Mixed bag
***
I have had three cups of coffee. I still feel sleepy. In fact, I've been tired a lot lately but I'm trying to combat this with Berocca and making sure I get out of the house at least once a day. Sitting in the garden counts, okay? I did that this morning but it wasn't that warm and the sun kept hiding. Now I'm back on the sofa and sun is out again making me feel guilty for just wanting to hide inside with the curtains drawn.
My cats are being particularly clingy at the moment. This may have something to do with the (finally) cooling weather as last night they actually slept inside. They are currently both on the sofa with me, Perdie next to my head and Tricks holding onto my toes. Aww.
Have finally uploaded more icons. I'm paying for the extra space but haven't really been taking advantage of that. I will also be making some icons today, yes sir.
I've been re-reading a lot of old SPN fics lately, rediscovering old favourites (like Birds on a Wire and The Epic Love Story of Sam and Dean and Mixing Light to Light and also of fuck Bitch and ahahaha Leader of the Pack and also Green and Gamboge and oh man I could go onnnn). Good times.
This has led me thinking about fic tropes again. Here are three tropes that I don't like despite fully acknowledging some people's ability to write them spectacularly:
From dislikes to likes. Remember that Working Hard for the Money meme I pimped a few days ago. Well, I left quite a few prompts there and one of them even got filled \o/ I thought I'd put them here too in case some of you are desperately wondering what to write me for Christmas... *g* Seriously though, eternal gratitude to anyone who might get inspired:
Bandom, Patrick/Pete
Early days, the band need money to tour. Patrick makes it by selling his... nope, not his body. His voice. Because turns out that it's not just good for singing, but it's also extremely good for talking dirty on the phone sex line. Pete finds out. Inevitable ensues. - Filled here: That Pretty Mouth Say Such Dirty Words by the wonderful synnerxx
Psych, Gus/Shawn
Someone is attacking the ladies and gentlemen of the night in Santa Barbara. Only way for Shawn to get a good 'psychic reading' of the attacker is to go undercover as a companion for hire. Cue Shawn hanging on street corners in tank top and torn jeans. He is... surprisingly good at the role. Better than his excellent acting skills alone could account for. Gus starts thinking about all those years Shawn spent away and just how he made ends meets... Angst, confrontation, jealousy, some creep touching Shawn in bad places, bonus for Gus decking the guy flat out, happy endings :D
Bandom, Ryan/Spencer
When Ryan's dad finally kicks him out, Ryan is too proud to go asking for help from his best friend. In retrospect, he should've maybe swallowed his pride.
Merlin, Gwen/Morgana
Modern AU, Morgana's uni mates drag her onto a pub crawl that ends in a strip bar. Morgana is shocked to see her project partner Gwen on stage. Shocked and... well, kind of... unable to take her eyes off her.
Star Trek Reboot, Kirk/McCoy
Modern AU, BDSM, Kirk is good at going to his knees and begging and making his clients believe he means it. In truth he despises every guy who thinks himself a "Master Leather God" or some such nonsense, thinks himself to be a Dom and a real man for smacking him around. And yet... they're paying for it because they clearly can't get anyone to do it voluntarily. If he had a choice, Kirk wouldn't sub for any of these guys. Truth be told, he's not sure he'd sub for anyone... although sometimes he thinks maybe, with a right guy, it could be... sort of okay. Maybe with a guy like Dr McCoy, the sarcastic, grumpy ER doctor who's looked after Kirk on more than one occasion after the extras he charged his clients for were a little too much after all. My undying gratitude for anyone who would write this, seriously.
Sherlock, John/Sherlock
AUish, world where contracting yourself out as a sex slave for a pre-determined period of time is an accepted if not that respected way of making money. After John saves the lives of men in his regimen, they pass the hat around and buy him one hell of a thank you present: Sherlock Holmes at his exclusive service for six months. John appreciates the gesture, he really does. Sherlock is scary smart, funny (often unintentionally though) and seriously, seriously hot. And he can apparently suck cock really, really well. Better than John's ever had. Or so he tells him. Because, well, John kind of has... moral objections for actually having sex with anyone who's been paid to do it. It's going to be long six months. And at the end of it... well, who knows.
Right, enough rambling for today. I'm going to go wash dishes and put rubbish/recycling out now because these are the things that need doing. Then after that I'm going to sit down and do some icons, dammit.
***
I have had three cups of coffee. I still feel sleepy. In fact, I've been tired a lot lately but I'm trying to combat this with Berocca and making sure I get out of the house at least once a day. Sitting in the garden counts, okay? I did that this morning but it wasn't that warm and the sun kept hiding. Now I'm back on the sofa and sun is out again making me feel guilty for just wanting to hide inside with the curtains drawn.
My cats are being particularly clingy at the moment. This may have something to do with the (finally) cooling weather as last night they actually slept inside. They are currently both on the sofa with me, Perdie next to my head and Tricks holding onto my toes. Aww.
Have finally uploaded more icons. I'm paying for the extra space but haven't really been taking advantage of that. I will also be making some icons today, yes sir.
