okay general sickfic vs emeto are two separate things for me, so i’ll throw them both in here
(putting this disclaimer at the top: please don’t send me asks or messages abt the personal medical stuff i share in here!)
sorry idk what it is about the stomach flu specifically. maybe it’s that it became my brand after this long, because i didn’t have as strong a preference for it when i started this blog.
most other illnesses that cause vomiting are like a distant second in terms of preferred reasons/causes
when the sick character *knows* that they’re going to puke for a long time before it happens
characters puking multiple times, both in one scene & in scenes separated by time. if that makes sense. like i like when a character is sick enough to be puking all day/maybe even for several days, and i wanna see all of it. especially if it’s a nice long fic
also i talk about why this is below but i like when the character always has enough in their stomach to vomit lol
characters puking in places besides the toilet/not making it in time/making a mess
idk where to put this, because it’s somewhere between the two for emeto fics: i like contagion when it’s done well (like, the timing of the next character getting sick is correct) & when there’s enough room to focus on each character/have a space where each character gets comforted (ie character A gets comforted by B -> B catches A’s illness -> A&B are both sick at the same time, or maybe A is doing better by now -> a mostly-recovered A takes care of B). i think it’s pretty hard to strike this balance, but something that’s usually always good is a character being like “ohh i bet i caught this from [situation]” or something similar
horny fics/characters who Have The Kink
ok continuing off of that last one: contagion when it’s NOT done well (ie characters getting sick too soon OR too late after they were exposed. even if it’s because both characters actually caught the illness from somewhere else at the same time, i’d prefer that each character get enough time to be sick on their own first? if that makes sense?)
similarly, contagion with more than 2 characters. idk, unless the fic is really long it’s going to be difficult to focus on them!
drunk characters (idk! besides me having a strong preference for someone vomiting from illness, i feel like drunk puke is Often more watery/thin than i’d like? though obviously not always)
when someone is emetophobic or has a panic attack (related or unrelated to vomiting) or when a character is otherwise freaking out about vomiting. i’d probably like this more in a h/c way, though it’s not one of my top favorite h/c tropes or anything
similarly, characters who don’t have enough to throw up/only vomit a tiny amount/wind up dry-heaving a bunch. idk! it just seems like it hurts!
speaking of being in a lot of pain, characters who are like… having more cramps than nausea, or having extreme stomach pain. idk i just like things more on the “feeling kinda gross and icky and miserable” side than on the “oh my god i’m being stabbed” side
characters who are like *distressingly* sick (like, high fever, delirious, appendicitis, anything else that’s like, life-threatening). a common one i saw in the other responses was “puking up blood” so i guess i’ll put that here too (actually i don’t really like these in vanilla fic either. idk i just like when characters are miserable, but not dying. and i don’t want them to be Super Out Of It, i want them to experience every second of that misery <3)
pregnant characters. i used to be kinda neutral/just not interested in it, but now i’m going through some medical issues, so it just makes me sad :/
eating disorders, kinda for the same reason :/
solo puke. it’s fine i guess, but here’s an area where my emeto tastes overlap with my h/c tastes: It’s About The Mortifying Ordeal Of Being Known! puke in front of someone else & feel embarrassed about it! Or Don’t Feel Embarrassed! whatever man it’s all about the characterization
okay HERE’S my Hot Take: when the character wakes up in the middle of the night to vomit! like it’s fine every once in a while & i have actually read some really good fics featuring this (so maybe it doesn’t deserve to be on my least favorite tropes list?) but sometimes i’m like “aw mannn the fun nausea buildup got skipped”. i guess it has its own merits though
okay now for vanilla sickfic
like i said before, i want a character to be miserable, but not *in danger.* i like when a character has a fever! but not one so high that they’re delirious & out of it. other than that, symptoms can vary, i just want whatever they have to be enough that it makes them *miserable.*
i kind of really DO like puking in vanilla sickfics, in a completely non-horny way! it’s such a good symptom, it can make characters miserable for so long, etc.
