#Ships involved in this AU are on combination of where I think the show’s going and my favorite ships

[fivedayslater]

Like Fine Wine: An Informal Study of Zoro/Sanji Side Pairings

I've been curious about which side pairings crop up the most alongside ZoSan, so I decided to look into it the only way I know how: AO3 tag usage

Come on this journey with me

Since people tag side pairings in either the Additional Tags section using the format Minor [Ship Tag] and in the Relationship Tags section alongside the main relationship pretty evenly, I decided the best way to go about this was to get both numbers and add them together. The way I got these numbers was by searching AO3 for works tagged with Roronoa Zoro/Sanji in the Relationship section and Minor [Ship Name] in the Additional Tags section, then with both Roronoa Zoro/Sanji and [Ship Name] in the Relationship section.

I am aware that this meant that I a) counted fics that were tagged in both the Relationship and Additional Tags sections twice, and b) counted those giant one-shot collections that tag every single ship featured even if they're only in one chapter (derogatory), which aren't quite what I'm looking for, but even so I feel this was the best way to go about it given the tools at my disposal.

As for which pairings to search, I went to the experts, aka Zoro/Sanji fic readers. I took suggestions from here, the ZoSan Club discord server, Twitter, and BlueSky. I also added the top 50 or so l tagged One Piece ships on AO3 that didn't involve Zoro or Sanji to see how they compared overall.

(Poly ships were excluded because most tagging on them also includes tagging every combination in the poly ship, and would have skewed the data)

It should also be noted that because of how this method functions, I also would have counted fics where Zoro/Sanji is tagged in the Relationships section, but is only a side pair to the main pairing. I deemed this acceptable, as the point of this quest is to see which ships go the most with Zoro/Sanji, and them being the side pairing counts. It also means that fics with these side pairings that don't have them tagged at all weren't counted, but there's not much I can do about that.

The results of all this?

Most everyone on every platform agreed that Franky/Robin, Nami/Vivi, Usopp/Kaya, and Luffy/Law were the most common. And the numbers agree:

(purple is for the assumed top ships, green is for suggested ships, and blue is for AO3's top ships)

Here's everything broken down by which tags were searched:

Here's the breakdown of what my Panel Of Experts (the people who replied) like to see alongside ZoSan:

And here's the breakdown AO3's top ships

What have we learned from this:

The pairings most popular with Zoro/Sanji tend to feature Straw Hats (Franky, Robin, Luffy, Nami, Usopp), or people who would reasonably be around the Straw Hats in an AU (Ace, Mihawk, Law, Sabo)

We as a community really need to standardize how we tag side ships. Considering writing up a Best Practices post. Will keep you posted

When everyone agrees, that's probably the right answer

I think Law/Luffy beating out Franky/Robin on the Relationship tags has to do with there simply being more Law/Luffy fic. It doesn't appear as a side pairing as much, but is often a main pairing alongside Zoro/Sanji, and a lot of Law/Luffy centric fics have Zoro/Sanji as a side pair

Doflamingo is very popular to ship around for some reason? He's in like 5 of the top 10 ships

Law is too, but like. I get that

Sabo too! Everyone really likes throwing Sabo at people

You are all so right about Kuina/Sabo though

There are pairings that made the list like Killer/Penguin and Crocodile/Dragon that I assume are very popular side pairings in like Kid/Law and Luffy centric fics, but don't have a lot of showing in Zoro/Sanji fic

More studies could be done into more specific breakdowns within each side pairing, and how often Zoro/Sanji appears as a side pairing with the other ship as a main pairing, but I don't want to. Maybe later

Mostly what I learned is that i have way too much time on my hands 👍

Still, maybe some of you are interested in the results too, in which case, you're welcome :)

[paragonrobits]

thinking about an Avatar AU where Azula's 'do the tides command this ship' and the implicit way she only survives that whole thing through things working in her favor does NOT happen here and the ship sinks and she, along with the rest of the crew on that ship, just die, presumably as the Ocean Spirit wiggles around in the spirit oasis a little fish dance that roughly translates to "I TOLD THE SIDEBURNS FUCKBUCKET THIS FIRST HAND, AND NOW I'M GOING TO TELL THAT FIRE NATION PRINCESS THE SAME THING, YOU FUCKED AROUND AND NOW YOU'RE FINDING OUT"

but the actual point is this:

with Azula's death, just how badly do things completely get fucked up in terms of plot development?

the most obvious one is that Zuko and Iroh's character arc and season 2 plot in general is motivated SPECIFICALLY but Azula coming to capture them under the guise of bringing them home; by revealing to them, through the captain accidentally referring to them as prisoners, that Ozai has officially labeled them traitors and they are enemies of the Fire Nation, they are forced to hide in secret. This is a big part of pushing Zuko to the brink and seeing things more objectively, realizing the harm inflicted on the Earth Kingdom, while Iroh is forced to directly connect with the White Lotus and show his hand

this happens SPECIFICALLY because of Azula; they might otherwise have never done this, or taken a lot longer to feel pressured to do so, and her pursuit of Aang sets up Team Avatar's trajectory for the rest of the series as a consequence of her chase, as well as the fall of Ba Sing Se. Most of that is NOT likely to happen without her; Ty Lee and Mai are unlikely to get involved (though figuring out some way for them to wind up working with Zuko and Iroh IS rife for possible ideas).

So this begs the question; what happens as a direct result of all this, and what might some interesting long term twists be as a result?

This might involve Ozai acting more directly; Azula initially acts in his stead, being his favorite and best weapon, and without her on the playing field, that might motivate him enough to act more directly lest people think him ineffectual, essentially combining Azula's actions into his own.

[jazzypizzaz]

space cruise au based on previous reblog - Quodo edition

some of the ds9 crew, let's say Odo Kira Worf O'Brien sign up for a space cruise because there's top secret intel that blah blah some sort of plot something political criminal is on board they need to apprehend or get intel from or something but it's very hush hush. undercover mission. there are costumes and secret identities

quark gets word and is like wow that is the least fun combination of people to go on vacation, I better come to show them how it's done. OR idk he doesn't feel safe on the station without Odo around (someone he's screwed over is after him maybe) so what a great time for vacation! or maybe he gets a lucrative contract job and joins the trip to make some dough

anyway the criminal they're after is either the cruise director(?) or is participating in the newlyweds competition, so ds9 crew decides they have to play to get closer to them. odo and kira aren't together and odo is UNBEARABLy awkward about it. kira and O'Brien try, but kira is a terrible actor and thinks this is stupid and keeps laughing or giving terrible unnatural answers when they do a practice round, why can't they punch someone instead. same for worf. obrien is game but anyway no one involved can realistically pretend they're a couple with him if their life depended on it.

cue Quark, who unbeknownst to them has wormed his way onto the ship. instant relief. everyone else gangs up on odo and makes him ask quark to pretend to be a couple with him. there's a big cash prize so Of Course quark is 100% in, very competitive.

quark and odo are completely obnoxious on stage of course, but they know each other so well it's scary. there is an intense sexual energy that no one can deny either so bewilderingly the entire ship buys into it and gets obsessed with them as a couple . they win the competition, everyone cheers everywhere they go on the ship, they can't drop the act or Odo's cover is blown / Quark won't get the prize money.

honeymoon suite with Only One Bed. champagne tasting. romantic dinner and dancing. all the stuff from that Tendi/Rutherford plot lol. everyone cheering for quodo to kiss everywhere they go. meanwhile other ds9 crew is somewhere horrified at this turn of events but get to actually conduct the mission in the background while the attention is off lol, while quodo are forced into publicly not actually faking their feelings for each other etc. delicious.

idk conclusion is quodo gets to a breaking point where they're shouting at each other and letting the years of pent up sexual aggression air out, looks like a fight but no this is foreplay and this spurs their first REAL kiss. it's ugly. it's graphic. it's uncomfortably sexual. it's distracting enough at some crucial moment for ds9 crew to apprehend the criminal or whatever. the end.

[callmetippytumbles]

tagged by @gardenoblues

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! Then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Tagging: @therulerofallpotatos @realmermaid333 @the-strangest-person @suchaladyy @wincestation

WARNING: THERE MIGHT BE SMUT YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO CAST YOUR EYES ON.

Random WIPs

Wyler YOU-Cursed Yarn Store

This is fic that is kind of combining a prompt about a cursed yarn store I saw on the discord. I started to combine it with another fic I have been thinking about that has elements of YOU. I think having Tyler be an obsessive stalker and a hyde being at the root of the murders would add interesting characterization for Tyler within this prompt. This is an everyone is all grown up adult AU. This is just an outline right now. No actual fic for this exists yet.

