#because partly i really don't plan of shipping her in the first place

[ryllen]

You know I am surprise Sebek that is never jealous to anyone who is close to Yuu. It is a boys school and I can imagine some have crushes on her.

[mallowwblossom]

OUTER BANKS SEASON 4 SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!

Ok, so now that JJ is dead, NO ONE can. convince me that Riara WON'T happen in season 5 AND LET ME TELL Y'ALL WHY.

First of all, their chemistry has been there from the start. You could feel it even in season 1, and if you say otherwise, you're lying. They’ve given us so many moments—both direct and indirect interactions.

Have you noticed that when Rafe talks about Kiara, he uses her full name, but when he addresses her directly, it's ALWAYS and ONLY "Kie"?

THAT LOOK??? ARE Y'ALL SERIOUSLY GOING TO DENY THAT LOOK?

Also, remember in season 1, when Pope and Kiara talked, and Pope brought up her "Kook Year"? She reacted badly to that, and considering she was Sarah's best friend back then, a possible fling between Rafe and Kiara could've easily happened and is HEAVILY IMPLIED.

When Rafe picks fights with the Pogues, he never really targets Kiara aggressively(I mean yes he does almost choke her and tries to down her in the sewers but ykwim).For example, in season 1, he pulls her away from Barry, saying she was not the one they were looking for.

And these are only moments from the FIRST SEASON! The fact that are only those present in the first season and some of you still don't believe this ship leaves me flabbergasted.

Their strongest moment was definitely in season 3 with an entire arc of them together in Barbados.

ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT MEANT NOTHING?

Now, yes, Rafe met Sofia and dated her in season 3, but tbh it never felt genuine. Rafe is a twisted man, and it seemed like she was just a replacement for the family he lost. Rafe needs someone whom he can prove himself to, to encourage and love him, partly to prove he can be like Ward, another twisted man who always managed to keep his family together and placed his family first (at least according to his disturbed vision) . Now that he feels "betrayed" by Sofia, I doubt we’ll see her again.

ALSO THE RIARA MOMENTS IN THIS SZN WEREN'T GONE AT ALL, THEY WERE ON FULL FORCE.

Call me crazy if you want, but I genuinely believe Riara will become canon. It might even be part of the reason they decided to kill off JJ. Yes, Rudy Pankow didn’t want to continue on the show, but remember that interview where Carlacia said Cleo and JJ were supposed to be a couple? I don’t think Jiara was in the plan from the start; it happened mostly because of fans.

I’m not happy with how they handled this season, and I’ll probably talk about that in another post. I’m definitely NOT happy with JJ’s finale, but I’m excited about this likely-to-happen Riara pairing. And I don't know If It's just me but I'm noticing the writers seem to be pushing a potential redemption arc for Rafe, which I don’t fully approve of—but who knows, that could be another hint for Riara?

---

Side note: If you were in the OUAT fandom in the 2013/2014 I'm telling this is like the Bealfire-Emma-Hook love triangle. Like we all liked I hope Baelfire, but from the SECOND we saw Hook, we all knew Neal was supposed to go. Change my mindddd

MIND YOU ENGLISH ISN'T MY FIRST LANGUAGE AND I REALLY HOPE I MANAGED TO GET MY POINT ACROSS😭

Of course, that is entirely my opinion, but PLS do interact because I'm curious about everyone's take on this. <33

[coraniaid]

alright, i have a feeling youve already received this ask for the ask game but in the interest of due diligence, can you give your fuffy thoughts?

OK, this seems like a fitting place to end this series of ship asks, at least for now.

Obviously I do ship it.

1) What made you ship it?

I first watched Buffy as a teenager, but I wasn't particularly involved in the wider fandom and I don't really remember actively shipping anyone (I guess I liked Willow and Oz and later Willow and Tara, but that was just because I liked Willow a lot and thought she deserved to be happy). The character relationship I was most invested in was Buffy and Willow's friendship and Buffy and Willow were the two characters I cared about the most.

While I liked Faith okay on first viewing and I'm sure I picked up on at least some of the lesbian subtext -- Faith drawing a heart on the window to get Buffy's attention in Bad Girls isn't exactly subtle, after all -- it was only years later, when I started rewatching the show during the first months of spring 2020, that things really clicked into place for me. Because, well, I'd liked Faith before, sure -- she was fun, especially as a villain, and she appeared in my favorite era of the show -- but I mostly took her claims about herself at face value and didn't really think much about it. If the show didn't want me to think she was getting invited to fun parties off-screen then why would she say she was? Her main role on the show, to me, was to be somebody who threatened Buffy and Willow's friendship.

It was only during my lockdown-inspired rewatch that it really dawned on me just how unhappy Faith clearly was and how little she had in her life and just how awkwardly bad she is at hiding any of this. And that instantly made her a lot more interesting to me: Faith the Sad Angry Loser is just a lot more intriguing than the Cool Girl persona that Faith affects.

And then as Season 3 went on I remember thinking that there was a lot more gay subtext between Buffy and Faith than I'd remembered there being, and idly wondering if anyone in the last couple of decades had ever thought about writing fanfiction about the two of them and if so whether it was still online, and then ... well, here we are.

2) What are your favorite things about this ship?

Fundamentally I think the ship just works incredibly well on a number of different levels, thanks to a combination of intentional (and unintentional) acting choices and Faith's thematic role in the show and a series of plot decisions that weren't ever planned out in advance but just came together really satisfyingly.

I could ramble on for ages about Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku's inarguable chemistry, and how that arises partly from a very deliberate choice on Dushku's part to play Faith as attracted to Buffy and partly unintentionally as a result of Gellar's choice to play Buffy as drawn to and tempted by the life that Faith represents (complete with the little half-smiles that the show explicitly tells us is something Buffy does when she wants to signal she's attracted to somebody).

And I could point out how Faith's Season 3 arc is something of a retread of Angel's arc in Season 2 -- look at the way Buffy reacts to both with a certain tense hostility during the first meeting in their respective seasons ("you think you can take me?" Buffy asks Angel in When She Was Bad; a question that's echoed by Faith to Buffy in her debut a year later) before gradually become closer as they partrol and fight monsters together until a night of passion (in Surprise, then in Bad Girls; both nights followed by Buffy creeping home and being confronted by her mother) ultimately robs Angel of his soul and Faith of her ability to convince herself she's a fundamentally heroic figure despite everything (Angel himself makes the parallel explicit later in Enemies) and then both characters defect to the side of Buffy's enemies, forcing her to (not quite) kill them in their respective season finales -- and how all this feels more deliberate and impactful and less derivative and lazy if we take the implication that Faith is just as much a romantic interest of Buffy as Angel was before her. To let the subtext become text, as GIles would put it

And I could mention the show's repeated moments of treating being a Slayer explicitly as a metaphor for being queer -- with Buffy forced to come out to her mother in Becoming and her mother's reaction ("have you tried not being a Slayer?"; "it's because you didn't have a strong father figure, isn't it?"), and her mom later (somewhat prematurely) talking about "marching in the Slayer Pride Parade". I could talk about how that reading of Buffy's status as Slayer then in turn affects how we read Faith (a Slayer, like Buffy, but one who is -- at least on the surface -- much more open to embracing it) and how Buffy's "ode to Faith" in Bad Girls comes off as a (somewhat unaware) infatuation; "it's kind of a Slayer thing". (This isn't, of course, the only thing a Slayer is ever used as a metaphor for, but I think it's one of the most consistent possible readings).

But, well, you could read a much smarter version of all that by reading this Insect Reflection post, so I'm not sure I'd be adding much if I said any of that.

A couple of (hopefully slightly more original) observations instead:

I actually think it works to the ship's advantage that it wasn't something Whedon approved of or that was ever in danger of becoming canon. Obviously the desire to be loved and to seek out romantic and sexual relationships is a huge part of Buffy's character and it's pretty natural that shipping is such a huge part of the fandom. But that being said I don't think most of the Buffy writers are actually very good at or comfortable with writing romance. I remember reading a retrospective on the show that interviewed Joss Whedon in which he talked about being surprised by how positively people watching Season 1 of the show reacted to the Buffy/Angel relationship which he'd thought of as a "hokey ... soap opera", and that's an attitude I think kind of shines through the text even in the surviving seasons. That stuff always feels like a bit of an afterthought. The comedy and the existentialism and the whole reimagining of high school as literally close to hell and the subvesion of the blonde (ex) cheerleader being the thing that terrifies the monsters feel like what the show wants to be about. Anything focused on Buffy's love life feels like a somewhat grudging concession to the audience. Or, well, maybe I just have very different ideas about what counts as romantic than Joss Whedon or Marti Noxon: obviously a lot of people do get a lot out of the canon ships that I don't. But in any event -- because Buffy/Faith wasn't intended to be a romantic relationship by Whedon and didn't (and couldn't have) ever been endgame -- it (completely unintentionally) feels a lot more organic and interesting to me. When the writers aren't all united in trying to write a relationship arc, but instead just focused on writing the characters and having them interact in ways that make sense to them and from which the romantic reading emerges, the result just works better than when they're actively forcing them into the shape of a notional Healthy Romantic Relationship that doesn't necessarily make sense for them (and isn't quite as healthy and romantic as the writers seem to think).

While Faith wasn't Buffy's first or last shadow self, and while she's certainly not the only character on the show who primarily exists to tell us something about Buffy Summers, I think she's the character who's most consistently defined by being (knowingly) Buffy's shadow. Cordelia leaves the show after three seasons (and is only consistently Buffy's shadow for about a third of that time) and gets seasons worth of character growth that don't really have anything to do with Buffy Summers; Spike only really gets reimagined as Buffy's shadow years after his introduction (I don't think he really takes on the role until Season 6 although you can argue for Season 5 I guess) and so he has a lot of existing character traits and connections to other characters that are entirely unrelated to this role as Buffy's shadow. But Faith is Buffy -- a version of Buffy, anyway, one who never had the friends or the mom or the Watcher and likes to tell herself she's better of that way -- from the beginning of the show to the end. She doesn't get enough time on screen to be anything else. So the idea of Buffy and Faith getting together after the show feels like, as much as anything else, Buffy learning to accept the negative and selfish and unhappy parts of her that Faith represents. To accept that she does actually enjoying Slaying and it prompts stronger feelings in her than cravings for low-fat yogurt. I do like the show's choice to keep Buffy's romantic options open when the show ended and have her realize she doesn't have to have that part of her life all figured out at aged twenty-two -- I think that's an important message and also just a really nice character beat for her personally -- but to me Buffy and Faith figuring things out between them some time after Chosen just feels thematically right. It ties together all sorts of (somewhat planned, somewhat accidental) parts of the show: it's the end point of Buffy going to fight the Master and so dying and accidentally calling a new Slayer; of meeting Kendra and being told she's "not the only freak"; of sending Angel to hell to save the world and then watching helplessly a year later as it all happens again and Faith smiles at her proudly when she sticks a knife in her stomach before throwing herself off a roof; of facing down the Council in Faith's body, alone, then doing the same thing a year later in her own body surrounded by her friends; of climbing out of her own grave the way Faith dreamed about doing and now finding that she's the one trapped in a tar pit, sinking a little deeper every day; of meeting the Potentials and reuniting with Faith and then both of them finally getting to escape the burden of being "the Chosen One" without having to die or go to prison or give up their powers. It just feels right, to me.

3) Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Admittedly I am (by choice and careful use of the block button) in a bit of an echo chamber when it comes to Faith. Sometimes I see bad takes secondhand -- I am vaguely aware that there are not only people who insist Faith's attraction to Buffy is entirely unreciprocated but even people who insist Faith is not attracted to Buffy at all, for example -- but I think within my little bit of the internet Faith is one of the vanishingly few Buffy characters I don't regularly see incredibly annoying bad takes about.

Uh. I think there's definitely been a fairly major change in how people talk about Faith's awareness of her own sexuality over the last few years (well, decade plus, probably, but it feels like it's accelerated in the last year or so). In the 2010s it feels like most Fuffy fanfic took for granted that Faith knew she was attracted to women (and Buffy in particular), and it wasn't uncommon to have people write technically "canon-compliant" fics or headcanon in which Buffy and Faith were secretly hooking up off-screen between patrols throughout large parts of Season 3.

But recently it feels like the fandom consensus has gone strongly the other way, so now I somewhat regularly see takes by people who do think Faith is a lesbian but who think she's in so much denial about it she doesn't even consciously realize she's attracted to Buffy

And at the risk of being boring, I think both takes kind of miss the mark. Buffy is surely far, far too repressed to have any sort of casual sexual relationship, especially in Season 3, let alone one with a woman. Especially not when she's still seeing Angel. And I don't think things like the conversation with Angel in Earshot play out the same way if Buffy has actually done anything to act on (what certainly seems to be) her own unexamined attraction to Faith.

And yeah, Faith is full of self-loathing, sure, but I think the idea that she's actually as repressed as Buffy about her attraction to women goes too far as well: a lot of the things people point to as evidence for this take is just evidence that the show aired on network television in the US in the 1990s. If nothing else, on a metaphorical level, it doesn't make sense for Faith to not be aware of her own sexual desires, because she exists in large part to reflect those unacknowledged desires in Buffy.

For what it's worth, my own take is that Season 3 Faith would, if pressed, somewhat grudgingly describe herself as bi (but not in so many words: she'd say something about "swinging both ways" or "not always driving stick"), but in a way that strongly she suggested that (1) in her mind, everybody else feels like this too (it's just that she's just more honest about it, unlike certain prissy blonde holier-than-thou Slayers who hate fun she could name) and (2) sex with men was, as far as Faith was concerned, something of an unpleasant obligation (since "all men are beasts" and "I figure: if you can't beat them, join them" and so on).

I think that's (a part of) why she talks about sex as something to "forget" (as she tells Xander in Consequences, after kicking him out of her motel bed in The Zeppo) and why (contrary to her boast to Spike in Dirty Girls) she fundamentally thinks of sex as being something she is subjected to: "what do you wanna do to this body?", she asks Riley in Who Are You?. And yes, while Faith's actions in those two quoted episodes are horrific, in ways the show itself doesn't always acknowledge, I think both those scenes suggest she is re-enacting (and to some extent reliving) things she experienced herself before being Called as a Slayer (made most obvious by her panic after waking up with Riley and repeatedly saying "no" and begging him to get off of her, as if she's forgotten her own strength, or the story about a guy who had her "dress up like a school girl" which, if you do the math, can only have happened when Faith was young enough she should still have been in school).

So I do think it must be right that Faith has some pretty conflicting views on sex and her own sexual experiences in particular; whatever her metaphorical role I think she isn't quite as positive about her sexual history as some of her conversations might suggest. There's definitely some denial and evasion and self-deception going on there. But at the same time, I can't really imagine a Faith who has to be led to the realization she's attracted to Buffy or who gradually figures out she's into women. That's not how Eliza Dushku played the character, after all.

[mistresscitrusslice]

"I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care 🩷😘"

Mastermind is THE Meljay song from Mel's perspective. It's about time I did a song breakdown for Meljay bc honestly they deserve it. Truly an underrated overhated couple

"Once upon a time, the planets and the fates and all the stars aligned" Brings up the visual of the astral-looking magic that brought them together in the first place. Maybe fate didn't bind them, but their love feels celestial anyway.

"You and I ended up in the same room at the same time" I don't think Mel intentionally bumped into them in the hallway, but I wouldn't be surprised if she did. If that hadn't happened, I do believe she would have sought him out at a later date, maybe offered him her patronage under the table, but that's getting into fanfiction territory.

"And the touch of a hand lit the fuse" This could not get any more literal

"To assess the equation of you" THE NERDS ARE FLIRTING. wee woo wee woo They're literally so cute I'm fuming. Can we be certain this song isn't actually about them?

"Checkmate, I couldn't lose" I feel like Mel has this attitude about a lot of things. She seems like the kind of person who has at least three contingency plans for every situation and as a result is used to getting her way.

"What if I told you none of it was accidental / And the first night that you saw me, nothing was gonna stop me?" Mel certainly had her eyes set on Jayce from the moment of his trial. To an extent, even before the trial, from the moment she heard his name from Elora's mouth. Post-time skip, every one of her moves toward him was intentional to attract and mold him. Even before it becomes obvious that she fell harder for him than intended, she clearly harbors feelings and admiration for him as far as pre-time skip.

"What if I told you I'm a mastermind?" BECAUSE SHE ISSSSSS "And now you're mine" BECAUSE HE ISSSSS

"You see, all the wisest women had to do it this way / 'Cause we were born to be the pawn in every lover's game" Something something Mel is a fox. She has to be because she doesn't want to be the pawn to her wolf mother. This is not something she can just turn off when it comes to her love life, but maybe she can learn to (or maybe they can make each other worse)

"I'm the wind in our free-flowing sails / And the liquor in our cocktails" Ship motifs, only loosely tied. (I think that line would work better for Melvik) The second line here works really, really well for Meljay, though. I'm specifically thinking of the opera scene where she hands him the golden flute of golden wine.

"What if I told you none of it was accidental / and the first night that you saw me, I knew I wanted your body?" Oh, she for sure wanted Jayce's body, but more than that, she wanted his mind. She and I can agree that nothing is hotter than reckless intelligence

"No one wanted to play with me as a little kid / So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since" Hmm something tells me Mel didn't interact with a lot of people her age as a child

"To make them love me and make it seem effortless" And she does it well too!

"This is the first time I've felt the need to confess / And I swear / I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care" This song plays it off in a joking way, but this is unironically Mel 😭 She cares about peace, she cares about not going to war, she cares about progress, and she cares about Jayce. The road to Machiavellianism is paved with sweet little arm kisses with your lover's head in your lap and soft finger brushes in the chilly night air.

"I laid the groundwork and then saw a wide smirk / On your face, you knew the entire time / You knew that I'm a mastermind" Jayce absolutely does not know. He knows that Mel is a political mastermind, but he does not know that that is also being directed toward him, the sweet boy. If he found out that Mel approached him partly out of ulterior motives, he would be mad, but it wouldn't last. They've both harbored feelings for too long not to repair their relationship. He can't stay mad at her and she has a way with words. Their character flaws have glued them together.

[kieuecaprie]

So, I've tried out Froniter Station on SS14 after a while of hemming and hawing about it. Decided it would be funny to take the fail-girl lizard out onto the new frontier and see what happens.

First shift went poorly, ended up doing quite poorly because I was mining and couldn't find a place to process ores nor did I have the machine to do so so I was stuck selling scraps on the trade outpost (This is why you should, you know, actually engage with the player market lmao) So, I decided to do a hard reset (I wasn't sure if there was anything against it but I was a newbie and was desperate to keep learning) and went out salvaging. Actually came out on top that time with selling loots. Third time, I also salvaged by myself but a bit of emergent gameplay happened (read: thruster placement skill issue) that made me interact with the folks on the server.

A priestly lizard who was FUCKING HUGE managed to save Adalite and bring her back to Frontier, as well as offer her wine and some advice, it was actually rather sweet.

I did sell my shittle off, bought another Construct, and went back to salvaging, making back what I lost and actually planning my ship design this time. Remember, folks, always bring cable, more than you need!

The shift after that, though, oh boy, it's a bit of a doozy.

Anyway: >Be me, Adalite Tosimizu, currently striking it out on the Frontier.

So that round, I had decided that I'd try and get hired by a ship so I can, you know, actually RP on an MRP server (shock and horror, right?) and had Adalite ask if people needed a blue lizard who can do the things.

A lizard by the name Bites-The-Cables responded by saying that they always need a blue lizard. This lizard had been saying at the start of the round that they wanted to make an Unforgettable Luncheon and were looking for crew members to assist!

I wasn't too sure, first, but after confirming, I hopped aboard the McCargo (yes, really) and met the rest of the crew. A human, a harpy, some small vulpkanins with matching attire, a lizard wearing a bio suit, a TALL HULKING LIZARD wearing a lizard plushie on his head (We had a brief LOOC convo about the lizard plushie thing. It's honestly surprising people don't know about it but it's amusing when they realize.) So, what was the plan? To have a restaurant! BUT there's one catch: there will be a live anomaly! As someone who practically mains Science in SS14, I'm both appalled and intrigued, and I'm sure y'all see where this is going.

So we do the prep-work, converse among ourselves and just generally have a chill time (which is something I've never got the chance to do in SS14 before, mainly because, well, Frontier has a much more relaxed shift length and no real antagonists.) while we set up the whole she-bang.

We've commandeered a science lab, a group of three cleared out the xenos inside, and we got our stuff together, now we have to wait.

Enter: Joe Czanek, a smarmy looking human, and his compatriot, Amera, a moff, turns out they were from the, ahem, secret Health and Safety department... Yeah, okay, seemed everyone was suspicious of him, Walks-With-Shadows especially, apparently Joe built up a reputation for scamming folks which is something that I (and consequently, Adalite) didn't know about up to this point.

