kubernetes (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kubernetes_writes) wrote2025-02-17 10:53 am
kubernetes_writes) wrote2025-02-17 10:53 am
Hurt/Comfort Exchange 2025 Letter
Dear Author,
Hello! I'm kubernetes on AO3. Congratulations on your great taste re: whatever fandom(s) we ended up matching on, and thank you for taking the time to write for me!
While I’ve included prompts for each fandom in case they're helpful, please don’t feel constrained to them if they aren’t working for you, or if some other plotbunny really inspires you; I am a genuine believer in Optional Details Being Optional and will be very excited to read whatever you come up with. TBH hurt/comfort is my favorite trope and I'm just happy to be here. And while some of my requests are longer/shorter than others, I want to stress that I love all of these fandoms equally — everything I've requested is here because it's something I'd love to receive!
Major spoilers below for all of my requested fandoms. Also: I love treats!
Quick fandom navigation links:
Disco Elysium | Harry/Kim (hurt Kim)
Original Work | Shapeshifter learning to be human/retired general learning to live again (F/F) (hurt both)
There Is No Antimemetics Division | Marion & None, Marion/Adam (hurt Marion)
The Half-Life of Valery K | Valery/Shenkov (either or both hurt)
Some hurt/comfort likes:
A few character archetypes I tend to enjoy (that seem to be a common theme throughout my requests):
Disco Elysium
DNW: AUs other than canon-divergence (i.e. I DNW setting-change AUs and DNW trope AUs such as soulmates, hanahaki, etc); crossovers; explicit on-page sex (fade-to-black and the like is fine!); pregnancy; Disco Elysium-style text formatting, i.e. prose formatted like a video game dialogue system, from Kim’s POV (from Harry’s POV is fine!)
TINAD
Hello! I'm kubernetes on AO3. Congratulations on your great taste re: whatever fandom(s) we ended up matching on, and thank you for taking the time to write for me!
While I’ve included prompts for each fandom in case they're helpful, please don’t feel constrained to them if they aren’t working for you, or if some other plotbunny really inspires you; I am a genuine believer in Optional Details Being Optional and will be very excited to read whatever you come up with. TBH hurt/comfort is my favorite trope and I'm just happy to be here. And while some of my requests are longer/shorter than others, I want to stress that I love all of these fandoms equally — everything I've requested is here because it's something I'd love to receive!
Major spoilers below for all of my requested fandoms. Also: I love treats!
Quick fandom navigation links:
Disco Elysium | Harry/Kim (hurt Kim)
Original Work | Shapeshifter learning to be human/retired general learning to live again (F/F) (hurt both)
There Is No Antimemetics Division | Marion & None, Marion/Adam (hurt Marion)
The Half-Life of Valery K | Valery/Shenkov (either or both hurt)
Some hurt/comfort likes:
A few character archetypes I tend to enjoy (that seem to be a common theme throughout my requests):
- control freaks struggling with the loss of control caused by whump/recovery
- stoic emotionally-repressed types approaching their breaking point
- hypercompetent badasses getting fucked up and still being hypercompetent badasses
- well-put-together characters showing cracks in their polished facade
- independent characters who don't know how to be taken care of
- Altered mental states: hallucinations, delirium, intoxication, induced fear, sensory overload / deprivation, PTSD, paranoia, memory alteration, mental breakdown, etc. Not being able to trust your own mind or body, and the angst caused by that lack of trust extending to the hurt character's partner, and/or the catharsis of their partner being the one thing they're still able to trust despite it all.