YOU - Wyler AU Outline

Yep its the outline for a YOU fic I was thinking of but no cursed yarn store. I did an outline to get it out of my system but I don't think this one will ever come to pass since the outline is very much a shoehorn Wednesday's characters into YOU character archetypes and storylines which didn't feel right. Some aspects of this may make it into the Cursed Yarn Store story but this project on its own will probably not be developed further. I like taking some of the themes of YOU like stalking, obession etc and exploring those but I don't want to force the stories together more than that.

Wyler Nocturne ExFiles AU Outline

Kind of what it says on the tin. This is the outline for a fic idea that is a mix of a video game called Nocturne and The Ex Files. It's basically an AU where an adult Wednesday gets recruited to work for a clandestine department of the CIA that specifically investigates crimes and bizarre occurances that involve outcasts and the supernatural. Tyler is also recruited to this unit. Of course they are made to be partners and they have to investigate cases together. Hilarity ensues. It obviously takes aspects of the Mulder/Scully relationship as well as the supernatural elements from The Ex Files and Nocturne. The fic will have a kind of episodic format where every 4-5 chapters make up 1 episode. There are 4-5 episodes total and 1 fic (with all of the chapters) is equal to one season. This is also still a outline. I have a lot more research to do before I can even think of starting to write anything more. If you are going to put Ex Files as an influence of your fic, a show that is a big influence on shipping culture in general let alone the actual Mulder/Scully ship itself; I feel like there are certain notes that you have hit to get that influence right. Since my understanding of the relationship aspect is so distant for me, I have to study up. If I can get my shit together, this really could be a fun one.

Dick2Bomb Wyler hate sex fic

Kind of started as a drabble inspired by some quotes on the discord server. Kind of is a one off set in same world as the Nocturne/Exfiles fic. Was supposed to just get the smut out of my system for this fic while everything else came together, but didn't get too far in the scene. This is kinda in limbo.

Some - Tyclay One Shot

If I could work out the smut for this one, this is almost done. This is actually a what if scenario where I kind of play with the idea what would happen if Bianca and Tyler were to interact more in that scene where Bianca gets Wednesday's snood in the Weathervane. Like what would happen if they were more flirty. I really wanted an excuse to write more for Bianca and kind of let her exist as a central romantic protagonist paired with someone who can truly see her.

Yours, Mine and Ours

A Wyclay fic that is named after that song that took over the tikytoks for like an entire season. It starts out more as a Tyclay fic but changes when Wednesday shows up and both Tyler and Bianca express an interest in her. Some is actually an alternate first chapter for this fic. This is essentially a series of strung together one-shots that kind of explore how these people interact with each other. There isn't an actual ending or a big scenario where everyone comes together. Just more a meandering exploration of how their relationships intertwine and overlap. If I were to finish writing out everything outlined, I would just publish that and leave it.

Left for Dead fic

This is another fic that started out as a Wyler discord prompt fill, I wrote an outline for it, then...*nothing*

The story takes place basically assuming that Tyler does help Wednesday escape, Laurel gets what she wants from Tyler and leaves him for dead. Wednesday finds him. Hilarity ensue. This story jumps all over the place time wise. Like all over. Some chapters are pre-canon, some chapters are in canon, some are well outside of the story.

Wyler TBN Bodyguard AU

Discord Prompt Fill...(I am sensing a theme here)...That I outlined but didn't develop further. The general premise of the prompt is that Wednesday needs a bodyguard because her family is in danger but Wednesday doesn't want one because she feels she is capable of handling any threats by herself. So she arranges to get rid of all of the ones her parents get for her until Tyler comes along and of course she cannot get rid of him. Hilarity ensued. I think the initial framework for this fic was there, it was just the details that I couldn't workout without extensive research and planning. The main blocker was definining the villain and crafting the mystery that is on the peripheries of the story was just not coming together in a way that I liked. It didn't help that I decided that my little Bodyguard AU story had to have a theme where everyone's fatal flaw was tied into how they deal with the past (Wednesday refuses to let go, Tyler is so determined to redeem himself he cannot engage with the present, and Morticia romanticizes her past so much she is constantly trying to relive it). This is a story that I think I have to level up my writing overall to write it but if I did it would be good. If I didn't enjoy bumming around with my free time so much I could work on this. Though my free time is kind of shrinking everyday because of all of the stuff I have to do this year. There is a speech I wrote for Tyler in this fic that lowkey needs to be repeated almost verbatim in Wednesday Season 2. Y'all have to ask me about that one.

Untitled Essay/Thesis/Dissertation on Bad Boys

This started as a conversation on discord after reading tornadodream's fic All the Punches I'd Throw in the Name of Someone I Don't Even Know. Me and a couple of other people were marveling at how well Hyde!Tyler was executed and how much precision it takes to craft that is both romantically viable but still a credible threat to the lead. My feelings about this particular thing was becoming so strong that I started an essay that is essentially what makes a "good" Bad Boy figure. I think I just had too many other things to do that day so after I got the initial thoughts down when I had to change focus, this got left in the dust. I should get back to it though. Reading it over, I feel like I wasn't too far from wrapping it up. I should get on that.

A.B.O. Fic WIPs

All of these WIPs are related to an A.B.O. fic I have been working on here and there for about 6 months now. Each document is a separate chapter and while some of the chapters are at least completed first-drafts, others have yet to be written. While I feel like if I start working on the early chapters and preparing them to publish I feel like I could finish the series, I also don’t want to start posting anything until everything at least has a first draft. (I would feel bad for leaving people without a resolution if I just posted the parts I have.) The general premise for these fics are that during the events of Season 1, Wednesday (an omega who hasn't presented) and Tyler (an alpha who keeps both his alpha and outcast status a secret) are inextricably attracted to one another and affect each other deeply on a biological level but circumstances and what happens between them pretty much keep them from getting together. They have a chance meeting again 10 years later and the attraction/chemical biological urges are still there, but because their past is unresolved they feel unable to give in to what they want: each other. Each chapter has a past section (read: reframing canon events in this story) and a present section how the past is influencing their behavior in the now, primarily the resistance to give into their desires.

ABO Wyler Fic - Preamble

Was the first chapter of the fic, now definitely just where a combo version of a past pov section for Tyler that combines both their first meeting and that kiss in the Weathervane. Definitely other than the notes on the POV, this will not be in the final fic.

ABO Wyler Fic - Alternate Preamble

Currently this is the actual first chapter of the fic. Past part, Tyler being in Nevermore for the Rav'N. Present part, Tyler being in Nevermore again as a caterer for a alumni fundraiser, Wednesday is forced to attend by her mother. They end up seeking refuse in the same closet. Chapter end.

ABO Fic - Preamble - Morticia

Morticia POV section where she waxes poetic on the nature of fate. May be a seperate opening chapter, may be the intro to chapter 1.

ABO Wyler Fic - Chapter 1

Fun fact: This is definitely not the first chapter anymore. It's more like Chapter 3. This has smut gallore. The past part is Wednesday's perpective on how that kiss in the Weathervane is what makes her present as an omega and she goes into heat. This is immediately followed by her learning about Tyler's lies and betrayal. In the present Wednesday experiences her first heat since that time after being so close to Tyler again. Tyler is also dealing with going to rut poorly and they decide to hookup to get through their heat/rut but nothing more. Need to finish the actual smut part of this chapter.

ABO Wyler Fic - Chapter 2

Was also at one point Chapter 1, pretty sure it's 2 now. Past part: Wednesday's and Tyler's first meeting at the Weathervane from Tyler's perspective. Present: Tension quickly builds in that closet when that attraction and biology bring them together again.

ABO fic - Kiss Heat

This file is kind of a dumping ground for two past sections. One that I have yet to add (Tyler's POV on what happened at the Weathervane that night/what happened the next time they met up). The other I think I reworked or took out entirely.

[queenofthursday6599-blog]

So I was looking up ATLA fics where Yue lives and I went through all of the potential Yue ships on there, and man am I boring.

I only really ship her with Zuko (contrasts and parallels), Sokka (canon as the right person in the wrong lifetime), Suki (seeming total opposites with the same tastes, meaning they likely have more in common than one might think), or her just being poly with some combination of these three or all three of them.

Though I am bewildered that there doesn't seem to be a dedicated Sokka/Suki/Yue tag at the very least, even though I've read multiple fics with that ship. It seems like the authors are instead just tagging Sokka/Suki, Sokka/Yue, and Suki/Yue, but they're a trio in the fic?

