Like a dandelion up through the pavement, I persist

• Fic that is largely canon compliant. Canon divergent AUs are great, fic that re-interprets or re-examines canon events with a different lens is also great. I am not especially reverent towards canon and non-canon compliant fic is not a problem, but I do really like fic that rattles the bars of its canonical confines while remaining within them (or stays within them for the most part). See also:
• Post-canon fic and prequel fic—especially ones that are:
• Character studies, especially of characters who are sparsely characterised or underutilised in canon.
• Missing scene fic.
• Fic with a strong ensemble cast.
• AUs that are a completely different setting to canon, especially fusions with other canons such as Pacific Rim AUs or The Last Unicorn AUs (see DNWs for exceptions).
• Dramatic irony, especially when it’s comedic.
  • That said, I love sincerity that is entirely unembarrassed of itself and does not try to deflate itself with irony.
• Witty or otherwise humorous dialogue.
• As you can probably tell from the last two listed likes, I prefer fics with a comedic tone, or at least a comedic tinge (which can be ironic and/or bitter, in fics that skew more towards the dramatic side of the comedy-drama spectrum). I like pretty dry and understated humour, but I am also just a fan of Funny more generally.
• Bittersweet or melancholy fics are also wonderful. I am always a sucker for regret and missed opportunities/wasted time.
• Quiet, domestic stories that have a sense of contentment about them.
• Exciting, dynamic stories that have a sense of uncertainty about them. I particularly really love stuff where I don’t know what’s going on for 85% of the fic and then it all clicks into place in the last 15% as reveals that were set up earlier start to fall like dominoes.
• Found family.
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  Characters can have any kind of relationship to their family of origin in these kinds of fics—I am equally happy with fic about or featuring found families where the characters haven’t spoken to their parents in years and never intend to again and fic where one of the characters called their mom to talk to her about sourdough starter yesterday. Mixing and matching between these two extremes can be fun too!
• Queer platonic partnerships.
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  The character(s) can be aro and/or ace, and/or be sexually and/or romantically attracted to a different gender to their QPP, or they can just be queer platonic partners because that is the kind of relationship that suits them and not due to a mismatch/mutual incompatibility of sexual and/or romantic orientation.
• References to queer culture and history. This can be in conjunction with one or more queer ships, but can also be in a gen fic featuring one or more queer characters.
• Pining.
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  I especially like this when the character in question’s feelings are actually requited and they’re just unaware (especially-especially if the reader is aware before the character is through clues given but not explicitly stated in the narration) but also when their feelings genuinely are one-sided.
• Rarepairs.
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  In most of my fandoms, I usually end up getting more and more niche over time. I love when my first reaction to seeing a ship tag is, “Huh?” but then when I read the fic I’m completely sold by the execution of it because it feels true to the canonical characterisation of the characters and the evolution of the relationship (or invention of it, if they’ve never met before in canon) is a natural extension of that, so feel free to include ships that you really love that I have not mentioned in my fandom specific likes, as long as I haven’t mentioned actively disliking them. Also, this probably goes without saying, but just in case: I am using an interpretation of “rarepair” here includes ships that involve more than two partners.
• Polyamory/non-monogamy, very much including forms of non-monogamy other than polyfidelitous triads, such as vee arrangements, polycules or open relationships etc.
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  Your fic can be primarily about X/Y and have it as a background detail that this relationship is non-monogamous, if you like. I really like fic that is about X/Y, but X’s canonical relationship with Z also exists in the fic without anyone cheating or getting jealous. For examples of the kind of thing I mean, cosmic_llin has some great fic where Deanna Troi is dating something who is not her canonical love interest Will Riker, while also being in an open relationship with Riker.
• Emotionally intense and tempestuous co-dependent relationships, which can either get healthier over the course of the narrative or remain very much a "don’t try this at home" kind of depiction.
• Unironic “issuefic.”
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  This is a term that turns up in DNWs rather than likes in a lot of fandom exchange letters, in my experience, but I genuinely love reading about The Issues™. This can include, but is not limited to, things like disability theory adjacent themes, trans headcanons, depictions of characters being very deliberate and careful about respecting consent, unironic depictions of characters talking like they’re trying to get a good grade in therapy (maybe He Would Not Fucking Say That, but if we’re going to limit ourselves to what he would fucking do and say why not just call it quits on fandom and stick to canon, lol), examinations of the broader social context of the settings of various fandoms, middle aged men trying to be kind.
• Kid fic.
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  I prefer if the kid seems broadly realistic for the age they are depicted as being, but what is typical at a certain age varies a lot (I certainly had a very spiky developmental profile myself as a child) so don’t stress about it.
• Knitting or other kinds of crafts, especially from authors who are crafters and especially-especially when it includes technical or jargon-y details.
• Speaking of jargon, I love STEM-y things being featured in fic.
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  An example of what I mean is things like the stuff about mathematical proofs in astolat‘s Rodney McCay/John Sheppard fic Time in a Bottle. You don’t have to go into enormous depth here to get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of how much it will please me. I nearly swooned when I read the main character of the novel Hold Me by Courtney Milan mention something about something being three standard deviations above the mean.
• I also love wildly unrealistic and campy fake science escapades.
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  Things à la this Karate Kid fic I wrote where a CEO character’s R&D department creates a super soldier who he falls in love with or this fic trinityofone wrote for the same ship where the CEO character uses fake science, again from his R&D department, to babytrap his love interest. Basically though, if a bubbling, neon green liquid housed in a beaker that is smoking profusely appears in your fic then you are on the right track!
• Things relating to ageing.
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  Including, but not limited to: moments of wistfulness or melancholy about it, older characters having active and fulfilling sex lives, broader themes about ageing, or matter of fact inclusion of details about changes brought about with age. In terms of that last one, I once wrote a fic where a character’s wrist started clicking after he fingered the woman he was having sex with for a long time, so stuff along those lines is great. That fic also had some sci-fi age-related stuff about the Phase where post-menopausal Betazoids’ sex drive quadruples or more, so feel free to include speculative/sci-fi stuff about ageing too if it fits the setting of your fic!
• Stuff about (wanted) pregnancy. I have some pregnancy related DNWs at the link here, so if this is an option you’re attracted to, please click through to see what I do not want from this kind of story.
  additional details about what I do like (some NSFW)

