question about ships (the fandom kinds not boats :D)

[meridian_rose]

First off, thanks for answering my poll about my next icon theme - if you haven't yet, go back two entries and do so please! I'll close it soon and sign up for the tvcrush20in20.

I've been thinking about threesomes and shipping and seeing a debate today on pairings vs moresomes, I thought I'd make a post. You see, when I approach a threesome I see it as a triad, not a triangle. There must be some attraction between all involved and eventually a threesome should occur. But let's see what you all think about threesomes and the way in which they are described:

Polyamory in fic:
Please note that I've given examples but the fandoms don't really matter, I just want to make it clear what I mean. Also, I only did polls because people (me included) like polls and are more likely to participate that way – please comment if you have anything else to say :D

1. Does the order matter when describing a ship?
For example is "Erica/Jack/Hobbes" the same as "Erica/Hobbes/Jack" and "Jack/Erica/Hobbes"? Or do you expect something different from each threesome mentioned?
[Poll #1672047]

2. Relatedly, does a fic tagged as "Damon/Elena/Stefan" imply to you that :
[Poll #1672048]

3. If you write, or would consider writing threesomes, do/would you give any consideration to the tagging - do you agonise over "Darken Rahl/Cara/Kahlan" versus "Cara/Kahlan/Darken Rahl" or do you go with whatever the fandom most often uses/what you prefer?
[Poll #1672049]

5. At your journal, or somewhere like A03 which allows multiple tagging for partners, would you consider it beneficial to name all the partnerships?
So if there's a series of encounters culminating in a threesome, would you tag it just as "Holmes/Watson/Irene" or also as "Holmes/Watson, Holmes/Irene, Watson/Irene"?
[Poll #1672050]

Comments

[scandaloussteph.livejournal.com]

About the Erica/Hobbes/Jack, Hobbes/Erica/Jack question, for me they mean the same (although, funnily enough, it would be weird to me if Jack's name was first)

[meridian_rose]

Thanks for the input. To me they do mean they same, but I too wouldn't put Jack first - which is probably our ship prejudices showing through ;D

[scandaloussteph.livejournal.com]

... or because Jack would never be the dominating kind, he sort of washes away when put in contrast with Erica and Hobbes

[meridian_rose]

Yes; I seem him more as the 'glue'. In the first threesome fic I ever wrote, it was e/h (too violent) and then e/j (too soft) and then Erica pushed for Hobbes to seduce Jack so they could have a triumvirate (j/h) and ended with a threesome in which Jack kept the peace and made the rules to keep everyone safe, while Hobbes pushed the boundaries to encourage Jack to take risks, and Erica reaped all the benefits :D

I should maybe mention as well that I'm currently doing a smallfandom fest prompt where the "pairing" requested is again Erica/Jack/Hobbes which implies e/j and j/h but I'd feel odd not making it also e/h (especially since you can only supply one 'pairing' in the fest and so can't also request e/h/j). So far I think I'm on the right lines making it a threesome, though I'd probably get away with any combinations therein...

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

I haven't written any threesome fic as of yet because I think I'm very specific about the kind of threesome fic I like and I think it would be VERY hard to write. Essentially, I only like threesomes if all partners in the relationship are treated equally (If the attraction exists and is explored for all three people.) I say this because a lot of threesome fic is pairing A/B with a little C thrown into the mix without really making that person an equal in the relationship. Which is okay if it's just about sex but if it's anything more than that, I need all parties involved to be on the same page.

As far as tagging goes, I think there should be a different between J/E/H & E/H/J but more often than not, there is no difference. If I was tagging an OT3 piece, I'd see which character I told the POV from and that person would be the name I listed first. If I switched POV throughout the piece, I'd see if I focused on one character more than the others and list that character first. After that, I don't think it matters as much where you place the other names...BUT...Most fandoms with popular OT3s already have an established way to tag fic so one needs to take that into consideration, as well.

[meridian_rose]

Thanks for the input :)

I do approach a threesome as needing it to be a triad not a triangle, so there's a/b, b/c and a/b implied and/or explored. I'm not sure there is a difference in tagging where this is the case but if it isn't the case (a/b and b/c but not a/c) then I agree that tagging it differently does make sense.

Using POV is a really interesting point and one I'll keep in mind :D (I almost always use third person and might switch POV a number of times, especially if exploring the different pairings therein)

And I haven't seen anything definite for most threesomes (V, LotS are the only ones I've investigated/written at present) but I did think that it might be a fandom issue that it's a/b/c and never b/c/a so thanks for the heads up and I'll keep that in mind for fandoms I'm just venturing into.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

Here are two fics that I point out when trying to explain the types of OT3 pieces I like:

Inara/Jayne/River (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4061608/1/) - It's only tagged Jayne/River but it really is a 3some fic and it's the piece that helped me define what I want in my OT3s :D

Elizabeth/John/Cam (http://miera-c.livejournal.com/612841.html) - This fic is completely AU but the characters are all very recognizable.

[meridian_rose]

Thanks for the recs! I'll check them out :D

[meridian_rose]

I should maybe mention as well that I'm doing a smallfandom fest prompt where the "pairing" requested is Erica/Jack/Hobbes which implies e/j and j/h but I'd feel odd not making it also e/h (especially since you can only supply one 'pairing' in the fest and so can't also request e/h/j). So far I think I'm on the right lines making it a threesome, though I'd probably get away with any combinations therein...

[lar_laughs.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks about tagging like this!

I've only just come into interest in threesomes and I will say that part of that new interest is a fic that I found on AO3 because it was tagged with all the permutations so I was looking for a pairing but decided to check out the threesome fic anyway.

I usually only tag the pairing that is featured but if another pairing is prominent, I will tag that as well. Sometimes I will read a fic even if my favorite pairing isn't the dominant pairing. You didn't ask that question but I thought I would bring it up. *grins*

I have no preference in the order and will most often do it in alphabetical order because that's how I was taught when I first came to fandom.

[meridian_rose]

It's the information scientist in me :D Thanks for the input. I think that's a great point about getting a wider audience, and if it's somewhere like A03 which encourages tagging and makes it easy to give multiple tags it's probably beneficial to do so!

That's interesting about alphabetical tagging; the darkfest insists crossovers are listed alphabetically (burn notice/white collar and not the other way around) but I hadn't come across it before then.

It's nice not to have hard and fast rules about tagging across the board but with specific challenges and the like I can see why it's required :D