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)]

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)]

op

i really appreciate you going into your thinking on this! i think especially because this is a non-canon ship, it's a case where i requested it wanting something canon is never going to give me and just got more canon-level stuff without even a hint of more? re what you say above, i can see some cases where that might not bug me, but more for canon couples and with some extra levels to the interaction, if that makes sense.

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)]

No, if they did explicitly state that, they suck. It's an AND matching exchange, demanding someone either write you shipfic or not write about one of the characters you matched on at all is ridiculous.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

DA

No, this is silly. The author could just as well have matched on someone who only wanted one of the characters in the first place. It shouldn't be a hardship to write that for someone who happened to request both.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

That's not how and matching works on the writer's end. If you offer A and B, you could always match on someone only asking for A anyway.

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)]

cyrt

Yeah, that's very understandable to me! I'd never no homo (or no hetero, in my case) my recip's ship, that'd be very rude. I was specifically thinking about canon-level friendly interactions.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

Nc -1 There's nothing more annoying than people using / for & fics.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

YMMV, clearly. I'll happily read a pre-ship A/B fic. My mind will substitute the shippiness, and it'll be a positive experience for everyone involved. If you deliberately give me A&B for my A/B prompts, neither of us is going to have a good exchange.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

you can't read

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

op

you know, if this had had like an additional two or three lines about ~potential feelings and was tagged UST or pre-slash it would have been perfectly okay? but it was just like, here are these two characters in a room.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

+1 Pre-slash is fine.

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)]

This is legitimately common advice given to people who only write gen or just don't ship a pairing when they're given shippy prompts (in a non shipping exchange like this one). People are told that rather than default, write them as friends -- especially canon-like -- and to let the recip read the pre-slash or ust into it. As long as you don't go "only friends no homo".

I'm a multishipper, but sometimes the prompts just lend themselves to preslash or ust, and I would always assume that "A/B or just A" meant A&B preslash or friendship would also be acceptable (though not ideal), but just no solo B.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Writing gen interactions without blocking the potential for the ship is the most basic sort of advice for these sort of situations. If someone is only interested in their two requested characters together in a / fic and only wants one of them if gen, then they need to say so because that's just not the norm.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

+1 Also, for many people who only write gen, it's because they legitimately have trouble writing ship - "just add a line or two of UST or pre-ship" sounds easy but some people would have no clue how to do that, or where the line is between subtle ship and plain friendship fic (which is why they only write gen. Or like I used to, only gen and porn, and sometimes you just can't porn.)

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

In a case where you match on groups of characters and not ships specifically, it kind of is what you asked for.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

+1

You requested these two characters, you got them.

Re: Who Got Coal

[(Anonymous)]

+1

You got what you asked for. You didn't get optional extras, which are, in fact, optional.

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?