So, shenanigans ensue as the crew try their best to keep the place "up-to-code", hiding armaments and general other stuff. I just kind of stayed in the main area, partly to keep an eye out, partly due to stage fright at this point, but I did eventually start wandering and ended up interacting with them directly.

Then the luncheon finally began. A vulpkanin brought out the foods, the "inspectors" would say how terrible the place and the food is and the man would write stuff down. At one point, he even asked Adalite to sit down for a few questions which, to her, was the most nerve-wracking thing she's done.

Fortunately, it was merely uneventful after that up until Joe asked to see the anomaly (LOOC, they said that they were expecting it to be an Aurora Borealis moment lmao). Pressured, we decide to spawn an anomaly and get... slime. Okay, cool, we got slime anomaly. That's good.

What's not good was that it was in a corner on top of an anomaly vessel, which made keeping it stable hard. But it was fortunately safe, ironically, even if it did spit out liquids and fumes into the dining area.

Eventually, Walks-With-Shadows began to keep catching fire which prompted me to drag him to the lab's medbay for treatment, unwittingly being the first domino cast in a line of dominos that'd end up being disasterous.

As we were treating Shadows in the medbay, I heard over comms that the anomaly was about to go critical, so I rushed over to try and help before it suddenly exploded (and the vessel too) into reagent slimes.

Chaos ensued. The laser pistol was not enough and I ended up getting crit and actually died. Everyone else died too. Medical comms lit up with medical tracker implants (a roundstart item, actually useful if the meds on the shift are on the ball). I had ran into the McCargo and ended up sliding towards one of the airlock doors while I was bleeding out, thus making me the first to get revived. Adalite Tosimizu really is built different, isn't she?

A tearful reunion with the co-workers and an examination of the place, we decide that it's best to skedaddle back to the Frontier Outpost but not before Walks-With-Shadows generated ANOTHER anomaly. (It was ice, less threatening that others but still painful if you aren't wearing proper clothing)

Walks-With-Shadows talks with Adalite for a bit about family, it was a general agreement. While blood may be thicker than water, your true family comes from the people you trust the most, which does mesh well with Adalite's backstory I had in mind (I haven't been able to elaborate on it very much as of yet since I never get many chances to do so.)

We chatter for a bit on the ride over, hop out, and hear Bites getting her review (Bites ended up with a 200k spesos "fine", which was then haggled down to 100k and helping with wedding dining from what I recall), I lamented that I didn't get money but decided to see the bright side because, well, I got to meet some wonderful people.

Walks-With-Shadows, who is practically Adalite's big brother at this point, drags me over to the ATM, withdraws some money, then prompted me to deposit it.

It was 90k. Ninety-fucking-thousand spesos, and he was just offering it. I eventually took it after a brief back-and-forth making Adalite my first character to hit 100k on Frontier. Cargonia would've been so proud.

Eventually, we start winding down (it was VERY late for me) and just generally talk about things and headed to cryo. Walks-With-Shadows said that if Adalite ever needed anything, she can feel free to call on him.

After saying goodnight, it was time to cryo and end the shift. Probably THE most memorable RP moment I've ever had in SS14, by far.

Anyway, screenshots below, first of all, the shittle I made in my third-ever shift on Frontier Station:

And secondly, sparse screenshots of what happened during the very long RP session:

[tsuzukerukoto]

how easily does your muse fall in love? for makoto & does your muse usually plan out dates or go with the flow? for gaius !!

All about ships! @toestalucia

how easily does your muse fall in love?

Makoto wears his heart on his sleeve and overall is just a pretty emotional guy, I don't think that it's difficult for Makoto to develop a crush on someone. For example he had a strong crush on Maizono, and he only ever admired her from a distance-- they never interacted when they attended the same school despite mutual interest, partly because there wasn't a chance to and their different social standings. For what it's worth, I think that Makoto also couldn't muster the courage to approach at the time. But progressing onward from crushes I wouldn't say that Makoto is the kind of person who falls in love super quickly/easily-- for him, it's more steady than anything else. No matter how much he has a crush on someone, and no matter how much he gets flustered around them, he isn't going to go to the next step without a bond and that can take some time to build but he will make that sincere effort to connect and understand! Of course certain events, who the person is, and the nature or circumstances of their relationship could speed up or slow that process down, I'm just talking generally. He's also an incredibly accepting, open-minded, and selfless person, so I don't want to boil down him having a crush as just physical attraction. There's more to him developing a crush than just seeing an attractive woman in a vacuum. It can take time in and of itself.

does your muse usually plan out dates or go with the flow?

I need to replay RF3 Now, for this guy... It's no secret he's very easygoing! At least normally. If Evelyn's any indication Gaius has the tendency to spill the proverbial spaghetti IMMEDIATELY in the matters of romance, so in the first place if he were to score a date he'd be flustered for most of it. Incredibly so. Comedically so. Since he is aware of this, I imagine that Gaius would try to plan out dates at least to calm his nerves-- the certainty of what would come next could help him out. But really, I think that he'd have the most success if he managed to just go with the flow and be his usual, chill self. At the same time, how flustered he gets is really endearing all on its own... And I don't think a date at the forge would be at all successful with how absorbed in his practice he gets.

...Here's hoping he has some luck with Evelyn in the future! The dialogue after Micah gets married shows there's hope for him yet!

[stillm0nster]

💕 - Jun & Violet

⎯⎯ ୨ send me a ship and i will fill out this: ୧ ⎯⎯

FIRST DETAILS.

How did they meet? they were at a baseball match and after a lot of longing stares, ( and encouragement perhaps ?? ) jun finally approached violet.

Who flirted with who first? definitely violet, i'd like to think she's the braver one of two and would flirt first.

Was it love at first sight or a slowburn romance? totally our favorite cliché that is the love at first sight.

Did they start dating right away or were they friends before things became romantic? they started dating right away! ain't nobody got time for the latter.

Who kissed who first? jun kissed violet first... she just wanted him to initiate it, if you know what i mean.

Who started the relationship? uhm both? it's sort of a mutual thing.

NEXT STEPS & HARDSHIPS.

Monogamy or Polyamory? monogamy of course.

Are they/do they plan on getting married? for now, that's not really in the talks because they are young and have yet a lot to experience together but violet probably sees herself married to junyong and having at least 3 kids with him.

Who proposed? Was it a yes or no? jun would definitely be the one to propose, we know that and the answer will be yes.

Do they want kids? Who brought it up first? OH okay, i partly wanted it. they both want kids, but as i said above, it's too early for that. or is it...

Do they already have kids, together or from previous relationships? NOPe, no such things.

How often do they fight? What about? i don't think they have fought until now. i think it might be for some really small, petty things like being late from school / work and ruining plans, etc.

Have they ever broken up? no and hopefully they don't.

Messy breakup, amicable split, remain friends, ride or die or til death do us part? i think ... I THINK maybe wil death do us apart.

SEX.

In the bedroom - Vanilla, a little spice, or kinky af? mostly vanilla with a little spice here and there. can't be boring like that.

For applicable ships - who tops/bottoms? at first violet was more often on top, pleasing her man like she knows but later he took the lead.

For applicable ships - who is more dominant/submissive? jun is probably the dominant one 97% of the time~

What is their favorite sex position? hmmm missionary? holding hands, sloppy kisses or passionate ones??? feeling so intimate.

Do either of them enjoy bringing sex toys into the bedroom? i don't think so.

Favorite place to have sex? they haven't experiment that much actually so i'd say the bedroom.

Most adventurous place they’ve had sex? at the bathroom of her work place.

Do they do anything else in the bath/shower other than wash? How often? obviously, if they shower together they will end up having sex like 80% of the time. they will only wash if they go in after they had sex.

TOGETHER.

Do they have any routines/rituals in their relationship? none for now at least.

How do they take care of each other when they are sick/hurt? whoever is sick, the other would bring them food like soup, their favorite bread, medicines to help! if jun is sick, violet would love to take time off and stay home with him, read all the things he has to go through from med school, literally study with him.

Who is the better dancer? they both are good dancers, maybe violet a bit more than jun.

How do they like to spend time together? due to not having much time because they are both busy, they could be just napping together, having a meal together, walking to the grocery store and shopping, sitting and home and playing the guitar while singing.

What are their favorite non-sexual forms of intimacy? oh okay, i would say back hugs?? violet absolutely loves those. sitting on jun's lap too. forehead kisses!!!

What are some of their favorite things about their partner? the list of violet's favotire things about jun can go on and on but i think she mostly loves his personality, the gentleman that he is, how smart he is, how handsome he is - like a model from the covers of vogue. his voice!!! when he talk and when he sings her his favorite songs.

How do they comfort the other when they are upset? she hates seeing the people she loves upset, so she would firstly suggest going out to a theme park, get on the funky rides so jun can his problems even for a while. or go to a pc bang and play a game together, or the arcades to have a little competition. would try her best to keep him occupied and show him there's more important things to look at and go forward than moping around.

Who buys the other spontaneous gifts? they both do it.

What position do they sleep in? violet used to sleep on her back or when valerie was in the same bed, she'll throw her leg and arm over her twin and practically have her trapped. now that's what she does with jun and it feels soooooooo comfortable.

Do they bathe/shower together? they most certainly do.

What are their favorite things to do on date nights? have dinner, be it at a restaurant or a street vendor then walk around hand in hand, talking about their days and new trends.

Do they still go on dates after being together for a while? they will always go on dates, even if they are 50.

What is their love language? i think the way they would spend quality time together? as much as they will hang out with their group of friends, they will also have their alone time.

Who’s a cat person and who’s a dog person? oh i'm not sure but they both strike me as a dog person.

Who likes the outdoors more and who likes the indoors more? if we talk trips, camping etc... i think they both prefer the indoors. better safe than sorry.

Who’s more social? that would violet.

Who makes the bed every morning? who has the time to make the bed- i mean violet would make the bed sometimes if she wakes up earlier than her alarm and has time to really wake up, she'll make the bed but majority of the time she doesn't. guilty. i assume jun would be similar.

Who likes to keep the house cold and who likes to keep the house warm? they both enjoy the house being more on the cold side than it being warm.

Who takes longer getting ready? violet takes her sweet time, all the time.

Who likes scary movies and who likes funny ones? they both prefer funny movies! but it's nice to watch scary ones every once in a while.

Who screams when they see a bug and who ends up killing it? neither. they compete who kills the bug first.

