a bed: I'd like to see Seven and Dr Elizabeth Klein,

Now, that you'll have to write yourself, as I have never listened to a Klein audio! ;-p

Hmm, so there's room for someone to do a Apocalypse mini-bingo, then? Heh.

[eve11]

LOL, how is "surprise sexswap" H/C?

I failed miserably to write my trope bingo card. I wrote nada! Well that's not true; oddly enough I wrote a few starter lines for the one I was sorriest to see on there: a Six & Peri "slavefic" trope where the idea was that they get caught up in an extremely patriarchal society and as soon as Six has to *really* be the boss of Peri, it unnerves him so much that he's terrible at it. Then when they escape Peri is all "What the heck? You nearly got us killed!" because she was fine if annoyed by the need to play the subservient female. Maybe I will come back to it some time.

Anyhow, I know what you mean about H/C. The thing that ticks me off is H/C that basically throws all characterization out the window and leaves whatever character that got hurt as unrecognizable and in that way, essentially the exact same as every other H/C fic like this in every other fandom. I admit I have some H/C tropes that I really like to read, but at the same time it is really really hard to find fics that don't overdo it, you know? X-files fandom was filled with "Mulder gets injured" fics and there were some for which it was part of a larger, interesting story, and some where it basically devolved into a Thursday-made-for-TV special where they basically just erased the generic names and put in the character names instead. (and I would still read them! And then wonder why, afterward)

I like Action and escapes and prison-breaks and peril, and stories that examine how eg, this particular character, whoever they are, deals with adversity from injury/sickness/captivity, etc. I often read "x gets sick and y takes care of them fics" but they rarely work for me. I guess the idea that "the only reason this fic exists is so that a character can get whumped and then hugged", makes me uncomfortable. I don't like fic that completely breaks a character to nothing recognizable just so that some other character can come and rescue them and build them back to themselves. I guess, with the angst and H/C, the most important thing that a writer needs to do is respect the character they are putting through all this.

That said... I've written torture, loss of vision, bullet wounds (kind of), imprisonment, and is there a square for "poison darts"? Because they crop up a lot. There should also be a square for "psychic attacks". IDEK. I put poor Eleven through a lot. The WIP-o-Doom is something I'm kind of mortified that I'm writing because it has a lot of those H/C elements in it, but when I started it I figured, "hell, if I'm going to write this, I'm going to do it right." 2.5 years later... still writing.

Long response is long. sorry!

[thisbluespirit]

LOL, how is "surprise sexswap" H/C?

Well, all of the prompts are just things that might cause hurt or trauma in some way, rather than tropes as such - I can quite see how a surprise sexswap could be a trauma that required some help/comfort! (I would be traumatised!)

I like Action and escapes and prison-breaks and peril, and stories that examine how eg, this particular character, whoever they are, deals with adversity from injury/sickness/captivity, etc. I often read "x gets sick and y takes care of them fics" but they rarely work for me. I guess the idea that "the only reason this fic exists is so that a character can get whumped and then hugged", makes me uncomfortable. I don't like fic that completely breaks a character to nothing recognizable just so that some other character can come and rescue them and build them back to themselves. I guess, with the angst and H/C, the most important thing that a writer needs to do is respect the character they are putting through all this.

Yes, yes, yes! All of this! This is what I mean - but I do like it when it is well done, and is in character, so I want to play about with hurt comfort (or hurt and/or comfort) here my own way and try and do that. How a character deals with x, be it good stuff or bad, is interesting. How it affects interpersonal dynamics, who notices, who doesn't, can anybody help, can nobody help? All those things.

And, I suppose, as with most genres, it's the badfic we're judging here, rather than the good stuff. :-)

That said... I've written torture, loss of vision, bullet wounds (kind of), imprisonment, and is there a square for "poison darts"?

I don't know - I'm sure there was poisoning. There's a really long list at the comm, so you could have a look. I found, to my interest, that the ones that absolutely squicked me were very specific rl medical conditions because I just don't want to play with them fictionally in this way.

And, yes, I was doing the same - it looks very odd to see them as prompts, but when I look at my fic, I've displaced people, written depression, people being at least vaguely suicidal, stabbing, deathfic, dystopia... and I always thought I was so cheerful!

And, aw, your trope_bingo fic sounds great! Also... you mean from last time, because this time's round is still ongoing till the end of OCt? You could always get another card - they got rid of the penalties for Round 2... :-) (Maybe not if the muse is still being so awkward, though!)

ETA: And never apologise for long comments about fic writing! LJ is for many things, of course, but that's one of them, and one of my favourites!

[clocketpatch]

LOL, how is "surprise sexswap" H/C?

I've ended up with poltergeists on my card which is equally perplexing.

As far as your WIP-o-Doom goes, I don't think you need to be concerned about it being H/C badfic. The characters are all firmly themselves, and I haven't been following it these past two years for the whump, but because I really, really am curious to see how the characters are going to hold up under and get out of that situation (also, the writing is super spiffy marvellous.)

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Have fun writing!

but I do like hurt/comfort, even if I think my definition in my head is not always the same as other people's
How do you think your definition differs from other people's?

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you!

I'm not entirely sure, so that's what I intend to find out! I mean, maybe I just don't read enough of what's out there - it does vary by fandom. I suppose, already, thinking about the prompts made me realise that maybe one thing about it I like is it involving someone noticing someone else's problems?

