Hmm. Interesting.
For the past several weeks I've been involved in a new role-play, and for a great deal of those weeks, my RP partner has been detailing her favorite character's fever in every particular. I've ended up realizing some more things about myself and my own tastes along hurt/comfort lines.
My favorite hurt/comfort scenarios still seem to be knockouts and/or characters being thought dead. But where it comes to knockouts, I only seem to like things done semi-realistically. I don't generally go the old media way of having a character wake up and be perfectly fine; they usually are dizzy and have a bad headache for a while. Sometimes there's concern of a concussion, although I usually don't actually have there be one.
But sometimes I will have a character get up and walk around, even with a headache. Depends on how bad the knock was (and the kind of mood I'm in at the time). On the other hand, I once ran across a paramedic who said that when people wake up from a bad hit on the head, they tend to throw up everywhere. Blech! And that is one bit of reality I'm never going to input.
I also realized that in general, I have very little interest in detailing every particular of a fever, illness, and/or recovery. (And I've discovered that I'm extremely grossed out by copious amounts of sweat. Ewww. I abhor sweating in real-life and feel filthy when I do, so I guess it's not a surprise it would extend to fictional scenarios.) Some of my lack of interest may be because characters usually end up in the hospital and I figure the staff is taking care of most of that, rather than the characters' family or friends. And I have very little interest in writing a lot of interaction with the staff.
Some of it may be that when I do things like that, even where the character's family or friends are the ones helping, I quickly lose interest. That old Detective Conan fic I was trying to work out kind of followed a plot like that and I soon got lost on how to help the character recover. And I felt like I was going in circles, repeating the same sorts of scenes over and over.
Usually, if a character is bad off enough that recovery will be long, I skip over that part of it and just summarize a few bits here and there. I did that with my Alamo fic, because the main point of that fic was the interaction between Emil Sande and Graciela after Emil recovered. I still wonder if I did the right thing there, though. I went back and added another segment, a sweeping look at Emil's recovery through Emil's eyes as his attitude towards people began to change over time. But I kept feeling (and kind of still feel) like I should have detailed his recovery in every particular, even though I didn't want to and felt that it would deviate from the main point of the fic.
I mentioned a few things about Micky's recovery in my Return of Baby Face Morales fic, but there again, it didn't play a big part in the overall storyline because the details of the recovery weren't important to the fic's plot. (And I wasn't really interested in detailing everything, either.)
Part of me wonders: If I don't like detailing recoveries in every particular, can I really call myself a hurt/comfort fan?
And another part of me answers: Yes; just a different breed of one.
I love writing character interaction and I enjoy one character emotionally comforting another one, but if it's a long-term thing like in the Detective Conan fic, I can't seem to do that very long. I like writing scenes of emotional comfort, but not to have the character so broken that a whole fic is required to heal them. (Except in special cases; I liked that fic where Bakura tries to help Yami Bakura recover from being tortured by Yami Marik, although there again, I'm not sure if I wrote it that well.)
I like writing a character helping an injured character to limp along, get in or out of the shower, and treat wounds and burns. But if I were to detail in every particular, I would also need to have them redress the wounds every day, and I realized I wouldn't have any interest in writing that out every time, either. Maybe once or twice, but not more.
I suppose in one way, I'm not sure if this will come out making sense, but I often like instant gratification with my hurt/comfort scenarios, such as the knockouts. But if I were to be completely realistic, it would probably take a while to really recover from those, and I hence wouldn't have much interest in writing a knockout if I was being completely realistic.
Then there's angst fests. A few weeks ago I was musing over the idea of an amnesia fic with Ray, Lafe, and Coley. I figured Ray or Coley would be the victim, and I test-wrote a scene where it was Coley. I realized that I didn't want to write a fic where it was either of them. I could tell just from that scene that a fic would depress me and burn me out.
