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yuletide2019-11-02 09:19 am
primeideal) wrote in yuletide2019-11-02 09:19 am
Entry tags:
Crueltide (2019)
Credit to for_sorrow for the original post and macrocosmica for the dreamwidth port!
Not every story is pleasant. Not every story has a happy ending, and not all happy endings come without a dark and painful journey. And sometimes, those are the kinds of stories that we really, really want to read.
Why Crueltide?
Because darkfic isn't to everyone's taste. By making it easier to identify darkfic prompts and people open to receiving darkfic in yuletide, we can all indulge our preferences without placing undue pressure on our assigned writers or risking gifting unwelcome fics to our recipients. (And also: the name was the least cutesy of those being thrown around in 2014.)
What is darkfic?
Depends on your definition. But here's a (non-exhaustive) list of darker tropes to get you started:
(White text used as some content may be triggering to some - highlight to read.)
Addiction - Amputation - Animal Abuse - Apocalypse - Betrayal - Body Horror - Brainwashing - Cannibalism - Character Death - Child Abuse - Claustrophobia - Conspiracy - Degradation - Disease - Dystopia - Gaslighting - Hauntings - Humiliation - Hypothermia - Insanity - Invasion of Privacy - Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors - Medical Experimentation - Mind Control - Monsters - Murder - Mutilation - Non-Con - Paranoia - Poisoning - Prison - PTSD - Sadism - Slavery - Suicide - Torture - Unhappy Endings - Violence
Does a darkfic story have to have an unhappy ending/some other specific trope?
No! Not at all. Just because a story is packed with darkfic tropes doesn't mean there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
Also, just because you like one trope, it doesn't mean you like all of them. Feel free to specify your do-not-wants alongside your wants.
Great, how does it work?
-- If you end up writing a darkfic story, just tag it with Crueltide when you upload it to the collection, and that'll help readers find more of what they like. It would also be good to tag any particular tropes you've used, to help readers find/avoid them. That's all you need to do!
-- If you would like to receive a darkfic story in one of the fandoms you've requested in your yuletide sign-up, you can advertise that here by replying to this post. (The template below is merely a suggestion of what to include - the level of detail in prompts/tropes is entirely up to you. But please do limit yourself to fandoms on your Yuletide sign-up - the Yuletide mods need to be sure you get a fic in one of those, and a treat in an unexpected fandom could make that awkward. )
AO3: ao3 username
Letter: dear yuletide writer (URL)
Fandoms: fandom details here
Happy Endings Preferred?: yes/no/don't mind
Wanted tropes: list any of your favorite dark tropes, themes, or prompts here.
Unwanted tropes: list your darkfic do-not-wants here.
If you want to advertise your requested fandoms as being particularly dark and of potential interest to others, feel free to comment along those lines too.
Alternatively, if you only want your assigned writer to know what you're into, just make a mention of darkfic/crueltide in your optional details as part of your signup.
for_sorrow for the original post and macrocosmica for the dreamwidth port!Not every story is pleasant. Not every story has a happy ending, and not all happy endings come without a dark and painful journey. And sometimes, those are the kinds of stories that we really, really want to read.
If you're one of the many people interested in either writing or receiving darkfic, then Crueltide is here to devour your soul the Yuletide-extra for you!
The short version
- Read the comments to find people to treat with darkfic.
- Tag your yuletide darkfic with 'crueltide'
The long version is beneath the cut.
Why Crueltide?
Because darkfic isn't to everyone's taste. By making it easier to identify darkfic prompts and people open to receiving darkfic in yuletide, we can all indulge our preferences without placing undue pressure on our assigned writers or risking gifting unwelcome fics to our recipients. (And also: the name was the least cutesy of those being thrown around in 2014.)
What is darkfic?
Depends on your definition. But here's a (non-exhaustive) list of darker tropes to get you started:
(White text used as some content may be triggering to some - highlight to read.)
Addiction - Amputation - Animal Abuse - Apocalypse - Betrayal - Body Horror - Brainwashing - Cannibalism - Character Death - Child Abuse - Claustrophobia - Conspiracy - Degradation - Disease - Dystopia - Gaslighting - Hauntings - Humiliation - Hypothermia - Insanity - Invasion of Privacy - Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors - Medical Experimentation - Mind Control - Monsters - Murder - Mutilation - Non-Con - Paranoia - Poisoning - Prison - PTSD - Sadism - Slavery - Suicide - Torture - Unhappy Endings - Violence
Does a darkfic story have to have an unhappy ending/some other specific trope?