- Caretaking / convalescence / trauma recovery (love characters being taken care of. Needing help with basic stuff; bed rest; being able to get by on their own & realizing they don’t have to; being out of the woods but still weak & exhausted & reliant on the care of others; grinning & bearing increasing awfulness until the adrenaline suddenly runs out…)
- Learning to live in the aftermath: stories about people rebuilding physically, spiritually, and emotionally (and maybe getting messy and codependent about it along the way)
- Characters who dissociate, compartmentalize, or who just have poor interoception - figuring out exactly what's wrong is complicated when they feel emotionally and/or physically disconnected from their body
- "Post-victory collapse" (with "victory" defined very loosely - character has Serious Business to attend to & puts off the big collapse/breakdown/what have you until it's done, or until they're alone/with just their partner, at which point said big collapse/breakdown happens promptly and dramatically)
- That thing where a character needs help sitting up and drinking/taking meds/whatever
- Exhausted burned-out characters getting to (/being forced to) rest and take a break for once in their lives
- Acts of service (whether between acquaintances, friends, family, or lovers)
- Allusions (historical, literary, science, tech)
- Canon-divergence AUs (whether they make things better for the characters, much worse, or just weirder)
- Casefic / missionfic / “monster-of-the-week” / “day-in-the-life”
- Character / relationship studies
- Competence porn
- Consequences of actions and choices
- Domesticity
- Dramatic irony / foreshadowing of future events in canon / subtle gut-punch moments
- Dysfunctional / messy / codependent / unhealthy relationships (platonic & romantic)
- Established relationship
- Engineering & systems, especially the kind that keep things running behind the scenes: maintenance, security, logistics, fault analysis, infrastructure design, etc
- Fic that Gets Weird With It (if you’re ever worrying “is this fic concept too weird?”: the answer is no)
- Horror (psychological horror, cosmic horror, body horror - all the horror!)
- Humor / black comedy
- Neurodivergence headcanons (demonstrated implicitly via the way characters think/act, rather than explicitly stated)
- Nonsexual intimacy
- Organizational politics & bureaucracy
- People using logic to deal with a situation / investigate a problem
- Psychological mind games
- Secrets: keeping them, letting them slip, trying to figure them out
- The subtle, building realization that something is terribly wrong
- Unreliable narrators
- Worldbuilding
I’m perfectly fine with darkfic, graphic violence / gore, ambiguous / bittersweet / unhappy endings, etc. (Although, given the theme of this exchange, unless you're writing for a "& None" relationship I would like there to be at least some comfort happening!)
[ back to top ]Disco Elysium
Harry du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi (hurt Kim)
Character trying to hold it together is clearly fraying at the edges
Hurt/Comfort During A Case/Mission
Hurt/sick A trusts B to drive them home in A's car; B knows it's a big deal to A
Independent character being taken care of for once
adrenaline crash
Aftermath of Solitary Confinement
Altered States - Drugged Into A State Of Confusion and Fear
unravelling timeline
Fear of loss of control
Character Reassured They Are Allowed To Rest
Stoic character only lets themself be looked after when alone with partner
Character A Gets Head Injury; B Cares For Them During Concussion/TBI Recovery
This fandom is small; I consent to any hurt/comfort scenario you think I'd like
Disco Elyisum is an urban fantasy noir RPG (playthrough time approx. 20 hours) available for purchase on Steam.
Kim! What a guy. I love how he’s the “stoic snarky straight man who’s secretly a giant lovable weirdo” foil to Harry’s “outright giant lovable weirdo”, how he’s spent his life trying to do what’s right within a corrupt system that resists him at every turn, his hypercompetence and his hyperprofessionalism and his love of ritual and routine that all really stem from a deep-seated fear of not being in control. Which is why I just think it's neat seeing him unravel when he's not in control :) and of course Harry emotionally can-opening him, being somehow both eerily good and hilariously bad at being his rock to lean against, and you can’t even hold the “hilariously bad” against him with how earnestly he’s trying his best in his own strange way.