I've been re-reading a lot of old SPN fics lately, rediscovering old favourites (like Birds on a Wire and The Epic Love Story of Sam and Dean and Mixing Light to Light and also of fuck Bitch and ahahaha Leader of the Pack and also Green and Gamboge and oh man I could go onnnn). Good times.
This has led me thinking about fic tropes again. Here are three tropes that I don't like despite fully acknowledging some people's ability to write them spectacularly:
- Time-travel. Idk, I just don't like the idea of people missing each other in such a fundamental way as being in different sections of the time stream. I don't like characters receiving dire warnings or sage advice from their future self. I also don't like future self/present self sex. Yawn.
- Apocalypse fic. I don't like the idea of world ending. Apocalypse was one of those things I was absolutely terrified as a child (growing up in 80s with constant talk of nuclear war and Tšernobyl happening relatively close with warnings of not to eat berries etc from the forests that summer and... yeah) so it's not a setting I want to read about. Though, like with many other darker fictional scenarios, I think I could actually write it quite happily. Lol it's like fictional switching that mirrors the other switching: I'll do things to others with glee that I will not have done to me *g* Double standards ftw!
- Crossovers where a character gets it on with the actor playing them. Like Dean/Jensen or even stuff like Gerard/Poison. Similar thing to the time-travel cliché of having sex with yourself. Oh, see also: clones and mirror universes. I just... I'd rather read a good traditional masturbation pwp to be honest. Adding a second (third?) person to the mix doesn't really help. Say Merlin's spell goes wrong and he ends up with a double and then Arthur goes 'By the Grail, we must have a threesome!'... Yeah, not doing it for me. It lacks the kind of tension or spark you have between to different people. Honestly, if I met my future self or my mirror universe double, I wouldn't be interested in having sex with myself. For real, we'd probably just drink tea and try to get twice as much work/writing done and divide up responsibilities because we are inherently lazy.
From dislikes to likes. Remember that Working Hard for the Money meme I pimped a few days ago. Well, I left quite a few prompts there and one of them even got filled \o/ I thought I'd put them here too in case some of you are desperately wondering what to write me for Christmas... *g* Seriously though, eternal gratitude to anyone who might get inspired:
Bandom, Patrick/Pete
Early days, the band need money to tour. Patrick makes it by selling his... nope, not his body. His voice. Because turns out that it's not just good for singing, but it's also extremely good for talking dirty on the phone sex line. Pete finds out. Inevitable ensues. - Filled here: That Pretty Mouth Say Such Dirty Words by the wonderful synnerxx
Psych, Gus/Shawn
Someone is attacking the ladies and gentlemen of the night in Santa Barbara. Only way for Shawn to get a good 'psychic reading' of the attacker is to go undercover as a companion for hire. Cue Shawn hanging on street corners in tank top and torn jeans. He is... surprisingly good at the role. Better than his excellent acting skills alone could account for. Gus starts thinking about all those years Shawn spent away and just how he made ends meets... Angst, confrontation, jealousy, some creep touching Shawn in bad places, bonus for Gus decking the guy flat out, happy endings :D
Bandom, Ryan/Spencer
When Ryan's dad finally kicks him out, Ryan is too proud to go asking for help from his best friend. In retrospect, he should've maybe swallowed his pride.
Merlin, Gwen/Morgana
Modern AU, Morgana's uni mates drag her onto a pub crawl that ends in a strip bar. Morgana is shocked to see her project partner Gwen on stage. Shocked and... well, kind of... unable to take her eyes off her.
Star Trek Reboot, Kirk/McCoy
Modern AU, BDSM, Kirk is good at going to his knees and begging and making his clients believe he means it. In truth he despises every guy who thinks himself a "Master Leather God" or some such nonsense, thinks himself to be a Dom and a real man for smacking him around. And yet... they're paying for it because they clearly can't get anyone to do it voluntarily. If he had a choice, Kirk wouldn't sub for any of these guys. Truth be told, he's not sure he'd sub for anyone... although sometimes he thinks maybe, with a right guy, it could be... sort of okay. Maybe with a guy like Dr McCoy, the sarcastic, grumpy ER doctor who's looked after Kirk on more than one occasion after the extras he charged his clients for were a little too much after all. My undying gratitude for anyone who would write this, seriously.
Sherlock, John/Sherlock
AUish, world where contracting yourself out as a sex slave for a pre-determined period of time is an accepted if not that respected way of making money. After John saves the lives of men in his regimen, they pass the hat around and buy him one hell of a thank you present: Sherlock Holmes at his exclusive service for six months. John appreciates the gesture, he really does. Sherlock is scary smart, funny (often unintentionally though) and seriously, seriously hot. And he can apparently suck cock really, really well. Better than John's ever had. Or so he tells him. Because, well, John kind of has... moral objections for actually having sex with anyone who's been paid to do it. It's going to be long six months. And at the end of it... well, who knows.
Right, enough rambling for today. I'm going to go wash dishes and put rubbish/recycling out now because these are the things that need doing. Then after that I'm going to sit down and do some icons, dammit.
***