IDK there's a dedicated tag for Sokka/Yue/Zuko, so I don't know why there's no Sokka/Suki/Yue tag.

She almost got married off to a guy she wasn't interested in, and he wasn't interested in her, at least not in an actual loving relationship kind of way. Let the girl live, with her two husbands and wife, who're goofy well meaning badasses.

The rest of this gets kind of long and is just me rambling about the Yue ships I don't like.

I don't ship Yue and Katara, because I do just see Katara as straight, I just can't see her with any girls. I only really even ship Katara with Aang, and like Jet as bitter exes who only tolerate each other enough to not want the other dead or seriously harmed. I didn't even really ever get into Katara being with Haru the way I know some people did. I don't ship Yue with Azula because Azula doesn't need a relationship she needs therapy. My only Azula ship is Azula/Healing. Her being in a romantic relationship as she is in canon is going to end with pain for everyone involved.

I don't ship her with Jet, because Jet's an ass and Yue deserves better after growing up in the misogynist hellscape that was the pre-Katara North Pole. Even if we're talking about redeemed Jet, he's still an ass, that's just his personality. He'd also need some serious therapy before I'd ever want to picture him dating.

I don't ship Yue with any of the adult characters, because we only ever know her as a recently turned 16 year old, before she dies and becomes a spirit. So trying to picture her with any of the adult characters instantly makes me feel like that one doofenshmirtz meme where he blasts away the guy on a motorcycle with an inator because he flirts with Vanessa.

I don't ship Yue with Aang or Toph. The age gap is a touch too big in the show which is where I primarily see them depicted as I never got into LoK, and only Toph even appears in that.

I personally head canon that Toph isn't into commitment, at least not like the marriage kind. She definitely has a few different lovers over the course of her lifetime, but she's married to her job and of course earthbending.

Toph enjoys the company of companions, but she enjoys her own company just as much, if not more a pretty good chunk of the time. I see her as maybe aromantic, or at least somewhere on the spectrum.

While Aang's been interested in Katara since he came out of the ice berg. And within a few weeks I feel like he was at least subconsciously more or less set on someday becoming Airbending Master Aang, Husband of Waterbending Master and Master Healer Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, who just happens to also be the Avatar.

From here on is basically my rambling about a Warless AU and my thoughts on that:

If the war actually failed during the original attack on the air temples, and Sozin got dethroned by his sister or one of her still living supporters... So the 100 year war and Air Nomad genocide never happened, but because Aang runs away before the attacks, he still gets frozen and then reawakens in in Katara's time.

Anyways, I'm almost certain Aang would have made his eventual goal in that timeline be becoming Katara's house husband. Or at least as close as someone literally nomadic like Aang is could manage.

Also, I know people ship Aang with other people, like Toph, or Azula, or Zuko, but I'm sorry I just don't see it. Katara is the love of Aang's lifetime. I mean they got married, which I'm pretty sure is something that wasn't even part of Air Nomad culture back before the decimation.

The only married Air Nomads I know of from canon are Aang, his son Tenzin, and Avatar Kyoshi's mom, who left the Air Nomads to get married. So I'm totally convinced Aang just altered Air Nomad culture so he could be Katara's husband.

I'm honestly convinced that if the Air Nomads survived and he didn't have the duty of restoring Air Nomad culture, Aang would have left the order the way Kyoshi's mom did to be able to marry Katara.

[daydreamorama]

Year of the Dragon Lunar New Year DMBJ Treat Exchange - Dear Creator Letter

I’m so excited for this new type of exchange with no assignments, just treats, and a year to create!  Will be fun!

If you want to join 

Post: https://at.tumblr.com/dmbjexchange/year-of-the-dragon-lunar-new-year-dmbj-treat/4sbprg0i7qdo

AO3 collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2023DMBJTreatExchange

Okay and here’s my letter :D.

----

Dear Creator! I'm daydreamorama on Ao3!

I would prefer gifts with text in english.

Preferred DMBJ canon: Reboot and Ultimate Note  (but don’t mind spoilers from any other canons)

Relationships: Liu Sang/Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling (can focus on any subpart while they are all together, or pre all of them joining), or Liu Sang/Hei Xiazi.  (or go wild and put all five together). (Update: I've also been craving Liu Sang/Kan Jian feel free to do with that as you want)  (also feel free to skirt the line of ‘I don’t know if this is romantic or platonic or what, but it’s something’ cause who even knows where the line is anymore)

Characters: all the above, and feel free to use anyone else from canon as long as they aren’t the only focus.

General likes: 

My absolute favorites: Asexual characters (sub-type sex-repulsed) and Getting together (the whole polycule or one person joining)

You include both of those and nothing else and I will go feral.  

Some other likes: misunderstandings, Touch-starved (or other complicated relationships with touch), pining, anxiety, Anything related to bondage (for any reason romantic, torture, accident, whatever), Non-sexual bdsm, AUs (except college/highschool), Coming out fics (especially when accompanied by lots of angst/anxiety about it by the person coming out), Characters in ship where those involved have different sexual or romantic sexualities (eg allosexual/ace, ace/aro, etc), hurt/comfort, angst

Rating: M or below.  (feel free to skirt that E line if the plot/emotions needs it!)

DNW (Do not wants): poetry, first or second person POV, outside POV, main Characters younger than 22(it’s fine if they were younger in cannon as long as I can read them as older now even if age is never mentioned), highschool/college AUs, major character death, sad/ambiguous ending, full non-con within the ship, characters saying ‘i love you’ or ‘baby’/'sweetheart' or similar pet names, focus on terminal illness (ie No Wu Xie Lung Cancer, post cure is fine (during tltr if sick not mentioned also great)), characters exclusively using different pronouns than they use in canon, explicitly take place during sha hai/sand sea or when Xiaoge is behind the gate

In terms of media I do not want any fanvids or moving gifs.

For any other visual media I have the additional DNWs (does not apply to text): anything above Teen (or skirting the line), shirtlessness or pantslessness (want fully clothed), kissing (hair or hand kisses are okay), hand holding, hand touching erogenous zones (even if innocent) (such as butt, chest, crotch, lips, upper inside legs) 

Prompts if you like them and don’t just want to work on the above vibes!

Telepathy

Liu Sang’s oversensitivity to external stimuli (like the time he was sick when introduced in canon)

someone taking care of someone else's hair

Fake Dating/Marriage AU with lots of angst over falling for partner(s) and thinking the other is just doing it/showing affection for the fake, bonus point if the other partner is already in a relationship with someone else and that person falls for that person too.

model/Idol Liu Sang and ship(s) does not know (or they DO know and it’s combined with Fake Dating above :D )

Sentinel AU or crossover  

Valdemar AU or crossovern (bards? Heralds? Companions? Healers? Gifts?)

Stargate Atlantis crossover.  (prefer crossover here not just an AU, I just think it would be fun if Rodney and Wu Xie met.  Science vs ‘science’.  Xiaoge and ronan or teyla fighting, Liu Sang’s complete disbelief that Aliens are real, Pangzi constantly trying to take alien artifacts home, I dunno, have fun!)

Sense8 AU: the above 5 characters and pick your 3, any three!  Bonus points for: character realizing they’re gay (or straight or bi) due to accidentally witnessing other characters; dealing with sex-repulsed ace in polycule, when others want to have sex.  

Liu Sang or Xiaoge (or both!) are cold and wet and just having a really hard time. The cold/wet one is touch averse and isn't close to anyone with them (yet?)that they would feel comfortable helping them but their fingers are too numb to take off their clothes and they need help if they don't want to freeze to death.

Happy creating!

