#Au is exclusively ship based

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Inutilia Truncat

Pairing: Sketchbook (Kaisa/Johanna)

Summary: Inutilia truncat: one of the five latim mottos of the arcadist, or neoclassical movement. Literally translates to "cut out that which is not useful"

Kaisa is an English and History major in the University of Trolberg. Her biggest pride has always been excelling in everything she set herself to, at whatever cost. One of her seminars, however, has been a hinderance to her, leaving the girl with no choice but to swallow her pride and seek out the one person who seems to know what they're doing better than her.

Notes: YAAAAAAAY I'm posting again!! You guys, You've no idea how freaking happy I was when the idea for this fic struck me in like, late November (thanks to that flower anon, whose fic I still want to read :’)) and I was able to write again. I hope you enjoy this as much as I've been enjoying working on it

Also, amazing news!! For the first time ever, I have a beta reader! Huuuuge thank you to @waddles-ex-machina for not only letting me ramble to her about this verse, but also for proof reading this so kindly. You made the process of working on this fic even more fun <3

One last thing before I allow you to go on and read it, please be mindful that all of my knowledge on the inner workings of universities outside of my country comes from reading other college aus and watching Monster’s University. And that is *it*. So I am asking you to suspend your disbelief and focus on the gays instead of the logic

Read it on ao3

Kaisa barely refrained from snapping the pencil she was holding in two. It had happened again.

Of course, what she did instead was take a deep breath and swiftly wriggle her way out of the mass of students that were heading to the English department’s notice board. It wasn’t out of shame that she went away; regardless of not being in the top of that class, her score had been high enough to be proud of, even for her. Rather, it was because being in the middle of a crowd only ever made her feel uncomfortable, and because with her current state of nerves she wouldn’t put it past her to snap one of her classmates in half.

And it was all because of her.

Kaisa had spent her first two years in college delighting in the classes taught by professors who shared their scores publicly. Up until now, she had been consistently getting the highest grades out of everyone who took the same disciplines as her, acing every test and perfectly completing every assignment. Any voices who insisted that she hadn’t deserved her scholarship, that she wasn’t smart enough, that her getting upper education was a waste of time had either been silenced or become inaudible in the bubble of self satisfaction that Kaisa had painstakingly managed to submerge herself in. 

That is, of course, until she signed up for the neoclassicism seminar this semester and had begun constantly getting lower grades than that damned Art History major. Kaisa had nothing against her, personally. Though the girl’s far-too-bright personality had startled her on their first day of class - nothing wrong with the greeting, Kaisa just wasn’t used to people on campus talking to her for no apparent reason, and really, why did this random student introduce herself to her on the first day completely out of the blue? - she hadn’t given much thought to her until the first grade came out on the History department’s notice board. Kaisa’s essay, which she had worked on through the night until it was flawless in her eyes, had still scored lower than that of the person she’d begun to think of as Golden Retriever Girl.

It wasn’t that Kaisa didn’t know her name. After so many graded assignments (and this professor in particular liked them a lot), she’d had enough chances to stare at Golden Retriever Girl’s name to memorise it five times over. And Johanna Magnolia Pearson would somehow, magically, inexplicably, always score higher than Kaisa.

Though the first few times it had happened Kaisa had only swallowed down her frustration and promised herself to work harder next time, it had become a bothersome pattern and something that was actually causing her irritation even when she wasn’t actively thinking about it. It was, therefore, something she had to fix immediately, because an irritated mind can’t focus, can’t be productive, and can only disappoint. 

If she talked to Tildy, the woman who had been her mother for as long as her mind could remember, and the very reason she had been given a chance at university, she was sure she’d be dismissed as worrying over a non-issue, and be told she should be proud to be the second best student on the seminar. She couldn’t blame her for it; Tildy had been with her all the time, but she hadn’t lived her life. She couldn’t know what it was like to have to prove yourself all the time to the people around you.

So she couldn’t go to Tildy, which meant she had to solve it herself. And though she could try simply copying Golden Retriever Girl’s actions - sitting in the front seats, asking lots of questions and being extremely active in class discussions - that couldn’t possibly be where she was failing, since her trustworthy seat at the back corners and her strategy of silently observing and jotting down notes on her notebook had never failed her on any of her other disciplines. Neither did she think that muscling through this course even harder was the answer. If she pushed herself any harder, Kaisa was actually afraid she might faint, and that would definitely affect her efficiency.

Bracing herself for the task ahead, Kaisa balled her fists by her side and stiffly walked down the two flights of stairs that led to the courtyard, leaving the mass of desperate students behind her fighting to see their grades. If she wanted to talk to anyone else in her seminar, she’d simply wait for them by the notice board until they managed to get a glimpse at their score on their latest exam. But not Golden Retriever Girl. No, for some reason, she never stayed to look at the score sheet with all of their grades as soon as they were divulged like the rest of them, instead climbing down those stairs to head to places unknown after every single lecture. Not that Kaisa had been observing her. That would have been creepy.

The Humanities building, unlike the other ones in their university, was very quaint and old-styled, due to it having been the first to be built, shortly after the founding of Trolberg. Kaisa climbed down the stone stairs, and the tall ceilings made her steps echo. Autumn had barely begun, so it was still relatively warm outside and the inside was fresh without having to be cooled. The scent of grass became noticeable once the first flight was over, making Kaisa realise that she was probably going to enter the building’s gardens for the first time since she began studying there. She had known it was there, she could see it through the windows, but they didn’t lead anywhere in particular and she never had time to dedicate to admiring them, so it had simply slipped her mind to go meet the grounds.

She supposed that would change today.

The staircase ended in a corridor which had on its left side a wall filled with rows of classroom doors, and on the right a few columns for supporting the ceiling with stone benches between them. Students occupied some of those, reading or listening to music on their headphones or furiously typing away on their notebooks, but Kaisa did not recognize on any of them the head of auburn curls she was looking for.

The garden was beautiful, that was the first thing she noticed once she stepped outside into it. The grass was well kept and neat paths filled with gravel led to a fountain in the middle. The Humanities building surrounded it on all sides, making it a rectangular haven in the middle of it. But it was a contained, boring sort of beauty if you asked Kaisa. There were no butterflies or any other sort of more interesting animal in sight, the ground had been cleaned off of any typical autumn leaves, and its little flower beds certainly paled when compared to the wildflowers in Tildy’s yard.

But still, Kaisa supposed, it was nice. The little Tildy voice in her head told her to stop being such a grump, and she could see why people would like to spend their time there. 

Following the gravel path in front of her with her gaze, she spotted the person she had been looking for right on the edge of the fountain, shoulders hunched forward and immersed in whatever it was that she was writing on the sketchbook she was holding. That’s what she couldn’t even wait until she saw the test’s results to do?, Kaisa thought bitterly.

She knew her bitterness wasn’t directed at miss Golden Retriever, though. It was at herself, for not doing better, and at the fact that someone was doing so well in their class seemingly without feeling like they were selling their soul to their studies like Kaisa did. So she bit down on her tongue, twisting her ring around her finger like she usually did when nervous or bored, and stepped onto the gravel, feeling and hearing it crunch under her boots with each step. This was the mature thing to do. Better to get it done already, quick, easy and (mostly) painless.