Who would be more likely to burn something in the oven? probably violet. she's not really a good cook so when she attempts, she gets sidetracked and burns the food. sorry jun.

Who talks in their sleep? neither.

Who leaves the cap off the toothpaste? none of the does that.

Who likes getting dressed up more? they both do. have y'all seen junyong? such a fashionista. violet likes to keep up with thrends as well so.

Who’s better at tying ties? possibly junyong since violet has never needed that skill.

Who recorded the answering machine message on the house phone? not that they will ever have one but if they had one, jun would have been the one to record the message.

Who’s better at planning romantic things? maybe jun generally thinks more about the details, the places, the ambiance while violet doesn't really care, as long as she's with him.

Who takes up more space in the closet? both and i'm not even joking.

Who has more of a sweet tooth? maybe jun since violet is more in savory than sweet.

Who drinks more often? neither. they can have a good time without drinking.

Who is most likely to laugh during a serious situation? violet... girl has no self control sometimes.

[battlestarbones]

I did this on my phone so it looks super funky but these are my biggest thoughts (I am mostly working from book!canon because I'm more familiar with it and I think some characters have more consistent and clear characterization in the books than the show, partly as a simple function of the medium)

1. Chrisjen Avasarala loves being a huge bitch so so so so so much you can't deprive her of that honor! Also she's one of the most ruthless characters in the entire series, even though it can be easier to dismiss it because her goals are usually pretty well-aligned with the audience and don't involve mass murder or starting illegal wars.

2. Alex Kamal is genuinely one of the kindest people in the series he just loves flying his ship and taking care of his friends. His biggest canonical sins are cheating on his first wife and otherwise being terrible at being married. Obviously everyone in this show has a mix of good and bad, but I'd say his core personality is very kind. (I personally think the show's decision to make him currently married with a kid who he lets think he's dead for months to years was a terrible one and is not consistent with his book character at all. And iirc there's no textual evidence that he's a deadbeat dad to Kit in the books even if he's not the Best Father Ever. He actually laments that he won't be there for Kit (who is in university at the time) when they're all forced into hiding in book 7. I think there is a brief reference in the books to him having an older son he doesn't know about, but I don't think I have to explain why having a child he doesn't know about isn't being a deadbeat dad.)

3. Clarissa is just so complicated to place. Obviously she did some extremely fucked up things, but she did them from an extremely bad emotional place and later is extremely repentant. Which doesn't make it better, but also isn't particularly ruthless behavior. She then spends the rest of her life fixing things and not killing people, which is not very ruthless behavior. (Also she's Julie Mao's younger sister so she's maybe as old as her early 20's and her entire life got destroyed and her dad is in prison forever so...she's my babygirl.)

(Plus if killing people and not feeling that bad about it at the time puts people deep in ruthless then we gotta talk about Amos, who has killed many people and canonically doesn't really regret it and would probably do it again. He brings a nuclear warhead to a planet when he goes to rescue Holden from a city on said populated planet. A nuclear warhead on a planet is not a defensive weapon, that's a mass murder backup plan.)

4. Marco Inaros is by far one of the most ruthless and cruel characters in the series but I put him mid way between nice and bitch because he's both at different times.

5. Adding Fred Johnson mostly as a counterpoint to Avasarala. He's also extremely ruthless in achieving his goals but he's usually pretending to be a nice old man about it. (Him being slightly lower than Avasarala is an editing error that I'm too lazy to fix.)

discuss

[jakeperalta]

do you think rory should’ve said yes to logan? i mean, i was kind of sad when she turned him down because they had their moments but i also don’t like the “whole or nothing” attitude from him. and asking her to marry him in front of everyone, putting pressure on her like that was to me kind of a dick move. but i keep thinking of rory kind of glancing over to lorelai’s to see if her mother approves it, and as rory said she loved the idea of being marry to him, and i get that maybe getting married in 22 is way too early and she has more stuff she wanted to see and explore etc but i don’t think logan would’ve stopped her from doing so? i’m just really confused about all that because to me they got ruined in ayitl and as you know i ship literati but i wanna hear your opinion on it.

I have such mixed feelings about it! on the one hand I get why logan wanted to propose - he'd already built his post graduate life and he wanted rory in it and they were in love and in a very solid place in their relationship. I wouldn't mind the big public proposal if it wasn't so out of the blue for rory. like she says, the problem isn't the size of the gesture it's the gesture itself and I think it could've had potential to be lovely with all her family there, but of course instead she was just blindsided and he should've considered that!

as for rory's side, I totally get why she said no and I am partly glad she did. I mean I'm 23 and I've been in a relationship for twice as long and I don't feel remotely ready for marriage lol. she needed to find her own path still and I love that she gets that sort of "the world is her oyster" type ending for s7, but like you say I don't think he would've stopped that either. especially since he already did a similar thing with london and then his own business and they made it through that fine, and only a few episodes earlier they'd had a whole conversation about factoring each other into their plans like where was that communication when it came to the all or nothing ultimatum 😭

I think ultimately my ideal would've been either no proposal in the first place or them talking it through and deciding on what worked best for both of them, like a long engagement or her saying no for the timebeing and if necessary dealing with long distance a bit more until they were both settled. (unfortunately I feel like it was a sort of "we want rory to be single now so how do we make that happen" scenario in the writers room and then any potential to explore it more and go in a more satisfying direction for ayitl was truly squashed lol)

[pedropascalssimp]

Grumpy

Boba fett x fem reader

Summary: boba is a grumpy man but we love him... Also for a real summary: the reader is annoying, always talking and being a goofy person. And boba only tolerates it because he loves her.

Warnings: slight language I think? Slight jealous boba, he's also a bit insecure in this one. Fluff, FLUFF.

Pic credit to @xxrosaaa29xx I'm using your pic for scientific research purposes 👀

Also dala means "woman" in mando'a incase whoever reads this didn't know and found themselves in confusion like I do most times....

I know I also said I'd write for din more but, c'mon! My bestest friend ever here inspired me to write this!

Thank you my amazingly beautiful friend @friendscall-me-mom this was spurred on because you 👀

Boba was a busy man, he couldn't seem to hold still for more then two minutes. He always had something keeping him busy or somewhere to be, but that's the way he liked it. So ever since boba claimed the throne that once belonged to jabba the hut and later jabba's companion Bib Fortuna, boba found himself almost never leaving the palace, it was relaxing yes, a nice relaxing thing actually, but also a little too... Uneventful for his liking. So after leaving Fennec in charge over the palace, someone he knew he could trust, he brought you along with him to venture away from tatooine to accompany him on his first bounty hunt in almost six years.

When he had gruffly asked you to join him, it left you baffled. You thought he'd enjoy a nice time away from you considering he always spoke of how annoying you are, he always ignores you are tries putting a distance between the two of you. In your eye's he hated you, his actions displaying such. But in all honesty? Boba fett found himself attracted to you, his brown eyes always glued to you when you walked into the room, gaze unable to leave your figure for a second. His heart always doing the annoying flip it does whenever he hears your laugh or catches a glimpse of that beautiful smile adorning your face.

He pushed you away because he didn't know how to love you like you deserved, you was always so... Happy, bubbly personality and jokes putting a smile on everyone's face. He was afraid that if he let you love him, his usual grumpy and hardened personality would dent your chirpy one. So... He pushed you away.

But you didn't ever see the adoring looks he gave you, or the faint tug of his lips when you told a joke. All of those things went unnoticed by you, partly because the helmet he wore and the fact he always hid his emotions well. Something you found infuriating. But despite that, and his constant grumpy behavior towards you, you found yourself intrigued by the man, you couldn’t deny he was a handsome man. Dark eye's that seemed to sparkle whenever the light hit them just right. And although his words was always short, sometimes even harsh on the more stressful days for him, you found yourself hanging on to every word he spoke, his voice intoxicating, beautiful. You scolded yourself many times for falling in love with boba fett, but then again how could you not have? When he showed you rare moments of kindness - especially when you had both met on tython, you having permission from your friend din to stay with boba. Because din saw how you looked at boba, he knew you was in love with him.

But damn was boba oblivious, or either he knew you was smitten with him and just hid it well. Whatever the case, you was slightly hurt by the fact he always found a way to either distance himself from you are push you away.

Slave I was quite, boba sitting in the co-pilot seat while you let your mind roam freely to dwelling thoughts. But you let out a little laugh, the sound drawing boba's attention as he tilts his helmet in your direction.

"what's funny dala?" he asked, speaking mando'a, a nickname you've learnt well. He often enjoyed using it in a mocking manner though, it usually rolled off his tongue whenever he was annoyed or like said, mocking someone, aka, you.

You shrug, a grin on your lips. The reason you was amused though, was today's previous events played on your mind. You and boba had both stopped by a cantina on Batuu, only stopping their for fual and a bite to eat. Because you wouldn't shut up until boba finally gave in and took you somewhere to eat. And as you was both enjoying a meal, boba choosing a nice empty booth in the dark corner as he took his helmet off. A man had been flirting with you, it was harmless really, a few compliments on your beauty and a few hints of how the man genuinely wanted to get to know you better. Although he seemed nice you didn't really want to speak with him, so let him down easy.

But boba was, for some odd reason to you, pissed off with the man's constant talking. He didn't like how his eyes roamed your body, didn't like how you indulged him, and he really didn't like how he talked to you, using those flirty little comments and jokes, coaxing a laugh or two from you. Boba hated it, he was fuming. So without hesitation, boba threatened the poor man's life with a cold hard stare causing the man to flee the whole planet with fright.

Although you was slightly mad at boba in the moment, you found it hilarious now. Letting out another laugh you try and cover your mouth, stifling the laugh. "what is it?" he seemed genuinely curious but his words came out bitter.

"you scared that poor man to death boba... He literally left Batuu because of one simple glare and a few threats!" you laughed, grabbing your side because of how hard you was laughing now. "di - did you see his face!" you wheeze out through laughter, "he almost pissed his pants!" you shake your head and your laughter dies down.

Boba, unknowingly to you, had a smile on his face, Almost prideful. He focuses his attention on you now, loving the sight of your wide smile now. He had thought he angered you with how he scared the man off, he thought you was actually attracted to the other man. But seeing you laughing about the situation put him at ease, you wasn't mad at him.

"I thought he was bothering you, he was surely bothering me with his jabbering" boba tried to brush the topic off. He felt slightly annoyed he was jealous over the fact the man had made you smile and laugh. And the man was younger, his face not as scarred or aged as boba's. He didn't want to admit it, but he felt a little insecure when around you, why would you want him when the galaxy had so much more out there for you?