  Including, but not limited to: cloyingly fluffy family fic, breeding kink (and/or risky sex) and overly specific and/or scientific details about pregnancy itself. These details can relate to real pregnancy or speculative/sci-fi pregnancies featuring alien physiology or artificial wombs, etc. Speculative/sci-fi pregnancy does not have to be realistic for me to enjoy it! Depictions of real pregnancy would ideally have a higher degree of realism though, as pregnancy has been a long standing special interest of mine. I don’t mean, by this though, that you have to give someone a difficult pregnancy because they’re over 36 and that’s “more realistic” or something (also, fwiw, my aunt had her first baby at 48 and she had a very healthy and active pregnancy with both of her children), just that I would prefer that any specifics that you mention are accurate (so no feeling the baby kick before 16 weeks, for example). If you want to write about someone having a difficult pregnancy, or complications like gestational diabetes, though, go right ahead! I would ask though that if you go this route that it’s more along the lines of h/c than something that ends tragically. Regarding abortion, where termination is discussed (if, for example, the pregnancy was unplanned and the potential parent is thinking about options) I would strongly prefer that it was in a pro-choice context, unless you really feel that one or more of the characters would be pro-life and the overall narrative itself did not endorse them on this. I’m totally open to angsty fic about infertility that does not end with the character becoming pregnant, however.