When Kaisa got close enough that her feet were noticeable in the girl’s field of vision, Johanna’s writing hand became still and she lifted her eyes to her, removing her earphones when she realised that the person she was seeing was coming in her direction, and honest to God smiling when she recognized who exactly that was. It wasn’t a wide, toothy grin but it felt just as bright, lifting the corner of her lips high and making the skin over her cheekbones flush only slightly. Kaisa wavered for a moment. After their first interaction, she hadn’t ever talked to that woman again. She had absolutely no business looking that happy to see her, and neither had her heart in doing such a stupid little somersault in the face of her smile.

“Hi!” Golden Retriever Girl greeted warmly. Kaisa was coming to wonder if that was the only way she knew how to do things.

“Hello.” Kaisa shifted her weight from one foot to the other, suddenly self-conscious and rethinking this whole interaction. Why had she thought this was a good idea? This was stupid. She was stupid. What was she doing, acting like her being the best student on campus was something that the universe owed to her? Was she really so immature? She should have taken this to therapy, for fuck’s sake, not to the classmate she had only ever exchanged five words with.

“Lovely day, isn’t it?” The golden retriever cut through her train of thought, bringing Kaisa back to the present and preventing her from spiralling further down. “I don’t usually see you around the gardens, though. What brings you here?”

Had Kaisa been a bit more grounded, she would have noticed the implicit ‘I pay attention to whether or not you’re around’ hidden in Johanna’s words. That not being the case, however, she was only able to notice (and be thoroughly confused at) how Johanna sat up straighter and tapped the place next to her on the fountain’s edge when she, with all the dignity she could muster, informed her that she had come looking for Johanna, actually.

“Well, it’s good to talk to you again, Kaisa!” Closer now that she had sat down besides her, Kaisa could see that Johanna looked like she truly meant it. Her smile hadn’t once left her face, and she had grown even more flushed. She wondered if maybe it was the heat, even though the sun was already setting and Johanna was sitting on a place which the building cast a shadow over. Even though it was not hot at all. “Forgive me, but what is it you study, again? You told me when we met, but I’m afraid I’ve forgotten.”

Kaisa had not, in fact, told her what she studied. When the Golden Retriever Girl had introduced herself on their first seminar, she had been too stunned that someone with so much energy was talking to her (or, even more pathetically, that anyone at all who didn’t want something from her was talking to her), that she hadn’t really aced that social interaction. She had said her name when asked (and was surprised to find out now that the girl remembered, even if she herself had memorized her full name), but when Johanna said she was an Arts History major, Kaisa herself had only said “cool” and continued to try and find a place in her used and almost-full textbook for that subject. Which, in hindsight, had probably been why Johanna had given up on trying to talk and had left to find her seat.

Why had Kaisa thought that this was a good idea, again?

“I’m on English and History.” She said, and Johanna let out an appreciative hum. It looked like Golden Retriever was about to try and begin to make small talk around that, but before she could Kaisa spoke up again. “This may seem a bit random, but I was wondering if you could help me.”

“Oh!” A glimpse of disappointment crossed Johanna’s eyes for just a second, and the left corner of her lip twitched just so, but Kaisa was completely unaware. “Of course. What can I do for you?”

As she asked it, Golden closed her sketchbook, and in doing so brought Kaisa’s attention to it. Now that she was closer, she could see for a split second that in it weren’t writings as she had thought, but drawings. She supposed that made sense, given the girl’s area of studies.

Kaisa didn’t feel the need to clarify which class it was that they took together, since Golden Retriever Girl seemed to remember her, so she went straight to the point.

“You’re doing well at the seminar.” She began, looking straight forward and not at the expectant face by her side. If looking at people’s eyes already made her lose focus normally, it was especially so when that person already unnerved her in any way. And especially so when said person’s eyes were a mesmerizingly beautiful shade of hazel when observed closely. “Like, exceedingly well. Phenomenally. I never see you stay and look at the grades, so I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but you had the best grade in class on every graded activity so far. The results for our first exam are just out, by the way. You did it again. Congratulations, an impressive 9,5 on that honestly evil test.”

Not before Kaisa could worry about coming across as creepy for knowing her score, but before she could apologise for it, the girl laughed. Not a full belly sound, but a cute little snort that she seemed to have been holding back.

“You must think I’m so laid back! I always come here after the seminar because it’s dusk, and it’s honestly so gorgeous from here that I don’t want to lose it. But after the sun is set I always climb back there and see the results. Thank you for telling me, though, I had been worried about that exam. I don’t think the professor had our best interests in mind when she wrote it, honestly.”

Kaisa made an agreeing sound with the back of her throat. A part of her wanted to rush to assure that she hadn’t thought of Johanna as lazy or happy-go-lucky in any way, but that wasn’t actually true. Besides, the curious and honest part of her brain won out over the social skills part of her brain in the end (though, given past experiences, she wondered if her brain even had a social skills sector at all).

“Why, though? I mean, the buildings block the view from all sides, it’s not like you can actually see the sunset. The sky gets some pretty colours, but can’t you see those from the windows?”

Beside her, Johanna chuckled. Kaisa heard the sound close to her ear, and felt the small rush of air from her mouth on her skin. When she turned, she saw the glimmer on Golden’s eyes. It felt weird, being that close to someone. And it felt new, that the chuckle hadn’t sounded diminishing, or ironic, but rather like she was looking at something sweet. Like Kaisa was something pure and worth protecting.

“Look around.” Golden whispered, and Kaisa did, trying her best to see it through her eyes. The students coming out of their classrooms all around them. The gentle chatter of friends who were meeting to study together, or to carpool home. The beginnings of an evening breeze toying with the ends of their hair. The soft light that made even the well-trimmed trees look mysterious, and their nearly completely golden leaves glow.

Oh.

There was a moment of extreme softness, watching all the beauty around them, its mundanity making it no less special, and even a bit more so. If they were in a movie, it would be a cue for sweet classical music to begin playing, Kaisa thought, symbolising a growing bond between the two protagonists or whatever. She wasn’t a cinema major. So, of course, she ruined it by clearing her throat and going back to the task at hand.

If she was anything like a movie protagonist, she wouldn’t have lost her top-of-every-class title, now, would she?

“You have a point. Anyway, I came here to ask you if you have any tips for studying this subject. I generally draw schemes while reading the textbook and then look for practice exercises. It has worked well so far, but clearly you have something that works better. You don’t have to share it if you don’t want to, of course, but if there’s any tips you could give me, I’d be grateful.”

Golden Retriever Girl only stared at her for a beat, her silence making Kaisa retrace her words and wonder if she’d said anything offensive. When her answer came, it startled her enough to make Kaisa turn to glare at her.

“I don’t do anything special. I just enjoy it?”