And that's the way I feel about a lot of angst fest fics lately. Even if I know they'll end well, I don't seem to like writing all the heartache to get there, except in certain cases. In some other cases, for both fics and role-plays, I've almost always felt like I didn't want to do certain plotlines because I felt they'd drag out too long and I'd be depressed with the Hell the characters would be going through all along the way. Sometimes I can be convinced to do the scenarios anyway, and sometimes I end up liking them once I'm into them. Other times, I never do quite come around to them, although I can't think of any specific examples off-hand. And sometimes I don't like reading big angst fest fics, at least unless they're already finished, because it's agonizing reading about the characters in such torture and wondering when it will end for them.
But so, with all that in mind, why in the world do I still like scenarios where a character is thought dead? I think that ties back in with my life-long fascination of death, which is also something I can't fully explain and I know it sounds morbid. And I think I like it mainly for the utter, unmatchable joy of being reunited with the character, alive and well. (Although I also like exploring the grief process for different characters and how they handle it and interact with each other because of it.)
I think to some extent, that's where my relish of knockout scenes stems from, too. That Little Audrey cartoon where she thought she killed the bird and it was only knocked out and revived really has had a huge impact on me ever since I saw it when I was five-ish. I used to write hurt/comfort scenes in my mind where a character was knocked out and thought dead by other characters. Eventually they would revive and there would be much squee.
When I moved to fics and role-plays, I realized quickly that except in serious circumstances, a knocked out character would not be thought dead for more than a minute or two. And so sometimes, if I wanted an extended scene, I would do a form of a fairytale-ish enchanted death that could be broken by any show of true love, not just romantic. Usually there would be no real explanation for the Disney death (something that exasperated some of my past RP partners, haha), but Hamilton got a very big explanation for his in The Broken Ties fic. It was expressly stated to be part of the villainess's plan to put him into a state like that.
These days, I try not to rely on Disney death scenes very often, and when I do have one, it's sometimes a case like Hamilton's.
Bottom line: I am a hurt/comfort fan, but I think I have a mindset far stranger than the great majority of us. Although I suppose that each H/C fan has particular quirks about what they like and dislike and why.
We certainly are an interesting breed in fandoms.
My favorite hurt/comfort scenarios still seem to be knockouts and/or characters being thought dead. But where it comes to knockouts, I only seem to like things done semi-realistically. I don't generally go the old media way of having a character wake up and be perfectly fine; they usually are dizzy and have a bad headache for a while. Sometimes there's concern of a concussion, although I usually don't actually have there be one.
But sometimes I will have a character get up and walk around, even with a headache. Depends on how bad the knock was (and the kind of mood I'm in at the time). On the other hand, I once ran across a paramedic who said that when people wake up from a bad hit on the head, they tend to throw up everywhere. Blech! And that is one bit of reality I'm never going to input.
I also realized that in general, I have very little interest in detailing every particular of a fever, illness, and/or recovery. (And I've discovered that I'm extremely grossed out by copious amounts of sweat. Ewww. I abhor sweating in real-life and feel filthy when I do, so I guess it's not a surprise it would extend to fictional scenarios.) Some of my lack of interest may be because characters usually end up in the hospital and I figure the staff is taking care of most of that, rather than the characters' family or friends. And I have very little interest in writing a lot of interaction with the staff.
Some of it may be that when I do things like that, even where the character's family or friends are the ones helping, I quickly lose interest. That old Detective Conan fic I was trying to work out kind of followed a plot like that and I soon got lost on how to help the character recover. And I felt like I was going in circles, repeating the same sorts of scenes over and over.
Usually, if a character is bad off enough that recovery will be long, I skip over that part of it and just summarize a few bits here and there. I did that with my Alamo fic, because the main point of that fic was the interaction between Emil Sande and Graciela after Emil recovered. I still wonder if I did the right thing there, though. I went back and added another segment, a sweeping look at Emil's recovery through Emil's eyes as his attitude towards people began to change over time. But I kept feeling (and kind of still feel) like I should have detailed his recovery in every particular, even though I didn't want to and felt that it would deviate from the main point of the fic.