While I tend to go for post-canon established-relationship fics with these two, really anything you come up with will delight me here. Whumpy hurt/comfort during a case, or in the aftermath of a case, or on just another day at the station, might be fun. Or something about them dealing with the fallout of Le Retour, or the Pale (the slow breakdown of memory and reality does not sound like a particularly fun thing to experience, but it does sound like a deliciously whumpy thing to read about!)Selected freeforms under cut
BAMF character A is hurt/sick and is still a BAMF; character B provides comfort anywayCharacter trying to hold it together is clearly fraying at the edges
Hurt/Comfort During A Case/Mission
Hurt/sick A trusts B to drive them home in A's car; B knows it's a big deal to A
Independent character being taken care of for once
adrenaline crash
Aftermath of Solitary Confinement
Altered States - Drugged Into A State Of Confusion and Fear
unravelling timeline
Fear of loss of control
Character Reassured They Are Allowed To Rest
Stoic character only lets themself be looked after when alone with partner
Character A Gets Head Injury; B Cares For Them During Concussion/TBI Recovery
This fandom is small; I consent to any hurt/comfort scenario you think I'd like
Disco Elyisum is an urban fantasy noir RPG (playthrough time approx. 20 hours) available for purchase on Steam.
Kim! What a guy. I love how he’s the “stoic snarky straight man who’s secretly a giant lovable weirdo” foil to Harry’s “outright giant lovable weirdo”, how he’s spent his life trying to do what’s right within a corrupt system that resists him at every turn, his hypercompetence and his hyperprofessionalism and his love of ritual and routine that all really stem from a deep-seated fear of not being in control. Which is why I just think it's neat seeing him unravel when he's not in control :) and of course Harry emotionally can-opening him, being somehow both eerily good and hilariously bad at being his rock to lean against, and you can’t even hold the “hilariously bad” against him with how earnestly he’s trying his best in his own strange way.
DNW: AUs other than canon-divergence (i.e. I DNW setting-change AUs and DNW trope AUs such as soulmates, hanahaki, etc); crossovers; explicit on-page sex (fade-to-black and the like is fine!); pregnancy; Disco Elysium-style text formatting, i.e. prose formatted like a video game dialogue system, from Kim’s POV (from Harry’s POV is fine!)
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Original Work
I’m imagining some sort of sci-fi-adjacent military milieu here (although feel free to interpret “general” loosely — maybe they were involved with some sort of black ops intelligence bureau, or Men in Black/SCP style paramilitary agency?) And I think I'm most interested in there being some sort of established dynamic between these two. What sort of horror are they dealing with the aftermath of, and how has it changed them? (Perhaps it has trauma-bonded them at the hip?)
DNW: Crossovers; explicit on-page sex (fade-to-black and the like is fine!); pregnancy.
[ back to top ]Shapeshifter learning to be human/retired general learning to live again (F/F) (hurt both)
Aftermath of Torture - Long Recovery
aftermath of war
Character A is used to following orders; Character B comforts them through learning not to
Character experiences burnout
Character pushes their body past the breaking point to win; now has to deal with broken body
Characters survive dangerous situation together; no longer know how to function separately
Created as a weapon and then learning to be a person
Character who's been stressed for a long time finally gets chance to relax and falls very ill
A helps B through war-related PTSD
Highly competent traumatized character loses ability to function after additional trauma
Human Experimentation
Older Character is Comforted After Lifetime of Trauma
Post-saving the world breakdown
Recovery from Long-Term Dehumanization
Slow recovery from life changing injury
Slow recovery from major illness with multiple relapses
Spy/secret agent gets hung out to dry
Stoic character breaks down
Weakened character needs help with basic tasks (eating/bathing/using bathroom/etc.)
Recovering from Shared Trauma that Bonded Characters Codependently and Changed Them Permanently
I saw this in the tagset after signups began and I didn't know until now just how badly I needed this in my life. (Great taste, nominator, whoever you are!)
