Has it really been that long (yes) MEME TIME

[lyssie]

Flist, I totally broke down and bought paid LJ time tonight for more icons. I figure it's been, like, four years since I last did so, so it totally doesn't count as weak.

Anyway, have a meme (nicked from helsinkibaby)
Pick a number and I’ll tell you my thoughts on the trope you’ve asked me about and if I’ve written it myself, or if I ever would.

1 Genderswap
2 Bodyswap
3 Drunk!fic
4 Huddling together for warmth
5 Shag or die
6 Undercover in a gay bar
7 Pretending to be married
8 First time together
9 Amnesia
10 Crossdressing
11 Forced to share a bed/fake relationship
12 Mind control
13 Handcuffed
14 Wingfic
15 Mpreg
16 Mistakenly assumed to be gay
17 Let’s play truth or dare
18 Mary Sue fic
19 Aphrodisiacs
20 Curtain fic
21 Hurt/Comfort
22 Apocalypse fic
23 Someone has a baby
24 Telepathic soulbonding
25 Circus AU
26 Language barrier
27 Historical AU

Comments

[lavidaessueno.livejournal.com]

*hugs you and hugs you some more*

How about #21?

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*

I definitely like hurt/comfort. Not in the overly gratuitous "person A is constantly beaten up and bloody and person B comforts with healing cock" way. But a lot of the "person A is injured/rescued and person B cares and/or hugs them" type things appeal to me.

So does the emotional side-- a lot of the Susan-James hurt/comfort bits and pieces in Freedom and Necessity, for instance, are like crack for me. Even when they're tearing strips out of each other.

I'm also just fond of people being overly ok with hugging each other. I like hugging, even if there was no hurt before-hand. =D

I think I've written it, though off the top of my head, I can't think of anything specific.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Ha, #24.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I am highly embarrassed to say that, in certain instances, I love it like pie.

I did, after all, grow up on Anne McCaffrey's magical soulbonding telepathic dragons and Mercedes Lackey and her lifebonds.

The entire concept is ridiculous, but if someone wrote Kara/Sam or Joss Carter/John Reese telepathic soulbonding (or, let's be fair here, pretty much anyone I ship together, which is a long list), I would read it.

The closest I can think of to having written it was Attached, the Sam/Jack SG-1 fic I co-write with karma_aster (one day, we will perhaps finish it, though it was mostly at a stopping point)

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

I have more icons than necessary on both LJ and DW because icons are fantastic and there should always be more of them.

lol, I did not know 24 was even a thing. I've seen a lot of AU-soulmate tags on AO3 but I don't know if any of them fall into that category.

Um...#6. Or #5. Or both :)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

24 is an amazing yet highly embarrassing thing. (it has to be done right and I don't know how 'right' is explained, I just know it when I see it)

5 - I enjoy this one in concept, but I'm not sure I've ever written it. I've certainly read multiple versions, some more successful than others. I do like it, for the most part.

6 - the only exposure I've had is painfully wince-worthy tv episodes (Rizzoli & Isles springs to mind). I've discovered I'm not particularly fond of it. Probably because it sort of leans into the whole side of "pretending to be something you're not, isn't it hilarious and also maybe a little non-con with how it forces the person to do things they wouldn't normally" . Hrm. idk. I think I just dislike the embarrassment squick factor.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

I really love 5, too. Though, as you said, some attempts are better at it than others.

Yes to everything you said about 6. I don't know why people are so in love with this idea. Like...it's just kind of weird? Especially since most of the times I've seen it/read it, it's involved two straight women pretending to be gay and laughing it off later on. I'm sure someone has done it well, but in general, I'm just not interested.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

With 6, I feel like a big part of my dislike is that sense that it's mocking the entire concept of people legitimately being gay or lesbian? Even if the ultimate goal is Person A Realizing they're Not Straight, it feels really mocking.

(I'm trying to think up shag or die scenarios now, though. Mostly because I'm bored.)

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally get that.

