opalmatrix | Dear Hurt/Comfort Author

Thank you very much for writing for me! Have my letter, compete at last:

The Fandoms, Characters, and Relationships

Black Lagoon

Dutch (Black Lagoon) & Rebecca "Revy" (hurt Dutch)
Dutch (Black Lagoon) & Rebecca "Revy" (hurt Revy)
Okajima "Rock" Rokuro/Rebecca "Revy" (hurt Revy)
Okajima "Rock" Rokuro/Rebecca "Revy" (hurt Rock)

With the Dutch & Revy prompts, i'm thinking of some sort of adventure from the early days, when they first were working together, or perhaps even the first time they met. When we first see the Lagoon Company, they have their routine down pretty well, but I bet that isn't how things were at the start. We know that Revy was working as a dominatrix at one of the sex clubs in Roanapur for a while. How did she start working with Dutch? I also have a hankering for a caper of some sort where they steal the PT boat: a mental picture of injured Dutch steering the thing out to sea and then Revy having to do her best to take over when he passes out.

With Revy and Rock, we have their slow burn: Rock trying not to worry about Revy, Revy wanting a "ritual of some kind" before they head into danger in the recent volume. The whole Stranded Behind Enemy Lines or a Tidal wave stranding them somewhere(..., er, possibly Behind Enemy Lines)would both be interesting starts to a hurt/comfort adventure.

Mugen no Juunin | Blade of the Immortal

Giichi/Hyakurin (both hurt)
Urara "Tanpopo" & Koto "Meguro" (Meguro hurt)
Urara "Tanpopo" & Koto "Meguro" (Tanpopo hurt)

Giichi and Hyakurin are both so horribly wounded. We see them together in the aftermath, with Giichi eking out. a living for them by making sandals, but I bet it was a tough road getting to that point. Give me their convalescence together: Giichi newly missing two limbs, Hyakurin pregnant by one of her rapists, and both of them no longer able to be the tough guys they were.

I love Tampopo and Meguro so much. It is so terribly rare to see women playing the "those two guys" comic roles.. And yet they are both formidable shinobi: Tanpopo able to dive deep into freezing water and be functional, plus her drawing ability (in an era with no cameras, she's a huge asset to a covert operation), and Meguro a good enough fighter to hold Shira at bay for quite a while. I'd love to see them on a mission that goes south, with one having to rescue and heal the other.

Saiyuki

Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo (hurt both)
Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo (hurt Gojyo)
Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo (hurt Hakkai)

There are My Guys, and I love them both, You could go for a canon off-screen scene (the aftermath of the Seiten Taisei/Youkai!Hakkai fight, for example), or a side adventure, or a post-Journey incident. Hakkai injured too much to heal Gojyo all the way is A Thing that I can appreciate, for the "both hurt." Otherwise, Hakkai caring for Gojyo always has at the back of his mind the fact that he couldn't save Kanan, while Gojyo caring for Hakkai has his abandonment problems.

Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh

Jurgen Graff/Signy Mallory (Graff hurt)
Jurgen Graff/Signy Mallory (Signy hurt)
Paul Dekker & Ben Pollard (Ben hurt)
Paul Dekker/Meg Kady (Dek hurt)
Paul Dekker/Meg Kady (Meg hurt)

Graff has such a deep need to help others, and he was screwed so royally by his superiors in Hellburner. I love that he ends up being something special to Signy in Downbelow Station, even though it's only described in a tossed-off line. Their post-Downbelow career as the Merchanters Alliance's only jump carrier provides all sorts of possibilities for injuries, rescues, and so on. Signy is definitely not someone who would well tolerate being cared for, and she also might be at sea if she ends up in the caregiver role, but she has fierce loyalty and sense of responsibility.

I love Meg and Dek as a couple. The fact that she's conscious of their age different, the fact that he doesn't care and finds her sexy as hell, the fact that he's a hotshot as a pilot and so clueless about almost everything else --- except, apparently, in bed. Given their lives as crew on a small fighter ship during a war, there are tons of possibilities for a hurt/comfort scenario.