okay it’s so hard to enjoy this In The Era Of Covid, but: i enjoy a character trying to push through illness and go to [work/class/that important event]. like, let’s just pretend that contagion isn’t a thing for a minute please!!
a caretaker who’s kind of unfamiliar to the sick character, or someone they wouldn’t have expected to be comforted by? idk this Vibe is hard to describe. like it’s less “comforted by the villain” and more “what if you have a Weird And Awkward History with a person and they have to take care of you for some reason and you both wind up softening towards one another <3” idk i’m baby about this kind of thing. i eat it up with a spoon
when this sort of situation winds up Revealing Things about the sick character to someone else >:)
The Mortifying Ordeal Of Being Known. i want this character miserable and embarrassed about it and i want other people to see this & take care of them. ok thanks bye
when a character “just” has a cold. I’m SO SORRY to all my snzfucker mutuals, i respect you guys so much! it just doesn’t do anything for me <3 but i appreciate yall
“hurt no comfort” or solo sickfics, even less than i like solo emeto fics. at least solo emeto fics CAN be hot for me, i just don’t get anything out of this trope for vanilla sickfics. sorry!
characters being completely helpless. like, i like a Bit of this, but it’s more on the “needs help walking” side than “literally needs someone else to spoonfeed them.”
also, i guess this is a Thing on certain sides of tumblr? but sickfics where the “caretaker” is also the person hurting/abusing the sick character (ie “character gets captured & tortured & the person who tortured them takes care of their infected wounds)
Character A takes care of a sick Character B, and then the fic ends with Character A starting to sneeze/cough as Character B is like “haha i told you you’d get sick!” like… c’mon! now i wanna read the rest of the fic about Character A getting sick!
for some reason i don’t really care that much for medical settings (hospitals, doctors, etc) if it’s set in modern day? maybe it’s because i already work in a medical profession and so i INSTANTLY know when these things are unrealistic, and even a little bit ruins it for me. also, i kind of like having just one or two Main Caretakers, so having a bunch of doctors & nurses doing all of that kind of takes away opportunities for that
but i DO really like sending a character to a medical setting in a fantasy or sci-fi story (ie an infirmary, sick bay, etc) as long as there’s not magical/automatic healing. i feel like you can make up more about this kind of setting—like, if the caretaker is one of the sick character’s friends, maybe a medic would let them help out or something, idk.
btw i kind of said this above, but PLEEEASE don’t make me think about covid. (both characters having covid & references to it [like a character having a fever & testing for covid to make sure it isn’t That] are kinda :/ to me) i mean, it’s fine that it exists, and i imagine it’s really cathartic for a lot of people! but [points to the “worked in a medical setting” sign] i just saw a lot of people die in 2020 and i don’t want to think about that when i’m reading a nice comforting fic before bed. i think some people get catharsis out of reading/writing fics about it though, and that’s fine.
okay here’s my CONTROVERSIAL take! the one i know a lot of people like: nightmares! sorry lol, i can see Exactly why people like this trope (it’s a good way for a character to externalize their vulnerabilities & fears to someone who might not know them, etc). idk, i think this is mostly because i have very intense and frequent nightmares—and this actually ISN’T “omg i’m reminded of my own issues :/“ for once! it’s just that when i have a nightmare and someone wakes me up, i actually DON’T want to be comforted or held, i just wanna go back to sleep. (like i’m not grumpy or anything, i just woke up at a weird place in my sleep cycle and now i’m too tired to care about anything else.)
idk i know there’s things i forgot for all of these that i’m going to remember the second i hit post
btw if you like any of the things i don’t like that’s completely fine lol. keep doing your thing!! <3
sorry that this makes me sound like the goldilocks of sickfic lol. idk! i think very few of these are actual hard “i hate this thing and will not read it” tropes, just maybe “if i was in charge, i would probably have done something different, but it’s fine”
turnnoffyourmind
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