No! Not at all. Just because a story is packed with darkfic tropes doesn't mean there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
Also, just because you like one trope, it doesn't mean you like all of them. Feel free to specify your do-not-wants alongside your wants.
Great, how does it work?
-- If you end up writing a darkfic story, just tag it with Crueltide when you upload it to the collection, and that'll help readers find more of what they like. It would also be good to tag any particular tropes you've used, to help readers find/avoid them. That's all you need to do!
-- If you would like to receive a darkfic story in one of the fandoms you've requested in your yuletide sign-up, you can advertise that here by replying to this post. (The template below is merely a suggestion of what to include - the level of detail in prompts/tropes is entirely up to you. But please do limit yourself to fandoms on your Yuletide sign-up - the Yuletide mods need to be sure you get a fic in one of those, and a treat in an unexpected fandom could make that awkward. )
AO3: ao3 username
Letter: dear yuletide writer (URL)
Fandoms: fandom details here
Happy Endings Preferred?: yes/no/don't mind
Wanted tropes: list any of your favorite dark tropes, themes, or prompts here.
Unwanted tropes: list your darkfic do-not-wants here.
If you want to advertise your requested fandoms as being particularly dark and of potential interest to others, feel free to comment along those lines too.
Alternatively, if you only want your assigned writer to know what you're into, just make a mention of darkfic/crueltide in your optional details as part of your signup.
no subject
Letter Link: here!
Fandoms: Oblivion (2013), Collateral (2004), Under Siege (1992)
Happy Endings Preferred? yes! Bittersweet is also good, as long as there's hope.
Wanted tropes:
• Character studies, exploration of canon character dynamics, fallout of canon trauma
• Hurt/comfort of all stripes - sickfic, injuries, emotional h/c, all of it
• Messed-up subs and doms who fail them or push them a little too far
• PTSD, illness messing with a character's grip on reality, combat/mission injuries, scars, old injuries acting up, touch starvation, sensory deprivation / sensory overload, characters not believing they deserve comfort or being surprised to receive comfort, hurting characters choking up at moments when they really need to speak (eg. leader unable to tell their worried team they're fine, submissive unable to safeword), stoic characters breaking down when faced with comfort, subdrop, characters so used to going through hell alone that they can't wrap their heads around someone wanting to help, recovery from abuse, characters leaving abusive relationships needing to be convinced the abuse was real
• Hand/wrist kink, suit/uniform kink, honour bondage, praise kink, aftercare, subdrop and recovery
• Hickeys/marking with lips or teeth
• Careful sex/making out when one partner is hurt or ill and feverish
Oblivion - gen, Jack 49/Vika 49 (Vika is canonically at least somewhat abusive), Jack 49/Any other Jack (hopefully a happier and more equal relationship than Jack/Vika)
- noncon with Vika as the aggressor, exploration of Jack's suffering at the hands of Vika's emotional abuse and sexual coercion (rambling and prompts here at my Yuletide letter and here at my Consent Issues letter); Jack 49 surviving blowing up the Tet and having to learn how to live afterwards, having to deal with figuring out how he's different from Commander Harper, maybe having to live with permanent injury; exploration of clone issues and identity issues; unrelenting hurt/eventual comfort
Collateral - gen, Vincent/Max
- rough D/s with Vincent as deeply messed-up, masochistic power sub; Vincent's life refusing to let him catch a break before he became a hitman (his time in the army, foster homes, abusive father); scars; stitching up wounds alone; physical injuries; fevers and hallucinations; self-harm in all its forms; suicidal ideation; pain kink and pain play; enthusiastic consent to dangerous kinks; forced to admit to past abuse
- (more prompts here at my Yuletide letter)
Under Siege - gen, Strannix/Krill
- Strannix's past as a CIA assassin; their shared past serving in Vietnam; military kink; wounds and wound-tending; mutual drunk sex or sex on acid; PTSD and related anger/vindictiveness/channeling pain into Delighted Villainy
- (more prompts here at my Yuletide letter)
Unwanted tropes: Bleak, hopeless endings (as long as there's hope, bittersweet endings are more than fine); death of requested characters; gore; infected wounds; terminal illness; gastrointestinal illness (nausea/vomiting is okay but not as a result of GI illness); pregnancy, menstruation; infidelity
Sexual DNWs: noncon or humiliation kink in any fandom except Oblivion; anal, dirty talk, spanking, ageplay, scat, watersports, rimming, emeto, A/B/O, d/s-verse, mommy/daddy kink