I don't really see Dek and Ben as an item sexually, but they do have a special relationship. A special super-dysfunctional relationship ... as with Dek and Meg, the war offers a multitude of possibilities, and if course, I'd love it if they were forced to confront, in their own prickly ways, what they really mean to each other,<.p>

Cyteen Series - C. J. Cherryh

Catlin AC-7892 II/Ariane Emory II/Florian AF-9979 II (Ari hurt)
Catlin AC-7892 II/Ariane Emory II/Florian AF-9979 II (Catlin hurt)
Catlin AC-7892 II/Ariane Emory II/Florian AF-9979 II (Florian hurt)
Grant ALX-972/Justin Warrick (Grant hurt)
Grant ALX-972/Justin Warrick (Justin hurt)

I love Ari II and her two azi. Florian is actually my favorite out of the three of them, for his emotional intelligence, but I also have a soft spot for Catlin, the good soldier, so often out of her depth with flux states. You could go slightly AU with a disaster scene that never happened during the canon time period while they're still kids, or carry things forward a little from Regenesis.

Grant and Justin are just one huge ball of hurt/comfort. aren't they? It would be easy to create a side scene in canon for them, or, as above, you could carry the storyline forward a bit. The two of them are always a choice target for anyone hoping to get at Ari II.

Preferences

I Don't Like:

Sickly-sweet, coy, cutesy romantic stuff (anything in the "tee-hee-hee, is he looking at me?" category is definitely out)
Extensive use of epithets, or epithets that don't match the character POV (no one should think of his or her long-time lover as "the green-eyed man," for example): these will throw me right out of a story (for more about epithets, see this)
Characters acting out of character, especially if the purpose is to force them into a relationship (doubly bad if that relationship is romantic or sexual)
By-the-numbers, every-action-described sex (a/k/a Ikea Erotica - link goes to TVTropes). Note that actual sex is fine (I love me some sexy stories) — just don't like it when the descriptions turn into a set of exact stage directions.
Mpreg, rape, forced sex (including sex pollen and fuck-or-die), hatesex. Dubcon is OK, especially the sort when the reluctant partner really wants the other person but is just not quite feeling ready yet or doesn't think se wants it in this particular way but gets off on it anyway.
Humiliation or betrayal (without a damn good plot reason) of a character by a friend or lover
A/B/O and related kinks/tropes, incest (unless canon), scat/watersports/emetophilia, tentacles, non-human genitalia.

I Like:

Strong characterization (including character-appropriate dialog: no earthy, uneducated characters using $100 words)
Positive emotional payoffs that are well-earned
Passions that are strong without being mushy/fluffy
Moments of realization — satori
Friendships - although I am a romantic person, not every relationship must be romantic (I do like the trope of friends becoming lovers, however)
Wry and even dark humor in the course of a more serious story
And I like any of the following "cool bits":
- hurt-comfort (well, DUH!)
- being cozy indoors when it's rainy or snowing
- kissing the inside of the elbow or the base of the throat
- drops of water clinging to hair and/or skin
- leaning comfortably against a friend or lover; feeling them chuckle or speak
- whispered admissions of love or forgiveness
- brushing long hair or riffling fingers through short hair
- romantic partners who are both competent
- someone gradually waking and smiling when they realize their beloved is there
- a stronger partner submitting willingly to the desires of a weaker one
- water sounds: rain, a brook, waves
- family-of-choice, nakama, or True Companions
- cynics with secretly soft hearts
- In-jokes among family members or close friends
- shopping or planning scenes, where people are working together to pick things out

I'm quite content with both straight and gay relationships. I do tend to ship the canon relationships, unless it's a character who has had no clear relationships shown in the story. I'm not comfortable with sexual relationships shown in children under the age of, say, 14 or so, and even then it's better in context (teens with other teens or in a societal setting where girls expect to marry by 16-18 anyway).