Snowflake Challenge - Day 14

[dizzojay]

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? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
 


For this challenge, I’m going to write about Hurt/Comfort. 

I’ve no idea why I love H/C, but I do, and I always have, even before I knew fanfiction existed.  I love the idea of a strong, independent person becoming vulnerable, hopefully temporarily because I'm a sucker for happy endings - and being forced to accept help and sympathy.  In a way, this can apply to the comforter too, where the comforter maybe someone who is not used to being tactile or nurturing in the usual course of their lives - for instance, someone like Castiel.

There doesn’t have to be a point to all this; I’m not bothered if the story doesn’t lead to any significant character growth or development.  I simply want to immerse myself in the mood and mental images of the strife and suffering of the victim and the caring and nurturing of the comforter.  It's chocolate cake for my soul!

As I am  only active in the Supernatural fandom, for me, H/C has to be Dean-centric, or in terms of RPF, Jensen-centric, as he is generally regarded as the more stoic partner in J2.  That also applies to any story where Dean or Jensen's facade of strength is broken, and an inner vulnerability is exposed, whether it  be physical, like an illness or a weakness, or psychological, like low self-esteem or shyness, it all works for me!

I believe touch and closeness is an enormous part of the human bonding experience.  I'm very tactile, and an enthusiastic hugger (and huggee!) so for me, to experience that closeness as an onlooker is every bit as satisfying.  That touch doesn’t have to be sexual, it can be completely platonic but a well-written H/C that ramps up the hurt and manages to tread the line of helplessness and vulnerability without crossing over into melodrama can grab me on such an intense and sub-conscious level, that it can literally leave me breathless.

I'm happy to read H/C which is both gen and slash, but for me in a slash H/C, the sex, however well it's written, is completely incidental to the hurt/comfort element of the story.

Comments

[kingstoken]

What a good summary of the what makes h/c so attractive. I will also admit to having a soft spot for characters that don't really know how to give comfort, but they really want to try.

[vaysh]

I love the idea of a strong, independent person becoming vulnerable, ... and being forced to accept help and sympathy. That's a great description of an aspect of hurt/comfort that is not that even discussed. I love hurt/comfort as well, long before I knew there was such a thing as fanfiction. It was great to discover that other people share this love of h/c.

[perspi]

Oh, YES -- good hurt/comfort is just perfection. (And come to think of it, I and my coauthors of BlackCigarette have written more than a hundred thousand words and they're all pretty much H/C. :D)

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I am right there with you! I'm a sucker for hurt!Dean and you always write him so well!

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Aw thank you, same goes to you. 'The Sun Rose in His Eyes' is a permanent fixture on my kindle!

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

That's lovely to know, and that one has a real soft spot for me - I've thought about an epilogue or a sequel so many times!