Don't Stop Coal Now!

[coalcube]

Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real coal time
I feel alive
And the exchange I'll turn it inside out, yeah
I'm floating around in agony
So, (don't stop me now)
(Don't stop me)
'Cause I'm having a coal time, having a coal time~


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Comments

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

ugh, look, i know, I KNOW, not everyone wants to write non-canonical femslash, WHICH IS WHY i also give separate single-character prompts. but when i PROMPT femslash, i don't... want friendship fic??? i don't. sigh.

at least it is very well written, and at least my own recip already commented happily.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

Just checking: Did you request multiple characters? And if so, did you say in your signup (not only in your letter) that your author didn't have to write all of the requested characters?

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

requested characters A and B, asked for A/B or just A in signup, got A&B ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

I have kind of done this before (not with a femslash ship though, and I just used a different prompt but included the author's ship being friends with each other), and I don't think it's your fault at all - the author should've probably been more careful - but as someone who earnestly wants to avoid displeasing one's recip, I think it'd be helpful if you did specify that you don't want friendship as an alternative to your ship. (Unless you did specify, in which case ignore me). If I got a prompt that listed A/B scenarios and also A scenarios, I don't know that I wouldn't think it'd be okay to write A&B.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

Same. I'd probably try to write as close to what seems the recipient's ideal fic as I could get, so I'd likely include B in a genfic about A, even if I can't make it shippy. If A&B is a DNW, I'd really like to know.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

cyrt

Yeah, that was precisely my thinking! I made them friendly and put in a bunch of nice interactions between them to please my recip, it never even occurred to me that this might be something a shipper wouldn't enjoy...

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

+1

It would never occur to me that A&B would not be a viable alternative to A/B, if I didn't feel up to writing the ship.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

+1

OP: In the future, I would definitely make sure to make very explicit you only want A/B or A without any B. I wouldn't otherwise assume that. In part because when I request a ship for Yuletide, generally my hope is shipfic, but my next ideal is still something that focuses on those characters and their relationship.

(OTOH, if you did explicitly state that, than I'm sorry, that sucks.)

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

dc

I think this would really depend on how it's written and tagged. If I requested A/B and got A&B with canon-level of friendly interaction, I'd probably read it as UST and consider it pre-relationship shipfic. But if the fic went out of its way to make it clear that A&B are ONLY FRIENDS, NOTHING MORE and would NEVER EVER be attracted to each other, then it would feel like spite to me.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

op

really?? genuinely not trying to be snarky but especially with a femslash or boyslash prompt i would never default to friendly interaction without at least some pre-slash or additional UST. (to be clear, i don't think the fic i got was malicious or full no homo, it just... was not what i asked for!)

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

I can't believe no one has asked this already, so: why the fuck didn't you just request A only, then?

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, nonnie, that sucks. This is basically my horror scenario, especially when it's not just ambiguous A&B but 'THEY ARE TOTALLY JUST FRIENDS! PLATONIC! NO HOMO!' passive-aggressive friendship fic.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

op

to be clear i don't think this was malicious at all and i didn't get a no homo vibe. no hate to my author, just mild disappointment ;)

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

nc

Sympathies, coalie, I got something similar and I share your mild disappointment! It would have been such an easy thing to fix if the author had cared to do so.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

Your author didn't do anything that requires fixing. If you're going to be butthurt if you don't get your ship, you need to stick to exchanges where you match on ships.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

I thought you had to include all the requested characters.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

You don't have to if the recip specifically says that you don't.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

+1

They have to be really specific though. "Here are my H/T prompts" when someone requested A, H, T, and C isn't permission to leave A and C out. "You don't have to use all the characters", or something equally direct, is required.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, exactly

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but it doesn't sound like OP did that. If I got a request that had prompts that were all A/B or A-centric, I might get the impression that A was my recip's fave and make sure they were the focus character, but I wouldn't dream of setting myself up for a ban by writing a fic where B never even showed up.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

op

to be clear, i did specifically say that solo-A prompts did not have to include B! i have been around these parts for a while :)

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

I have a history of asking for slash or femslash in fandoms that usually skew het, and I always have this problem.

Three times I've gotten friendship fic for my requested pairing, with the main pairing in the story being a het pairing that sinks my ship. So not only are my requests characters not a pairing, they're not even the focus of the fic.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

This kind of thing is why a lot of people DNW unrequested pairings for their requested characters. You can't DNW gen, but you can DNW your requested characters being in relationships that aren't the one you want.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

I'm guessing your requests look something like this? And it might be a case of "you can't fix stupid"/"bad actors gonna bad act"?

Request: Betty, Caroline; Betty/Caroline. I also ship Adam/Dan

DNW: Adam/Betty, Caroline/Dan, Betty/Dan, Adam/Caroline. Betty or Caroline in any het ship.

Anyway, I hope we match in an exchange sometime; I would write you the femslash and slash you actually asked for

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

Yes this is exactly what my sign-up looks like. Thank you for hypothetically writing me the pairings of my dreams in the future!