"oh he wasn't jabbering, he was being nice... But you scared him enough to flee the planet" you giggle, amused by the situation.

He only grunts in response, one of many signs he was in a grumby mood. You flicker your eyes down at his side, the side his beskar failed to cover.... Grinning you reach over and poke him.

"stop being grumpy" you muttered playfully, his visor snapping in your direction before falling down to look at where you kept your hand, ready to puke him again.

"I'm not grumpy princess" he harshly grunts out while taking your hand in his and throwing your hand back into your lap. "don't touch me..." he muttered. He may have came off as angry, but under the helmet he was flustered, your touch sending a delightful warmth spreading all over him, turning his face red.

Your smile filters for a moment, thinking you may have infuriated him. The sight makes him guilty until he sees you grin again. "you have to be ticklish, everyone is. I'm now making it my goal to find you're ticklish spot!" you declare cheerfully. Boba shaking his head.

"I'm not ticklish. let me be dala" he spoke while putting the ship on autopilot as he went into hyperspace. Standing up he leaves the cockpit, you following him. He walks into the cargo area, plopping down on a crate as he takes his helmet off, usual stoic expression on his face as he cleans his helmet off. A act he does out of boredom you've grown to discover.

"not ticklish eh? So you won't mind..." you sit beside him making him go stiff visibly, his hand freezing as he wiped the visor off. "this!" you slither your hand on the spot between his neck and shoulder and start tickling, but he does even smile, much to your dismay.

"please stop" he deadpanned. And you do so with a huff. "I'm not ticklish so stop" he continued wiping his helmet off.

You sigh deeply and cross your arms. "I've never seen you smile nor laugh, If I can't find you're ticklish spot then I'll tell you joke's!" you state, his face slowly morphs into one of annoyance.

"please don't... I left tatooine for two reasons: peace and to be able stretch my legs for a bit" he said while looking up at you, his dark eye's capturing you for a bit.

"then why did you invite me to join you? You know I annoy you with my presence" you say, arms crossed.

He invited you because he knew how men eyed you on tatooine with hunger, with a undeniable look of lust. He hated it, wanted to rip all their eyes out for doing so. He knew that if he left any man could waltz up to you and flirt their way into your heart. So he brought you with him because he'd be damned if he left you on tatooine, he never wanted to leave your side.

"because I knew that if I didn't you wouldn't shut up, I've heard how you wanted to leave the place for a little vacation as you put it and I had already planned on hunting so... I invited you" he muttered, blowing on the visor to ensure its clean before sitting it aside, now cleaning his blaster. It wasn't a lie, he heard you telling Fennec how you wished to escape the sands and scorching hot heat for at least a little bit.

Your heart swells at his words, to anyone it was nothing. to you... It was his way of showing affection. He knew you wanted a vacation so he took you with him, if you didn't know any better you'd say he even planned this hunt because that. But that was wishful thinking.

"did I ever I tell you the story of how Mando got zapped by those jawa's?" you snicker, knowing that would at least make him smile. But he nods, confirming you have.

"more then once mesh'la" he didn't mean to let that one simple word slip from his mouth, but it did, and from the beaming smile and small blush on your cheeks, he knew you knew what it meant.

"oh you think I'm beautiful now?" you tease, seeing the way he tensed up whenever the word rolled off his tongue, you knew that you turning it into playful banter would ease away whatever it was that made him tense like that.

"shut up girl" he grumbled while standing up, you doing so making him huff. "don't follow me around like a damn lost child!" he snaps, taking you aback slightly. But you shrug his words off, although they did hit pretty hard.

He saw that and grumbled something before continuing whatever it was he was doing. "what if I don't wanna stop!" you say with a giggle, following him to the poor excuse for a bed he used.

"then I guess I'm gonna have to face the fact you're goal and life purpose is to annoy me" he said, sitting on the bed, slowly stripping the beskar off piece by piece. You could only watch as his soft shirt he wore under it exposed the softness of him, his tummy practically begging for you to reach out and tickle it -

You grin at the thought his tummy would be ticklish, it was a mischievous glint in your eye that alarmed him. "oh no" he muttered as you grin at him and flop down beside him on his bed.

"admit it boba, you enjoy my company" you sigh with a big smile, his scoff only making you giggle. He opens his mouth to respond but whatever he wanted to say was forgotten the moment you tickle his belly, soft and adorable like you always thought it would be.

His eye's widen as he finds himself laughing, a smile on his face. He falls backwards on the bed as you crawl on top of him, straddling him as you continue tickling his belly as your heart flutters at the sight of his smile and sound of his gruff laughter.

"you do have a ticklish spot!" you laugh, his large hands resting on your hips as he flips you over, now he was hovering over you.

"you are relentless" he mused, his smile now gone and replaced back with his grumpy expression. "don't ever do that again mesh'la" he grumbled. But he couldn't deny how being so Close to you makes his desire to kiss you grow strong. Once he catches

"oh Stop being grumpy, it’s lame." you tease him, cheeky smile. He shakes his with a huff.

"You're an idiot" he retorts while rolling off of you, much to your dismay. He sits up and back in the position he was once in. You sit up beside him.

"but you love me" you said it before you could register what exactly fell off your tongue. Boba seemed to freeze beside you, making fear settle deep within your very core. "I - I didn't mean - like -

Your stuttering was shushed by the smile boba gave you, it was soft, didn't quite reach his eye's but it was still genuine. "unfortunately dala I do..." he didn't look you in the eye, instead, his cheeks starting to turn a little pink as he fiddle with a piece of his armor he picked up off the floor, he didn't want to see you possibly reject him, he didn't want to see your face when you laugh at him for confessing such a thing.

But maker was he surprised when you scooted closer and gently cup his cheek making him look at you, the genuine soft smile on your face different from the cheeky ones or mischievous ones you'd always offer the bounty hunter.

"do you mean it?" you ask him, voice barely above a whisper as your eyes search his dark brown ones for the answer, and you saw it, swimming amongst the endless brown hues of his eyes. A truthful, raw emotion besides being angry he showed you, displaying it before your very eyes. Love, adoration, truth....

"I have loved you since the moment I saw you, although I'll have to admit I thought you and you're mandalorian friend was already a couple. That's why I hesitated to talk to you so much" boba confessed, a smile beaming on your face as your eyes glow with joy. Your thumb subconsciously stroking one of many scars on his face.

"likewise, I've never seen someone quite as handsome as you before, nor as intriguing" his snort of amusement made you give him a confused look, wondering what he found funny.

"oh so you find me intriguing?" he smugly replied causing you to roll your eye's. Your free hand that wasn't holding his face, fell to his soft tummy. He tenses up and gives you a warning look. "don't" he muttered.

But you only grin at him, "why not? If you want to laugh at me I'll give you something to laugh at" you slip a hand up his shirt, his warm skin soft. Your touch had his heart doing a flip, if not for the fact he knew you planned on tickling him, he'd find this soothing.

"I wasn't laughing, just simply asking a question"

"after you let out a little laugh" you point out, he shakes his head ready to protest, but you had already begun your assault, tickling his belly. Practically in his lap again as he fell back.

You both knew that if he really wanted, he could stop you easily. But hearing his thunderous laugh echo across the ship and seeing his beautiful smile? It made you beam with happiness, a sight boba couldn't get enough of.

Needless to say, after the hunt you and boba has shared a kiss, slept in his arms every night as he claimed you as his. When you both arrived back on tatooine and into the palace you called home, Fennec had seen how boba had became extra protective over you, seeing how he couldn't seem to leave your side. She knew the hunt brought you both together, it was a relief, now she didn't have to see you both dance around your feelings for each other.

_________________________________________

[shi-daisy]

The Phoenix and the Dragon

Yet again we've arrived at Ulquihime week! Gotta confess I'm not much of a Christmas person but I do look forward to December for my OTP week. Everyone puts so much love and effort into their entries that it's hard not to be excited. Okay so today's theme is Crossover and I wanted to pick something that wasn't likely to be repeated by someone else, so leave it to my nostalgic mind to go 'What about a Winx Club crossover?' Thus here we are! This little one-shot is based on one of my fave childhood shows and one of the first villain ships I ever had. (Yes, my 10-year-old self hardcore shipped Darkar & Bloom) 😅 Hope you like it! (Spoilers for some aspects of season 2 of Winx Club. I'm taking from the 4kids version of the show and Nickelodeon special btw. And some mild spoilers for the second movie.)

Also for those who do know the winx cast and want to know who is who in the crossover here it is.

Orihime- Bloom

Ulquiorra- Darkar/Avalon

Tatsuki- Stella

Shizuka- Layla

Ichigo- Prince Sky

Isshin- Errendor

Sora- Daphne

Unohana- Faragonda

Okay now that's all set, here's the fic!

@ulquihimeweek​

Ulquihime Week- Day 1 Crossover

The Phoenix and the Dragon

Orihime awoke in a dimly lit room. She didn't remember much, just going into Professor Schiffer's office and then...'And then he changed and turned into the Phoenix.'

"I can sense you. Just come out of the shadows already." She muttered.

Ulquiorra obliged, no longer looking like a human but in his true form as the Shadow Phoenix.

To her he didn't look much different, his skin was paler but his other features remained the same. He had large dark wings and a tail, along with tear markings.

"I should've known it was you. We get warmed about a Shadow Phoenix and next thing we know a new professor shows up at our school."

He chuckled. "Yes well, that didn't occur to you as we bonded, Ms. Inoue."

She lowered her head in shame. Since Ulquiorra arrived at Alfea he had become her favorite teacher, and even offered to teach her about her home kingdom, Sparx, which had been destroyed when she was just a baby.

"Is that why you brought me here? To taunt me?!"

"No, darling. I have other plans for you. Or should I say us?"

"I'll never collaborate with you!"

"You say that now, but you might change your mind after I explain my plans to you."

She frowned, but at the moment there was nothing she could do. Orihime sighed. "Fine. I suppose I can listen to you for a while."

"I appreciate it. First I must ask you something. What do you know about me, Orihime Inoue? Who do you think I am?"

"Headmistress Retsu told us you were once human. That you came to the underealm to try and find the shadow fire, but that it's power consumed you and that now you're seeking to take over the magic universe.

I also know that you came to our school and posed as a professor until now..."

"The headmistress is a wise woman, studious too since she appears to know my origins well, the one commonly excepted that is."

"What do you mean?"

