#can be viewed as platonic/just friends or as shippy

[yeehawkins]

Ricki Tikki MacTavish

Back home for once, Soap brings Ghost over to his flat. A small visitor awaits them

Coming home is an exceptionally rare luxury. And an even more rare occurrence is Simon Riley actually having any time away from the field. Johnny wanted to seize his chance to get to know the other more. Plus, he knows Ghost has nowhere to go, so it was only right to invite him over to his place. Really, it was more of a plead than an invitation, as old habits rarely die with that man. 

As they approach the apartment door, Soap pulls out a monstrosity of keys.

"How many fucking flats do you own?" Ghost states in astonishment.

"Just the one,'' Soap responds.

“Going to be here for ages trying to get into it.” Ghost states, rolling his eyes.

“Have a little faith.” Soap grins, almost magically flipping to the correct key with one cacophony of jingling, shaking it some more in triumph.

A little more jangling of keys, and Soap unlocks the apartment door, gesturing for Ghost to go ahead.

Ghost couldn't help but gawk upon entering. A few stains on the carpet notwithstanding, the place was downright pristine.

After tossing his bags by the door, Soap takes a look at his welcome guest.

"What? Never seen a clean flat before?" Soap teased.

"Well I certainly didn't expect one from you" Ghost retorted.

"Think I got the name by being filthy?"

"Oh I know where you got the name, slippery bastard" Ghost lets out a guffaw then picks up the shorter Scot, scooping him up in a hug. This knocks the air out of Soap a bit, and gets him blushing.

"Easy with the goods!" he laughs.

"That was easy"

Their banter is cut short, as there was someone else in the apartment. Ghost puts down his friend, and turns around. A small, fluffy tabby cat has made its presence known. The cat is quite loud, and continues to meow until Soap leans over to acknowledge her. He immediately melts at the sight of his beloved cat, scooping her up in his arms.

"Ricki! Oooh I've missed the hell out of you! My wee lady hold down the fort alright? Not give Ms. Darcy any trouble, did ya?"

Ghost watches as Soap devolves into a babbling Scottish mess at this cat. He lets out a chuckle, almost endeared at the display. "Didn't tell me you had a missus."

"Ah Ms. Darcy's just my landlord. Takes care of Ricki when I’m gone," says Soap.

"I mean the cat, MacTavish."

Snapping a bit out of his loving stupor, Soap tucks Ricki under his arm like a football. "This here's Ricki. My gran couldn't resist her face, but her allergies certainly could. So I took her in," He pauses to scritch the top of the cat's head with his other hand.

Ghost gives a genuine smile. His eyes go between Soap and Ricki, and raises his eyebrows at the man, clearly asking a question.

“Go ahead. Unlike me, she doesn’t bite.” Soap smirks, now holding Ricki like a baby. 

Ghost almost seems apprehensive to pet the cat, not wanting to spook her. However as he moves his hand towards her, she pushes her face up to his hand, purring loudly. 

“Aww, looks like you’re allowed to stay,” says Soap.

“Didn’t know there’d be a test,” Ghost replies contently, with much of his focus now on the purring cat. “Good to know you’ve got someone looking out for you off the job”

"Aye, really we look out for each other.” Soap beams, using one of his hands to now rub the cat’s belly. “Ricki canny hear a thing. Deaf as all, but fuckin’ loud as all too. Wouldn’t have her any other way”

Ricki takes a gentle swat at Soap's hand, shooting him a look. Ghost retracts his to avoid being included in getting hit.

“Guess the welcome party’s over” Ghost jokes. 

Soap sets Ricki back down on the floor. She goes right back to meowing once on the floor, circling Soaps legs.

“I believe somebody’s hungry,” Soap states. 

Once he has a briefly clear path, he begins walking toward the kitchen, Ricki weaving in and out between each stride. He opens up a cabinet, and looks back over at Ghost.