“Enjoy it?” Kaisa asked with the tone of someone who felt like there had been an attempt to fool her, and hadn’t fallen for it. Golden gave no signs of falsehood, though. She only shrugged and turned her eyes down to the closed sketchbook on her lap, twirling her pencil around.

“Yeah. I relate a lot to neoclassicism. I spent my first years in my grandfather’s cottage out in the wilderness, so all the paintings of farm life feel familiar to me. Like they’re images that are close to my heart. Also the fugere urbem feeling in the writings speak really deeply to me, I had a hard time adapting when my parents brought me over to Trolberg when I was a child. I think that’s all there is, really. My study strategy doesn’t come close to being as neat as yours. I just… enjoy it.”

It shouldn’t have left Kaisa speechless, but it did. She didn’t even know why, it wasn’t like it was something out of this world. She herself had chosen her major, and this seminar, because of affinity, but somewhy it simply hadn’t crossed her mind that passion alone could get you that far. Which wasn’t to say that the Golden Retriever Girl (and really, she had been talking to her for a full five minutes, so maybe she should stop thinking about her that way) didn’t put in the effort; her behaviour in class alone was enough to tell Kaisa that that wasn’t the case. But being told that actually, that was the secret to her success wasn’t something she had even considered. Hell, most times Kaisa was so busy studying for all her classes she actually forgot that she had ever enjoyed her subjects to begin with.

“I see.” She said, hoping to not seem rude to the person who by this point already had reasons to think she was a stalker. Luckily, it didn’t seem like Johanna had taken offence.

“You don’t seem convinced.” She said playfully. “I have something to suggest. Why don’t we have our next study session for this seminar together?”

This snapped Kaisa out of her surprised haze.

“For real?”

“I mean, yeah, why not? If you’d like it, that is. I know some people only study well alone, and I totally respect it if that’s your case. But if you’d like to give it a go, I’m sure it would be fun. And you’d get to see how my studying isn’t nearly as effective as yours.”

She was smirking at her, and looking like she was actually hoping for Kaisa to say yes, for some reason. And though all her instincts told her to come up with an excuse to not do it, she couldn’t actually think of a single reason why that was a bad idea.

“Sure.”

Johanna blinked, and Kaisa realised that though she had been hoping for it, Johanna hadn’t actually expected her to say yes.

That’s what you get for ignoring someone who tries to make small talk on the first day.

“Great!” Golden chirped. “You free on Saturday?”

Kaisa mentally opened her schedule in her mind’s eye. Saturday was when the Sparrow Scouts had events, sometimes. She couldn’t remember if the one Frida had asked her to tag along to was this one or the next.

“I’m not sure, to be honest. I think my little sister asked me to go with her to a scouts thing, but I could have gotten the date wrong. I get really confused with my appointments when I have exams, it feels like my mind erases any information unrelated to them. Can I check that and get back to you?”

“Sure! Give me your hand.”

Kaisa blinked with surprise. Partly because she had half been expecting Johanna to give up on the idea. After all, why would she bother insisting on something she’d get nothing out of? Mostly, though, because being asked to give her her hand hadn’t really seemed to have been in the realm of possible answers. She did as she was told, however, and Kaisa watched as Johanna picked a ball-point pen from her jacket’s breast pocket and took it to her palm.

Too confused and focused on watching Golden Retriever Girl’s face to see what she was writing, Kaisa didn’t notice what it was right away. After having finished, she let her go and smiled once more.

“There you go! Text me or call me when you have the answer, whichever you prefer. I’ll see you around?”

She probably wouldn’t see her around, that was the only class they were taking together that semester and it only happened once a week, but Kaisa found herself nodding anyway. Having completed her goal (sort of), she stood up just as the first lamps began being turned on around them. It wasn’t nearly as pretty anymore with the artificial light, but somehow Johanna’s smile didn’t look any less bright. Kaisa bid her goodnight and got a “goodbye” handwave in response, walking away before she could fully process that interaction, and way before she allowed herself to interpret her emotions during it.

It was only when she was taking the long walk home, practically alone on the sidewalk of the highway that connected their campus to the city, that it occurred to her to check what had been written on her skin before she put on her noise canceling headphones and begun listening to a recording of the Advanced Grammar lecture she’d had in the morning.

She pulled back her sweater, which had only not been covering the tips of her fingers, to find a phone number and a winky face. Underneath, she had written “Jo from the seminar”, as if Kaisa could possibly forget.

That girl was insane, that was Kaisa’s verdict. When she got home and told this story to Tildy, she’d be advised to let this insanity rub off on her a bit, it would do her good.

And well, she had gone to her to learn her secret, hadn’t she?

[allpiesforourown]

I know people hate “bully/victim” ships so IM SORRY theres just a silly modern au bully bingge idea i’ve been thinking about a lot lately .

cw for the above mentioned dynamic!!

Luo Binghe getting into some exclusive academy after finding out about his family’s inheritance. He immediately hates all these out of touch rich people… all of them except for Shen Yuan. 

They have a basic meet cute. Shen Yuan spills Binghe’s coffee and offers to buy him a new one, giving him a tour of their campus while they’re out. He introduces him to the librarians and the office staff. Binghe is certain this is way too good to be true, and Shen Yuan has got to have some ulterior motive. 

One some base level he knows Shen Yuan is a good person that is being kind for him for no particular reason. He’s seen him do the same for other people. But the idea of him being just one of the many people Shen Yuan is friendly with makes him feel bitter and self-conscious. So he’s like fuck it, I hate Shen Yuan actually he’s gotta be a green tea bitch or something (because if he’s not it will literally shatter his world-view if he finds out not all people are greedy and bad) 

Hear me out . listen. Pushing someone around is something that can be so homoerotic

Bingge picking on Shen Yuan and being super, super aroused the whole time. He’ll dump water on shen yuan as a joke, then ignore everyone else laughing bc shen yuan’s shirt is sticking to his skin and his nipples got hard because the water was cold-

Or he’ll take shen yuan’s glasses and hold it above his head so shen yuan has to stand on his tip toes and come really close to try to grab it back (one time he even tripped and fell against binghe’s chest!!) Because he’s nearsighted, sometimes Shen Yuan will even forget to put distance between their faces and be within kissing range while he argues with Binghe. 

Once he snuck into the changing room and stole shen yuan’s clothes so he would have to walk back to his dorm in his swim trunks. He definitely didn’t take pictures of Shen Yuan’s blushing face walking back to his room half naked and he definitely didn’t keep the clothes and sniff them like a weirdo haha…

It’s an average day for them (Binghe takes shen yuan by the wrists and holds him against the wall and calls him a fragile little princess and taunts him by saying he’s not strong enough to break out of his hold. Prime bullying tactic for someone you’re in love with 1. Binghe gets to see live reaction of sy’s face when he’s pinned down and struggling and can save that image for later use 2. Physical closeness, they’re practically pressed together 3. Shen yuan bruises easily and seeing binghe’s handprints on his wrists for like a week is super satisfying 4. Binghe can call him romantic pet names like princess or wife and shen yuan will just think binghe is calling him effeminate as an insult) 

Luo Binghe even lifts Shen Yuan’s hands above him to catch both wrists with one hand and says, “You can’t even get out if I only use one hand?” It makes Shen YUan flush red from humiliation in suuuch an adorable way. 