"Indeed, I was once human, that I came here to study the Shadow Fire, but it's power didn't overtake me. For you see, I willingly submitted to it. I'm the one in control, always have been. And while I do wish to take over the magic dimension it is not for my own gain."

"Why else would you want to take over?"

"I want this dimension to change. I want to tear down the structures that bind its kingdoms. I've wanted that since I was a human.

You see, darling, the structures of this dimension are so very ancient and so very obsolete. The squabbles between kingdoms have led to so much war, to destruction, to sadness... Just look at what happened to Sparx."

"My kingdom was destroyed by the ancient witches. Not by war."

"You're right, but your kingdom had a close ally. An ally that should've saved you from the witches, yet instead bargained to have them take your kingdom and spare them. The king of Eraklyon made said bargain."

Orihime grew dizzy. 'No, no it can't be! Ichigo's father wouldn't do that! This is a lie!"

"You think I'm lying, don't you?"

"Of course you're lying! King Isshin wouldn't do that, neither would Ichigo!"

"Analyze the situation, darling. Eraklyon was your closest ally, and yet they didn't suffer any damage as Sparx was destroyed. Your parents vanished, your brother died saving you, your planet is now an icy wasteland. Yet Eraklyon stands as the richest land in Magix. As for your little prince, he was merely a child when this took place, but I don't doubt he'd keep it a secret from you, he has done so before."

Orihime felt as if her skin was catching fire. She hated to be reminded of that lie, to think back when Ichigo had hidden his royal lineage and engagement to a princess. She'd forgiven him, of course, and they were a couple once again, but deep inside she still distrusted him. And a part of her did think Ulquorra's words were true.

'Maybe that's why his father disapproved of us. Not because I'm a princess of a destroyed kingdom, but because my kingdom's destruction was partly his fault...'

"You see, darling. That's only one example of plenty I can give you. All of these realms need someone truly wise to rule them."

"Even if I believed you, that doesn't mean I'll join you. I don't want to kill anyone."

"Who said anything about killing? There are plenty of ways to dethrone a ruler. That's what I crave to do darling. Imagine it, a dimension without destroyed kingdoms, without arranged marriages, without squabbles for the throne. We'd be the only rulers, the royals would be our regents, they'd have to abide by what we demand."

Ulquiorra's eyes glowed green as he spoke. She had seen him like that before in his humanoid form. His eyes always sparkled as he thought her class about History and asked them to be part of the change.

"Ulquiorra, I think it's wonderful that you're trying to make the universe better, but I fail to see why would want me to join you. I'm no leader."

Orihime felt Ulquiorra's cold hand gently lift her chin. "Orihime, you're the only person I've ever met worthy of wearing such a crown.

The reason I posed as a teacher at Alfea wasn't to further my plans, or to steal the codex but to observe you. In just a few months you made such great progress that I couldn't help but be convinced you were worthy of sharing my crown, of carrying the dragon flame, of ruling over Magix.

You came from Earth yet quickly adapted to this dimension, to its power and its costumes. You're kind, fierce, strong, I couldn't ask for a better queen."

He noticed Orihime's pale skin turn bright red, and her sliver eyes grow misty. "No one's ever really praised me like that. Thank you."

He smirked. "I'll be sure to do so more often in the future then."

With a snap of Ulquiorra's fingers, her bounds disappeared. Orihime stood up, directly facing Ulquiorra.

He took her hands in his and directly stared into her eyes, silver meeting emerald. "Orihime Inoue, will you join me in my quest to bring peace and order to the magic dimension?"

It wasn't easy, she didn't want to leave her friends, her school, or even Ichigo. Even after what she learned it felt wrong to vanish without a word.

'But it must be done. Tatsuki-chan will be free to choose who she marries, Nemu-san won't be forced to follow the path her father wants for her, Shizuka-chan won't have to take the throne of the harmonic nebula...even Ichigo would now be free to make his own choices. This would be for the best.'

With a beautiful smile and newfound determination, Orihime finally responded. "Yes, I will."

"Then it is done, our power is now bound."

She could feel a surge of dark magic taking over, but it wasn't unpleasant. Her characteristic blue fae dress was now black and her fairy wings had turned grey. Orihime also noticed Ulquiorra's form slightly changed, his dark wings now had accents of green and he resembled his humanoid form a little more.

"It's the bond." He told her after noticing her confusion. "Light cannot exist without dark and vice versa. As such my darkness had to take some of your light and your light had to take some of my darkness."

Shadow Fire & Dragon Fire were united at last. Orihime was certain that now she and Ulquiorra would be unstoppable. 'We'll fix everything soon.'

"What shall we do now?"

"Since I've acquired all the pieces of the codex, I was thinking we could go to the Relix dimension. Your parents might've vanished there after the destruction of Sparx."

"My parents...I never thought it'd be possible to reach them."

"It is, my darling. We'll bring them back and then return Sparx to its former glory. After that, we can finally reshape the magic dimension into what it should've been from the beginning."

For the first in a long while, Orihime felt like she was doing things right. It would take her friends some time to forgive her, but she knew in time she would join them again. 'I'm doing this for all of us. For me, and for him.'

She gently kissed Ulquiorra's cheek, he blushed at the gesture. "I was not expecting that."

"I'm still a little miffed at you for pretending to be a professor but if we're to be in harmony as rulers this is a good place to start."

"Then I guess I should do my part too."

Ulquiorra wrapped his arm around her waist and gave her a passionate kiss. Orihime quickly blushed and playfully shoved him as he let go of her.

"Show off."

"Guilty as charged."

"Y'know, I remember seeing paintings back on earth with dragons and phoenixes together as a couple. Do you think that was a prediction?"

"It could be, after all, the most enduring romances are likely to echo through many universes."

[notthatiwilleverwriteit]

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I love she li character. I'm totally against what he's done to mo and he should be held accountable, but I still love his character and want to know more about him. His first fight with he tian, I was so curious to know why he seemed to enjoy it and even licking the blood from his lip, from then on I wanted to know his story. And I dont think he should be paired up with someone in the story it would ruin his whole esthetic. what are your thoughts about him?

Hello, dear anon!

This answer could weird out some people, so...Uh. Consider yourselves warned, I guess? It’s pretty much downhill from here on.

I’m sorry it took me so long to get to your ask. Thank you for your patience!

Do I have thoughts about SL? ...Let’s just say “a lot” is the answer:

My favorite 19 Days character(s)

My favorite 19 Days chapter(s)

SL’s bracelet

SL’s lip piercing

SL and ships:

My 19 Days NOTP (why I don’t ship MGS and SL)

My thoughts on SL and JY

My thoughts on SL and JY (vol. 2)

My thoughts on SL and HC

My thoughts on SL and Cuntou (Buzzcut)

My thoughts on SL’s sexuality

SL and MGS’s story:

Backstory revelation

SL and MGS’s development (the beginning vs. the train station scene)

That’s quite a reading list, but if you’re interested in my SL-related thoughts and mullings, I recommend checking out those previous posts. It’s possible I will repeat some things I’ve already talked about but this time I’m not going to give an overall brief summary. It would probably end up being anything but brief.

“I'm totally against what he's done to mo and he should be held accountable, but I still love his character and want to know more about him.”

This is partly why I’m hesitant to say I love SL’s character because I feel like I have to follow that with a small disclaimer that no, I don’t condone his behavior. I find him endlessly intriguing, complex, and layered. Every time he appears I never know what will happen and he always instantly steals the scene for me. I’m drawn to his darkness and disturbed, impossible-to-predict ruthlessness.

In addition to that, my “love” for him also goes deeper. I always feel like a weirdo talking about this but I see some of myself and my own shortcomings in SL’s character. Jealousy and envy. The misery loves company mentality. I don’t go around manipulating and threatening people but on some morbid level, his character allows me to go to that dark place and almost relish in all the disturbing thoughts I can muster. To me, some of the rawest and primitive parts of human nature are embodied and amplified in his character.

“His first fight with he tian, I was so curious to know why he seemed to enjoy it and even licking the blood from his lip, from then on I wanted to know his story.”

SL almost enjoying the fight and licking the blood are interesting notions that I haven’t really thought of before (ch. 184):

I’m glad you brought this up because I’ve been wanting to talk about SL and fighting ever since MGS mentioned how SL had a reputation of being “very vicious in fights” (ch. 319). I saw people thinking that was because of his Guillain–Barré syndrome. And sure, I’m not saying that couldn’t be the reason or a part of it. After all, we don’t know how far along his treatment was by that time. If you don’t feel pain as well as others, I can imagine you’re more fearless in fights.

However, I think his “viciousness” was more about SL’s overall nature. I mean, he picked up a heavy whiskey bottle and smashed someone in the head with it and didn’t seem to even blink. He was unpredictable and didn’t shy away from taking things further than probably most kids his age. Nothing was really off-limits for SL and whoever opposed him could never know what his next move would be. If you’re fighting someone and they lick their own blood - looking like they’re almost savoring the taste - I think you might want to start coming up with an exit plan. SL has a disturbing, cold-blooded aura as a fighter, and cruel, dirty violence is his style.

I’m also interested in MGS mentioning SL had transferred schools. We don’t know if he already had group-affiliations in his new school but imagine if he didn’t. Did he take over a group as an outsider by vicious violence? Did he make his own group from scratch?

“I dont think he should be paired up with someone in the story it would ruin his whole esthetic”

I don’t personally ship SL with anyone “in canon” as in I don’t think he has canonical romantic/sexual feelings for anyone in the comic. I don’t interpret his possessive behavior with MGS as romantic jealousy. Nor do I think he’s interested in JY in a romantic way. That being said, I do believe anyone is free to ship whatever they and however they want, so I don’t know about “shouldn’t be paired up with someone”.

But I think I get what you mean. I think if he had romantic feelings for someone we’re familiar with in the comic it would skew his character. “Interrupt” him, in a way. I’m not saying SL couldn’t be in a romantic relationship or even love someone but I’m not sure if that kind of “side-track” would quite fit how his role in the story has been built up so far. I would love to see more sides to him, but romantic love would feel too forced. It would kind of make me tilt my head and go “huh?”.

I feel the same way about his redemption. Again, I would love to know more about him and what’s going on in his head and heart and life general. What made him like this and what makes him tick. But I don’t know if I want him to be redeemed that way in the boys’ eyes. I kind of want him to stay as the villain to them. If they somehow started to see SL from a different light, it would kind of make his character “hollow” and crumble in on itself.

As far as my ships for SL go, I ship him with Cuntou (MGS’s Buzzcut friend) and HC. However, those ships are purely “AUs” in my head in a sense that I know they have no base in canon. I basically run with the characters and the scenarios build for them are for my own self-indulgence.