  Notes regarding mpreg and people other than cis women getting pregnant

  Cis mpreg heavily depends on execution for me and I am generally not that interested in it—when I do read it, I prefer cis mpreg where pregnancy is not the norm for cis men in that universe and it’s contextually a fake science or magic-related thing. I am okay with trans mpreg, especially written by other transmasculine authors, and with other AFAB trans people getting pregnant as long as it is a wanted pregnancy and any depictions of dysphoria are not extremely graphic. If you would like to write a story where a trans woman or transfeminine or other AMAB trans person gets pregnant, then I’m totally open to that and my preferences for that align more closely to the ones I’ve mentioned for speculative/sci-fi pregnancy than to my preferences relating to cis men being depicted as being pregnant. Rather than wanting the pregnancy to be depicted as unusual or unique, as is my preferance for cis mpreg, I would prefer a fic where transition related healthcare has progressed or is on the cusp or progressing far enough to allow this kind of pregnancy to happen. Also, despite what I just said about preferring this kind of pregnancy not to be depicted as being singular in-universe, if you want to write fic where your character has gotten pregnant after being granted a wish by fairies, set in a universe where transition related healthcare has not, and will not in the near future, allow for AMAB people to get pregnant, go right ahead! This is relatively uncharted territory, fic-wise, to my knowledge, so go forth and be fruitful, as it were 😉 My only truly strong preference here would be that your character is pregnant due to wanting to be pregnant rather than for another reason.
• Since I mentioned it briefly in the above bullet point: speculative or canon alien physiology in settings where this is relevant.
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  Can be related to non-human typical genital configurations like Spock’s various fanonical space!junk, or more along the lines of Spock’s heart being where a human’s liver would be, and him having copper based blood.
• Inclusion of sensory and sensual details (which may or may not be erotic).

• Getting together and/or stuff with a first kiss (I know, how NSFW, lol) or first time having sex. I particularly like if first time sex scenes (and sex scenes generally) aren’t Perfect™ and things are a little awkward in a way that the characters can laugh about.
  • First time bottoming and, more generally, first time doing X sex act or kink and/or characters realising that something they hadn’t given much thought to, or had assumed they wouldn’t be into, is something they’re really into. I’d prefer they go into it with a “Sure, I’ll try anything once” attitude rather than an “I’ll suffer through it for you 😥” attitude.
• Friends with benefits/platonic sex. This can turn into fuckbuddies-to-lovers, but it doesn’t have to. I am particularly partial to a character who wingmans for their fuckbuddy and gets them together with another love interest (whether or not the two friends continue to have platonic sex afterwards is fine either way).
• Non-penetrative sex.
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  The characters can be actively choosing not to have non-penetrative sex specifically because of practical concerns, such as them don’t want to risk pregnancy, or them wanting to fuck right the fuck now and not wanting to wait for an opportune time for anal, or a character having vaginismus, or one or more of the characters just not really liking penetration. It can also just be something with non-penetrative sex without the need to justify that choice in-text. I really like when fics don’t make a distinction between penetrative and non-penetrative sex in terms of what is considered to be “real” sex, e.g. things like characters referring to a time they had oral sex as, “When we fucked” in dialogue, or similar casual nods to non-penetrative sex also being sex.
  • Intercrural sex specifically. This can transition into penetrative sex or not.
  • Oral sex of all varieties. I don’t particularly care about erotica being historical accurate or not (or, indeed, about erotica being strictly realistic in general—it can be fun to write realistic sex, but if you want to write impromptu anal fisting, go for it! I have, lol), so feel free to include it in a setting where it would be unlikely, e.g. the Golden Age of Piracy.
• Virginity kink, especially if the fic itself doesn’t buy into the social construction of virginity as a concept.
• Re: the above, I really it like, in general, when a work winks at the idea that kinky elements are just roleplay and not Real. Not for moralistic reasons or anything, I just think it gives a nice atmosphere and feel to the relationship and dynamic between the characters to imagine them being kinky together on purpose, as opposed to fics that play to the kink, but are not explicitly written to portray the characters as kinky, if that makes sense. I don’t mind if this is not something in play though, and I can definitely tell the difference between id-heavy smutty fan fiction and writing intended to be taken as a strictly literal account of how things are or should be.