“Well come have a sit, Simon. You’re allowed inside more than 5 feet, you know.” Soap hollered. 

Truthfully Simon was in a bit of a trance, never much of the social type and perfectly content just watching Johnny and his cat do their thing. Hearing his name definitely snapped him out of it though. He walks over to the large couch in the living room and sits, still watching the other man and the cat in the kitchen. 

Johnny takes out a small bag of cat food, but looks down and notices her bowl is still full. 

“Oh you cheeky shite!” he laughs, looking at the cat staring at him, bending over to scritch her head. She simply yells back. 

“Fine, fine, a treat for my girl,” Johnny happily sighs, putting away the cat food and grabbing a smaller bag. He pours out a few treats into his hand, which prompts her to spring up onto the counter, somehow getting even louder. 

Johnny waggles a finger in front of her like a dad. “Ah ah ah! You know the deal.” He then points downward. 

Simon’s eyes widened. Upon this gesture, Ricki sits down, still looking up at Johnny and yelling of course. Johnny laughs and hands her a treat, placing the rest down on the counter for her, which she happily eats. He then walks over to the couch to join his guest, who is not at all hiding his surprise at what he just saw.

“You trained a cat.” Simon states in shock.

“Yep.” Johnny responds matter-of-factly, leaning back on the couch and kicking his feet up on the coffee table.

“And I’m the one outta my mind for drinking bourbon?” Simon laughs.

“Yeeep.” Johnny replies in the exact same tone. The two then catch each other's eyes, and exchange laughs. They both settle even deeper into the couch and let out content sighs, Johnny leaning his head back and shutting his eyes with a smile on his face.

[iwillhaveamoonbase]

For those new to AO3

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[impactrueno]

What's your opinion on the 2001 interview where the Beetlejuice animators admitted to drawing p*rn of the two and shipping them? I respect you don't ship it, but I feel like people who say the toon is "strictly platonic" when even the writers admitted to encourage shipping them is... well it just feels disingenuous to pretend it wasn't implied I guess

well, for starters animators drawing porn of the show they work on isn't as uncommon as you might think, so one can't really single out beetlejuice for it.

the way they write the dynamic in the show is another thing entirely, because yeah, they do invoke shippy tropes intentionally. somehow this actually managed to work extremely well for them, because it made people care a lot for them and their relationship. even if you view it as strictly platonic, you still had those moments where they share a hug and it touches your heart, and that was on purpose. platonic or not, we all love seeing beetlejuice and lydia be sweet with each other in the cartoon, because of the way they were written. and that's it! it's that simple.

that being said i also understand why people feel uncomfortable talking about this aspect of the show. i think a lot of people choose to not acknowledge it because they find it too weird or just don't believe it themselves.

but i think you can be perfectly capable of acknowledging what the writers were trying to do and still view and prefer them as platonic best friends. there's nothing wrong with that :) *SIDE EYEING THE SHIPPERS WHO GET MAD IF YOU DON'T SHIP THEM THE "CORRECT" WAY*

(sidenote but all this is also why i get the ick when people refer to beetlejuice as being like a fun uncle or big brother to lydia because 😬 well, now you made them have incestuous overtones on top of everything else)

[cleverthylacine]

Okay. Wow. (also feel free to circulate this post to people even if they don't like me)

I didn't want to make a post like this but things have gone too far. I am still not mentioning names. If you know you know, if you don't know, ignore this post and be happy that you don't know.

Yesterday I went on a blitz of blocking people I was told had been sharing my private DMs and talking shit about me behind my back with an artist who is freaked out that I told them I wouldn't take down a reblog, and then explained that they are popular with RavWave shippers, and that I didn't know who they were until other shippers sent me their stuff, because their art does look shippy to us.

It seems that a lot of the people who are really mad about this (and you're welcome to share this one post of mine with those people, though I do not appreciate that their friends have been stalking my blog in general) think that I was trying to ARGUE with that person.