[grievedifferent]

❤️

❓

so josh and loni right? its complicated. i already know shed like him probably and for sure up until that night. after i think shed be... wary of him? hurt because she didnt think hed do that to her. key word: her. given her mom having been her abuser as a kid its been hard to trust people so it would hit her hard. not saying he was like her mom, but just that feeling of not being sure she could trust? ANYWAYS complicated and her wanting to be near him but not understanding how to be close to him when shes got these strange feelings for him still but also wants to see him get better and succeed in life even if she cant be by his side???

simple shipping meme. accepting !! // * @bedlamology

❤️ - ROMANTIC BOND

❓ - FOR A DIFFERENT DYNAMIC (EXPLAIN)

with josh's mental health being at a crisis point after the prologue/into the game, it's definitely clear he's not thinking rationally or really about anyone else's feelings other than his own. if we go the route of that meme where he banishes her from the lodge/tells her to leave, then that would open up a lot of possibilities for her to kind of route herself through the game, interact with others, etc. before finally coming "back to him" so to speak?? if he manages to escape, which is my main verse or au for him that i follow to give him more ... well ... life ... rip ... then there's a lot of potential to follow after that, especially with how much josh goes into isolation after the events of until dawn.

it's interesting to remember that, at least after the prologue / that year between, josh is putting on an act for everyone save for really his parents, who i assume he is also trying to deceive, but he is also in and out of the hospital throughout that time and is struggling excessively with his mental health as it's rapidly deteriorating. he was a noted suicide risk in march of 2014, just shortly after hannah and beth go missing / die.

it's not even clear if he tells his parents he actually dropped out, which i play with both ideas that he's lying that he's still in school (as many people are able to do this, at least for a while) or that they know he dropped out with the promise that he would return. i even play with the idea that he uses a lot of excuses that, should his parents even notice the money is missing for his prank, that he's doing it all under the guise of a "comeback film" to get back into the game / back into school. that could be an avenue we work on, idk??

as for bringing loni into it, given that they meet kind of in that grey area of that year between prologue and game, it's a wonder how much of his authentic self he showed her versus what he felt was "natural and normal" to show her for someone in his situation. it's not like it was a secret his sisters went missing and were eventually declared like dead, at least within the family, and likely assumed in the public (in the beginning of ud, it mentions them as still missing in the media reports, though josh refers to them as dead, so it;s likely that most people assume them as dead despite the media saying otherwise, so).

if we're to assume he's playing her the way he is everyone else, then it's hard to say how deep and authentic his feelings are at first. as he gets to know her, that could change, but seeing as she somehow does become involved in the primary plot / the revenge prank, it seems that he's at least uncaring enough to let her get involved but caring enough to tell her to leave / that it was a mistake to let her come along.

post!verse opens an entire new can of worms. both of their individual traumas combined with josh's new extreme mental health regime + his isolation + his new work + his need to reach out to everyone he wrong (as i follow the everyone lives ending), that would likely include reaching out to her? which is where it would all pick up? since he goes into isolation, it can be taken either way. either she would be more involved with him immediately after or not. that's obviously up to her, of course.

overall, i see their interactions leading to a lot of different dynamics - very butterfly effect!

[petalsonfacesnovinesthough]

Sonic Quilford AU Custom "Arcs" 2

Yes, I have more ideas! Including one I'm going to retcon in to previous actions! Yay!

(In between Metal Virus and Belle, but like, right after the final fight in Metal Virus) Rush Return: After ridding his world of the Metal Virus with help from Silver, the Warp Topaz backfired and sent the tired 17yo to the Elemental Dimension, stranding Sonic there. Thus, Sonic and Blaze have to figure someway to get him home before Robotnik tries anything. All the while, everyone in the Chaos dimension is scrambling and a certain purple-wearing warlock is stirring up trouble in the background. How is everyone else handling the information that Sonic's fallen into Blaze's dimension? Why won't the Elemental Citrines send Sonic back this time? Just what did the Chaos Emeralds do?

You know it, I know it, Sonic's visit to Blaze's dimension at the end of the Metal Virus arc is... Troublesome. The amnesia thing didn't even go anywhere! It was just "Hi Mr. Needlemouse. Bye Sonic". Better can be done. Thus, it gets its own arc! Sonic and Blaze have a great dynamic, and Egglock/Clay Melongenik isn't anything to sneeze at either, even if that's just from tertiary decisions in relation to musical song parodies in my head and fully making Eggman Nega Silver's nemesis.

(Time Jump Fair after Story Whirlwind) Clans of Chaos: After Espio agrees to a request from his mother to come home, Eggman strikes with a new set of hired mercenaries, including a few who look awful similar to the Chaotix's resident ninja. Just how close is Espio to this new group of enemies? How has a regular Eggman plot gotten G.U.N. involved? And what did Mrs. Matofore mean by "new governor"?

Since Espio's a trained ninja with family, I figured it'd be a disservice in hiding them from the audience. So, we get an arc about them! This has a few scenes I really can't decide how I want to portray them, because I see them so vibrantly in my head. Especially a very climactic fight near the climax.

(Time Jump Far after Clans of Chaos) A Rose Built With Any Other Scrap: After a fraught night of bedtime stories, muddled directives, and inventing, Metal Sonic now has a partner to keep him in line, due to him slowly wriggling out of his obedience programing. All the while, the Egg Carrier's return to the shores of Station Square brings Sonic back, so the Scrapniks have a friendly face to greet them. How will Metal feel about Mecha? Who is Metal's new restraining bolt? And with it being her home, just who will drag Amy Rose into this?

Considering how Metal can be, I don't think Robotnik just, programming him to obey his every command and not rebel is going to work forever. Case in point, Gamma. Ergo, combining with what I decide are canon ships for the AU, a Metal Amy. Of course, someone prefers the original and won't accept a replacement. Also, the Scrapniks! They weren't in my original idea for this arc, but I figured with the name that it would make sense to let them show up.*

(Sidenote, but Mecha looks wonderful in brown.)*

(Time Jump Far after Sonic's 19th Birthday) Sonic and the Apotosian Dream: After getting invited to see Amy in a play along with Tails and Team Chaotix, Sonic ends up getting dragged off the Fae's Domain in Apotos. What with Theseus' tumultuous wedding-to-be with Hippolyta, Oberon and Titania fighting, and the two couples getting lost in the woods, Sonic's going to have much more on his hands than a lost ticket or two!

Custom Storybook game, baby! As for what's being adapted, why none other than Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"! As per usual, there's doppelgangers, a way you could say the story never happened, and missions, missions, missions! I'm still working on the outline, but I'll probably talk about this more in the future.

(Time Jump Fair after SatAd) Curiosity of Ages: As time marches on, a certain egg-shaped doctor begins wondering just where in his past he went wrong, and realizing he'll soon be 52, inspiration strikes him. Thanks to the Egg Chicken, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Rouge, Vector, Charmy, Mighty, and Ray all end up with their ages swapped around. With Tails, Cream, and Charmy now being the oldest of the group, problems arise further. Can the adults and teen keep their cool now that they've returned to their youths? Can the three kids handle the responsibility of being the front line?

Considering all the ages of the Sonic cast, this kinda feels like it was coming for a while. If I could pick any of my concepts to send to SEGA to be made canon, it would be this idea. Having the youngest members of the cast suddenly being the oldest would be fascinating, along with its flipside. Add a flashback or two... The regular.

(Time Jump Fair after Curiosity of Ages) Scrambled Stories Over Easy: After learning of the events surrounding Starline's death last January, Robotnik nabs the three books emanating with World Energy, leading to encounters of the selves, so it seems. Time seems ready to run out as Sonic has to get everyone back where they belong. Will the crossing of worlds confuse literally everyone? How many people will get called the wrong thing by Sonic? Just how long do they have before everyone gets reamed?

I am forever convinced that the Storybook games are real, and actually happened. Sonic does know a genie, is King Arthur's counterpart(as in this AU, there is a REAL Arthur Pennquilon), and did end up with unwanted romantic affections from the Queen of the Faeries(Sonic's role in SatAD is, loosely, Bottom's). As such, we can get 4 Tails(Miles, Ali Baba, Smithy, and Cobweb) in the same room! What more can you want?

[bookgirlfan]

Dear Yuletide Author 2023

Dear Yuletide author, 

Hello! Thank you so much for writing a story for me! Whatever you write, I’m sure that as long as you enjoy it, I’ll enjoy it, and it will be excellent! So please don’t stress too much about it. 

I am BookGirlFan on AO3, just as I am here. 

A few general guidelines: 

Found Family is one of my, if not my absolute, favourite trope. If you include this, I’m practically guaranteed to love whatever you write. 

Never be afraid of going too long. I read fast, so I’ll read everything you write, even if it’s a million word epic. (Not that I’m actually asking for a million word epic, just saying if that’s what you ended up writing, I would read it.) 

Hurt/comfort is my jam, and is nearly always a good prompt idea if you can't think of anything else. Romantic tropes turned platonic is generally also something that I love.

Do Not Wants: 

Something entirely around sex/romance, or something that places those kind of relationships as the ultimate kind of relationship.

Unhappy endings. 

Gore.

Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly

I've read this series several times since I first found it a few years ago, though I haven't yet read Death and Hard Cider or anything after, so no spoilers for those please! I love the atmosphere of the books, the difficult morality of the cases, and the fabulous interactions between everybody, but especially January, Rose and Hannibal! I ship the three of them, but am also happy to read about any combination, as long as there's no cheating involved.