I mentioned a few things about Micky's recovery in my Return of Baby Face Morales fic, but there again, it didn't play a big part in the overall storyline because the details of the recovery weren't important to the fic's plot. (And I wasn't really interested in detailing everything, either.)
Part of me wonders: If I don't like detailing recoveries in every particular, can I really call myself a hurt/comfort fan?
And another part of me answers: Yes; just a different breed of one.
I love writing character interaction and I enjoy one character emotionally comforting another one, but if it's a long-term thing like in the Detective Conan fic, I can't seem to do that very long. I like writing scenes of emotional comfort, but not to have the character so broken that a whole fic is required to heal them. (Except in special cases; I liked that fic where Bakura tries to help Yami Bakura recover from being tortured by Yami Marik, although there again, I'm not sure if I wrote it that well.)
I like writing a character helping an injured character to limp along, get in or out of the shower, and treat wounds and burns. But if I were to detail in every particular, I would also need to have them redress the wounds every day, and I realized I wouldn't have any interest in writing that out every time, either. Maybe once or twice, but not more.
I suppose in one way, I'm not sure if this will come out making sense, but I often like instant gratification with my hurt/comfort scenarios, such as the knockouts. But if I were to be completely realistic, it would probably take a while to really recover from those, and I hence wouldn't have much interest in writing a knockout if I was being completely realistic.
Then there's angst fests. A few weeks ago I was musing over the idea of an amnesia fic with Ray, Lafe, and Coley. I figured Ray or Coley would be the victim, and I test-wrote a scene where it was Coley. I realized that I didn't want to write a fic where it was either of them. I could tell just from that scene that a fic would depress me and burn me out.
And that's the way I feel about a lot of angst fest fics lately. Even if I know they'll end well, I don't seem to like writing all the heartache to get there, except in certain cases. In some other cases, for both fics and role-plays, I've almost always felt like I didn't want to do certain plotlines because I felt they'd drag out too long and I'd be depressed with the Hell the characters would be going through all along the way. Sometimes I can be convinced to do the scenarios anyway, and sometimes I end up liking them once I'm into them. Other times, I never do quite come around to them, although I can't think of any specific examples off-hand. And sometimes I don't like reading big angst fest fics, at least unless they're already finished, because it's agonizing reading about the characters in such torture and wondering when it will end for them.
But so, with all that in mind, why in the world do I still like scenarios where a character is thought dead? I think that ties back in with my life-long fascination of death, which is also something I can't fully explain and I know it sounds morbid. And I think I like it mainly for the utter, unmatchable joy of being reunited with the character, alive and well. (Although I also like exploring the grief process for different characters and how they handle it and interact with each other because of it.)
I think to some extent, that's where my relish of knockout scenes stems from, too. That Little Audrey cartoon where she thought she killed the bird and it was only knocked out and revived really has had a huge impact on me ever since I saw it when I was five-ish. I used to write hurt/comfort scenes in my mind where a character was knocked out and thought dead by other characters. Eventually they would revive and there would be much squee.
When I moved to fics and role-plays, I realized quickly that except in serious circumstances, a knocked out character would not be thought dead for more than a minute or two. And so sometimes, if I wanted an extended scene, I would do a form of a fairytale-ish enchanted death that could be broken by any show of true love, not just romantic. Usually there would be no real explanation for the Disney death (something that exasperated some of my past RP partners, haha), but Hamilton got a very big explanation for his in The Broken Ties fic. It was expressly stated to be part of the villainess's plan to put him into a state like that.
These days, I try not to rely on Disney death scenes very often, and when I do have one, it's sometimes a case like Hamilton's.
Bottom line: I am a hurt/comfort fan, but I think I have a mindset far stranger than the great majority of us. Although I suppose that each H/C fan has particular quirks about what they like and dislike and why.
We certainly are an interesting breed in fandoms.