I love recovery plots (see the "learning to live in the aftermath, and maybe getting messy and codependent about it along the way" bit of my likes section). I love weird scifi settings. And these are two character archetypes I will never not be obsessed with: the chameleon who's worn so many faces to survive that she’s forgotten who she really is beneath all of the masks (aside from a weapon to be used), and the hypercompetent stoic badass who’s spent so long acting perfectly composed under immense pressure, only to start unraveling when that pressure suddenly disappears and she realizes it was the one thing that's been holding her together. Anyways I just think they should kiss.
Selected freeforms under cut
aftermath of war
Character A is used to following orders; Character B comforts them through learning not to
Character experiences burnout
Character pushes their body past the breaking point to win; now has to deal with broken body
Characters survive dangerous situation together; no longer know how to function separately
Created as a weapon and then learning to be a person
Character who's been stressed for a long time finally gets chance to relax and falls very ill
A helps B through war-related PTSD
Highly competent traumatized character loses ability to function after additional trauma
Human Experimentation
Older Character is Comforted After Lifetime of Trauma
Post-saving the world breakdown
Recovery from Long-Term Dehumanization
Slow recovery from life changing injury
Slow recovery from major illness with multiple relapses
Spy/secret agent gets hung out to dry
Stoic character breaks down
Weakened character needs help with basic tasks (eating/bathing/using bathroom/etc.)
Recovering from Shared Trauma that Bonded Characters Codependently and Changed Them Permanently
I saw this in the tagset after signups began and I didn't know until now just how badly I needed this in my life. (Great taste, nominator, whoever you are!)
I love recovery plots (see the "learning to live in the aftermath, and maybe getting messy and codependent about it along the way" bit of my likes section). I love weird scifi settings. And these are two character archetypes I will never not be obsessed with: the chameleon who's worn so many faces to survive that she’s forgotten who she really is beneath all of the masks (aside from a weapon to be used), and the hypercompetent stoic badass who’s spent so long acting perfectly composed under immense pressure, only to start unraveling when that pressure suddenly disappears and she realizes it was the one thing that's been holding her together. Anyways I just think they should kiss.
I’m imagining some sort of sci-fi-adjacent military milieu here (although feel free to interpret “general” loosely — maybe they were involved with some sort of black ops intelligence bureau, or Men in Black/SCP style paramilitary agency?) And I think I'm most interested in there being some sort of established dynamic between these two. What sort of horror are they dealing with the aftermath of, and how has it changed them? (Perhaps it has trauma-bonded them at the hip?)
Marion Wheeler & None (hurt Marion)
Marion Wheeler/Adam Wheeler (hurt Marion)
Altered States - Overdose
Amnesia - character forgets the trauma they went through; the physical/psychological effects remain
Amnesia - subconsciously missing a loved one you don't remember
caretaking in small but obvious ways
Character goes looking for answers; it's a mistake
Character Is Exhausted From Overworking Themself
Character pushes their body past the breaking point to win; now has to deal with broken body
Ghosts still feeling their illnesses/injuries even after death
Memory Loss - A tries to help B as their memory slowly gets worse
Surviving Canon Death with Nonetheless Life-Altering Consequences and Injuries
too important to be ill
Trauma Nightmares
boss hurt in front of subordinates
Stoic character only lets themself be looked after when alone with partner
Snarky comfort
Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Character A picks Character B up from hospital
This fandom is small; I consent to any hurt/comfort scenario you think I'd like
There Is No Antimemetics Division is a sci-fi/cosmic horror web serial novel (approx. 70k words), available for free online here. I wrote up a Yuletide promo for this canon here.
I adore "blunt, hypercompetent, traumatized, constantly calculating, ungodly-amounts-of-caffeine-and-tobacco-consuming science hero suffers more than Jesus" types in general, and making her a middle-aged woman is a surefire way to have me banging down your door. I love Marion's thought process as she’s triaging a situation or working through a difficult decision, and how she’s stoic and caustic and kind of weird and also a brilliant, respected leader who cares deeply about her people, and I’m kind of insane about her marriage?
