Quick Poll

[piecesofalice]

Flisty, can I bend your ear for a second?

When writing fic featuring partners of the policing variety, aside from dialogue, do you feel is it best to call them by their last names (as per canon) through the prose, or by first name?

EXAMPLE!

Charlie was eating a banana. Dani turned to him and groaned, "Crews, can you not?"

OR!

Crews was eating a banana. Reese turned to him and groaned, "Crews, can you not?"


[Poll #1776863]


Discuss. I'd actually like to hear other's opnions on this - writers and readers - because I feel it has a great deal with throwing me out of a story sometimes.

Comments

[anr]

I go with half-half. If I'm writing from Charlie's point of view, then I would refer to him in text as Charlie (because I don't see him thinking of himself as "Crews") but he would think of Dani as "Reese" because that's how he sees her. (And, naturally, vice versa if the fic is from Dani's pov.)

Charlie's pov:
Charlie was eating a banana. Reese turned to him and groaned, "Crews, can you not?"

Dani's pov:
Crews was eating a banana. Dani turned to him and groaned, "Crews, can you not?"

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Depends entirely on the fandom. For instance, I would expect it in an X-Files story, or Law & Order, even The Mentalist. But not in White Collar, not in Numb3rs (except sometimes in dialogue), not in The Sentinel...

Basically, I go by how the characters refer to each other in the show.

Didn't vote in the poll, but...

[silentg-canada.livejournal.com]

I only write in the CI fandom, and what I do is, I go with whatever is common in Canon for dialogue and narrative, unless doing something different helps with the development of the story. For instance, if I'm writing about Goren and Eames during a time of conflict (like the Purgatory era), I might refer to BG as 'Goren' in both dialogue and exposition to demonstrate their distance. Conversely (since Goren almost always refers to Eames by her last name) I might switch to Alex in exposition to help demonstrate if Goren is feeling closer to her than usual, even if it's not evident in their interactions.

[suspiriorum.livejournal.com]

I suppose it really depends. What level of intimacy is going on here? If they become closer than partners/work related, then using first names makes sense. You just stick with what works and is IC for them.

This reminds me of the IB fandom and how the Basterds and all military personnel were, by a good part of the fandom, not referred to by their first names, even in intimate fic situations.

Idk, I hated it. It's not Zoller/Shosanna, dammit! Fredrick! It's Fredrick! Unless their portmanteau name is Zoshsanna. Because that's pretty sexy, ngl.

Dieter/Bridget sounds so much nicer than Hellstrom/Bridget. I noticed she got called von Hammersmark a lot, too.

/weird tangent