So anyway, Binghe is picking on shen yuan in the back room of some office somewhere, doing his whole routine because he’s been hurt too many times in life to be vulnerable with someone again and this is his only way to achieve intimacy with the person he loves. He’s been saving the “are you sure you’re a man? Maybe I should check” card for a long time and he’s so excited to use it. He’ll even say something about Shen Yuan’s dick being so short, he should just wear a skirt and become a real man’s wife, and that’s BULLYING, it’s NOT a kink, binghe does NOT jerk off to the thought of Shen Yuan wearing short dresses and greeting him home, he DOESN’T. (he does) 

Before he can fulfill this amazing plan, Liu Qingge, another man in their year, barges in?? Obviously, they fight and Binghe’s chance to feminize his crush slips through his fingers

The worst thing is ??? Liu Qingge rescued Shen Yuan like some righteous prince saving the damsel in a fairy tale. Shen Yuan is not allowed to have a storybook romance with someone else! He hates Liu Qingge so much it’s unreal

It becomes impossible to corner Shen Yuan and get some time alone. He and that Qingge guy are together more and more often. Liu Qingge is in the library carrying Shen Yuan’s books now? Now they’re always hanging out on the grass having lunch?? They’re discussing what electives they can take together?!?! 

It’s been like a month since he’s gotten to properly tease shen Yuan and he needs it bad. If he doesn’t pull down shen yuan’s pants in public to embarrass him (and see his ass) soon, he might actually die. 

Then he spots him: Shen Yuan walking to class. Unaccompanied.

Luo Binghe is so overcome with exhilarated relief, he doesn’t even think about what he’s gonna do. He just runs over, ignores Shen Yuan’s screaming, throws him over his shoulder like a bag of rice, and carries him away. 

Shen Yuan freaks the hell out because, okay, petty insults and light fighting are one thing, but he’s straight up getting kidnapped?? That’s not bullying anymore, that’s a crime!! 

Binghe knows he only has so much time before Qingge manages to find them. He needs somewhere he can hide – he races back to his room before he can plan any further. He throws Shen Yuan on the bed, locks the door, and sighs in relief. 

Shen Yuan is sure he’s gonna die. He has no idea what he ever did to piss Binghe off so bad. Yes, he spilled his coffee, but he got him another one! 

Binghe takes a seat on the bed as well. He averts his eyes away from him bashfully, but glances back periodically like a maiden trying to play coy. Shen yuan has no idea how to navigate whats happening. He backs up on the bed until he hits the wall and holds up a pillow like a shield, except- there’s something underneath. 

It’s the cucumber patterned gag boxers he got as a joke from airplane. No one in the world would buy them. “Is- is this my underwear?” 

Binghe lunges at him to knocks the evidence out of Shen Yuan’s hand, but instead pushes him onto his back and ends up with his hands on either side of Shen Yuan’s head. 

Shen Yuan is shocked in place. Binghe, on the other hand, is in bullying-cute-boy withdrawl. He sees Shen Yuan's beautiful face flustered by their position, on Binghe's bed, and POUNCES.

Now that Shen Yuan finally understands his feelings, Binghe has permission to torment him! And he does. For hours, with various tools and against every surface. 

[deconstructivesurgery]

not to rain on everyone's parade, but sometimes i do think there's something almost sad to me about the fact that I have seen so much stanley parable fandom content that exclusively revolves around alternate universes that have progressively grown further and further off-track from the narrative of the original game to an extent that i find barely recognizable at times. something about how whether or not it's true (i can't tell people that they don't enjoy something 'enough', i have no metric by which to measure how cherished the original is to people making this content) it almost feels like one of those cases where fanon precedes canon in terms of how much enjoyment people find in the content, as if people wanted the story to be *more* than it was to an extent that makes them override the original mentally. i think it doesn't help that a lot of people perceive fandom content as existing to fill some kind of 'deficit' in an original work- to give people what they didn't get in the original, so to speak. you've probably heard the spiel about how tragic tales have the most coffee shop AUs drifting around in their fandom tags, and such. the difference is that in most cases, those coffee shop AUs aren't more commonly posted about than the source they're based on. i can't really say the same for the stanley parable at this point. people are so enamored with AUs and versions of the game's story involving modifications of the narrator or the limited range of setting laid out by the game itself that i'm sad to say i don't see people engaging much with actual moments from the game itself all that often.

is that just a matter of personal preference? yeah, totally, but it does make me sad. I really *like* the fact that the Parable is so limited. I think it does the narrative a massive service that there truly is no finite ending or escape, that the Narrator is never given form nor further interactability with the game, that nothing ever goes wrong or changes in a way that matters. It's a fundamental part of the narrative to me. Changing that is fun to people, and I get that- but at some point to me it just feels like so much about what I love about the game's narrative is just being reduced to the meaningless backdrop to shipping and the opportunity for something people Want to see more.

[loullaby]

PSA time: I watch the show because I love it, and I love the main characters, but since they are the main characters, we get a lot about them on the show.

So when i come here, i wanna obsess about things that are not on the show, like side characters, headcanons, AU fanfics and things I'll never get in canon. I'm well aware those things are not gonna happen, I just like to talk about it because it's fun.

yeah, some people take things not happening like they hoped way too seriously, but going to people's inboxes to complain about their complains or writing posts about how bucktommys only care about the ship is condescending.

people can enjoy the episode for what it was while being disappointed it wasn't what they thought. those two things aren't mutually exclusive.

we had good theories about tommy being involved based on logic, like the episode being inspire by a movie where a pilot gets inside the plane through the hole and the 217 engine being there, so it wasn't that much of a stretch thinking he might be there. so calling people who are disappointed "annoying like buddies", the fandom that came up with the lasagna theory, it's not it.

[kinnoth]

The fuckin garbage thing is that radahn/miquella should have been a use-the-force-luke guided missile right up my specific fucking alley, I mean:

- fatalistic ideologue + devoted vassal? 👍

- literal star crossed lovers?? 👍👍

- gods cursed to fates they simultaneously strive for and yet do not fully understand???? 👍👍👍

- brotherfuckers?????? 😮

And yet there is so little substance to this ship that I can't even make up something to do with it. It's just. A dead end of zero buildup, zero interactions, zero environmental details, just a couple item descriptions that are totally exclusive to the AU bubble of the DLC and not foreshadowed or hinted at anywhere else

Like it would not have been difficult to include .... Literally anything that tied radahn personally to miquella in the base game. Give him a single haligtree crest on his armour somewhere, have him use even one of miquella's miracles, sneak in there somewhere that he's got mysterious beef with mohg, have him wearing a golden lock of mystery hair in his-- like, fromsoft, this is literally your whole deal, this is the reason your games have a whole category of games named after them, if you are not supposed to be the kings of environmental storytelling, who the fuck is?