Because I couldn’t really give you any new “thoughts” but a reading list instead, let me try to make it up by raving about some of my favorite SL panels:

“We are here” (ch. 178):

I’ve always wondered what kind of an underling SL is. He might be the leader of his own group at school, but even SL must have a boss. Especially given that organized groups are heavily based on hierarchy and seniority.

But I can’t help but wonder how that kind of power dynamic works with SL. What do his superiors think about him? Do they know about his disturbing, unpredictable side? Do they feel like they have control over him? Have they ever taken advantage of his vicious side and kind of “let him loose”? Does his boss know how to handle him? And what about SL’s POV: Does he respect his superiors or just does what he’s told? What could make his obedience stop? What he would do if his superiors insulted him or somehow screwed him over?

Either way, I’m fascinated by seeing SL in a submissive position, taking orders from someone else.

“Jian Yi? Is it...” (ch. 179):

The thing I love about this panel is the tempo/rhythm/whatever-you-call-it of SL’s words. I can hear how he said them in my head. Where he paused and let there be a moment of silence that kind of rearranged the dynamic of the situation. JY had barged in and momentarily stolen the flow and control. He went all out talking back to SL and pointing him and being all JY-y. That little tilt of SL’s head, that short pause he had kind of flipped it back SL being in control. When he says “Jian Yi? Is it...” it has a dangerous vibe. As in, “Are you really sure you want me to notice you?”. That is a question asked by someone who’s mentally in control of the situation.

I can hear those speech bubbles in my head.

“Lick it clean for me” (ch. 203):

Do I even need to justify why I love this panel?

Aside from the obvious, I love this panel because it gives me strong “zero fucks given” vibes. I doubt SL was expecting JY to obey him but saying that kind of stuff fits his character perfectly. Unpredictable and difficult to tell if he’s being serious or not.

Thrown out (ch. 249):

This panel will never not amuse me. Every time I see them being thrown out like that, especially SL, I hear a “Pew!” bing in my head. Like the nurse had flicked them with her middle finger and thumb and shot them out of the room.

Pouring Coke (ch. 267):

Another panel that makes me think about SL being in a submissive position, overpowered. The idea of overpowering and submitting his kind of crazy fascinates me. A part of me wants to see him dominated, sullied, and made to take it. (Just to make sure I’m not misunderstood, I don’t mean “it” in a sexual way.) Like, I imagine the carbonated Coke stinging in his eyes. It’s more foam and fizz than actual liquid as it pours down his face. It makes him uncomfortable and wanting to try to wipe it off with his shoulder when the trickles slide down the side of his neck but he can’t. When Coke is spilled like that it goes from a nice, enjoyable beverage to a sickly sweet, sticky substance that kind of grosses you out.

This is a panel that always makes me think of shipping SL with HC.

[...I warned you it would get weird.]

Wandering in the hospital (ch. 294):

If you weren’t weirded out enough yet...

Every time I see these panels I’m reminded of being like that as a child. I remember my grandparents sometimes had to stay at the hospital when they got sick. When I went to visit them with my mom I had this habit of wandering off by myself. I could walk the ward through multiple times and just...kind of...be morbidly interested in watching the sick people in their beds. And of course, as a kid, I had no problem with openly staring at them, too. The sicker, the better. I wanted to see tubes going in and out of body orifices, wounds and stitches, bandages that have that faint shine of blood seeping through on the back when they’re due to a change. If you gave me an old person just laying in bed with their mouth open and not even being in this world anymore because they’re so old and ill, you could just sit me down and go take care of whatever parents need to take care of.

I’m not saying SL was like that but him silently wandering off always reminds me of how I was a kid.

Encounter (ch. 294):

I’ve talked about this panel quite a lot already, so I won’t go into it more in this answer. But I will say it’s probably my most favorite panel of the whole comic.

“I almost forgot” (ch. 317):

As weird as it sounds to point this out when talking about SL’s character, but I think SL was lying in this panel. Although, I guess a better way to put it would be to say it wasn’t his “usual” lying. I think he was lying about forgetting he had given MGS the piercings to make it look like he didn’t care about such trivial matters. That violating MGS like that and basically marking him as his property hadn’t meant anything to him. Seeing MGS wear HT’s earrings irked him but he’s lying about it. MGS inching further and further away from SL’s grasp is getting to him but I think this was the first time he’s trying to hide it.

Because I believe he remembers piercing MGS. I bet he remembers it vividly.

I think this panel and the way he lashed out at HT with the knife without having any regard for the consequences are interesting details that maybe SL’s mask is slipping. He’s getting more out of control. Almost desperate, I would say.

So yeah, I would say I have a few thoughts about SL.

Thank you for your question, dear anon! And for your patience as well.

[yunharlaquin]

9, 19, 29 (lots of 9s)

9. did you have muse you tried to play, but ended up dropping for various reasons? (the rpc wasn’t active, you lost interest, etc)

i don't like saying i've dropped things ever, you know me, but probably one of the ones people do just know is erik lehn.sherr. i started writing them for a friend and tbh, while i really enjoy his character, the rpc around him is often... questionable. i've known some very good writers of him, but he's one of those characters that people perceive in a certain way a lot and considering the content matter behind him and how much i know about it, it is just too uncomfortable to deal with. not the subject matter, but rather how people view him in relation to it.

19. do you have ship bias?

correct me if i am wrong but i thinkkkkkk that means you prefer threads with ships you have over non ship threads? if that is true, than no, i don't. like sometimes, i'm in a shippy mood and might do any replies i have in that vein first but it's rare and in general, it's just whatever order i decided was how i was going to tackle the insanity of my drafts. i actually get super annoyed when i see other people consistently prioritize ships threads over everything else (no hate there, but often these same people tell me they really want to write with me and yet.... never respond to anything because of said ship threads), so i try not to do the same to others.

if it just means you prefer certain ships, uh, yes, i do. i certainly harp on jag and jaina often enough to make my preferences obvious. (but lbh any time i get a ship i love it as much as my 'otp' for a muse so maybe not then?)

29. what are your honest thought about your muse’s canon?

i honestly know a lot of places where i would have done things a little differently, but in general? i like it. a lot of people seem to find her boring and never given enough air to develop. and while i agree she should've received more time on page (which is partly why i'm so said her trilogy never made it past planning), i think what there is was more than enough to give us things to parse out and play with, let alone make her interesting. she was, after all, the first star wars character to truly capture my heart, body, and soul. not leia or padme or any of the guys. her... even back then i needed some substance to be hooked and i think she definitely stands up to the test.

munday asks!!!

[thelustybraavosimaid]

She is not completely at fault surely...but is also not blameless.

"It was for love," Sansa said in a rush. "Father wouldn't even give me leave to say farewell." She was the good girl, the obedient girl, but she had felt as wicked as Arya that morning, sneaking away from Septa Mordane, defying her lord father. She had never done anything so willful before, and she would never have done it then if she hadn't loved Joffrey as much as she did. "He was going to take me back to Winterfell and marry me to some hedge knight, even though it was Joff I wanted. I told him, but he wouldn't listen." The king had been her last hope. The king could command Father to let her stay in King's Landing and marry Prince Joffrey, Sansa knew he could, but the king had always frightened her. He was loud and rough-voiced and drunk as often as not, and he would probably have just sent her back to Lord Eddard, if they even let her see him. So she went to the queen instead, and poured out her heart, and Cersei had listened and thanked her sweetly…only then Ser Arys had escorted her to the high room in Maegor's Holdfast and posted guards, and a few hours later, the fighting had begun outside. "Please," she finished, "you have to let me marry Joffrey, I'll be ever so good a wife to him, you'll see. I'll be a queen just like you, I promise." (Sansa IV, AGoT)

--

"Littlefinger made the arrangements. We needed Slynt's gold cloaks. Eddard Stark was plotting with Renly and he'd written to Lord Stannis, offering him the throne. We might have lost all. Even so, it was a close thing. If Sansa hadn't come to me and told me all her father's plans..."

Tyrion was surprised. "Truly? His own daughter?" Sansa had always seemed such a sweet child, tender and courteous.

"The girl was wet with love. She would have done anything for Joffrey, until he cut off her father's head and called it mercy. That put an end to that." (Tyrion I, ACoK)

--

Sansa was the least sympathetic of the Starks in the first book; she has become more sympathetic, partly because she comes to accept responsibility for her part in her father’s death.

[Source]

From user trebla:

We've had these debates before about whether Sansa's actions truly resulted in her losing her wolf and father. And whether losing Lady symbolized her ceasing to be a true Stark. In fact, we've had this debate in front of GRRM twice. The first time was in St Louis in 2001 while at dinner. GRRM let us debate, smiling and nodding here and there. He also told us why he created Sansa in the first place, because there is always someone in a family that the others don't get along with. He was a bit coy in answering our questions but in the end he did indicate that Sansa did have responsibility for Lady's and Ned's deaths. I reported this to the board and I recall it being dismissed by some. I distinctly recall someone saying, "Well what I think he really meant to say was..." The second time we had this discussion was in Indy in 2007. There was a boarder there that didn't believe that Sansa's losing Lady symbolized her not being a Stark anymore. The person said so in front of GRRM and GRRM smiled and said, "Doesn't it?"

And from George:

REGARDING SANSA Your question re Sansa... The way I see it, it is not a case of all or nothing. No single person is to blame for Ned's downfall. Sansa played a role, certainly, but it would be unfair to put all the blame on her. But it would also be unfair to exonerate her. She was not privy to all of Ned's plans regarding Stannis, the gold cloaks, etc... but she knew more than just that her father planned to spirit her and Arya away from King's Landing. She knew when they were to leave, on what ship, how many men would be in their escort, who would have the command, where Arya was that morning, etc... all of which was useful to Cersei in planning and timing her move. Ned's talk with Littlefinger was certainly a turning point, though I am not sure I would call it =the= turning point. There were other crucial decisions that could easily have changed all had they gone differently. You mention Ned's refusal of Renly, which was equally critical. And there is Varys to consider, as well as the minor but crucial player everyone forgets -- Janos Slynt, who might have chosen just to do his duty instead of selling the gold cloaks to the highest bidder. So... all in all, I suppose my answer would be that there is no single villain in the piece who caused it all, but rather a good half dozen players whose actions were all in part responsible for what happened. Hope that helps.