I've specifically asked for Rose and Hannibal, but if you'd like to include anyone else from the tagset, please do!

A few prompts, in case it helps:

Hannibal teaching Rose to pick locks, or another questionable but useful skill

Missing scenes, like Fever Season where they were both looking after her students, or Days of the Dead in the ride back to Mexico City after the main action

An adventure for the two of them - bonus if Rose has to rescue Hannibal (or January as well?) because she deserves to be the hero too sometimes

AU - of any kind, from different setting to superpowers, magic, crossover, etc.

An outfit swap - this is really vague, I just feel certain that in any kind of modern AU these two definitely swap clothes a lot, and even in canon it’s happened a time or two.

One Day At A Time (TV 2017)

I picked anyone in the tagset for this one, because I love all of them! This is such an amazing show, both really funny but also knows when to take things seriously.

I don't have prompts for this one, not because I love it less, but just because I only discovered the show a few months ago so haven't had time to come up with many! I really just want to see the relationships between this family, particularly between the Riera/Alvarez women and Schneider, because I can never have enough of that.

Famous Five - Enid Blyton

I have requested Julian and Anne, because they’ve always been my favourites. Growing up, I always wanted an older brother like Julian, and related to Anne as being the girly-girl of the family. You don’t have to include both of them, and you are also welcome to also include Dick, or George, or both! 

I do have an extra DNW for this one - no sex or romance, or at least nothing beyond the level of the books.

Prompts: 

An adventure is more dangerous than anticipated. Would be an excellent opportunity for hurt/comfort

Anne’s ‘girlyness’ is what saves the day. Maybe they need to use her sewing skills to get out of danger, or she cooks the bad guy a meal laced with knock-out drugs, or more disconnectedly, keeping track of food and expenses every holiday means she has an excellent head for numbers and accounting, so she’s the one who notices something’s up with their mysterious visitor’s books. 

The boys at school. We’ve seen a little bit of the Anne and George at school, but what’s it like over at the boys’ school? Does their propensity for adventures follow them there? 

What were the Kirrin siblings’ holidays like before they met George? 

[wixhing0nastar]

I don't know if I’ll ever actually write about them cause I know how people feel about kid fics, but I have a somewhat extensive outline of the next-gen kids and I ship one of my OC Bumbleby kids with my OC Renora kid so hard it’s kinda funny.

[jackoshadows]

Why do you think there’s such a strong fixation on Jonsa? I watched the whole series and didn’t see it. I just finished A Game of Thrones and didn’t see it. I’m a big supporter of Jonerys (although I don’t think Kit and Emilia had very good on-screen chemistry but that was partially due to a bad script) but I’m very curious about the mindset going on with people who enjoy other Jon pairings. I can at least see where people are coming from with Jonrya even if I’ll never be able to see them as anything but siblings. They’re very close and think of each other often but at least in book one, Jon and Sansa’s relationship is non-existent. I guess Jon and Dany’s is even more non-existent, but the show at least planted a seed of what could be, and the same cannot be said of Jonsa

I think you are the nonnie who send me the Dany ask and I always hesitate to answer these (rather sensible and intelligent) asks because you have not finished reading the books and I hate to spoil the story for you 😂!

Have you read Pride and Prejudice? The equivalent of the Jonsa ship would be like shipping Darcy and Jane because one likes Jane Bennet and then argue that Darcy actually falls for sweet, gentle Jane and not Elizabeth and that Darcy/Jane is canonical. And if we disagree with this it’s because we are sexist Jane haters because Jane’s a girly girl. Absurd right? That’s pretty much the absurdity of Jonsa for book readers.

So why is Jonsa so popular? Briefly, Jonsa is the result of Sansa stans not liking the canon suitors the author has given the character in the books for various reasons. They want Arya's canonical relationship with Jon possibly turning into a romance for their favorite character Sansa or they want Jon and Sansa falling in love instead of any future romance between Jon and Dany. Which is why 80% of their blogs is devoted to tearing down Dany and Arya and involves an unrecognizable mess of a character they call Jon Snow.

Sansa is also the typical beautiful girl who is into romance and songs and fashion and knights, feasts and tourneys - that’s why she gets shipped with everyone. I think she’s the most shipped character in this fandom. And that’s always been a thing since this series started in the nineties. SanSan or Sansa/Sandor Clegane (The Hound) was one of the most popular ships of the series and GRRM has even commented on it.

[As an aside the funny thing is that GRRM is trying to subvert tropes and also write romance for the non conventional girls like Brienne and Dany and Arya (Lyanna is the equivalent of Helen of Troy and Arya is a mini Lyanna) and still this fandom disparages girls like Arya as being ‘male-coded’, ugly and undesirable.]

With the show, they totally ignored SanSan (Which makes sense considering Rory McCann was like 40 or something on the show and Turner is so young - the show cannot go where the books do in terms of these relationships) and instead gave Sansa the story of another tertiary character in the North. Combining characters meant that she got dumped into Jon Snow’s plot and now all of a sudden we have these two good looking actors Sophie Turner and Kit Harington sharing scenes and Jonsa is born (Despite their characters fighting and arguing in 90% of their scenes, and Sansa lying and betraying Jon).

Benioff and Weiss’ Sansa fanfiction meant that Sansa now gets all of Arya’s story beats and narrative themes on the show. And instead of treating it like a crack ship/AU fanfiction, they try to shove this ship into the books and attack anyone who tries to point out how absurd this ship is. And despite GRRM insisting that his story is different and going in different directions, they think that the garbage writing of the show is going to happen in the books

I would also like to point out that, from my experience in fandom, most Jon Snow fans don’t ship Jonsa. And I am talking about fans who genuinely like book Jon Snow. Not the one’s who claim to be a Jon fan and their blog is 90% about Sansa.These two characters have nothing to do with each other in the books!

Jonsa is a Sansa ship for and by Sansa stans. Jon is simply a prop there for Sansa to become QITN, get a direwolf Ghost, get her disney princess happy ending with ten babies. Their version of Jon Snow has nothing in common with the book character.

To refer back to my original P&P comparison, to make Darcy fall in love with Jane one would have to change Darcy’s entire personality.  If Darcy falls for Jane’s beauty and gentle nature instead of Elizabeth’s wit and intelligence, then that’s no longer Pride and Prejudice is it? That’s an AU version of Pride and Prejudice. Or fanfiction based on Pride and Prejudice.

A Darcy who falls in love with Jane Bennet is not the Darcy in the story Austen is writing. In the same way a Jon Snow who falls in love with Sansa Stark is not the Jon Snow in the story George R R Martin  is telling.  

For Jonsa shippers their Jon Snow will be repulsed by Arya Stark and does not care for her, only helps out his friends because they are stand ins for Sansa, is shallow and self-loathing because he thinks he’s not good enough for beautiful Sansa who ignored him because he’s a bastard and craves for the approval of the woman who abused him, Catelyn Stark.

In fact, the Jonsa fandom came up with one of the worst, most nonsensical iterations of Jon Snow I have ever seen in all my years in this fandom. Let me introduce you to the horror that is Political!Jon. You can google it.

Political!Jon is Littlefinger 2.0, a sociopath who will pretend to love Daenerys to get her dragons, deceive her and then kill her, all his true love Sansa Stark can become QITN. And oh, because he does not want his true love to take care of any undesirable bastards, political!Jon will also give Dany some moon tea to abort her baby - that’s abortion!Jon. And Jonsa shippers think that Jon Snow seducing a rape victim, stealing her children (the dragons), aborting her baby and then killing her for Sansa is all so romantic!!

And if not Jon Snow, then it will be Arya who will kill Dany. That’s the whole point of the sword Jon gave Arya - it’s not about their bond and their love and being symbolic of home and identity for Arya. No, Needle is so that Arya can kill Dany and Jon and Sansa can get together! Arya will then turn into a Jonsa cheerleader and fuck off into nowhere on a ship.

I have always compared the Jonsa shippers to the flat earthers of this fandom. Some of the most ridiculous and absurd theories have come out of that side of the fandom and debating with them is like debating with a wall. One can smush all the book text and quotes in their face and they will still be there talking about how Jon Snow loves Sansa because some snow fell on her face in one of the chapters....

[backslashdelta]

Hey bella :) since you multiship Kurt, I was wondering what your ranking of Kurt ships would be?

OH GOSH okay so I love this question and you asked me a similar question about a month ago as well that I have yet to answer and I am very sorry so I think I'm just gonna combine them in this answer, because your other question was my favourite thing about each Kurt ship. So, I'm gonna rank my Kurt ships and talk about why I like them as I do it!