She's dealing with so much horrible shit at all times and this isn't a book that’s particularly interested in dwelling on it, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when it casually drops some detail of how awful her life is and then unceremoniously moves on. (Like, of course she’s slowly losing her memories of everything and everyone she’s ever loved. Of course she’s destroyed her body with toxic drugs to buy everyone a little more time. Of course she barely sleeps or takes care of herself between the constant nightmares and being on call 24/7. Of course she spent two years reliving her own death on loop. NBD.) And so I’d love something that explores the physical/emotional ramifications of all the trauma she goes through - and her general tendency to work herself into the ground - further than canon does. God could she use a hug and/or a vacation and/or a 15 hour nap.
Marion Wheeler/Adam Wheeler (hurt Marion)
Selected freeforms under cut
Aftermath & Comfort For Canon HurtAltered States - Overdose
Amnesia - character forgets the trauma they went through; the physical/psychological effects remain
Amnesia - subconsciously missing a loved one you don't remember
caretaking in small but obvious ways
Character goes looking for answers; it's a mistake
Character Is Exhausted From Overworking Themself
Character pushes their body past the breaking point to win; now has to deal with broken body
Ghosts still feeling their illnesses/injuries even after death
Memory Loss - A tries to help B as their memory slowly gets worse
Surviving Canon Death with Nonetheless Life-Altering Consequences and Injuries
too important to be ill
Trauma Nightmares
boss hurt in front of subordinates
Stoic character only lets themself be looked after when alone with partner
Snarky comfort
Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Character A picks Character B up from hospital
This fandom is small; I consent to any hurt/comfort scenario you think I'd like
There Is No Antimemetics Division is a sci-fi/cosmic horror web serial novel (approx. 70k words), available for free online here. I wrote up a Yuletide promo for this canon here.
I adore "blunt, hypercompetent, traumatized, constantly calculating, ungodly-amounts-of-caffeine-and-tobacco-consuming science hero suffers more than Jesus" types in general, and making her a middle-aged woman is a surefire way to have me banging down your door. I love Marion's thought process as she’s triaging a situation or working through a difficult decision, and how she’s stoic and caustic and kind of weird and also a brilliant, respected leader who cares deeply about her people, and I’m kind of insane about her marriage?
She's dealing with so much horrible shit at all times and this isn't a book that’s particularly interested in dwelling on it, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when it casually drops some detail of how awful her life is and then unceremoniously moves on. (Like, of course she’s slowly losing her memories of everything and everyone she’s ever loved. Of course she’s destroyed her body with toxic drugs to buy everyone a little more time. Of course she barely sleeps or takes care of herself between the constant nightmares and being on call 24/7. Of course she spent two years reliving her own death on loop. NBD.) And so I’d love something that explores the physical/emotional ramifications of all the trauma she goes through - and her general tendency to work herself into the ground - further than canon does. God could she use a hug and/or a vacation and/or a 15 hour nap.
- "When you come home, on the nights you make it home, you are ready to fold up. It has never been an easy job, but these past few years have been the worst they've ever been. (…) I can tell, from the… rattle in your hands and the things you don't say, and the way you sleep, that there is some kind of war going on back here. And you're losing people to it. And you're almost at the end. And you're going to win. So I scramble your eggs, and I play the violin for you, and between us we hack out about three-tenths of what I would consider to be normalcy. Not because you can't do this without me, you could take the whole universe by yourself if you really had to, but: to blazes with that, you don't have to." <—— that. that’s the prompt
- How did she first discover 4987, and how does having to manage it impact her life?
- What is it like to somehow survive a Class-Z mnestic? If she'd survived through the end of the war, what would she have done in the aftermath?
- TBH I will be very into any sort of canon-compliant whumpy casefic/missing scene/character study/etc that you can think of. (Or canon divergence/fix it AU!) Go wild.
DNW: AUs other than canon-divergence (i.e. I DNW setting-change AUs and DNW trope AUs such as soulmates, hanahaki, etc); crossovers; explicit on-page sex (fade-to-black and the like is fine!); pregnancy.