I'm pretty sure I read a "shag or die" fic where everyone was infected with some kind of virus and the only "cure" was sex. Everyone picked the partners they wanted and seemed pretty satisfied with the results. It was a multi-pairing fic but I can't for the life of me remember the fandom. I think I read it on AO3, though.

[helsinkibaby.livejournal.com]

More icons are always good! I've loads on LJ and one day I will cave and pay for more on DW because 15 doesn't cut it!

How about 7 and 11?

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I think it was that over the years I've made thousands of the damned things and I was poking the files and going "I had no idea I'd made that icon, why aren't I using it? AuGH, no spaaaace..."

7 - Did you know one of my favorite X-Files episodes is the one where Scully and Mulder are in suburbia, pretending to be married? So, yeah. I do like this one. There's a ridiculous Painkiller Jane version of the trope, too (sadly, not with Jane and Mo'). In fic, I find it harder to find exactly what I'm looking for (I sort of like the amused tolerance Scully had going on during that episode). I don't need the "we discover we lURVE each other" side of it. But undercorver as marrieds? yes.

I have written it, at least once. There was a Kara/Sam as cops AU where that was part of the plot. But they were totally already together prior to pretending it.

11 - Love it. I like accidental bed-sharing, too. Like, they're too drunk to realize they're in the same bed/too tired. (the bed-sharing is one of the best parts of Cindy Holbrook's regencies, because her novels all have at LEAST one night where the heroine and hero end up doing so and cuddle and stuff. I don't care how predictable it is =D)

I am not sure if I've written it?

The faking the relationship side sort of also goes with #7

[thisbluespirit]

#25. It always seems a bit of a random one... :-)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Bones and Miss Fisher and Torchwood got my back, here. I don't love circus AUs, but I definitely enjoy undercover in circus episodes.

And I love the concept of the creepy 19th-century traveling circus thing.

If it were done well, though, I think I'd love a circus AU.

Never written it, so far as I can recall.

[thisbluespirit]

It always intrigues me, because it comes up in these lists, but the only time I ever saw anyone actually write it was for trope_bingo, & subverting it a bit. It just doesn't seem an obvious one: "coffee shop, high school, in space, regency romance, okay, now we're all a circus troupe. Have a custard pie!"

Creepy circuses are definitely a thing. Nothing does creepy like some 19th C travelling circus of the right/wrong kind.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I think part of the difficulty, for me, is that circuses require far too much research. I mean, there's lots of pop culture ideas about them, but I always feel like I don't really know the culture of a circus (though I bet they're all different).

Creepy circuses are easier, though. And, well, anything creepy and 19th-century makes me happy.

[bella-farfalla.livejournal.com]

My favourite of favourite tropes is #2! What are your thoughts? :D

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I quite adore bodyswapping, especially in visual media (Farscape and Lost Girl have aMAZING episodes with bodyswapping). It's less easy in a textual narrative, because one of the reasons I love it is watching the actors pick up each others' habits and mannerisms (Claudia Black doing Ben's southern voice, Awwwwwwww. Kenzi being Dyson? omgyes)

um. I am distracted by contemplating some re-watches. I wonder if I should do every fandom I can think of all at once?

My one caveat is that I prefer bodyswapping that isn't just so dudes can look at tits - like, the Eureka bodyswap episode from season 5? That was utterly obnoxious as it seemed to be an excuse for, like, Jack to stare at Jo's tits and Zane to come onto Allison. Maybe it's the way it was framed, as more titillation for the dudes than comedy/amusement for all.

And what I've heard of Stargate: Universe doesn't make me think I'd like their version, either.

(now, the SG-1 episode was hilarious)

I don't think I've written it, though.

[bella-farfalla.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the Eureka bodyswap episode episode, but OMG yes SO MUCH LOVE for the Lost Girl bodyswap episode. It was all kinds of amazing. :D

I started writing a Swan Queen bodyswap fic but haven't got very far because I suddenly realised how difficult and confusing it is to write!