#tropefic meme

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Drift-compatible (Is that a trope? Am I doing this right?) If not that, how about road trip?

I’ve written it, actually! Well, a Pacific Rim AU, anyhow: it was a three-sentence prompt-fill for The Middleman. Wendy is drift-compatible with her Middleman, and he was drift-compatible with the Middleman who trained him. Because there will never be enough fic about Raveena Rao:

She Lives on in the Drift, Dubbie

I’d be somewhat unlikely to write a full-blown PacRim AU, if only because I dislike swapping one’s white faves in for the film’s original characters of color (which is what most PacRim AUs seem to do). But I could see re-envisioning Supergirl in a PacRim context? I’d put Alex and James in a Jaeger together: the two bravest, fiercest, Kara-lovingest, jump-into-a-fight-without-superpowers-est people in the room. (Kara gets to keep her superpowers in this AU, so no robot-suit for her!) I know Alex and James are not an obvious match for drift compatibility, but I think I could sell it. Actually, that would be the main appeal of writing it: selling you all, inch by inch, on the working partnership of Alex and James. Meanwhile, Stacker Pentecost and J’onn J’onzz have a relationship based on political necessity and prickly mutual respect, and the sociopolitical issues of aliens living in human society would become that much more superheated by the introduction of kaiju. (And hopefully lose some of their skeevy metaphor-for-immigration overtones).

A PacRim AU that I almost certainly wouldn’t write (but am enjoying poking at!) would have Roxburgh’s Holmes and Hart’s Watson be drift-compatible. (Because every Holmes/Watson pair is drift compatible, right?) Those two have such huge communication and trust issues, it’d be fascinating to posit that their partnership was originally based on drift-compatibility, and then ask what parts of their dysfunction would persist within the Drift and yet still permit them to pilot a Jaeger. It might be the first PacRim AU where our drift-compatible Jaeger pilots split because of irreconcilable differences, and wouldn’t that be fun? Tropes are the best when you drive them straight off the rails, don’t you think?

I’m not terribly likely to write a road trip story; the trope has never had much appeal for me. If I were to do it, though, it’d have to be through a landscape I knew well, so... Leverage OT3, I suppose? The road trip would probably end up being a relatively minor component of the story; most of it would be a Leverage-style casefic about trying to save a tiny eastern Oregon town trapped between a shady operator and financial blight. And because I’m me, the case would turn on something geographically and historically specific: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, or the Malheur Refuge occupation, or the strong historical presence of Hawaiians in Oregon, or...

OMG I COULD HAVE THEM STEAL THE DALLES DAM.

...no, wait, stop, nope, sorry, I’m NOT writing a Leverage road trip story, not doing it, nope, no, stop, not happening, no.

[sanguinarysanguinity]

fanfic trope: self-insert fic. [giggles madly]

At the risk of being painfully honest: I only occasionally can find the courage to blog about my own life anymore, I’m certainly not about to write myself in as one of the most-hated OFCs known to fandom.

But hey, now that I’ve publictly said I’m scared, maybe the next time I write a Holmesian canon that admits to the existence of Holmesiana-as-a-worldwide-fannish-phenomenon...

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Sex pollen!

Not terribly likely, because I seldom find the uphill battle of writing smut worth the effort...

...but if I were to, it’d probably be Jack Harkness and somebody-to-be-decided, where the second person wants to play with sex pollen as a negotiated, consensual kink. A major part of the story would be the negotiations, because Jack “Enthusiastic Consent” Harkness would have strong reservations about any sex practice where consent cannot be withdrawn. (What even is the point of a drug that causes you to lose all inhibitions around sex? The only inhibition he has about sex isn’t even about sex, it’s about rape-which-is-never-sex. He’s not judging anyone’s kink -- oh, but he is secretly judging!!!!!! -- but why would he want to lose his inhibitions about rape? He knows he is fucked in the head, but he is not that fucked in the head!)

My gut sense is that sex-pollen-as-kink would be a firm no for Jack (again, what even is the point of sex pollen?), but that he’d be willing to facilitate sex-pollen between his partner and some consenting third party, with him acting as the “designated driver”/dungeon monitor for the evening, ready to pull the plug and get his person out of there and to a safe place if anything goes off-plan. Knowing me, the story would almost undoubtedly focus on the negotiations and the coming-down-from-the-pollen parts of the evening.

Or hell, maybe I’d change my mind halfway through writing it and have Jack say yes to negotiated sex-pollen, one of the few sex practices that genuinely feels edgy for him. *shrug*

TOO BAD WE WILL PROBABLY NEVER KNOW.

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Fanfic trope: unanticipated mix-up with hotel reservation leads to bed-sharing.

Oh, I’d be very likely to write it!

(Technically, I already have, in a there-and-gone passage from “Desperate Men and Fools.” Although what I was using it for there was contrary to the usual point of the trope: I was establishing early that there was such intimacy between these two that coming up a bed short – surprise! – was a matter unworthy of any comment whatsoever between them.)

But if I were to do it properly, where the point of the story was tension over  abruptly coming up a bed short… I wouldn’t do it as getting-together, first-times story. It’d be established Holmes and Watson, wherein they routinely share a bed when they have privacy, but would never do so in a public accommodation. Sadly, having to fabricate the performance that they are displeased over sharing a bed stirs up papered-over tensions between them. (Because dear god but it is exhausting trying to maintain a relationship while closeted!)

Alternatively, it’d be established Holmes and Watson where for the sake of their own sanity they never ever share a bed at home – one is a light sleeper, say, and the other a snorer – and it as much as their marriage is worth to try to struggle through several nights in the same bed.

[sanguinarysanguinity]

tropes: de-aging, coffee shop au, secret siblings

De-aging: Not at all likely to write it. I don’t get the point of it at all; I mostly look at such stories with confusion when they cross my screen.

Coffeeshop AU: Again, not at all likely to write it. I’ve never worked in a coffeeshop, I don’t spend much time in them, I’m not much interested in researching them, and I hate hate getting the details of anything wrong. And, again, it’s one of those tropes where I don’t quite get the point of it?

Secret Siblings: *makes a quick visit to fanlore* Okay, the kind of thing where Molly Hooper is actually a Moriarty, independent of whether she knows it or not, yeah? Once again, I’m unlikely to write this trope: my usual impulse is to write the world bigger instead of smaller. (There’s something just so claustrophobic about a world where everything is ultimately driven by secret backstory relationships, where every new ‘shocking’ revelation makes the world that much smaller. I have this problem with a lot of fannish shipping trends, too: I want Marcus Bell and Ms. Hudson and Alfredo Llamosa to all have rich enough lives that their dating pool is not limited to People They Met At The Brownstone.)

But this one isn’t an absolute no-go. If I were to take it on, my urge would be to make Joan and Jamie sisters, and then watch Joan begin with “haha, nice try, you fake documentation as readily as you breathe” then promptly whiplash through “family is important!” to “no forgiveness!” and “wait, I have a niece?? who’s been disappeared??” We’d probably also find time for some "NOW who’s been sleeping with someone’s sibling as the next-best substitute?” and related wise-cracking along the way. Perhaps eventually there’d be a Morland vs. Watson rematch, as they vie for control of Moriarty’s empire. Basically, it’d be delicious, hilarious, and pointless emotional mayhem.

...you know, I take this back, I have written secret siblings: WORD OF GOD from THE BEST BEE FIC EVER. There you go, what’s-his-name from MI6 was what’s-his-name from fanon, trope accomplished!