osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2019-03-03 08:25 am
osprey_archer) wrote2019-03-03 08:25 am
Entry tags:
Hurt Comfort Exchange Letter
Greetings, writer! I have never seen a hurt/comfort exchange before but the instant I saw it I knew that I had to sign up, because hurt comfort is one of my favorite things in the world. I am so easy for almost anything to do with this trope, my God.
Things I Like
Hurt/comfort (obviously!)
In particular, a few of my favorite varieties of hurt comfort are:
Sickfic! Ranging from “a small cold” to “raving delirium”
Hypothermia
In fact, anything that leads to snuggling for warmth
Forced proximity/forced dependency leads to emotional bonding
Situations where the hurt and the comfort become intermingled - like Stockholm syndrome; the character doing the comforting caused the hurt in the first place
Emotional hurt/comfort! The hurt is not physical but emotional: an abandonment, a betrayal
Or guilt: the hurting character is suffering from guilt because they believe they hurt someone else (possibly the comforting character)
In general, I like stories about loyalty and ride-or-die friendships - but also stories where the characters have an unequal investment in the relationship; unrequited love, or love where one party feels it much more strongly.
Things I don’t like
Character death
The fandoms!
Agent Carter
Peggy Carter/Dottie Underwood (hurt Dottie)
Peggy Carter & Dottie Underwood (hurt Dottie)
Okay, I just love the idea of ill or injured Dottie forced to rely on Peggy to help her. It’s simultaneously her worst nightmare, because trust is not really Dottie’s thing (and I just can’t see the Stalinist Red Room offering much in the way of bedside manner), but also her greatest dream, because AT LONG LAST she has Peggy’s attention completely riveted on her.
Peggy, meanwhile, is… having a whole lot of feelings, but I hope that one of them is a sneaking fondness for Dottie, which she tries to fight by reminding herself that Dottie is a DEADLY KILLER and she SHOULD NOT TRUST HER, but also… Dottie’s so brave and defiant even though she’s in a position of total vulnerability and her scrappiness (so like Steve Rogers, in a twisted-since-childhood-by-warped-training kind of way) just undoes Peggy’s attempts to remain emotionally uninvolved.
Throw as many tropes at this one as you like. Example: They are SNOWED IN and Dottie has hypothermia or is delirious with fever or broke her leg badly or whatever. Or maybe THERE IS ONLY ONE BED. Or maybe there isn’t even a bed because they’re sheltering in a cave or an Alpine hut or God knows what. The sky is the limit!
Agents of SHIELD
Bobbi Morse/Jemma Simmons (hurt Jemma)
The episode where Bobbi & Jemma met stands out in my mind as one of the golden glowing moments in Agents of SHIELD history. Hydra!Bobbi’s coat! And hair! And nunchucks! THE SCENE WHERE SHE THREATENS JEMMA IN THE BATHROOM. Jemma’s totally flustered adoring “She’s amazing" after Bobbi reveals that she’s secretly SHIELD and saves Jemma! Uuuuugh it’s gorgeous.
So my prompt sort of builds off that: Bobbi doesn’t save Jemma in time. Jemma is captured, tortured, thrown in a dungeon, maybe subjected to brainwashing, etc…. And Bobbi tries to offer her some hope and comfort while also maintaining her own cover because she’ll never be able to rescue Jemma if she’s captured too. Imagine the possibilities: Jemma’s shaky attempts at defiance. Bobbi’s horror when she’s ordered to interrogate the woman she only wants to protect. Jemma’s tortured feelings as she bonds with her captor.
If you want to go a slightly less dark route with this one, a fic dealing with the aftermath has great potential. They’re back at SHIELD, Jemma’s trying to keep it together, but the pain lingers… and sometimes Bobbi is the only one who understands.
Raffles
Bunny/Raffles (hurt Raffles)
Bunny/Raffles (hurt Bunny)
Raffles is one of my low-key forever fandoms and I am having trouble deciding which character I want to be hurt more. On the one hand, there is something inexpressibly delicious about the idea of Raffles being the hurt one so Bunny has to take charge for once (bonus points if the injury happens mid-burglary!)... or about the idea of Raffles having, you know, an extremely minor cold, but Bunny is nonetheless running around to look after him as if he were dying of consumption. I’m not sure if Raffles would merely tolerate these attentions or if he would actually order Bunny around; again, either possibility seems beautiful.