Much as their motivation in drawing the art was not to depict my OTP, my motivation in telling them that they accidentally did was not to argue with them about how they should view the relationship. It was information about why people get what is apparently the wrong idea about their art.

If I were writing or drawing something that was being misinterpreted all over creation, I would want to know why.

Then I would be armed with the knowledge to decide whether or not I wanted to do things differently in the future.

"I don't care what those people think" is a valid decision. So is "hmm, maybe she has a point." Whichever decision I made, I'd want to make it as an informed decision.

I feel a little sorry about this giant misunderstanding, but I'm absolutely disinclined to apologise because:

Their first message to me was insulting. Many people believe that it was a "polite request". But polite words can be used in a thoroughly rude and nasty way. There is no nice way to tell someone that you think they're so nasty you don't want your public posts appearing on their blog.

Saying no to requests is a thing that people are allowed to do.

Their second message to me, which evaded my block because it was sent to another account, was blatantly offensive and went into the quality of my family and relationships. I didn't respond to that because I'd have gone off.

They have their friends stalking my blog and have admitted to doing so, and have responded to venting on my part by vagueblogging in my own blogs by telling everyone that they're the person I am annoyed with and here are the receipts. Seriously, wtf?

I only know this because I'm trying to block all the assholes who are reposting my personal conversations with them, a thing i only know because a friend of mine told me so after receiving a demand they unfriend me.

This person and their friends are sending anon asks to my friends, or in one case, publicly demanding in an RP community, that people who want to interact with them unfollow me, because they will not interact with anyone who interacts with me. Go the fuck back to high school, Regina.

Don't put icing and sprinkles on a pile of shit and tell yourself you gave someone a chocolate cake. This person has never been "nice" to me.

Under the cut: why IDW Ravage would never allow herself to be handled like a pet cat, and why RavWave shippers feel the same way about the Earthspark deleted scenes, even though we know that's probably not what the showrunners meant us to think.

I have come to the conclusion that's it's just another case of antis thinking that if you can see two people in a non-platonic relationship that they think of as family, you're just nasty. Especially if the feline shaped character is being handled like a pet cat.

But the person who said "I look disrespectfully on anyone who ships this, that's just a goof and his cat" has missed the entire point of these characters' relationship. Soundwave would never treat or handle Ravage like she was a pet cat.

Anyone else who says RavWave shippers are nasty because "it's NoRMaL to handle your cat that way" is fundamentally not getting who Ravage is and how she feels about being touched.

Ravage is a sapient adult mech with a full range of sapient adult feelings, and touching her like she's an animal is a microaggression or a macroaggression, depending upon where and how you touch her. The oppression of beastformers is a big fucking thing in IDW 2005. Other beastformers also complain about constantly having to deal with unwanted and disrespectful touching. (Fortress Maximus is a known offender.)

IDW Ravage is sleeping in Megatron's bed throughout MTMTE (when she's under it, she's guarding him). She only allows him to touch her neck in front of others...because behaving like a pet cat increases the chances that people will treat her like one.

(She almost cut Nautica several times. That's another character I ship her with, because what would be funnier than her realising that this actually is a whole ass person and if she can't stop touching her, she might actually be attracted to her?)

(Note: Canonically, Ravage in IDW uses he/him, and I do know that. However, about half the fandom writes Ravage as female. I'm in that half.)

BTW, I feel exactly the same way about the Earthspark deleted scenes. Every RavWave shipper on the planet does. We've talked about it. We realise that the artists and showrunners probably intended it to be innocent on the grounds that she is a cat. But we are also people who like to write her as an adult Decepticon officer with agency and self-respect who wouldn't behave like that in front of other people unless they knew he has privileges they don't.

I am aware that half the fandom draws Ravage art that's basically cat memes. (I hate that so much. But as a proshipper, I recognise people have the right to depict characters any way they want. That doesn't mean I haven't had to vent to people like @bitegore and @miner16 to keep myself from saying something.)