• First or second person narration, unless that is canon typical.
• Mundane/modern AUs (e.g. college or coffee shop AUs, etc.), Harry Potter AUs/fusions, AUs or pre-canon fic where the characters are aged down.
  random tangent about Scooby Doo

  Although, come to think of it, I’d love to see a fic, AU or post-canon, where characters were depicted as much older than they appear in canon, e.g. something like the gang from the original 1969 Scooby Doo cartoon in the modern day as 70-somethings … in this purely hypothetical Scooby Doo fic that nobody will ever write though, Scooby is obviously still alive, typical 8-10 year lifespan of a Great Dane be damned.
  (return to where you left off in Likes)
• Pregnancy related DNWs:
  • Unwanted pregnancy.
  • Fic where a character is coerced or tricked into becoming pregnant, even if they come around to the idea and/or are not upset by it (babytrapping from the side of the gestational parent isn’t a problem for me, because it’s a bodily autonomy thing for me mainly and also I’m a hypocrite).
  • Fic where the overall narrative explicitly promotes a pro-life sentiment.
  • Pregnancy fic where the pregnancy ends in abortion (re: the apparent contradiction with the last bullet point, for me this is like “there was only one bed” fic where they resolve it with someone sleeping on the couch, because I like pregnancy fic and the kind I seek out start from a premise that the pregnancy is wanted, even if unplanned).
  • Fic where the pregnancy ends in miscarriage, unless the character does manage to carry a pregnancy to term (or after 12 weeks, with the implication that they will carry to term) by the end of the story and the miscarriages are not depicted graphically. (return to where you left off in Likes)
• Dark fic. I’m fine with angsty or bittersweet fic or with stories that are framed as tragedies, but I do not want something that is primary intended to be disturbing, or that is unrelentingly miserable with no reprieve and no catharsis at the end.
• More than passing depictions of bigotry. You do not have to engage in historical revisionism or erase bigotry that exists in canon or the real world and I do enjoy fic that engages with the broader social contexts of various fandom settings, but I do not want a fic that is centred primarily around experiences of bigotry.
• Fetishisation or romanticisation of a marginalised group.
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  For example: race play, fetishisation of trans people, fat fetishism, fetishisation of physically disabled people’s bodies, romanticisation of mental illness, etc. One exception is that I do have a weakness for clueless class privileged characters who are poverty tourists, à la the song Common People, so I will say that I’m generally neutral-to-positive on this one, provided the character whose socioeconomic circumstances are being romanticised explicitly thinks that the poverty tourist is being a privileged dick (regardless of whether they also still have, or want to have, sex and/or a relationship with them).
• Intimate partner violence or other related forms of abuse.
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  I do like some specific ships where the characters are unhealthily obsessed with each other and mutually destructive, but I do not like fics where a character is primarily a victim of their partner rather than someone willingly walking into a lake of bad decisions with their partner and drowning, hand in unlovable hand. N.B. I don’t mean by this distinction that I think that anyone in a real life abusive relationship is culpable for the abuse they suffer in any way.

• Kink related DNWs:
  • Consensual non-consent or other rape fantasies.
  • 24–7 D/s relationships.
  • Master/slave relationships.
  • Humiliation kink. Non-kinky humiliation is fine.
  • Desperation kink.
  • Edging.
  • Chastity belts/cages, etc.
  • Degrading or insulting language in a kink context.
  • Erotic asphyxiation. Non-erotic choking is okay.
  • Heavy pain play. Light impact kink or discomfort from restraints is fine.
  • Sadism.
  • Sounding.
  • Things likely to edge near a hygiene squick.
• Non-con or dub-con.
• Characters consenting to sex they think they won’t like, whether they turn out to be right about this or not.
• Detailed descriptions of sex that is painful or unpleasant.
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  While I love badsex where it all goes pear-shaped in a way that’s funny to both the reader and the characters, and I love fic where characters get better at communicating what they enjoy sexually and their sex life improving as a result, I really don’t want to read long or in-depth depictions of characters being subjected to sex they absolutely hate with a partner who is either unaware that they don’t like it, or doesn’t care, that never gets any better.

