Hey, you guys

[potentiality_26]

Is there a generally accepted term for... let's call it "Comfortable UST"?  This is for a fic, and I know that on AO3 I may coin "Comfortable UST" if I so desire, I'm just wondering a terminology is already out there.

See, in most fic I've read, UST is a bad, angsty thing.  What I'm going for is more, "There's tension here.  It will be resolved, not now, but later, and everyone involved is okay with that."
 

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Not that I've ever heard. But then ust is generally one-sided...

*HUGS*

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

*hugs*

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

Can you elucidate on there being okayness about tension? I'm not grasping the circumstances.

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Well, grammatically speaking, tension is a negative word, but my understanding is that 'strong sexual attraction (from both parties) that has not been- or cannot be- consummated at this time' can equal 'unresolved sexual tension' under certain circumstances. And that unconsummated attraction can be played for angst, but what I'm going for is something that implies that it isn't angsty, it's just a transitional stage between 'acted on' and 'not acted on' that isn't particularly fraught.

I'm probably still explaining that really badly.

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

Oh, actually you explained that just fine.

[chamilet]

I've never thought of UST as angsty. I've always seen it as sexy. I don't know that it needs a modifier.

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

I see it that way too, but people seem to all have their own idea of what UST means. I ended up just tagging the fic as pre-ship.

[liliannabelle.livejournal.com]

Yup I agree. I am showing my internet age here but I did a double take here when I read in your post "in most fic I've read, UST is a bad, angsty thing. "
because I joined the internet through XFiles fandom, when UST (which was probably the very first net acronym I learned, thanks to Mulder and Scully!) was a sublimely AWESOME thing! It was almost always preceded by an adjective like "their delicious UST" or "The crackling UST" or "the unbelievably HAWT UST" ... you get the point...it was rarely angsty. Or if it was, it was a good angst!

Yeah so I LOVE some good UST. The more UST, the better the RST! (IRL as well as in fiction!) But then I can't think of an instance of "UST" being used to describe unrequited feelings--even if one or both characters don't REALIZE their feelings are returned, it's all the sweeter when they are revealed to be reciprocated. If you had one character pining after another who really DIDN'T like them that way, then I wouldn't personally call that UST, because for it to be sexual tension, it has to be two parties involved. If it's just one person pining/hoping, well then it's just tragic :_(

I'm glancing at your fandom list to find (canon) examples of my own understanding of UST:

Kira/Odo
Rumbelle in Skin Deep
STTNG: Riker/Troi, Captain/Doctor
TW: Jack/everyone :) but esp Jack/Gwen, Jack/Ianto, but I would argue NOT Toshiko/Owen, because that's the sad kind of unrequited

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

I think you're probably right that it could be just a changing in the use of the term. I like slow burn romance, so even if at the end of the story the characters still haven't actively gotten together it's not necessarily a bad thing. But if you cast your eyes over a couple of the earlier comments, you see that some don't see UST that way. I think a lot of the stories I've seen it on these days are to do with the two characters liking each other but not being able to do anything because of reasons oh how sad- you know?

I totally agree about about Rumbelle having good UST back in the early days. Picard and Dr. Crusher too. Not so sure about Kira and Odo, though. I thought that was actually pretty tragic before they got together, but that could be a case of interpretation.

Owen and Tosh though. :(