Headers for multi-pairing fic
I have really failed at birthdays lately, so here goes: happy belated birthday to la_dissonance, happy birthday today to westernredcedar, and happy birthday tomorrow to klynie1 (whom I haven't seen around lately -- hope all is well :-/).
So I have a question for all the readers and writers out there. When you have a fic in which one or more of the main characters are involved in multiple pairings, how do you prefer to have those pairings listed in the header?
To clarify, I'm not talking about stuff like background Harry/Ginny in a primarily Ron/Draco fic; I think most of us would agree that you'd list Ron/Draco first in that header. But I'm talking about, say, a long fic where Ron starts out with Hermione, and then takes a detour to discover his gayness with Seamus, and finally ends up with Draco (who meanwhile was canoodling with Blaise all along while he waited for Ron to figure out what the hell he wanted).
In this sort of circumstance, would you still list Ron/Draco first because that's the end result and therefore the most important? Or would you list the pairings in the order they appear in the fic?
Would your answer be different depending on how each pairing were handled in the fic? (I.e., if each one gets a lot of screen time and, I don't know, a massive sex scene, then maybe they're listed in order because they're all important...but if they're just little mentions they go last because they're sort of "background" pairings like the Harry/Ginny is in my example above.) Would your answer be different depending on something else?
I have fairly strong feelings about this myself as a reader, but I'm interested to see what the rest of you think. :-)
So I have a question for all the readers and writers out there. When you have a fic in which one or more of the main characters are involved in multiple pairings, how do you prefer to have those pairings listed in the header?
To clarify, I'm not talking about stuff like background Harry/Ginny in a primarily Ron/Draco fic; I think most of us would agree that you'd list Ron/Draco first in that header. But I'm talking about, say, a long fic where Ron starts out with Hermione, and then takes a detour to discover his gayness with Seamus, and finally ends up with Draco (who meanwhile was canoodling with Blaise all along while he waited for Ron to figure out what the hell he wanted).
In this sort of circumstance, would you still list Ron/Draco first because that's the end result and therefore the most important? Or would you list the pairings in the order they appear in the fic?
Would your answer be different depending on how each pairing were handled in the fic? (I.e., if each one gets a lot of screen time and, I don't know, a massive sex scene, then maybe they're listed in order because they're all important...but if they're just little mentions they go last because they're sort of "background" pairings like the Harry/Ginny is in my example above.) Would your answer be different depending on something else?
I have fairly strong feelings about this myself as a reader, but I'm interested to see what the rest of you think. :-)