#but i also believe in polycrew so

[lugagl]

grrrr grrrrrrrrr i need to draw hearts boxcars and diamonds droog touching lip grrrr GRRRR explodes

[you-hate-time-travel]

Also, for the ask game, since I just saw it: Diamonds Droog and Die. They’re my favorite little sickos <3

Tumblr deleted my first draft of this . hoygh

favorite thing about them

Droog: Impeccable taste in fashion.

Die: he's the most pathetic man on alterni and i love him. he would try to claw my eyes out

least favorite thing about them

Droog: Nothing i guess?

Die: vague shrug?

favorite line

Droog: "You're making a mess, junior." x

Die: "Die asks if he can have his doll back. You say of course not, shut up. He looks crestfallen."

brOTP

Droog: Again, Crew, etc etc. shrug

Die: i think he'd be some sorta pals with stitch!

OTP

Droog: POLYCREW YAY! also dd09. i love dd09 hello. dadroog too <3 (though that only half counts since sometimes it's dignitary)

Die: Couldn't tell you an only true pairing tbh. here's a few i enjoy: 0611 (or as i like to call it, deathmatch/funeral pyre), hb06, 0206, and a few others that i'll save for some other day.

nOTP

Droog: Don't have any lol

Die: again, not really a NOTP but just. I just don't like crowdie.

random headcanon

Droog: He'd love to just be a little kitty cat.

Die: I can make so many characters trans men you would not beLIEVE

unpopular opinion

Droog: He's fucking silly as shit. yes, he acts all cool, but i firmly believe that under that shell (ha!) is a goofy fucker.

Die: ...i don't think i really have any for him lmao

song i associate with them

Droog: nothing i'm sorry </3

Die: Who Can It Be Now by Men At Work

favorite picture of them

Droog:

Die:

[floret-botanica]

Had some unexpected free time today, so it’s time to do my Oxventure and Ox BitD* shipping ranking/thoughts breakdown!

*predictably, this got long so I’ll do BitD in a different post.

I really started this so optimistic that I’d finish it in two hours but it took me... quite a while.

Ranking

I originally tried to do this as a numerical ranking, but all I got was:

Corazón/Dob

Polyguild

Everything else

So that didn’t really work. Corazón/Dob is the only pairing I ship independently of polyguild, and everything else is either a dynamic within polyguild (ie, would be a specific focus of a fic) or a lead up to polyguild. I also love an AU so there are, at minimum, three different settings to think about and they all have different ships leading up to the polyamory. Basically, there’s a lot to keep in mind, so instead of doing a numerical ranking, I’ll just write my thoughts on all the ships (this will only be pairings and The Whole Lot of Them polyamory, because as soon as I think about doing more than a pairing I want them to all be in love). Okay that was a lie I did one triad.

My Semi-Detailed Thoughts

Dob/Corazón

I’ve already done a pretty substantial discussion of my Dobazón thoughts, but I will say that it’s a tough call between this and polyguild as my favourite. I’ve just spent so long loving this ship, and I also have a few fic ideas which are pushing it ever so slightly to the top. To be honest, this will be (and sort of already has been) absorbed into polyguild in my mind, but for now, I will still respectfully separate it. 

Polyguild

[Slaps roof of ship] This baby can hold so much love and support.

I mean, it’s so good. It’s literally the best of all worlds. They’re chaotic and ridiculous and in love and I adore it. As previously mentioned, I have three four different polyguild scenarios/settings in my head, but at the end of the day it’s five weird, ridiculous and slightly hopeless people who find home in each other. What’s not to love about that?

Also as a point to both this and polycrew, you can make their relationship diagram look like a pentagram, which I think Prudence would approve of.

— From this point, it is not organised by how much I like the ship —

Merilwen/Egbert

This. Really snuck up on me. OKAY @intheseautumnhands WHAT THE HELL. I went and looked for the fic that made me love this dynamic, because I wanted to link to it and I’d forgotten that YOU WROTE IT. The end of Something In the Air is Giving Me Bad Ideas kicked off all of my Merilwen/Egbert thoughts I cannot believe it. How have you invaded my brain so completely? (/pos)

But yeah, I think they hit the exact level of Wholesomeness™ that I enjoy. (I’ll go into later but I haven’t gotten fully into Dob/Egbert because in that sense it is a bit much for me). I also like to think of Egbert and Merilwen being the most “life sensible,” i.e. marginally more willing to talk about their feelings than the other lot. It’s not super accurate to canon, but honestly, if you do an “Egbert’s happiness is a facade” kinda thing then he ends up with the same arc as Dob and that isn’t super interesting to me. I will say that the two of them have the most examples of good relationships in their lives (because I am firmly pro-Le Dragon D'or and most of the elves were pretty chill), and consequently it makes sense that they’d be better at having those and doing good communication. Sometimes you just want some people to act like goddamn adults, and this is where I turn.

Also, I was looking through some notes, and found my Merilwen & Egbert relationship description, part of which is: “Welcome to the Endless Self Confidence in My Ability and Desire to be Nice to My Friends squad.“ Which is still pretty accurate to how I perceive them.

Dob/Egbert

As mentioned in the previous section, I struggle a little bit with this ship for a number of reasons. Dob and Egbert were, for a long time, the characters I had the least fun* watching because I found the sheer volume of chaos distressing. (Look, I’m boring and I like rules. It’s fine). Basically, it never occurred to me to ship them until I went to Tumblr and saw all the enthusiasm, and even then I still didn’t really get it. I really like them as an aspect of polyguild, just getting a quick dip into their dynamic, but the combination of the chaos and the sweetness would get a Bit Much for me all the time. They're a little too similar for my liking, which is the same difficulty I have with Corazón and Prudence. But it is lovely in small doses. I have a little scene of them in my head based on the song Tokyo by emily the band, which I may eventually write.