Also, I strongly suggest that people who get this worked up about misinterpretations of their art or writing do not become professional creators. As a member of fandom since the 1970s, I'm kind of super extremely aware that most of what fandom does is counter to what the creator intended, and frequently that's the point.

I'm also kind of super extremely aware that if you don't have loads of people reinterpreting and remixing your work and your characters, that actually means nobody cares about your work enough to have blorbo feels about your characters.

(The side poll, which came from another blog and mentioned no names, was an irritated attempt to find out whether people really do think it's normal to cuddle your mom that way, because the second message insinuated that my mother and I must have a terrible relationship because we don't touch each other like that. I kinda wanted to know what people who were not predisposed to take my side and did not know what was going on would think of that idea, because I really do not think most people touch their mothers like that; their mothers aren't nonsapient animals and would thus consider it weird and inappropriate.)

[rescuefield]

i am once again coming here with an announcement, and this time nothing could have ever prepared us for it 💀 ( perhaps i'll add this to my rules too idk we'll see )

let's talk about leon(s). i'm a thousand years old, grew up watching my cousins play the ogs, my views are influenced by the way i was exposed to the plot through them and then i got to make my own opinion when i had the chance to play myself. when it comes the canon storyline i do believe that claire & leon are basically that "not platonic, not romantic but a secret third thing ( so devoted the lines blur )" meme, but also i have common sense and don't shove it down anyone's throats.

i never give for granted that interactions with any leon are based on a shipping level - i always write claire acting platonically and eventually if the other mun comes to me asking about it then i can give it some thought ( which is basically what happened with savvy almost a year and some ago, how time flies! ) so i would like writers to have the same regards toward me and not outright send me shippy / nsfw prompts on the basis that i "write it already with other leons".

we say not one character is the same even when it comes to the canon ones, so i don't see why me interacting with another blog of the same character means i have the same identical plots even with other blogs. so please don't try to force ship or guilt trip me into it, because it's not cool.

on another note, because i've been lowkey vagued about it and i saw even though i let it slide... i have a leon which i'm affiliated with, and of course when i mention cleon adjacent things you can rest assured it's about them. this is also written everywhere on my carrd, by the way, so it's not something i revealed today. if i write with a leon blog but i'm shipping with my affiliate, it doesn't mean the first blog is there just to "collect muses". it means my claire and your leon are just friends ( for now or forever ) and we can explore other type of stories. i understand some muns might feel bad about it but at the same time we all write with more variants of the same canon muses, so i don't understand why this is a topic to make a scene about.

[5and3nevermind]

Sorry if you want to wait on getting this information until after the poll is over but, if not, I wanted to share some thoughts about how I feel about my take on Yoonmin. As you mentioned, none of us know for sure about the nature of their relationship outside of what they show us and bits we've been told by others, so I never feel confident saying/believing in romantic relationships.

There were two options on your poll that I think I fall into though, the I like it as a 'ship' option, whether I believe it's real or not doesn't really change the fact that I enjoy anything that looks 'shippy' when it shows up, I get a lot of joy from ship content and do enjoy the thought of them as a couple.

But I ended up having to choose Close Friends, because no matter how reluctant I am about saying I know for sure about the nature of someone's relationship, there is something about these two that from the moment I first was getting into BTS and saw their interactions, both as the main subject of the camera as well as what was going on between them in the background I remember thinking 'oh, those two are best friends'. I soon realized that the majority of the fandom didn't really see them that way, but I'll always maintain, regardless of whether it's romantic or platonic, those two are way closer than just the way all BTS members are close with each other. There is a genuine friendship that exists outside of the group between them that I feel like I can see between them.

So, I had to go with Close friends, but I'm not opposed to the 'close friends leaning to lovers' option that was suggested either.

Thank you! This is super helpful. My purpose for creating the poll was to better understand how people who are seeking out yoonmin content actually feel about them.