Like I still cannot reconcile the HUGE FUCKIN PLOTHOLE that is radahn NOT throwing the fight with malenia. Like if he was a willing participant in this 5D chessmaster plan, surely the whole point of the whole war was that radahn ACTUALLY DIES at malenia's hand. But he doesn't fucking die. Radahn resists malenia for real and he doesn't fucking die. He does not throw the fight, he does not let her kill him. Like how are we supposed to reconcile that very concrete plot point with "radahn agreed to die so he could be miquella's consort"? He didn't fucking die!

Headcanon: everything related to radahn in the DLC is miquella's propaganda campaign to paint a pretty story ahead of his ascension to godhood and radahn's forcible ascension as his elden lord

[mixelation]

If you're still doing brutally honest ship opinions, then based on a comment in the Kushina/Mikoto ship, what would you think of a Mikoto/Minato ship.

I assume this is because I recently self-reblogged a meme fill for Mikoto/Kushina that I did quite a bit ago. So no, I am not doing a meme currently; I just reblogged an old answer because I found it amusing. However, I will answer anyway.

So, my take on any Minato ship is this: he has chronic Kushina-vision and will not be interested in anyone else as long as she is around. Any alternative ship to MinaKushi has to either be a threesome OR in some AU where Kushina has rejected him, never met him, died, etc. I do headcanon Minato as pretty.... idk the term, high libido? As liking sex. So in addition to any of the above scenarios, I can see him having a series of flings in his late teens/very early twenties, before he started exclusively dating Kushina and while he was actively out of the village on the battlefield, where he literally just wanted friends with benefits. But in this scenario, his goal is to eventually settle down with Kushina and he doesn't have any romantic interest in anyone else.

All that being said, Mikoto is pretty and Minato is pretty, and also I've invested a lot of time into coming up with headcanons for her to make her interesting. So I do have some vague interest in both Minato/Mikoto and Minato/Kushina/Mikoto. I'm actually not 100% sure how well their personalities would click? So I'm not sure how one could wring an epic length romance story out of this ship. But if you dig through my Minato tag (sorry, on mobile so digging up tumblr posts is annoying), I do have a concept for an affair fic where Minato and Naruto survive the Kyuubi attack but Kushina doesn't, and Mikoto ends up getting close to Minato because offers up help with baby stuff due to her friendship with Kushina. This kind of plays on my headcanon that Mikoto is attracted to powerful people, and my other perhaps weirder headcanon that Minato likes winning over difficult people and would therefore like feeling like he's luring a married woman into an affair because it feels like "winning" to him. I also wrote Minato as having been wartime fuckbuddies with Mikoto in Caution to the Wind! Buuuut I can't super see them hooking up without a bunch of convoluted factors just happening to align.

also i recently refound this fic and would recommend it: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39479514 (nsfw)

[tloupride]

The Last Of Us Pride Event: Calling All Fandom Creators

Are you involved in the TLOU fandom and have a creative hobby? Are you actively involved in the fandom and want to spread the positivity? Do you wish you could be more involved but don't know where to start?

If you answered yes to any of the above, or you're simply just curious about what a TLOU pride event could entail: the admins of this account (@consultingzoologist and @roselees) invite you to join in the fun ❤️🌈

This event encourages creativity of all types, and throughout the rest of Pride Month and beyond we will be providing themed prompts for the community to use. You're welcome to use as few or as many as you would like, and to interpret them however you see fit; the blog will also be open to submissions, and any prompt ideas are welcomed too!

Need ideas? Any creative response to the prompts would be lovely, but to name just a few examples:

Fanfics 📝 and Podfics 🎧

Whether you write long form works or exclusively one-shots, canon complaint or entire AUs - any of the prompts can be used for TLOU themed fan works.

Fanart 🎨

Do you draw digitally? Or do you hand paint your art? Either way - any of the prompts can be interpreted into art works, however you see fit.

Moodboards ✨️

A fandom classic and a lost tumblr art; how do the prompts make you feel? How would these translate into pictures?

Playlists 🎵

Like the above, what songs do the prompts make you think of? Compile a playlist of what pride in TLOU means to you, or maybe the vibes a certain character gives you.

Meta / Discussion 🤔

Maybe you just want to discuss the relationship between pride and the plot of the game, or the importance it has within the show; whatever the prompt makes you think of, we'd be happy to hear it!

Headcanons ✒️

Do you have headcanons to do with pride and the show? Now is the perfect time to share!

Of course all of these are just a guideline, if you have any other ideas to fulfill the prompts, we'll be happy to see them!

All shared fan works should be tagged with '#tlou pride exchange', and they'll be reblogged and shared here. Let's spread some more positivity within the community, and celebrate all of our brilliant creators! ❤️

(The work doesn't have to have been made exclusively for this event, either. If you have a queer themed fanwork for TLOU you want to share, regardless of when it was made, just tag us for a reblog!)

And now for the prompts...

Coming out

Queerplatonic relationship

Platonic soulmates: what platonic relationships from canon are meaningful to you?

Domestic bliss: write a fic or draw some art about your favourite pairing, romantic or platonic, enjoying some much deserved peace.

Queer romance

Queer joy

Found family: would it be Pride Month without the family we choose? Maybe talk about the meta of the trope, or your favourite instance within canon. Or how it comes into play in an AU.. the possibilities are endless!

Rarepairs: pick a pairing you wouldn't normally write/edit for, and see where the inspiration takes you! Maybe you only write TessJoel... why not try your hand at Ellie/Dina? Or perhaps you want to engage with a new platonic ship; why not take two characters that barely interact in canon, and see how it unfolds? What would happen if Joel had met Anna? How about Sarah and Ellie?

Gender identity: exactly what it says on the tin.

Pride Meta: What does queerness in The Last of Us mean to you? How does it contribute to the story?

"Nature held me close": Based on the quote from Leslie Feinberg, how does nature and queerness come together?

Pride AU: whether it be canon divergent or a modern AU, go nuts!

Remix: create some fanart, or a playlist, or even an edit for your favourite queer fic, old or new!

Music: create a fanwork based around your favourite queer anthem - bonus points if its canon complaint to the show (released before September 2003) or the game (September 2013)!

Of course, all of these are just guidelines and by no means have to be strictly adhered to, let your creativity run wild! We're excited to see what you make, and be sure to share them under the tag so we can reblog and spread the positivity further ❤️

Any comments, ideas, or want to submit a prompt of your own? Send it our way!

[verdantmeadows]

SO many people will say they're against cringe culture or anti cringe culture, and then

complain about people who care mostly or exclusively about shipping

complain about rarepairs that don't have logic to them

complain about people who self-ship in ways that are too "intense" about it, if any level of intensity at all

complain about people who are serious otherkin or "too serious" about it

complain about people who display actual symptoms of their mental illness or physical disability like not frequently bathing or brushing their teeth

complain about headcanons that aren't based in any canon info (or even headcanons that they just don't have)

complain about headcanons that go against canon

complain about "excessive" queer, disabled, etc. headcanons

complain about interpretations that they disagree with

complain about people who like certain media

complain about people with weird queer identities

complain about people with weird speech patterns

complain about people with "weird" obsessions

complain about people with "weird" but harmless opinions

complain about people who are defensive or protective over certain characters, ships, etc.

complain about people who enjoy fanfic

complain about people who like nonserious fanfic about serious things

complain about people who like trope-y AUs or AUs at all

complain about furries

complain about people's fashion choices

Feel free to add more!

