ita, I participated in the Star Trek reverse bang this year and last. For me, I didn't really care if there was conflict in the picture, but it had to have the pairing I wanted to write about displayed in it in some way, since anyone in the picture had to be in the story. And while there didn't have to be conflict, there did have to be some kind of clue as to the setting. For example, the artwork I claimed this year had Kirk, McCoy, Spock and Uhura in western style clothes, which suited what I wanted to write hugely, because I was working with a Firefly fusion.

A good friend of mine submitted a picture of Spock and McCoy flying a kite and the story that came out of that was simply amazing. So, conflict is not always necessary. The way the kite flying worked into the story was a splendid way to show how Spock's characterization didn't change across au settings, that he would always be a scientist and that it was a way for the two men to bond.

Do you think it's a problem if you're too specific? I don't mean ridiculously so, but the picture I'm thinking of, I'm not sure if I've seen these people together in a story before. So I'm kind of nervous, because no one will have a pre-existing idea they can fit to it, but I'd really like to think someone looked at it and thought "oh! how did that come to be?" or "what happens next?"

The other picture I'm doing is much more straightforward. Still not sure anyone will have any well-formed ideas to use for it, but it should be interesting not surprising.

Depends on what you mean by specific. I noticed with our last reverse bang that the pictures where folks were dressed in really fancy outfits (superhero, fantasy, etc) took longer to get picked, perhaps because it was too suggestive. More generic pictures tended to get picked first. Two or three characters at a table, in a car, walking down a street, playing musical instruments, can fit into almost any story. Last year the picture I had was of three people around a table, one sweating nervously, another with his head in his hands and a women pointing at him. Instant divorce!

Just specific in the grouping, really.

I had earlier tossed around the idea of Edwardian Winchesters, but upon inspection, who's going to touch that in a project like this? That's a labour of love, not a picked prompt.

Ah, well. I think my pictures lead to scenarios with questions, and I think that's what's important--that questions can be asked and answered about the illustration.

Man, I miss my laptop. It's out for repairs, and writing fic on my phone is really no fun at all. I'm determined to get through this next bit of the Discworld story, though-- every proper mystery needs a red herring, and I finally figured mine out.

Holli, I'm having a marvelous time reading your Discworld story, by the way. You're really hitting all the best notes with the characters and the way the city has changed over time. Plus the whole "Most Eligible Bachelor" thing is just a hoot.

I'm trying to articulate fridging. So far, for me, I think a death has to hit on all the below points to be a fridging:

• family member or SO or loved one of protagonist
• peripheral to action (not a protagonist)
• death is something that happens to them, not that they have a part in
• their death somehow sways or changes the protagonist

What am I not considering?

I see fridging as a death inflicted on the protagonist rather than the victim--the point of the exercise (by the writer or the antagonist) is the effect on the protagonist.

Also? Almost overwhelmingly female. (Although the fiance's death in the pilot of Alias would count as a fridging, that is relatively rare.)

I think that kids get fridged regardless of their gender.

I'm arguing with someone that says that Ellen and Jo were fridged because Dean was sad and they were female. But the death wasn't done to him. It didn't change his narrative path in the least. He reacted appropriately, but went on with what he was doing in the first place. Also, they died doing something. Jess? Jess was a textbook fridging. Five minutes of perfect girlfriend, and then trauma to drive protagonist to make a 180 in his life.

The major deaths of either Sam or Dean were more like fridgings than Jo and Ellen.

But kids are kids, so their gender doesn't matter as much.

Ellen and Jo were NOT fridged. Not in any way. Jess, absolutely.