But on the other hand! Raffles looking after injured Bunny. Maybe he reveals an unexpectedly soft side, at least briefly? Or maybe he remains his haughty self throughout, but even if he sounds exasperated with Bunny’s continued ill health, he actually does something that touches Bunny because it shows how much he cares, even if Raffles dresses it up all “We can’t commit any burglaries till you’ve stopped this confounded coughing, you would wake the whole house!”
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Audrey Stockton/Morgan Freeman (hurt Audrey)
Audrey Stockton/Morgan Freeman (hurt Morgan)
This was one of my favorite new movies in 2018. I love the spy hijinks and the close friendship between these two girls (that scene where they’re about to be tortured and they start spilling every secret they know about each other!!!!) and Morgan’s general OTTness.
I’m also fond of her relationship with her parents, so if Morgan is the one hurt, I’d love if that’s at least mentioned: she just got shot and she’s like “This will be a great story to tell Mom and Dad” and Audrey is like “MORGAN!” I’d also love it if just a little bit of vulnerability shines through, even though she’s trying to deal with the pain with her usual barrage of wisecracks.
If Audrey is the one hurt, I’d love it if Morgan turned out to be an inept (although incredibly well-meaning!) caretaker… Or alternatively Morgan turns out to be a FANTASTIC caretaker, in her own zany way. Or maybe Audrey originally thinks Morgan is the worst caretaker because she’s expecting chicken soup etc., and then she realizes that Morgan is as original as a caretaker as she is at everything else, and how could she have expected differently? Maybe she hit her head harder than she thought. Maybe she should stay in bed an extra day and let Morgan take care of her just in case…
As with Agent Carter, above, I feel that this is a canon that could welcome a certain level of tropiness, so if you’re feeling that, go for it.
I liked Sebastian, so it’s cool if you mention him or suggest that there’s a kind of OT3 situation going on, but I’m also cool with it if you just want to ignore him.
Things I Like
Hurt/comfort (obviously!)
In particular, a few of my favorite varieties of hurt comfort are:
Sickfic! Ranging from “a small cold” to “raving delirium”
Hypothermia
In fact, anything that leads to snuggling for warmth
Forced proximity/forced dependency leads to emotional bonding
Situations where the hurt and the comfort become intermingled - like Stockholm syndrome; the character doing the comforting caused the hurt in the first place
Emotional hurt/comfort! The hurt is not physical but emotional: an abandonment, a betrayal
Or guilt: the hurting character is suffering from guilt because they believe they hurt someone else (possibly the comforting character)
In general, I like stories about loyalty and ride-or-die friendships - but also stories where the characters have an unequal investment in the relationship; unrequited love, or love where one party feels it much more strongly.
Things I don’t like
Character death
The fandoms!
Agent Carter
Peggy Carter/Dottie Underwood (hurt Dottie)
Peggy Carter & Dottie Underwood (hurt Dottie)
Okay, I just love the idea of ill or injured Dottie forced to rely on Peggy to help her. It’s simultaneously her worst nightmare, because trust is not really Dottie’s thing (and I just can’t see the Stalinist Red Room offering much in the way of bedside manner), but also her greatest dream, because AT LONG LAST she has Peggy’s attention completely riveted on her.
Peggy, meanwhile, is… having a whole lot of feelings, but I hope that one of them is a sneaking fondness for Dottie, which she tries to fight by reminding herself that Dottie is a DEADLY KILLER and she SHOULD NOT TRUST HER, but also… Dottie’s so brave and defiant even though she’s in a position of total vulnerability and her scrappiness (so like Steve Rogers, in a twisted-since-childhood-by-warped-training kind of way) just undoes Peggy’s attempts to remain emotionally uninvolved.
