(no subject)

[selenak]

Getting back into an old fandom and catching up with the fanfiction also means deja vue of the "this is still around?" type, to wit, these immortal lines, which I've seen in every single slash pairing I've read since my old Highlander days.

"Their tongues battled for domination."

and

"Mine", he growled."

The "Mine" exclamations cracked me up then, and they still do, not least because the characters doing the possessive monosyllibical growling. More often than not, yours truly thinks "hm, if one of these two has to get territorial, I'd have bet on X rather than on Y". And if the guys in question canonically delight in ribbing each other with (multisyllabical) insults and sarcasm, I doubt they wouldn't at least tease the other afterwards about such behavior, if it happened.

Basically: it's ye olde ATG and migratory fandom phenomenon, still alive and well. (No idea who first growled "mine" and whose tongues started the battle for domination, but I'm all for blaming Gilgamesh and Enkidu. :) )

Still: there's a lot of accumulated good stuff and some old favourites to enjoy if one hasn't read anything in said fandom for years and years.

Comments

[nostalgia]

"Their noses intervened to sue for peace. One eye was had to be flown to a M*A*S*H unit for surgery but there were no other casualties."

[selenak]

:) You win.

[moon_custafer]

"Their tongues battled for domination."

I will accept this if it is preceded by “One-two-three-four, I declare a tongue war” as an actual line of dialogue.

[selenak]

:) Alas, no one I've read has had that perfect intro yet...

[astrogirl]

The thing that always sticks out to me is the ubiquitous weird descriptions of people smelling like things that no one has ever smelled of, including abstract concepts and other things with no discernible odor.

[rydra_wong]

... AND SOMETHING THAT WAS UNIQUELY [CHARACTER]. Always.

[ratcreature]

Well, this was totally plausible in my first online fandom (The Sentinel), and I can go with it in shifter fic. Like if you are a werewolf and have a dog-acute nose, every person probably would smell really unique but not like anything else specific they could name. Even with normal humans I find this more plausible than people smelling of weird things described in purple prose.

I mean, I don't go around smelling people, but I still find that people's apartments smell distinct from each other just from different people with different habits living in them, even if the rooms don't smell like anything specific or obvious to me like having a dog, or smokers, or strong cleaning products or such.

[rydra_wong]

I'm absolutely sure that people have unique smells! It's the litany of "He smelled of X, Y, and something uniquely [Character]" which has been ground into the dust with over-use.

[ratcreature]

That's a fair point. For me a narrator noticing mere background scents (not like food at a decomposing body or other intrusive scents) works best if they get noticed because they remind them of something else, because that's how I tend to notice vague smells. Like sometimes the wind/weather or whatever just smells like it did during a childhood summer vacation, and that pops up as a fleeting thought, but not a list of ingredients making up that association.

[watervole]

Parents can recognise their children's scent on clothes, but human's have a pretty poor sense of smell overall.

[selenak]

Still!

[selenak]

God yes. Mind you, the smelling thing I first came across in a het context, back in Buffy fandom - possibly because SMG had made the mistake of replying to a question which shampoo she used, the way Buffy smelled became one of the most consistent fanons.

[rydra_wong]

Hey, everyone's still keening and laving (sometimes lathing) things with their tongues.

[selenak]

If they're not whimpering. Or exclaiming "Fuck, *Name*!"

[watervole]

Giggle.

[oracne]

"His tongue spurted forth ninety millimeters of iron death, a tongue of mustard gas responded, and tastebuds fled, weeping in fear."

[lilacsigil]

Enkidu seems a likely candidate for growling things!

[selenak]

Doesn't he just?

[watervole]

I'm working through a book of Middle Eastern myths at present. Rather looking forward to getting to Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

[jesuswasbatman]

Not to mention the ones where characters have personal or culture-wide experiences such that "MINE!" growling would quite possibly lead to someone getting physically kicked out of bed.

[selenak]

No kidding. I mean, I haven't come across someone using this in a Londo/G'Kar fic yet, but I'm sure somewhere, someone has written it.