I have ranked Kurt ships in the past (I actually have a whole tag dedicated to talking about Kurt ships!), but I am going to do this ranking before I look at those, so it will be based purely on my feelings now.

Kurtbastian. Easily my number one ship. My favourite thing about them is just their dynamic and energy together. Love love love every interaction they've ever had, the way they react to each other and watch for the other's reaction, it's so so good. And playing around with the idea of an AU where they slowly let down their guards around each other, let each other in, see each other in their worst moments and instead of attacking like what's expected by this point they comfort? Yeah, that's the good shit.

Kelliott. Elliott was a breath of fresh air and a much needed friend to Kurt. He didn't put up with anyone's shit but he also wasn't an ass about it, and in my opinion Kurt has a tendency to kind of let his friends walk all over him, so I think it was valuable for him to see that. I also really like that they started as just friends. I think the idea of a romance slowly developing between them, trying to just be friends because they think the other doesn't feel the same way, would have been so soft and sweet. I also really like them because it feels realistic to me. Not that I need a ship to be realistic to enjoy it, of course, but it's something I really love about Kelliott specifically. The idea that Kurt has his first love and heartbreak with Blaine and comes out of that with a less idealized and more realistic view of love, and then he meets Elliott and it's not the same as it was with Blaine but that's not bad, it's just different. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they should have happened because I'm well aware that the writers wouldn't have done it the way I'd want, but I will say that if I were writing the show, I would have made it Kelliott endgame or left Kurt single (or with some other guy we'd never met at the 5 year flash forward).

Klaine. When I finished watching the show the first time around these two were at the top of my list. I love how much they love each other, I love the ways they're different and the ways those differences complement each other and I love the ways they're the same. I love that they were messy at times, they went through ups and downs and fights and breakups and they still managed to come out together and stronger in the end through it all. Klaine are the reason I started reading fanfiction and the reason I got involved in fandom. Now, I do have some problems with them, which is why they're no longer at the top of my list, and actually that's part of the reason I got into fic, is because I wanted to fix the problems I had with them because I loved them so much. And I do recognize that someone may say it's unfair to rank ships that never happened above them because of that, since Klaine only had these "issues" because they were canon, but I do just want to make it clear that I'm not saying Kurtbastian and Kelliott are better than Klaine; I'm just saying that I, personally, prefer them. And I'm going to leave it at that, because otherwise this is an entirely different conversation, and I already have a lot more to get through in this post haha.

Puckurt. Honestly this is so high largely because of how much love I have for Noah Puckerman. I think he is a wonderfully complex and interesting character and so obviously I want him and my absolute fave to be in love, you know? But on top of that, I think it could be such an interesting dynamic! We see Puck going from a huge bully to this kid who just doesn't know what he's doing, whose dad walked out on him and who has been taken advantage of by so many people in his life, of course he's acting out! It doesn't make it right, but I think it makes for such an interesting character. Seeing the ways that he grows, lets himself enjoy things and accept himself and others in ways he would have laughed at once upon a time, seeing how much he cares for those around him and how hard he loves. And Kurt loves hard, too. They both have such big hearts but they guard them so so closely, and honestly they do it in fairly similar ways. I think they could learn a lot from each other, and they're very different but I think it could really work in the right circumstances.

Kadam. I think Adam is such a sweetheart and honestly he deserved better than what Kurt gave him. Kurt kind of treated him like shit. That being said, I think they had so much potential. The scene where they talk about Blaine, and Kurt says he desperately wants to be over him, and Adam decides they're going to a movie so they can make it their movie? Beautiful. I wish we had more of that. I wish we had Kurt actually properly getting over Blaine with Adam, and of course we didn't because Kurt never does get over Blaine because they get back together, but oh god, what we could have had. The possibilities. Adam was so smitten with Kurt and he deserved to have that care returned to him and I think they would have been really sweet together if they had more of a chance.

Hevans. The ship we deserved but couldn't have. I loved Sam's introduction and how he handled things with Kurt; he didn't care that Finn said he'd get bullied, Kurt has a hell of a set of pipes and Sam was honoured to get to sing with him. He was worried he did something wrong when Kurt told him they wouldn't be sing together. He's impressed with everything Kurt is and does, he tells Kurt when he's living out of a motel, he makes macaroni art of Kurt's face that boy looks at Kurt and he sees everything wonderful about him and Kurt deserves that. And Sam is a sweetheart, he's goofy and nerdy and I really think that they would have a great time together. They're just a really sweet ship.

Wert aka Kes aka Kurt x Wes. Listen, this has absolutely no basis in the show. I was tempted to put it above Kadam but I had a hard time justifying it. This is based purely on Wes' characterization in the first fanfic I ever read, and then I wrote myself into shipping it when I started writing a Klaine fic where Wes was one of Blaine's best friends and I accidentally loved the Kurt/Wes dynamic a little too much. They have a special place in my heart and I love them.

Kody (Kurt x Brody). First of all, I think they'd be really hot together, so that definitely helps. But ALSO I think Brody deserved better than he got, and there's no way that man wasn't at least a little bi. I mostly ship this in a fun fling and/or fwb type way, where they aren't too serious and just have a little fun together, because let's be honest Kurt also deserved a proper slut phase in NYC while he was single.

Chummel. They would also look fantastic together. But I also think they're both really artistic and would be super supportive of each others' passions and drive them to be the best they could be.

Kartie & Kurtofsky. These are tied at the bottom because I don't actively ship them, but I... kind of wish I did? Like I don't dislike them, and Kurtofsky especially has been growing on me lately, and I can appreciate the things that make them fun ships and even recognize some of those things in some of the ships higher on this list. I still reblog content for them and I may even have a Kurtofsky gifset idea or two in my list that may eventually see the light of day if I'm ever feeling particularly motivated, I'm just not as passionate about them so they're done here I guess. No hate though! I still appreciate them.

Thank you so much for this ask!! It was a lot of fun to answer :)

[space-blue]

For you @weirdlet from this ask game.

First here are my notes, edited a bit to fit :

Ramson Gimbsey is a Toydarian chef, extremely famous for being a fiery personality who runs several holoshows, including "Hells' Galley". He also happens to be a minor toydarian royal member. Like third cousin to the king or something. If you remember, Toydaria is a very early subject of dispute for The Clone Wars show.

So in this AU, Cad Bane is a Jedi master, training Meeyan as a padawan. He and Kenobi get assigned because the murder is gruesome and sparking a massive diplomatic accident (set early in the Clone Wars).

Ramson Gimbsey was hosting a show event cooking/party night on a small luxury spaceship, lots of big names present. It suddenly it came under attack. I was going to go for a highjacked ship combined with a slug thrown clear through the bulkhead, or whole atmosphere cycled out from the engineering department. At any rate everyone inside is dead and turned into space popscicles.

The Toydarians are still receiving threats from the sepies, so it's generally assumed this is what's going on and this was a direct threat from them, since many people from all over died. There is a lot of dissent within the republic.

SO Bane and Meeyan get sent because Bane is a good "criminal mind" guy, and Kenobi is a great negotiator. Detective and diplomat duo. They also think Meeyan needs to work with Kenobi because Bane is… lacking in the negotiation department, to put it mildly. As an added twist, Meeyan retains her obsession with food in this AU. She was a massive fan of Ramson, and was watching the show live when the attack happened.

Dooku sees the strife and drops a lot of unhelpful comments while admitting to nothing, but it's not the sepies. Bane focuses on the investigation and Obi focuses on the diplomacy. Meeyan would bounce between them as the plot unfolds

Now, I brainstormed the actual source of the thing, and was going to change it as I write, but my dumb ass pantser brain can't get motivated to write something plotted out, and here we are!

Turns out, the actual intended victim was one of the guests directly related to one of the Toydarian ministers. He was drafting huge deals about mining/driving resource on the toydarian moon, and handing that contract to a very big Neimoidian name. When the TCW debacle happened, Toydaria joined the republic and the gov froze the deal with the Neimoidian.

However, that Neimoidian had been buttering that minister and he wants his fucking contract now. As arguments escalated and he made threats, he was dismissed and ignored. So he hired a big time bounty hunter to do the job. It was meant to be a non-Force sensitive Quinlan Vos, who basically takes Cad Bane's place as morally bankrupt bounty hunter in this AU.

Vos decided the best way to make the murder "discreet" yet public was to kill everyone aboard. So now in the background the Neimoidian is like "tic toc, I know where you live", and the minister is desperately trying to make stuff fit for him, while wrestling the investigating Jedi. The call to have the Jedi involved doesn't come from him (either the King, or the Chancellor). When they arrive they can sense something is off with the minister somehow.