Throw as many tropes at this one as you like. Example: They are SNOWED IN and Dottie has hypothermia or is delirious with fever or broke her leg badly or whatever. Or maybe THERE IS ONLY ONE BED. Or maybe there isn’t even a bed because they’re sheltering in a cave or an Alpine hut or God knows what. The sky is the limit!
Agents of SHIELD
Bobbi Morse/Jemma Simmons (hurt Jemma)
The episode where Bobbi & Jemma met stands out in my mind as one of the golden glowing moments in Agents of SHIELD history. Hydra!Bobbi’s coat! And hair! And nunchucks! THE SCENE WHERE SHE THREATENS JEMMA IN THE BATHROOM. Jemma’s totally flustered adoring “She’s amazing" after Bobbi reveals that she’s secretly SHIELD and saves Jemma! Uuuuugh it’s gorgeous.
So my prompt sort of builds off that: Bobbi doesn’t save Jemma in time. Jemma is captured, tortured, thrown in a dungeon, maybe subjected to brainwashing, etc…. And Bobbi tries to offer her some hope and comfort while also maintaining her own cover because she’ll never be able to rescue Jemma if she’s captured too. Imagine the possibilities: Jemma’s shaky attempts at defiance. Bobbi’s horror when she’s ordered to interrogate the woman she only wants to protect. Jemma’s tortured feelings as she bonds with her captor.
If you want to go a slightly less dark route with this one, a fic dealing with the aftermath has great potential. They’re back at SHIELD, Jemma’s trying to keep it together, but the pain lingers… and sometimes Bobbi is the only one who understands.
Raffles
Bunny/Raffles (hurt Raffles)
Bunny/Raffles (hurt Bunny)
Raffles is one of my low-key forever fandoms and I am having trouble deciding which character I want to be hurt more. On the one hand, there is something inexpressibly delicious about the idea of Raffles being the hurt one so Bunny has to take charge for once (bonus points if the injury happens mid-burglary!)... or about the idea of Raffles having, you know, an extremely minor cold, but Bunny is nonetheless running around to look after him as if he were dying of consumption. I’m not sure if Raffles would merely tolerate these attentions or if he would actually order Bunny around; again, either possibility seems beautiful.
But on the other hand! Raffles looking after injured Bunny. Maybe he reveals an unexpectedly soft side, at least briefly? Or maybe he remains his haughty self throughout, but even if he sounds exasperated with Bunny’s continued ill health, he actually does something that touches Bunny because it shows how much he cares, even if Raffles dresses it up all “We can’t commit any burglaries till you’ve stopped this confounded coughing, you would wake the whole house!”
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Audrey Stockton/Morgan Freeman (hurt Audrey)
Audrey Stockton/Morgan Freeman (hurt Morgan)
This was one of my favorite new movies in 2018. I love the spy hijinks and the close friendship between these two girls (that scene where they’re about to be tortured and they start spilling every secret they know about each other!!!!) and Morgan’s general OTTness.
I’m also fond of her relationship with her parents, so if Morgan is the one hurt, I’d love if that’s at least mentioned: she just got shot and she’s like “This will be a great story to tell Mom and Dad” and Audrey is like “MORGAN!” I’d also love it if just a little bit of vulnerability shines through, even though she’s trying to deal with the pain with her usual barrage of wisecracks.
If Audrey is the one hurt, I’d love it if Morgan turned out to be an inept (although incredibly well-meaning!) caretaker… Or alternatively Morgan turns out to be a FANTASTIC caretaker, in her own zany way. Or maybe Audrey originally thinks Morgan is the worst caretaker because she’s expecting chicken soup etc., and then she realizes that Morgan is as original as a caretaker as she is at everything else, and how could she have expected differently? Maybe she hit her head harder than she thought. Maybe she should stay in bed an extra day and let Morgan take care of her just in case…
As with Agent Carter, above, I feel that this is a canon that could welcome a certain level of tropiness, so if you’re feeling that, go for it.
I liked Sebastian, so it’s cool if you mention him or suggest that there’s a kind of OT3 situation going on, but I’m also cool with it if you just want to ignore him.