[tiltingheartand]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by @hearteyestommykinard and @desert--moonchild <333

How many works do you have an AO3? 34.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 132,535.

3. What fandoms do you write for? at the moment, just 9-1-1, although i have a feeling as soon as i rewatch the sandman i’ll feel a renewed urge to write in that fandom too.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? let me in before the rainy season starts again (7337) i want to believe (3878) colliding with forever when you speak (3191) clouds the size of oceans outside and above our heads (3186) the symphony of what we are (773) (all five of these are for the sandman, btw. all dreamling.)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why? Why not? so the thing is that i want to be the kind of person who responds to every comment, but they build up and then thinking about answering them makes me anxious so i avoid them, so more build up, so i get more anxious … it’s a whole thing. and i try not to get to the point where my hobbies feel like assignments? so.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? we were warm until we went to hell, with characters from star trek (2009) in the universe of repo! the genetic opera. it’s, uh. about as cheerful as the source material. (... i.e., major character death.)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i’m dying not to hurt you, a haven fic in which i said “fuck that” to the MCD in the penultimate episode, and in which i got the ot3 from the show together. finally.

8. Do you get hate on fics? not so far (fingers crossed).

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? until a few months ago the answer to this question was “no”, but then i … started writing smut. apparently. it’s all been bucktommy so far (and probably will continue to be, tbh).

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've ever written? well considering the answer to #6 is a crossover …. anyway. not my only crossover. i think maybe the "craziest", just in terms of which media were getting mixed, is the sound of her wings -- a crossover between mash and the sandman (the comic series; this fic was written in 2006).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? no (again, fingers crossed).

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? i have not!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? no, although i help people brainstorm sometimes (or get help brainstorming). also, it's not quite fics, but i was in a bunch of text-based RPGs on LJ and DW in the long long ago.

14. What's your all time favorite ship? what a horrifying question to ask, thanks! uh. right now, probably bucktommy; ask me again in a year and that answer might change.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? i have concerns about finishing the thing i'm calling "the frequency AU", solely because it's. a lot of plot. and i have a severe tendency to get myself bogged down in details that literally nobody else gives a shit about, to the point where all writing ceases. (... actually, i'll include "hob gadling vs the wraith" here too, for the same reason.)

16. What are your writing strengths? i'm pretty good at getting characters' voices right, i think, both out loud and in their heads (i write almost exclusively third-person limited).

17. What are your writing weaknesses? scene transitions. establishing scenes, so that the thing i have pictured in my head that i'm trying to get into words is accurately conveyed to other people in a way that i don't leave a big piece of information out. where to end scenes.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? hasn't really come up for me actually? i feel like if it ever did i'd just end up going the "italicized words, and then "in [language]" after the italics" route, both for my sake and the sake of the readers.

19. First fandom you wrote for? sailor moon, the dic dub. thank god geocities is gone.

20. Favorite fics you've written? this one's a really tough call actually! i think probably a cross between we'll dance this fading life away (stargate sg-1) and the physics of this second sight has led me here (the librarians), because i was trying to write the both of them for such a long time and i'm really happy (and proud of myself, honestly) that i managed to finish them both.

tagging (with zero pressure!): @miriellesandthegiantpeach @mooshkat @26-cats-in-a-trenchcoat @smallandalmosthonest @dadvans

[thebibutterflyao3]

As a multi-shipper, I have a theory about people who ship Jily or Jegulus exclusively and am curious how accurate it is. The theory goes that exclusive shippers fall into a few camps (or a combination of them). These theories are entirely based on my own observations and not on any statistical data.

Jily-exclusive:

One, they need for Harry to exist and/or prefer straight James and/or Lily. This tends to be predominately straight people or those that prefer canon to fanon from what I’ve seen. Lily can be a very relatable character and I think some of this is a self-insert, but not necessarily everyone views it that way.

Two, they like the tidy world of Wolfstar, Dorlene, and Jily. One mlm, one wlw, one straight ship. This tends to be predominantly queer people and allies. I think it stems from the desire to see queer ships normalised in straight society. These readers/writers prefer a more realistic portrayal of these characters based somewhat in canon.

Jegulus-exclusive:

One, the opposite of the group above. They want every ship to be queer and to live a world where queer love is celebrated and accepted openly. Quite often this group is queer people who are tired of seeing homophobia as a theme in every mlm or wlw fic and who abandon canon entirely. Often, this group enjoys trans Regulus and/or James too.

Two, Drarry shippers who have joined the Marauders fandom. This group is quite varied, but already comfortable with the enemy to lovers trope, Slytherins/Gryffindors, and Potter/Black family dynamic. Jegulus is a variant of Drarry in their minds. This group is a big fan of AUs.

Three, this group want to explore darker themes and find Regulus Black to be the perfect morally-grey character to follow because he does have a redemption arc. These Jegulus shippers enjoy seeing James either drawn to the dark side or saving Regulus from it.

I would love to hear others thoughts on this. None of these groups are bad or “wrong,” it’s just what I’ve observed in the fandom.

[leoideflowers]

WELCOME TO PERSEPHONE'S GARDEN - A FLOWERSHOP RUN BY LEONA KINGSCHOLAR & IDIA SHROUD

This is an AU RP blog featuring Leona & Idia from Twisted Wonderland, more info under the cut

✿ This roleplay blog is based on a personal AU of Leona and Idia running a flower shop together. As of now, their relationship is just close friends, but that could certainly change. ✿

✿ As stated earlier, this blog is based on AU. Leona and Idia run a flowershop named Persephone's Garden located in the Sunset Savanna. ✿ They sell various flowers and gardening equipment as well as various herbs and seeds. ✿ Other RP blogs are completely free to interact, just be mindful that Leona and Idia are technically in the future of the main story. ✿ If you have any questions, feel free to ask them! I, or Leona or Idia, will happily answer them.

✿ Both Idia and Leona are adults, and so is the mod, so suggestive questions are fine but please try to stay away from just outright NSFW ✿ As stated earlier, other RP blogs are allowed and even encouraged to interact, just please be mindful that these versions of Leona and Idia might not be the exact same as the in game versions ✿ Try to refrain from sending a private dm unless necessary. ✿ Given the url of the blog, I wont do ships with other characters as Leona and Idia have Something going on.

ABOUT LEONA:

✿ In this AU, Leona is 22 years old. He runs the flower shop along with Idia and is typically the one that tends the plants and speaks to costumers. While he technically has a room in the palace, he stays in Idia's apartment most of the time. In his free time, he likes to read books and study languages. His favorite flowers are lion's tails and magnolias.

