December Daily: Tropes for a bad day

[resonant]

goss prompts::: "Are there particular fics (or tropes) you read when you're having a bad day?"

AO3 tracks history, but I don't find any way to sort by frequency. Even if I could, I've messed it up by having several stories open on my phone for months on end without getting around to reading them, so that there are stories in there that AO3 thinks I've read 37 times ... Anyhow, I couldn't identify my top re-reads, but I immediately found two great and representative comfort reads.

Everything dira writes is good, but about two-thirds of her stories are in the High Quality But Not For Me category for squick reasons -- very few of us are engaging with our id on Dira's level. The other third are For Me in an intensely satisfying and comforting way. One I go back to a lot is Treasured, in which Bucky is a dragon and Steve is an offering.

Another frequent read is helenish's Pre-Existing Condition, a Die Hard universe story in which John and Matt get married for health insurance purposes.

The two stories are in the trope category where you have two people who aren't enemies but also aren't particularly attached to each other, and they spend a good bit of time taking care of each other before the relationship develops into romance. I eat that stuff up and would really love any and all recs (fannish or non).


Comment to leave me a prompt! Steal goss's prompt if you want to do the meme yourself!

3 -- wrabbit -- Favorite holiday traditions.
4 -- lunabee34 -- thoughts about flowers.
5 -- runpunkrun -- strong feelings about books.
6 -- castiron -- something that you're pleasantly surprised to have in your life.
7 -- mekare -- favorite fandom traditions.
8 -- armadillo1976 -- What is your comfort reading? Fic, high-brow literature, commercial fiction, whatever.
9 --
10 -- pauraque -- your favorite movies as a kid (or favorite kids' movies as an adult)
11 --
12 --
13 -- terminally_underwhelmed -- things that change, things that don't.
14 --
15 -- anitac588 -- Chris Evans.
16 --
17 -- ride_4ever -- birthdays
18 -- muccamukk -- Dwarvish things in your everyday life. (Moved from the 17th so ride_4ever could get the birthday date.)
19 --
20 -- copracat -- memory.
21 -- rhi -- cats.
22 --
23 -- laurenthemself -- Something spooky that's happened to you
24 --
25 --
26 --
27 --
28 --
29 --
30 --
31 --

Comments

[ride_4ever]

Aw, res, TYK for making sure I got the day for my birthday!

[resonant]

It's a tradition!

[goss]

I love dira's Treasured too! <333

[resonant]

I would love a novel-length version. One of the things I love best isn't even relationship-related: it's the bit of worldbuilding when they put out all the fires in the village so the dragon can symbolically light a new fire for them to symbolize their agreement.

[exceptinsects]

Prompt: favorite romantic moments...in books, movies, fic, real life?

[anitac588]

I'm just so grateful for fanfiction, it's like a safe, warm, soft cloud I can submerse my mind into whenever I feel in need of feel good. That said, I don't have a favorite story to fall back to, like you do, just tropes, that yes. It's because once I leave a certain fandom, I rarely go back to read there.

[resonant]

That's really well put. I don't know what I'd do without fandom. I read a lot of nonfannish stuff, but it's hit-or-miss, and there are things that it never does for me that fandom reliably does.

[mific]

Leaving a prompt: a winter's tale. Anything wintry, good or bad.

[kass]

Oh I love Dira's "Treasured."

:-D

[resonant]

<3

[runpunkrun]

prompt: advice you've found useful

I STILL think about the family advice you shared with us that if you're wondering whether you should turn your headlights on, you should. That is a solid rule and I follow it all the time because I drive an old car where those sorts of decisions are still up to the driver.

[resonant]

That's so nice -- Dad would be happy to know his advice is still remembered. He loved to give advice. That's something I got from him.

[jesse_the_k]

Which brings to mind another prompt: advice you regret following

[resonant]

Ooh, thanks for that!

[lobelia321]

Helenish, o Helenish.

(Where is she these days??)

[resonant]

I often wonder!