Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 14
Challenge #14
In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (Or a few!) What makes it particularly appealing for you? What do you like in fanworks featuring that trope?
I gotta say, after ~20 years of reading the same tropes in fic, my very favourite thing these days is old tropes done in new/unusual ways. A/B/O where the omega is the one who has power over the alpha? Slavefic where the owner is reluctant and actually wants slavery to be abolished? Soulmate fic where they fall in love before they even realize they are soulmate? Poly soulmate/soulmark fic (I just read my first poly soulmark fic recently and gosh I loved it)? Whatever it is, I am so very excited every time I find a po popular trope with a twist.
There are, of course, also some tropes and kinks that are my forever tropes and kinks...
The canonically powerful/in charge/whatever character as the sub/bottom
This really is one of my biggest kinks. It's a slightly frustrating one to have too, because in 99% of fandoms this will be the character almost everyone writes as the Dom/top. But I just love reading about characters who are always in control being broken and put back together. What does it take to make them beg? And really just the sheer intimacy of trusting their partner(s) enough to let go of all pretense of control with them. (What a rush it is for the partner who gets to be the one to take them apart. How big a responsibility it is.) This ties in nicely with one of my other big ones...
Soft Doms
In particular, I really, really love the combination canonically powerful character who submits to a really soft/gentle Dom. I love when it's gentleness, not pain (although I don't mind if there's pain, too) that takes the sub apart. I love Doms who are confident and competent but also gentle and caring. I feel like there's a perpetual lack of gently Doms in fic (idk if that is just because I crave it all the time, or if there is a common misconception that Doms have to be rough all the time). Oh and I also love...
Praise Kink
Are we starting to see a pattern here? (Give me all the kink with feelings, please.) In particular I really love praise kink in conjunction with kinks heavy on humiliation or/and pain. I don't care that much about humiliation/pain in itself, but tell that sub how pretty they are when they cry and I will be all in. :3
Aftercare
I've mentioned this once already this year, so I shan't dwell. But it ties in with the other ones so let me just me just mention it again lol.
Femdom
Most of my fandoms don't have any big m/f or f/f ships, so I don't see (or write) anywhere near as much of this as I'd like, but I do love femdom.
OT3/Poly
If there's a possible OT3 ship in canon, chances are I ship it. My forever OT3 is Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey, but there are quite a few others I ship to some degree.
Slavefic
This one I'm more picky with, since slavefic will always have inherent consent issues, and I am not a fan of noncon involving any of my pairings. But like I mentioned earlier, I really enjoy fic in which the owner is reluctant/caring/actually against slavery. In particular I really like when the trope takes the turn of formerly abused slave slowly learning to trust and actually kind owner. (I love Hurt/Comfort in general, and this trope just lends itself so well to that.) Luckily this isn't too uncommon a take in slavefic. Every time I talk about slavefic and caring masters I think about maculategiraffe's The Slave Breakers series, and my random favourite scene, which is where Jesse observes this moment between Holden and Bran:
Holden cut a bite-sized piece from his omelette with a fork, then used the fork to delicately dissect the piece before lifting it to Bran's lips. He repeated the operation twice before Jesse realized he was removing the mushrooms from the omelette's filling before feeding it to Bran, and that Bran was looking at Holden with wide, startled eyes.
"You don't like mushrooms," Holden said softly to him, touching another bite to Bran's lips; Bran opened his mouth automatically, still staring at his master. Jesse blinked at both of them, somehow less able to absorb this tiny,mundane gesture than the myriad other shocks his expectations had received over the past three days.
It was certainly conceivable-- he thought-- that a well-nourished slave who routinely ate at the same table with his owners would grow confident enough about food to develop preferences, likes and dislikes. But Jesse couldn't imagine Bran picking over anything he was served. Holden was a trainer who wouldn't encourage young slaves in a dangerous habit like fussy eating,and in any case Bran would surely be horrified at the idea of such ingratitude as a refusal to eat anything his master was pleased to give him. He might privately dislike mushrooms, but Jesse would have bet his own life Bran would eat them cheerfully. Yet somehow Holden had observed the preference, and was taking the trouble to indulge it as he fed Bran.
There are so many scenes in this series that I love, but there's something so understated in this gesture that just makes me super emotional every time I think about it.
Oh and I cannot forget to mention my absolute favourite ship dynamic:
The absolutely soft, bubbly character who somehow weasles their way into the heart of the closed-off loner.
Is it any surprise my latest obsession is Geralt and Jaskier? No it is not. Not even a little bit. (By the way, going back to the first kink I listed, Geralt totally bottoms.)