But it just seems to have a bad rep around my flist, and for reasons that aren't what I think of as being hurt/comfort, so again, I don't really know.

I just do like it, for cathartic reasons, and maybe because I've spent so much of my life being ill, I want some acknowledgement of that in fiction, perhaps? And I don't at all think it's something that it's automatically OOC, which is one of the things that gets flung at it. That's just badfic, of any genre. It's only going to be interesting when it's in character... :-)

ETA: I think also I mean that I count very subtle things as comfort, and maybe that's not sufficient? Maybe I'm just writing angst with a bit of hope somewhere? (Luckily, this comm still caters to me if that's so.)

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

Um... well there's a cheery card. I can't decide if you're braver than me or just madder. ;) I'm allergic to h/c, though. I know there's a space for it when it's done well, but fanfic has turned it into something that I cannot bear, especially the tendency of shippy fic to write perfectly strong characters as people who can't even tie their own shoelaces without bursting into tears and needing to be cuddled. This is horribly true of "A-Team" fic, where Face is forever being written that way, so I have developed a very low tolerance of the entire trope.

Besides, characters discussing feelings, and hugging and stuff, gets in the way of the fun bits. Plane crashes and alien abductions and natural disasters should be action scenes, not soul-searching. But then I have all the empathy of a bowl of fruit. :)

[thisbluespirit]

I think, being in DW and not tending to ship fic much, I've avoided the worst of it. And I like interpersonal dynamics. Not necessarily fluffy or soppy, but... that's interesting to write, and often very subtle, and I like playing with that. More interesting than explosions and more lasting. )Unless the explosion is really so-mo, I suppose, but what's the point in that?)
I am probably madder? I just thought it would be interesting. And I've already written sadistic plane crash fic for S&S.

Besides, characters discussing feelings, and hugging and stuff, gets in the way of the fun bits. Plane crashes and alien abductions and natural disasters should be action scenes, not soul-searching.

Well, to be serious in the middle of your flippancy, it's about getting the balance of both - no emotion, no characterisation and your explosions and action have no interest or impact because we don't care who's getting blown up and all fluff and no substance isn't very exciting, either. Although, given ficlets and things in fanfic you can get away with it a bit more than in general storytelling.

I promise, anyway, to write no strong characters who sob and need a cuddle before tying their shoelaces. David Collings characters, maybe, but they cry all the time... ;-p

[lolmac]

Plane crashes and alien abductions and natural disasters should be action scenes, not soul-searching.

Hear, hear!

One of my favourite moments in a fic of my own involved two characters coming briefly to grips with a Painful Moment in Their Shared Past. One of them basically said to the other, "If you try to get soppy, I'll punch you," and changed the subject. (He's a character who canonically has all the empathy of a bowl of fruit*.)

*I adore that expression.

[honeynoir.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that it can be either hurt or comfort opens up many more possibilities than H and C...

*cheers you on*

[thisbluespirit]

Yes! That was what encouraged me to sign up, because I think my comfort can be a little... invisible sometimes. I know it's there. Also, I could write fluff if I wanted not to be angsty any more.

:-)

[clocketpatch]

I've ended up signing up. I've never done one of these BINGO cards before, but I've always been more-or-less interested when flisters bring them up, and winter is coming and all of that so... time to find things to do.

H/C seems up my ally, since it seems to be most of what I write, though several people in the comments here are very down on it as a genre and leave me wondering if what I define as H/C actually is H/C, though, I will say, this: It just looks much weirder when it's a prompt. "Ooh, let's write a nice torture fic, why not?" made me laugh right out loud. Because it seems like something I might do, though it is dependant on characters and fandom and whether said characters would act interestingly in said situation or whether it would be just... skiffy. Because it does irk me when the H in that equation goes on and on and on for no purpose, and I've definitely abandoned otherwise well written fics that have been guilty of that.

On a different (same) subject. That Apocalypse bingo thing... I saw you coming up with prompts in another comment, but could I be so bold as to add:

Evil wizards
Time loops
Endless winter
Return of the Old Gods
EMP
Planet knocked out of orbit
Dystopian government without end
...

this is far more fun than it ought to be

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, yay! \o/

It looks pretty flexible and I'm not sure they even have any penalties for non-completion, so good luck - I'll look forward to seeing your card!

On a different (same) subject. That Apocalypse bingo thing... I saw you coming up with prompts in another comment, but could I be so bold as to add:

Oh, of course! Why not? I think some of those I have in different phrasing (but then I don't like all my phrasing) - meteor strike, at least, but time loops is a good one, and Endless Winter. I had natural disasters and stuff that would cause nuclear winter, but endless winter can be fantasy or nuclear winter, so that's probably a much better way to put it. What's EMP?

I had to make some of them up, because apparently the tropes are less set than you would expect and don't cater for apocalypses to happen in fantasy fandoms (except by appointment with God(s)). Which reminds me, I think Ragnarok is separate enough and should be there, and also time unwinding/going backwards (the big crunch, or more fantastical).

Actually, have you read Foundation to the end? the solution there sounds like a recipe for planetary self-destruction, but I'm not sure how you'd put that.

this is far more fun than it ought to be

Oh, yes. I don't know why, but it is. :-)


ETA: Erased from Reality
Psychic Storms