We'd have two villains : the mastermind/hidden one, profit driven, and the physical villain, who's good enough to take on Jedi and nasty enough to kill padawans.

I would have made Meeyan dual wield and Bane with a saber staff.

And here's an excerpt for you:

'Mace, before I go, I've got to ask… Is this assignment because of Meeyan?'

'Your padawan? No. She will benefit from learning with Obi-Wan, but she isn't the reason you were selected. What makes you think that?'

'Do you not know? How do you not know?' Cad scoffed, incredulous. 'The child is one overexcited bake-off away from leaving the Order. She's a huge fan of Ramson Gimbsey.'

The news made Mace's eyebrows hitch up in suprise and promptly fall back down in concern. 'Was she watching the show?'

'Yes.'

'I see… That's why you were already well aware of the situation, I suppose?'

'You've got that right. Nothing to take you out of meditation like a padawan screaming their head off.'

Cad grimaced. He was jesting, but Meeyan's shock had been genuine, hitting him through the Force like a slap, and her dismay had lasted longer than would be considered proper. But then how often did you get to see your favourite star murdered live? He'd cut the kid some slack, but he still wasn't sure how she'd take this assignment.

[bitch-butter]

Directors cut thing on my story 😘

oh my god...🖤 you mean this story??

~ so much rambling down below ~

o b v i the inception for it was All You talking about myriad activities involving fingers, as one does, but my first instinct is always to take it to a place of webgott because they effectively live inside of me like my head is an apple and they're a worm slowly eating me alive. but the idea was also Very much suited to The AU, and I hadn't written any baberoe since down comes the night, so I took the plunge so to speak.

the thing about writing them in down comes the night is it was still sort of challenging, even though they're barely in it, because I find people either travel blind when it comes to baberoe or they show up with Many expectations, and I'm not really very good at writing to what people necessarily expect because I'm an insufferable contrarian at heart. so what I love the most about The AU is getting to come to a ship that (though I don't Know them as well as I know webgott) I think I'm pretty familiar with, but get to see them as somewhat removed from the expectations I was holding myself to writing them in another fic. that isn't to say it was Easy bc it was not, partially because it was a prompt from a friend, but also because their dynamic was incredibly new so I literally did some stretches (i.e. notes/exercises) and limbered up enough to try and get my hands on them, which was helped along by...

Sometimes when they’re together it’s like his head takes his heart by both shoulders and shakes his entire spirit back and forth yelling: you’re going too fast, you’re going too fucking fast. It can be a helpful brace, that little bit of bone-rattling doubt. Not of Babe. Never. Fucking again, he’s going too fast. He can’t help it that he’s never felt this for anyone else before, this weightless, incandescent, homecoming feeling he gets when he catches sight of Babe’s hair, a flick of his wrist like blades in the light, his smile, his smile, and all that lives inside of it. Maybe they’re going fast emotionally, but that should be allowed, shouldn’t it? If two guys move faster than the speed of light emotionally with each other but nobody is around to hear it does it make a sound? That second drink might have been a mistake.

the fact that Gene had a really accessible energy to me. dropping into him in a sense I got a lot of tension, but not any sort of rigidity, which created a really interesting tightrope of emotion that he moved across. because I hadn't worked with them really I could have chosen either of them, but I was drawn to the idea that both Babe and Gene are already fully immersed in not just the idea of each other but in realizing the sort of capital r Relationship they want with each other, and yet I got the sense that Gene was more push and pull about it solely because up until this point he hadn't had that kind of attraction to someone before. I see him in many combinations of humans but none really containing much substance, so to then be in a position where he's having Real feelings of connection, partnership, affection etc. it is understandably a little foreign to him. so there's that constant Yes No Yes No with him, because he's head over ass but he's flexing a completely new muscle for himself that he kind of needed Babe to bring out to begin with.

(a mentioned but unexplored tension at play is also the tension of Ari energy and Taylor energy, as they are both intensely powerful but they each trade and pass between each other in their themes, especially at the time the fic takes place, and I think that element adds to a specific rhythm.)

which obviously isn't to say there's any less happening internally with Babe, because he's having a battle of his own on the inside, but the sort of slow reveal of how they work and the story of the night I thought had a little more vicarious pleasure when taken in on the side of a guy who really would have just been happy to have a cocktail and spoon that night.

“Just surprised. Surprised at both of us.” Babe looked back to him with a gentle furrow in his brow. “Why surprised?” “I don’t think anyone has ever said that to me before,” Gene admitted, searching down through his own life, sex dotted all through it like stars in the sky, fucking legion, and tries to think of anything that can match what he and Babe have had in their beginning. “Never had to.” Mouth bunching at one corner, Babe took the words in with a slow nod. “I don’t think anyone has ever let me say it before, so.” It makes him pull Babe in close, leaning down so he can wrap his arms over his shoulders and kiss into the red shine of his hair in the dim kitchen light. “At least we’re in this together, huh?”

at least in my mind Babe entered into the night Knowing what he wanted to ask for, so everything on his side is leading up to the conversation they ultimately have. and on the surface obviously it's Just a conversation about phalanges but Because they've been taking things incredibly slow it's a statement for him to turn around and say he's going to take it there. which is a favorite trope of mine, I admit, when a truth gets brazenly spoken after being denied/rejected for so long, so obvi I had to shoehorn it here a little bit. because, again, Babe hasn't had a Relationship of this manner before, and has had a past where he was pretty disrespected and not really seen as being a Whole Person (as opposed to a Hole Person lol). so now being in a position with Gene where he's being recognized as a human with singular wants and needs and he's actually experiencing being Heard, it allows him the mobility to control the speed of their intimacy in a way. though it is mutual, I think Gene gives a lot of the power over to Babe at least in this way because not only are they still learning each other but he sees something in Babe's strength and his openness that is sort of humbling to him. so it made the most sense to me that not only should it be Gene's pov but Babe should be the one to ask.

you know I loved writing it, I love talking about it, and now I love writing baberoe (particularly spooky baberoe 🌙🖤)

(also, a Lot of this was written in my journal by the pool because I will admit you caught me at a vulnerable moment on vaca so I just spent days at the beach writing and it was truly heaven, I wrote most of this, I wrote the end of Rivers, I wrote like three prompts, I think I'm supposed to just live on vacation. so this fic is married in my mind to being incredibly relaxed, and feeling dreamy and warm and free of stress lol)

thx babe ~

[frazzledsoul]

So lately I've been thinking more and more about getting into the Gilmore Girls fandom again, which is cute, because the fandom is nonexistent, pretty much (even though the show is actually pretty popular on Netflix even all these years later) and I kind of wanted to talk about how I fell out with it.

I updated a story this week I had not touched for a year. It's my monstrous fic about Jess being Rory's baby daddy and it's 26 chapters so far and I kind of feel it went off the rails about seven or eight chapters ago but Lit fans seem to like it. Literati is not really my ship: I love them, but I also love Rory with Logan and I have written for both and see the merit in both ships. So I'm emotionally detached from it to a certain extent which is not the case with Luke/Lorelai. And I did not really get along or agree with what I thought the "official" opinions were from a lot of L/L fic authors that the fandom as a whole was encouraged to have.

The fact that I no longer talk to a lot of those authors/fans is partially (okay, mostly) my fault. There were a lot of cultural/political/lifestyle differences that couldn't be reconciled, but also a really wide gulf in fandom opinions that couldn't be reconciled, either. The fact that I was not a nice person about certain things last summer didn't help. I've blocked people on here about stuff I now consider petty and have retracted it but basically....I think sometimes online friendships need to stay in certain places and not be placed in toxic environments like Twitter and Discord where things can easily get out of hand. But when you're on a rage-blocking spree it can be hard to talk yourself down from it.

I guess the point I want to make here is that when the show was going on it had a considerable fanbase that was somewhat morally/culturally conservative. I don't think actual politics here is the issue (ASP was pretty clear about where she stood on that one) but if you were uncomfortable with Lorelai sleeping with Christopher while he had a girlfriend and never acknowledging that what she did was wrong and stupid it was okay to say that. If you didn't think it was okay for Rory to be involved with Dean while he was technically married to Lindsay it was okay to say that (not an opinion I share, but it was out there). If Lorelai sleeping with Christopher was a complete deal-breaker for you and you felt you couldn't sympathize or like her anymore after that and that what she did couldn't be justified, it was okay to say that. I feel that in 2016 with certain L/L fans and fic writers dominating the conversation, it wasn't okay anymore to express those types of opinions. Lorelai sleeping with Christopher is just a stupid thing Luke has to get over while we obsess over and over about how Luke failed Lorelai by not giving her the perfect wedding she wanted. It was perfectly okay for her to shove that knife in as far as she could if that's what she needed to do to feel that things were "over".

