Matt, you're my favorite Bruins fan. You would be anyway, of course, but particularly for that trenchant observation.

(And for giving me the opportunity to use the word "trenchant".

Especially when he's grinning . . .

Though the meaning would all depend on why he was grinning.

Though the meaning would all depend on why he was grinning.

Hm, the elements "Harry--tied up--begging--not trying to escape" just tiptoed through my head.

Hm, the elements "Harry--tied up--begging--not trying to escape" just tiptoed through my head.

Is that some kind of hint about what you want in this story? I thought Draco was describing-- perfectly innocently though perhaps with a little mocking of Hagrid's accent-- how Hagrid had returned a wild creature to its cage. "One hand holding t'wings, and he just throost it back in."

Oh, it could be that, too, certainly!

"Draco" -- "innocently" . . . no, the two words repel each other like two magnets that don't line up.

"Draco" -- "innocently" . . . no, the two words repel each other like two magnets that don't line up.

For some reason, this is starting to look more an more like a specific challenge. Prompts: the word "throost", bondage, and Draco attempting innocence. Because bringing together the apparently utterly incompatible is something of a trend in my fiction.

(Your tagline, in a roundabout way, reminds me of an epigram I once heard: "For years a secret same destroyed my peace/ I'd not read Eliot, Auden, or McNiece,/ But now I think I thought that gives me hope/ Neither had Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope.")

Specific challenge? Well, Draco could really *be* innocently mocking Hagrid and someone else could be having the entendres haunting him. Draco protesting authentic innocence could be amusing.

I don't know why I let you talk me into these things. sighes, opens Word document

Not for completion until after my exams are over, you understand.

Of course. Education comes first, naturally.

Here's a loaded question for y'all:

First, the background. The current weekly challenge in one of my anime/manga fic groups is for genderswap. Things are open as to whether the character has always been the opposite gender, gets a nasty surprise when he/she wakes up, or has been concealing his/her true gender all along.

Now, I've seen a few very bad genderswap fics out there. Some of them seem to be a way of getting two male characters together without the icky slash thing, others are a roundabout way of writing mpreg, while still others are just an excuse for a whole bunch of 'OMG, so-and-so has boobs/PMS/a dick!!!' jokes. (Some of these are funny. Others are just sad.)

Now for the question: What are some of the implications of genderswitch that you haven't seen explored in fic that you think would make for an interesting story?

Apologies if I'm not being totally clear.