As well as being obstinatecondolement here, I am also obstinatecondolement on Tumblr, obstinatecondolement on vidders.net (which I really must post some of my vids to!), obstinatecondolement on Vimeo (most of my videos are password protected, but they are all posted with the passwords on AO3), and (you guessed it) obstinatecondolement on my much neglected Pillowfort.

In terms of my other fannish pseudonyms, I'm SweetPollyOliver on AO3; unmanlygrief on Twitter (Edit Jan 2023: but, uh, given current events, watch this space? Edit Jan 2024: Still there for now, but I probably would have deleted if I didn't want to do ITPE and since I do not think that will be on the-platform-formerly-known-as-Twitter in 2024, it's not unlikely that I won't be there much longer either, but I have made such threats before and not followed through on them), and I am also unmanlygrief on Discord.

Feel free to add me or PM/DM me on any of these platforms, or email me at obstinatecondolement@vidding.com if you'd like to get in touch that way.

Let's talk fandoms! I am an evergreen Star Trek fan, despite beyind disgracefully behind on most of the newer iterations of canon bar Lower Decks, and I was very monofannishly creating things for The Karate Kid and/or Cobra Kai for a good while, but I have started branching out again in the past few years. I am still a big TKK/CK fan (Cobra Kai never dies!) and mean to write some stuff on my to-do list, but I am not as intense with it as I was and other things have drifted in and out of my number one spot in the mean time.

Most recently, I've fallen very hard for the CBS Ghosts show, I had a very intense love affair with Succession that may be heating up again, I was massively invested in S1 of OFMD and slightly disappointed with S2 (although not as devastated as some were), I love Only Murders in the Building and am chipping away at some Mabel/Theo fic that has not yet seen the light of day, and I pretty recently reignited my younger self's love of the 1970s sitcom Porridge. I am a lifelong Discworld fan, but I only started writing fic in the fandom in 2023. As of now I have a handful of Discworld fics and podfics on my AO3 account that I hope to keeping adding to on and off.

Other things that are less to the forefront, but are still very much bubblings away in the background: I love Quantum Leap, both old and new, and am even now still rending my garments in lamentation over the Willow tv show and A League of Their Own (2022) being cancelled. And, honestly, I have lots of other fandoms, past and present, and there are a few that I often request for exchanges and am not usually "active" in otherwise.

The ways I participate in fandom are larely writing fic, but I am a bit of a fanwork dilettante and have also dipped my toes into vidding, podfic, fanbinding, writing meta (or jokey-joke posts, depending on how serious I am being at the time), making character/ship fanmixes, and putting together the occasional graphic (mostly podfic covers at the moment). I also have made a few fancrafts over the years! Mostly crochet dolls of Star Trek characters, like these ones. I have also betaed fic for other people and I would like to do that more often.

My transformative works policy can be found on my AO3 profile, but TL;DR, I give blanket permission for non-commercial transformative works of my fanworks.

Other things I do/have done in fandom are volunteering with the OTW as a tag wrangler and modding a few fandom events. I modded allvalley100, a weekly Cobra Kai/Karate Kid drabble challenge, with trinityofone from 2021–2023, I previously modded trek-rarepair-swap, a (first monthly, then quarterly) exchange where people created fanworks for each other's rare (which we defined as <50 works on AO3) Star Trek ships, with cosmic-llin between 2016 and 2020 and we have plans to revive it at some point when we have the time, and I will be starting a new podfic challenge called tidepodchallenge in January 2024 where participants receive bingo cards with prompts and then fill them by making podfics of Yuletide works written by authors who give permission for podfics of their work. If you are a fan of podic, please follow the comm and, if you are a podficcer youself, consider signing up once I get the ball rolling on that in the next few weeks!