When Leona is talking, it will typically look like: L: "text"

ABOUT IDIA:

✿ In this AU, Idia is 20 years old. He runs the flower shop along with Leona and is typically the one who cleans, runs the cash register, and is in charge of anything tech or repair related. Idia moved to the Sunset Savanna's on Leona's insistence and Ortho's encouragement. Leona promised to start a flower shop with Idia to convince him to come. Idia owns a small, comfortable apartment above the flower shop. His favorite flowers are chrysanthemums and calla lilies.

When Idia is talking, it will typically look like: I: "text"

✿ Call me The Gardener. You may refer to me however you would like. ✿ This is a sideblog. I cannot directly interact or follow back, and I would rather keep my main blog private. ✿ I use tumblr exclusively on my computer, so I will not be online all of the time.

This may be updated in the future. Last updated: November 5th, 2024

[elysiandxyz]

Hey guys!! Since it’s so close to my birthday, I decided to make an early birthday gift for myself, of course in the means of my favorite comfort ship. HERES MORE KOKOBOLT FOR YOUR SOULS!!

My birthday is January 29th, I didn’t mean to get it done this early. Anyways, Kokobolt nation enjoy it!

📌 Please do not repost this without my permission! If you want to repost it or use it as a pfp, please let me know beforehand and credit me!!!

FUTURE DRAWING POSTS PLANS (Hopefully in order from now until July!):

For sure will draw! = 🌟

Planning / Not so sure = 🖋️

🌟 Valentine’s Day Exclusive Kokobolt

🌟 Angsty Kokobolt (Most likely postgame or accidental cheating prompt, maybe Hanahaki Disease)

🌟 College AU! Raincode (Inspired by a sickfic I read)

🌟 Kokobolt drawings based off of mainly @brightstarblogs (forgive me for pinging) Kokobolt fanfics as I am a HUGE fan of their work!

🖋️ Yakou Birthday drawing (5/21)

🌟 Yuma Birthday drawing (5/22)

🌟 Desuhiko Birthday drawing (7/08)

I appreciate any drawing suggestions especially for Kokobolt, I love them! Enjoy!

[cadmusfly]

I don't really go to any of your fandoms so this is unspecific, but... put two of your blorbos in the most saccharine-sweet flower shop AU possible!

I wish you would write a fic where…

🌻—🌼—🌷—🌼—🌱—🌼—🌷—🌼—🌻

Someone just fucking flower sniped him.

Gascon Weddings, the premier wedding planners and hosts (as staffed by Messieurs Murat, Bessieres and Lannes), had a long term working relationship with the local florist, and shit like this was not supposed to happen. It was the kind of relationship where you didn't need a contract, just a firm hearty handshake and no bureaucratic bullshit.

Yet when Lannes came to pick up the flowers for this week's weddings, Duroc had apologised- too much, in Lannes' opinion, the florist was an utter doormat- and said that everything this week had been bought up by a new business.

Some literal and figurative prodding had revealed the name of that business - Rhine Funerals, some swanky new outfit selling overpriced coffins in polished mahogany and lots of bullshit extras to relieve your guilt of not visiting grandpa more often before he croaked.

Duroc had admitted that the guy from Rhine Funerals - some well dressed fucker called Soult - had tried to pressure him into an exclusive supply contract - and to some extent, Lannes couldn't blame the guy, because Duroc's flowers were fucking magnificent, they must have had steroids or black magic or something in them. But Duroc had refused.

So after getting some less impressive flowers and fending off questions of why the flowers didn't look as great as in the brochures, absolutely nothing has changed madame-

Lannes found himself hanging out in front of Frioul Flowers at the asscrack of dawn, waiting for the flower sniper to show up.

And he did.

If you looked up "resting bitch face" in the dictionary, you would get this guy. Stupid hair that was trying to be a bowl cut but was just too curly, perpetual scowl, fuck, he was even wearing a suit.

Lannes greeted him most politely. "So you're the asshole buying up all of Gerry's flowers and leaving none for the rest of us!"

"It is," began the asshole, presumably Soult, "no crime to purchase works of art as these- I do have the receipts. But I beg your pardon, who are you, exactly?"

And thus began the flowery rivalry between Gascon Weddings and Rhine Funerals.

🌻—🌼—🌷—🌼—🌱—🌼—🌷—🌼—🌻

This didn't quite go in a saccharine direction! I don't usually write shippy modern AUs, my AUs tend to be more genreblending and/or Too Much Worldbuilding And Metaphysics - and my two "blorbos" are very hard to ship together - I did initially consider Lannap, but the idea of Lannes and Soult flower-sniping each other and getting into an extremely stupid rivalry based on that was suddenly very funny to me. This is not particularly shippy, but I guess in the hypothetical fanfic that this is excerpted from, it ramps up to more homoerotic silliness.

Thanks for the ask, @my-deer-friend!

[nym-wibbly]

On your AO3 you wrote The pieces I'm proudest of are the Broken Wheel series (Once Upon a Time) and Madness for Two (Doctor Who).

What made those two series stand out above others for you if it's ok to ask?

It's completely okay to ask!

Those stories are the ones that turned out on the page looking something like the vision in my head. They were relatively quick and painless to write, probably because they're so contained compared to my long fanfics, but also because I threw away some of the self-imposed constraints that make writing harder (if ultimately more likely to be attractive to a wider audience). They're more self-indulgent and removed from canon than I normally go for as either writer or reader.

Broken Wheel explores a Dark Castle-based romance for Belle and Rumple without really digging into the pitfalls of their relationship. They desire each other and they go for it. As a canon-divergent AU it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but as a fairytale take on OUaT's twist on a fairytale, it's kinda fun. It's quirky because Belle and Rumple are both quirky characters capable of becoming lost in each other to the exclusion of everything else. They spend the story exploring what's possible on their terms and - to deploy a phrase I didn't yet know when I wrote those pieces - matching each other's freak. I think it was the first time I wrote Rumple's POV, which I don't find easy or comfortable compared to Belle, so I'm proud of how that turned out.

Madness for Two is similar in a way - short, contained, smutty with feels, showing POV's I usually avoid because I find them hard. Self-indulgent, quirky, prioritising the Doctor/Master 'ship and smut over the more complex realities of their canon relationship. I wrote it for the 50th anniversary of the Master's debut on DW so I wanted to avoid really diving into the morality of it all and just celebrate my love for the characters. As with Broken Wheel's Belle and Rumple, I wrote Thirteen and the Master (and the subplot with Twelve and Missy) in an obsessive, claustrophobic, and quirky collision of personalities. Nobody matches freaks like those two!

In this case I added a MacGuffin to stop 'em actively fighting for five minutes so the story could work, not so much to enable the smut (though it was nice to do that for the Master's birthday - they've been jonesing for some quality Doctor-time in my head since the 1980's!) but to force their POV's to deal with the antagonism and intensity of their bond in words. I wanted them to describe each other as intimates and, in doing so, throw a light on themselves.

I intended both Broken Wheel and Madness for Two to be character studies first, smut second, love story third. The DW piece throws in angst and hurt comfort too, because that's my fave playground. I played with tone and voice and imagery more than I usually would and - on the whole - was happy with the results. I enjoy reading these stories back, actually seeing the story instead of the flaws in my writing/things I'd do differently now I've learned that bit more.