*comparative to the massive enjoyment I got from watching the Oxventure in general.

Merilwen/Egbert/Dob

I honestly don’t go for triads or quads with Oxventure, but there’re just. Really nice. And I have to talk about this one because there’s a version of polyguild in my mind where, through a complex sequence of horny, awkward and friends to lovers, the three of them have a sincere, loving and well discussed relationship. (Then they entangle themselves with Prudence and Corazón and the good communication suffers for a bit lol). While I really enjoy the sort chaotic-falling-together which normally happens in the “D&D time period” polyguild fics, in an urban fantasy Not Adventurers AU™ I’ve had a lot of fun thinking about a foundation romantic relationship which just keeps accidentally expanding.

Prudence/Egbert

Since this has accidentally become the Egbert section, I’ll do the last two now.

Generally my thoughts on these have come from how easy I find it to imagine (or write) their dynamic, and these two are a little difficult. There’s a lot of potential there, but I think I’d need more (canon or fanfic) interactions to really get into it. Wait fuck it’s also really good? Okay well rule of the Oxventure: it’s all good. All the ships are good.

That being said, I really enjoy the idea that as polyguild happens, some of the pairings are like... side-eyeing each other and trying to figure out how the hell this is going to work romantically and navigating that together. Prudence and Egbert are good for that.

Corazón/Egbert

People. Kept writing stuff about this ship. And then I thought about it a lot. And now I’m obsessed with it. I feel like they’d both be very confused and/or annoyed* about falling for each other and I fucking live for that shit. I also really like the idea that Egbert has his shit together and forces Corazón to deal with his feelings (Merilwen would also do this, and I also really like that ship! I clearly have a type). The banter is impeccable. Admittedly, I’ve only really focused thought on it in one AU, but I’ve really thought about it for that one. Also in the two fics where it’s been given focus (at least the ones I remember) it was extremely good. 

More please.

*Bemused is the word that comes to mind for Egbert.

Corazón/Prudence

I don’t really know how to categorise my feelings about this ship. Best shot is that I love it as a friendship, love it as a part of polyguild (or it’s vague enough that I can imagine), generally don’t like it as a standalone. For me, there’s just not enough there for a complete, compelling relationship, and all the best bits of it are covered by ships I like more.

Some of my eh feelings are very likely due to how demonpirate quite popular, and there is consequently quite a lot of it Going Around. It’s like when a song that you kind of like goes viral and you hear it everywhere to point that you don’t really like it any more.

This is a long winded way of saying that it is very sexy when the scary lady is mean to the pirate bastard but I’m otherwise not super fussed.

Merilwen/Corazón

Extremely fun. Crackship energy, which is extremely my bag. A similar deal to Egbert and Corazón. I will always have time for their friendship, so moving it into a romance is also very nice. Neither of them like people very much (is that a controversial Corazón opinion? I don’t know) and I just think that they’d end up chilling with each other a lot. They’re less chaotic than the others. There’s definitely a lot of mutual respect there, below all the jokes. Merilwen comforting Corazón is a confirmed banger, and I think that it would work equally well in the other direction. They get each other.

Yeah so shipping this really started as a joke but more fool me I guess.

An addition after having a sleep: they’re are concerned about you, but they will be very intense and probably mean about it.

Prudence/Merilwen

Let’s go lesbians.

I kid, but then that is also a big part of the attraction. Sapphic tropes are amazing and women are very cool and just. It adds something. I love their friendship and I love thinking about them both being very dysfunctional. Like, the boys are absolutely fools, but these two are only doing better at them because they’re good at faking it. Poor communication in a very different way. Prudence would be kinder around her than the others, I think, and that makes me happy.

Prudence/Dob

There is one inherent problem with this ship: Christmas colours.

Despite this almost insurmountable obstacle, I have devoted quite a lot of time to thinking about this ship, and what I have decided is that I have no interest (as much as I “have no interest” in anything in this fandom) outside of polyguild. Cue someone writing an incredible fic for it that completely changes my mind.

It’s nice. The idea of them (mostly Prudence though) changing under each other’s influence is really interesting. I’ve thought about incorporating the “Jane doesn’t like music” into Prudence’s character (more? It’s already there a bit) and having Dob introduce her to it. But yeah. Only in polyguild.

Merilwen/Dob

Should probably have put this up in the Dob and Merilwen and Egbert section but to be honest I forgot about it. That probably says more about my opinion than this paragraph ever could, but I’ll try it anyway lol. I really like Merilwen and Dob in the same way one likes the primary couple in a romcom: generally good, but unless prompted, they don’t really stick in the mind. That’s probably a little harsh, given that I do find good ol’ team nature very sweet and lovely, and I enjoy thinking about it. I just need something more.

Also I think a lot of fanwork of this ship makes Merilwen less mean and I really like the nasty streak. My preference for her is blunt/unfriendly low charisma rather than awkward/quiet low charisma (though there’s probably more of the second in the actual Oxventure).

Final Ranking

Dob/Corazón

Polyguild

Nothing, those two are the ultimate.

Corazón/Egbert

Merilwen/Egbert

Merilwen/Prudence

Merilwen/Corazón

Dob/Egbert

Merilwen/Dob

Corazón/Prudence

Prudence/Dob

Prudence/Egbert

Hm. Lots of Prudence at the bottom of the list. She’s just evil friends. She’s evil and I find it difficult to get over that and see how she’d be a good romantic partner. To be fair though, this list would have been completely different two months ago (way more Egbert at the bottom) so who knows how it’ll look in the future. Probably just polyguild lol. Always good.

I hope that I’ve demonstrated throughout this that I really like all of the ships, so this is more about roughly how excited or apprehensive I would be opening a fic of a particular ship.