At the same time, the dominant L/L opinion that we were all encouraged to have was....intensely traditional in places. We were encouraged to believe that Lorelai's need to get married outweighed every other consideration, moral or otherwise, that marriage was going to immediately solve her and Luke's problems even though eloping ASAP would solve virtually none of them, and that Luke once again failed Lorelai by never proposing in the years between the OG series and AYITL despite the fact that it's explicitly stated several times throughout the revival that she did not want that. The dominant opinion here neither respects fidelity or has any room for a nontraditional arrangement, which is an odd combination to have.

There were other issues here, such as the time three popular fanfic writers decided to write stories one after the other about how Luke wearing jeans to dinner at Emily's did not mean he did not have any money and how they had to disabuse Emily of that notion right away because....how dare Luke actually be a person who could not afford nice dress pants. Being poor isn't a moral failure, people, and neither is wearing jeans to dinner. And yeah, fic writers can write anything they want and if I don't like it I don't have to read it and blah blah blah, but I think it's just another example of the "fandom" kind of laying out what opinions one was and was not allowed to have and how one often felt like an outsider for liking Luke *because* he was a redneck.

The thing is that when I go back and read older stories written by fans who were watching the show while it was airing or even fans who write for multiple ships I feel they...understand it more? The older stories understand why Lorelai's actions were so devastating and felt like such a betrayal. There's a writer who wrote in both time periods who has a story where it's explicitly stated that whether Lorelai was technically cheating or not doesn't matter, because it was still a horrible thing to do and she knows it and she's sorry. I honestly never felt as vindicated and validated as I did when I read that take on it. I feel this is S7's view on the situation. It's not like Lorelai tries to argue the point or anything: she knows pretty much right off that it was horrible. Yet the "modern" writers and fans seem to believe that Luke expressing any anger, even temporarily, is worse than what she did. And I feel intensely uncomfortable in a fandom where that is the dominant opinion.

Most of this isn't found in the fics themselves, for the most part, but in the publicly expressed opinions of the writers. And I feel this is a problem, in fandoms: you have your beloved fic writers and your thought leaders and they control the conversation and no one is really allowed to challenge them. Which is kind of why I feel fandoms in and of themselves are toxic: it's unhealthy to let only a few people decide what can and cannot be accepted. Sometimes it's better to let fics stay on the page and not know too much of what the writer's fandom opinions are....or at least, not to the point where it is considered the *only* opinion.

I just have one final thing to say, which is that I feel having the dissenting opinion that cheating is bad and not getting married is not a tragedy if you do not want to do it is something I feel has come back on me when I tried to write my take on L/L: I have a long, angsty story that I needed to write to get it out of me and let Luke say the things he needed to say about what had happened. I went round and round with some of these established writers in the reviews, because there were some very popular and influential fic writers who did *not* like my take on the subject. So there's some pretty solid evidence beyond my feeling that only certain takes on this ship were allowed other than my own insecurity. I feel all of this is unnecessary, and those who sympathized more with Luke than Lorelai should have a space to say why they feel these things.

But any rate, most of this is over now. The only stories really being written are AUs these days (the most prolific L/L writer working now is someone who never watched the revival and whose stories definitely have a more old skool take on things as far as the moral issues go) so all of the stuff in the past that we fought over doesn't matter.

But in case anyone cares....I'm probably updating that angsty fic next week. And it's going to have Jess in it. And he might be a (temporary) manwhore. So I'm sure I'll get some of those reviews again.

[sitabethel]

Fic tag game, and I was tagged by @rochelle-echidna, @isisishtar, and @ninjam117

1 - how many fics do you have on ao3?

Like any good Suikoden protagonist, I have 107 Stars of Destiny in my castle

2 - what’s your total word count?

2,445,507 (Daddy...Imma get that to 2.5 mill by the end of the year. Watch)

3 - what are your top fics by kudos?

The Lemonade Stand

Out From the Cold

King of Thieves

Safe

Talk Dirty to me

wtf, y’all. The puppyshippers are giving out more kudos than the thief stans. Shame. Shame. Talk Dirty To Me isn’t even a fic??? It’s an RP supersteff posted for funsies??? 

4 - do you respond to comments why or why not?

Most of the time (as long as I’m not overwhelmed with life). Responding to comments is how I’ve made most my friends in this fandom, so A++ would recommend. 

5 - what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Definitely Three Nights. My only fic w/a sad ending (which is why I wrote Three More Nights b/c I couldn’t handle having a sad ending. I had to fix it.)

6 - what’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I honestly couldn’t say. I’m here to have a good time and to make sure all my favs also have a good time, so I’m always actively trying to give them the happiest possible endings. 

7 - do you write crossovers?

Nope.

8 - have you ever received hate for a fic?

I sure the hell have

9 - do you write smut? What kind.

ROTFLMFAO

10 - have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. It was kinda funny b/c out of all the fics, it was “Me” a 5k deathshipping one shot that is one of my least popular works. But like...I don’t really think they were *trying* to steal it so much as homage it? But they were too young and unskilled to know how to rework something properly, so it was almost an exact copy of my fic. I tried to go over it and show them how to rewrite parts in order for it to be more original (Like, you can give YM piercings, just don’t give him the exact same piercings. You can have YM play with his hair/clothes/presentation in order to explore his identity, but pick different things that are more unique and how *you* would imagine YM being as his own person, instead of just copying exactly what I did). 

11 - have you ever had a fic translated?

There’s an Italian version of Storm of White on ao3 (go kudo bomb it!)

12 - have you ever co written a fic before?

Lots! I love colabs <3 The last one I did was Conspire With You, but there was also A Way Home, and I’ve co-written a few things with SuperSteffy. Please support all the other writers who worked hard on these fics with me! (kudo-bomb the hell out of them)

13 - what’s your all time favorite ship?

*Cries in polyamory* 

I can’t...choose one. Thiefshipping and Deathshipping were my first favorites, but like...damn, Kingshipping and Trapshipping have honestly ruined me. And Arrestshipping...Euroshipping...Rustshipping...Boundshipping...LISTEN!!! If it’s any combination of Seto/Atem/Yugi/TKB-YB/Ryou B/YamiMa/Malik it’s my favorite, okay? I’m a dragon who hoards ships. Especially polyships. I will literally froth at the mouth at any combo of those 7. Now let’s move on to the next question before I add more characters to the list........

14 - what’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

That demon/angel au I was working on years and years ago. A shame, since I think there was a lemon that spilled into 3 chapters in that and it’s what Bakura deserves, but the plot was just...meh. 

15/16 - writing strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: Dialogue, sometimes imagery, projecting the right trauma/personality traits on the right characters in a way that can make scenes relatable/authentic. 

Weaknesses: I can be lazy with some plot points b/c it’s fanfiction, and I’m only here to have a good time, so eff it. And I will absolutely “sum up” certain chapters in order to finish a story at 80% potential. Anons used to get on my ass about this, and some commenters too, but I refuse to repent of my hasty ways. I write a lot of stories, and sometimes it’s better to get 3 80% stories out instead of one 100% story (for me. absolutely nothing wrong with ppl who want to write their best all the time. Like, mad respect to those peeps). Anyway, the ppl who complain are 100% accurate, right, and valid, but again, If you call me out on this I’ll just shrug at you and remind you of my commission prices b/c I’ll be happy to personally tailor a story for any angry anon-- if they want to put their money where their critique is *blows kiss*

17 - what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Depends on the context and how it’s used. 

18 - what was your first fandom you wrote for?

FFVII, but I never posted any of it thank god

19- what’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I honestly love so many of my stories. I honestly re-read my own stuff all the time for comfort/self-care. I especially love a lot of the more intense, emotional pwp one-shots. It’s extremely difficult to pick one, but let’s go with humor and link 

Measuring Up 

Gotta love Bakura’s monster **** And the interaction involved with writing that story made it so much more fun. I really miss the days where you could slap a vote on tumblr and get a lot of responses, and dammit I miss Abby throwing random things into my ask box (like Bakura’s monster ****) 

Not going to tag anyone, since so many ppl are in the same little thiefshipping circle and I’d probably just accidentally tag a lot of ppl who have been tagged by others already.