Lastly, they're actually finished pieces and not WIPs that keep me awake at night listening to the unfulfilled character voices in my head! I've always hoped to add a third piece to make Broken Wheel a trilogy, but it doesn't need it if I never can. I've never quite found the right narrative voice for it, maybe because it wants to be told from Belle's POV while the first two are Rumple's. It's a cute enough story from her POV, but I'd like the set to match and haven't yet figured out how to do that.

[didnt-hear-cold-as-you-live]

Having a little moving blowout sale of my Etsy shop’s backstocked inventory before I move to Aus! The shop is still going strong (working on a fun rebrand), I’m just going from having backstock and shipping myself when I’m home from tour, to exclusively having a US based warehouse ship the items.

Most things are ~$15 off the original price after shipping. Go to my Instagram and swipe through my story to shop!!! Prices with shipping included applies to US & Australian based addresses only okay please & thank you 🥺💖

[firecooking]

Hi, I know you've written and drawn a bunch of ZipCents stuff (which I really love btw). Do you have any extra headcanons or tidbits about those two, either as a pair or as individuals? Would love to hear it!

OH BOY DO I :D

Gosh lemme see lemme see [Sorry this took so long I wanted to make sure it was written well, Welcome to The Zipcents Train]

Gonna do a general section and then a section for my human au because I have words to say about both. First off generally:

I like to think that Zip is very book smart but absolutely awful with street smarts. And in opposition to that Ten is very street smart and not book smart at all. Neither is dumb in the slightest, they are just working off completely different bases of knowledge!

Ten tends to appear smarter while working in the port because hes very quick on the punch, however Zip knows the port rule book front to back and is a Very neat and particular sailor when it comes to line work.

Ten Cents is more likely to break a rule on accident or because it's more convenient\helps him get the work done in a harmless way. Zip, when working alone, will hem and haw breaking rules all day even if it makes him less efficient [well, not counting when he blatantly breaks the law for Business Reasons of course].

I tend to ship Zipcents with qpr undertones, as I do with most of my tugs shipping tbh. I think that first and foremost they enjoy spending time together. They can spend hours just sitting around without even chattering.

I think they tend to get easily embarrassed when the others talk about 'them.' Zip's a lot more gracious about it and with the other Z's he is used to jabs of any and all nature but it still gets him embarrassed. Ten on the other hand gets flustered fast and throws fits. "It's not like that," he says. "Zip's not an airhead," he defends. "So what we're courting, why's that matter?" He snaps. It's really easy to push his buttons about the whole thing.

Ten Cents absolutely does not like talking to Star about Zip in the slightest. It frustrates and embarrasses him easily and Star tends to be quick to draw conclusions. Star doesn't like this whole situation, but he's also not going to put any effort into stopping it. Zip does manage to reel in TC so Star sees the advantage to letting the two kanoodle, even if he doesn't like it. Meanwhile Zip is very transparent with Zero about everything to do with Ten Cents. They have crimes to commit and Zip marrying lines with the stupid Star Switcher is the least of his worries unless TC is actively hindering their business. Anything to keep his ships from giving him a migraine this week.

Tangentially related but I think Zip and Hercules get along pretty well. Herc can get a bit annoyed around Zip [not even really the switchers fault, Herc's just introverted] but he is very impressed that Zip can hold his own and practically tame Ten Cents.

On to my Human Au:

BzjKsjiskwoiwkwjiskw ZIPCENTS ZIPCENTS ZIPCENTS AUGH

[coughs] anyways. Zip and Ten Cents absolutely love sneaking off together at night. They don't do anything you'd figure they do, it's mostly reading and chatting and card\board games to pass the time together. Ten Cents likes listening to Zip read. Whether it's a newspaper or it's a novel Zip's chipping away at, Ten quite likes to hear Zip's voice as he reads.

Zip, like the other Z stacks, leans towards more of an anarchist view of relationships [have fun and spend quality with whoever] where Ten Cents is very exclusive and easily jealous. Zip recognizes that Ten doesn't like him getting 'cozy' with other folks and keeps himself reeled in for the most part. That will not stop the occasional slip where Zip gets in on Z Stack nonsense, to the horror and betrayal of Ten Cents. Usually Zip just needs a tap on the shoulder and he's back to focusing his attention and affection on Ten.

Ten Cents gets used to some of it eventually, when he's bought by Zero Marine in the 50s he starts to understand more that this is just how the Z Stacks act around each other and as long as nothing happens he can put up with Zip sometimes having colourful conversations with his fleet mates. Ten will never be a fan of Zip being really open with his fleet mates about anything and everything to do with their relationship but again, he's really just got to learn to live with that.

Zip to some extent is very close with his fleet in ways that Ten Cents doesn't really understand. It's the difference between a company of ships where there is a sailors brotherhood in general not anything stronger than that vs The Boat Mob where loyalty and camaraderie is basically its own found family [also bonding over the horrors].

Ten Cents still doesn't like talking to anyone about him and Zip's relationship. He thinks it's his business and his alone. So he tends not to ask for advice when he needs too. Usually one of the older tugs can see something is up and prod the question out of Ten. Or Zip can tell that Ten needs to talk to someone and badger him into going to talk to OJ or Hercules [being in port permitting of course].

The two very much don't have what you'd consider a 'traditional' relationship. Ten Cents is not very interested in fooling around or anything above small kisses on the cheek and holding hands, especially not in public. Zip's also pretty neutral on the topic so it works out for them. Zip is a lot more cuddly of the two, and when alone he likes to be in Tens lap or leaning on him. Ten can get overwhelmed by Zip's cuddling sometimes but he usually says something and Zip gives him space when he needs it.

When the boathouse [God speed to the boathouse I gotta explain that someday] was completed in the 60s, Zip and Ten were the most excited for it! No more arguments about where to meet after work or whose ship to spend time in! However it took them a long time to adjust to sleeping in the same bed regularly. They worked it out eventually but for a while they'd either end up fighting or someone would storm off to their ship for the night. The existence of the boathouse does lead to them getting a bit more adventurous with their relationship. Now Ten Cents and Zip will occasionally [checks notes] kiss on the lips and cuddle more. Sometimes Zip needs to spend a night on his ship and Ten doesn't understand what the heck Zip gets up too or why he needs the space. Zip knows better than to press the topic lol. Zip has occasionally breached the topic of being more affectionate and involved but Ten Cents doesn't really understand the appeal and Zip isn't too fussed at the end of the day. He loves Ten Cents and Ten Cents loves him and that's quite enough for the two of them. This is my "the boats are ace" propaganda because I'm ace and I'm projecting god dammit.

I have non ship stuff to say about Zip and Ten Cents in my au, with them as individuals, but a lot of it is niche and situational or actively being written into fics and I can't spoil everything now can I.

Always happy to talk tugs head cannons and AU stuffs, if you can listen to the old man ramble feel free to ask away anytime!