[ back to top ]
Valery K
DNW: AUs other than canon-divergence (i.e. I DNW setting-change AUs and DNW trope AUs such as soulmates, hanahaki, etc); crossovers; explicit on-page sex (fade-to-black and the like is fine!); pregnancy; Anna or her kids explicitly dying.
[ back to top ]
Valery K
Valery Kolkhanov/Konstantin Shenkov (hurt Valery)
Valery Kolkhanov/Konstantin Shenkov (hurt Shenkov)
Valery Kolkhanov/Konstantin Shenkov (hurt both)
Characters survive dangerous situation together; no longer know how to function separately
Characters live together while one recovers from hurt
Comfort focusing on little hurt because the big hurt is massive and unapproachable
Radiation Sickness
Recovering from Shared Trauma that Bonded Characters Codependently and Changed Them Permanently
This fandom is small; I consent to any hurt/comfort scenario you think I'd like
The Half Life of Valery K is a historical Cold War-era LGBT thriller (approx. 110k words).
Some things I love about this book: Science used to build tension and suspense, and brilliant characters who succeed by The Martian-style “sciencing the shit out of this”. Realistic depictions of trauma and the complicated ways it expresses itself. Intimacy and small kindnesses and mutual caretaking between people who’ve done awful things to survive, in the face of dystopian power structures and immense tragedy. Our good friend Albert the octopus. And of course all of the whump.
I’d love to read something set during Valery and Shenkov’s life in witness protection in Durham post-canon, recovering from everything they’ve been through and figuring out a way to move forward. Do Anna and the kids make it to England, and how does that change Valery and Shenkov’s relationship (or not, as the case may be)? Or some canon-compliant moments of quiet hurt/comfort-y domesticity from when Valery was living in Shenkov's apartment. Or maybe even a canon-divergence AU where Valery and Shenkov are reunited at the embassy and leave for England together?
Valery Kolkhanov/Konstantin Shenkov (hurt Shenkov)
Valery Kolkhanov/Konstantin Shenkov (hurt both)
Selected freeforms under cut
Aftermath & Comfort For Canon HurtCharacters survive dangerous situation together; no longer know how to function separately
Characters live together while one recovers from hurt
Comfort focusing on little hurt because the big hurt is massive and unapproachable
Radiation Sickness
Recovering from Shared Trauma that Bonded Characters Codependently and Changed Them Permanently
This fandom is small; I consent to any hurt/comfort scenario you think I'd like
The Half Life of Valery K is a historical Cold War-era LGBT thriller (approx. 110k words).
Some things I love about this book: Science used to build tension and suspense, and brilliant characters who succeed by The Martian-style “sciencing the shit out of this”. Realistic depictions of trauma and the complicated ways it expresses itself. Intimacy and small kindnesses and mutual caretaking between people who’ve done awful things to survive, in the face of dystopian power structures and immense tragedy. Our good friend Albert the octopus. And of course all of the whump.
I’d love to read something set during Valery and Shenkov’s life in witness protection in Durham post-canon, recovering from everything they’ve been through and figuring out a way to move forward. Do Anna and the kids make it to England, and how does that change Valery and Shenkov’s relationship (or not, as the case may be)? Or some canon-compliant moments of quiet hurt/comfort-y domesticity from when Valery was living in Shenkov's apartment. Or maybe even a canon-divergence AU where Valery and Shenkov are reunited at the embassy and leave for England together?
DNW: AUs other than canon-divergence (i.e. I DNW setting-change AUs and DNW trope AUs such as soulmates, hanahaki, etc); crossovers; explicit on-page sex (fade-to-black and the like is fine!); pregnancy; Anna or her kids explicitly dying.
(also: I didn’t think to DNW this until right after signups closed, and so if you put it in your fic that is of course completely fine, but I would prefer the story not focus heavily on Valery’s time in Germany.)
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