[Source]

Antis saying Sansa is passive in AGOT and then blaming her for Ned's imprisonment and death

[nancykali]

Hello!! I was wondering, what do you think Stoncy will do with college? Do they all go to the same place Maybe two of them go together and the other goes to another place. Maybe they all go separate ways and reunite a few years later. Or maybe they don't go to college at all... What do you think?

Hi! You just gave me the best invitation to ramble a lot. :D My personal headcanon is this:

Jonathan goes to NYU like he always dreamed, majoring inPhotography & Imaging. Nancy and Steve move to New York with him and theyget an apartment together. Jonathan of course tries to dissuade them,saying they shouldn’t shape their education and the future of their careersaround where he lives (something Joyce advised him to talk about with Nancy andSteve) but Nancy refuses to listen, saying she never cared where she went toschool, as long as it was far away from Hawkins. And Steve just wants to getaway from his father’s company.

So they all move to New York and both Nancy and Steve go tocommunity college. Nancy trains to be an EMT and then a paramedic, while Stevejust focuses on his gen eds at first, not sure what he wants to do. Steve worksat a bar and as a freelance musician, Jonathan works as a server and beginsvery quickly to get the odd photography job here and there, at weddings andother events. Nancy tries to take night classes as much as she can (if that’spossible for an EMT in training), so she can have mornings off most of the timeto be with her bfs. I like to imagine her getting a housekeeping job at a hoteljust so she can investigate certain people who visit the hotel, the governmentagents and other important figures she suspects to be involved with the lab.Because we all know Nancy gets in league with El and Kali and her gang, andthey all continue taking down the bad men. Whether you ship Kalancy or not (andyou know I very much do) I really think Nancy and Kali would hit it off nomatter what, and Nancy would want to help her adopted sister (cuz lbr she seesEl as her sister already) in any way she could, and that would include becomingfriends with Kali and using her fledgling investigative skills to continuetaking down the evil lab.

Steve is awesome at making friends, and he quickly gets thereputation for being a great babysitter. A year or so into college he decideshe wants to become a high school teacher.

I know this is all so specific I love planning outcharacters’ lives it’s really all I’m good at. But I’m gonna keep going.

So I imagine that while all this is going on, once they’vegotten more financially settled and have extra money set aside (cuz this is the80s they can actually do that), Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan keep investigatingtogether where other monsters might be escaping the Upside Down.  And when they hear of something suspicious, orHopper tells them of something he’s heard, they go out and hunt those fuckers. They’rethe monster hunting trio they gotta.

And with help from Kali they find other children with gifts.Hopper and Joyce get dragged into all this too, and yknow, since the trio areall over 18 at this point, Hopper and Joyce can’t really stop them from goingout and hunting monsters and putting themselves in harm’s way to take down thebad men. And Nancy has got EMT training, has badass sniper skills partly thanksto Hopper, and the three of them would die to protect each other.

And they’ve all got personal vendettas against this evillab. Steve isn’t related to the Byers or Wheelers by blood (thank goodness) butJonathan and Nancy are his family, and so their siblings, and the rest of theparty, El, Max, Lucas, and Dustin, are his family too. The lab and the UpsideDown are still a threat to all of them. And Kali becomes part of their familytoo. Kali would do anything to protect El, and soon she’s in love with Nancy sothey all got big stakes in this game. So ofcourse we’re still getting our monster hunting trio.

Before season 2 came out, I wrote very similar outcomes forthe trio’s careers, and I wanted them all to move to South Africa whereJonathan got this big wildlife photography job (probably with NationalGeographic) and El and Mike were gonna have their honeymoon in South Africa sothey could visit the MHT at the same time. And of course there are monsters tohunt throughout South Africa and beyond, who are we kidding this shit isglobal. My trio are heroes. And now Kali is Nancy’s wife and they kick asstogether. I just love these four (Stoncy + Kalancy) so freakin much.

[xcamay]

EreAnju isn't exactly a ship I thought I'd ever see. If you don't mind me asking, why is it one of your OTPs? I don't mean that to be rude, by the way. It's only because it's such a rarepair that I'm asking.

Hi!Don’t worry about it! You’re not being rude at all. I totally understand that coming across someone who ships such a rarepair so bad can be quite intriguing and surprising haha! To tell you the truth, I was asked that question several times ... But I’m always happy to share my answer!Ah, before I start, let me apologize for my late reply. I saw your ask around 3AM but I’ve been sick and very tired recently, so I fell asleep again very quickly heheSo. I know it can be odd at first, to ship EreAnju, who are both background characters despite being the protagonists’ rivals. After all, they got just a few lines here and there and didn’t even have some character development —hell, we didn’t even get some insight into their backstory (how did A-RISE start, did they struggle? How are they doing at school, how do they practice, are they best friends?) into their personality, etc. (which I profoundly regrets). But for me ... This lack of everything kind of helped me ship them at first. Because hey, they are —what I like to say— drama free! Of course, every character is drama free (maybe Rin hasn’t seen her father for years or she just doesn’t know who he his and is trying to get in touch with him and be able to meet him for the first time, maybe Hanayo has a lot of video games at home and can be a geek sometimes, etc.), but I have the impression that Erena and Anju are even more drama free. Because, unlike the main characters, they don’t really need to be placed in an AU to warn the readers that, maybe, they’ll read something different —because no one expects anything from them. No one even expects them to be in a fanfic (except me! ;3). That’s partly why it’s so free when you write something about them. Plus, if you want to write a canon-compliant story, I’m sure that these two (and maybe Tsubasa, a little) are the characters you can explore the most, you know? Aside the few little details the anime (or LLSIF or the manga) gives us, you have so many possibilities with them. I mean, just with how they look, you can say that Erena seems to be the most serious one (maybe it’s because she’s A-RISE’s choreographer, and maybe she’s been dancing for ages, to the point that she won several competitions?), but maybe she’s a sweetheart almost all the time except when they’re in practice. People also picture Anju as the most soft-spoken one and the sweet, wealthy, princess-like girl : what if it’s wrong? She can just be a regular girl, who is calm and kind with the others, and who became popular thanks to A-RISE. Maybe she’s just an adorable and hyperactive dork, who has younger siblings (I think she’d be an amazing onee-chan) and who learned how to sew clothes thanks to her dear grandmother before the latter passed away. Or what if it’s true? Maybe she’s wealthy and would have loved not to be, because she met her real first friends in high school, and that she now treasures her friendship with Tsubasa and Erena.And now, speaking of EreAnju as a pairing, goodness, that’s the same thing! You can do everything with them, compared to the main characters. I mean, authors usually go with the fact that RinPana are childhood friends, or that Nozomi has always been in love with her Elicchi, and that she’s struggling with her feelings because Eli is just so damn dense. You can go with everything, concerning EreAnju : are they childhood friends? Have they been dating for years? Did it start in middle school, when they were clueless about love, and did they learn everything together? Are they the perfect couple, and do they make everyone else dream? Or are they the kind of couple which keeps breaking up and getting back together? Are they secretly dating now? Did they meet Tsubasa before or after getting together, and was Tsubasa unconsciously getting in the way because she didn’t know they were dating and, so, creating fights between them, because one of them can be madly jealous? Is it Anju? Or do they trust each other so much that they’ll never feel jealous? Or, completely different, have they always been sworn enemies but finally did their best to get along for Tsubasa’s (and A-RISE’s) sake? Or did they meet thanks to Tsubasa, when she was looking for potential school idols? Or was Erena the cool and good-looking transfer student, and so was it love at first sight for Anju? Did she struggle just to get her attention? etc, etc.I just realized ... The fact that we know nothing about them just makes me want to know more ... Maybe that’s why they inspire me so much?But oof, oh my gods! I didn’t know that part would take so long (or do I have that impression because I’m on mobile?) haha ... Sorry!But, let me tell you : what I just said? That’s gold. Why? Because first, for a writer, you can have so many things to develop in your story when it comes to them ; and it can be different in each new story! As I said, no one expects anything from them, nor do they expect to see them in a fic. And it’s gold, because, at least, you’re sure you didn’t take the wrong route. I mean, we know nothing about Erena and Anju, and we know nothing about their relationship either. And with that, I can consider them as “safe” characters. You can be sure that, whatever you write (or read), they won’t really be OOC. Because you know, a lot of readers don’t like it when characters are OOC. As a reader, I’m not fond of that either, especially when there’s no justification behind that OOCness. And, as a writer, I am deeply afraid of writing OOC characters —and I know I’m not the only one. It’s easy with Erena and Anju. Whether it be their personality, their backstory, their experiences, or even their relationship and how they act in this relationship, you’re free to write whatever you want, without scaring your readers away because they’re so much OOC that they can’t stand the whole story anymore. And I bet the readers won’t mind whatever an author planned for them (if they’re important enough for the story and its plot). That’s maybe why it’s so easy for me to find and build ideas/headcanons/new AUs around them. Hey, you know, most of my YouRiko ideas were thought of or written with EreAnju at first haha! But they’re such a rarepair, as you said it, that it would have gotten me nowhere. As much as I love this pairing, I wouldn’t have been able to have such an amazing experience with them like I had with YouRiko. If it makes sense?For people to notice EreAnju, they have to be put in a story with at least TsubaHono with them ... UNFORTUNATELY ;-; I wish I could read so many fics about them!! ;-;So, before my answer ends up in a mad rant about all that (just the lack of scenes with A-RISE (I wish the producers could make an A-RISE spin off...) and all), here are the main reasons why I ship EreAnju.Okay, who I am also wants to love them deeply, as I’m someone who cares about physical appearances (yikes, I feel like I’m going to make people mad, but it really isn’t my intention...). And I find Erena and Anju beeeaaauuutiful, whether it be as a couple (come on, they’d be such a sexy and mature couple) or just as individuals. Erena’s eyes are going to kill me (don’t mind me, I love blue eyes), and Anju is such a cutie pie, too. I also love the fact that she gives off the I’m-a-sweetheart aura. Yuri couples with two girly girls are just my thing ... That’s also maybe why I love this anime, even if it’s not supposed to be a yuri one hahaha (but let’s be honest, that’s what everyone wants in the fandom, me the first!).So here you go!I am not here to shove EreAnju down anyone’s throat, I’m sorry if it looks like that, but I’m just ... very passionate when it comes to them. If only you knew how many EreAnju WIPs I have in my Love Live! file ... They’ll eventually turn into YouRiko or something, but well, hehe ... I just hope that my answer made sense, and that maybe I made people want to give them a chance, who knows?Thank you for the ask, I’m always happy to share this kind of thing! I hope you have a lovely day/night! :3