I should probably wait for the poll results but I’ll go ahead and give my two cents. For a long time, I felt similar to what you’re describing: I thought they hovered very close to the line between platonic and romantic. I think two things pushed me over to the romantic end of the spectrum (of course this is just my opinion)… ⚠️ speculation ahead!

First, I felt that they were both fulfilling the role of “special person” for one another. Like Jimin calling Yoongi right after his surgery, before he’d fully gotten over the anesthesia. If Yoongi had a significant other, wouldn’t Jimin have left that role to them? Let them talk to him first? Figured Yoongi was in good hands? And it’s not just that one example; I see it other places as well. And it goes in both directions. Like Yoongi saying that if Jimin goes on the music shows “of course” he would be there. He “should be there”, even. As if it was a given. Not a friendly, “yeah I’ll try to stop by.”

And the second thing that solidified my views was the web show. Everything about it. I remember talking to a friend about it and we began to wonder, “what more could they have done?” We came up with “Not much!” They talked about their dynamic together, talked about spending time off camera, talked about mutual friends, expressed a great deal of familiarity and fondness…and the body language! They held hands multiple times! What more could they (reasonably) have done to show us their bond? It felt significant.

All of that said, I see the people who voted in the Close Friends category and our new Close Friends Leaning to Lovers category as being very similar to those in the Couple category. There honestly isn’t much difference. We agree on most things; we agree on the important things.

I have so many questions I’d love to discuss, but I’ll try to wait til the poll is finished! I hope you’ll stop by again. I’m curious to know more about how people end up in those three categories in particular, and what it would take to move them to a new category. (Not in the sense of me trying to convince someone to change their mind, but in the context of what they’d need to see between ym in order to change their pov.)

Thanks, anon! I appreciate your thoughts.

[santhropomorphy]

Hi!! Love your fics!! I hope this isnt an odd question, but I wanted to ask, since you've shipped hobmurphy/dreamling since before the tv series came out and the ship definitely has more attention now than it did before--have you noticed any differences in how the morpheus/hob dynamic was written/viewed by the fandom before the netflix show vs afterwards? anything about the ship that newer fans might overlook? im deathly curious about that evolution and thought it might be worth asking about :)

Aww, thank you for reaching out! I'm so glad you like my fics☺️

👀You wanna know the pre-show dreamling story? Oh boy, am I happy to talk about that! (no seriously, I vent about those dark ages to anybody willing or unwilling to listen)

So I'm not your oldest sandman fan, I read the comics about 2 years ago and started shipping dreamling/hobmurphy at the same time. I read Men of Good Fortune (dreamling's first issue) and left off shipping them like a maniac. Two guys meeting each other every hundred years, the slowly developing affection, the fucking break-up, the reconciliation at the end, I was HOOKED. So I looked on ao3 for fics...

In a 30 year old fandom, there were FOUR (4) dreamling fics. One of them an introspective drabble, and another one barely shippy, just a lead up to desire/dream... And all those fics were dated 2003, 2006 and 2010. On Tumblr? There were about 30 posts under the tag Hob Gadling, 3-4 of them shippy. There was ONE (1) fanart of dream and hob together. One!

As for the dreamling fandom? Nonexistent. I can count on one hand the number of people I could talk to who shipped them, and I raided the fucking internet... I was literally going around 5 different socials like an idiot, begging people to ship them with me! I nagged my beta (bless you, Roonie) to read the comics, so that I could have somebody to yell at about dreamling!

I wish I could tell you the difference between the shippy content now and back then but it would be a chore cause I was literally the only person actively creating said content (plus ThePlatypussPrincess whom I managed to rope into my agenda and nagged into writing a Glorious fic😘). Those few interactions about them I managed to have were all very similar to the dreamling conversations I have these days.

I think a lot of this was a product of the differences in the source material. I picked up on the dreamling ship fast because it was right up my alley with friends to lovers and slow build of trust and affection. But a lot of other people seemed to have missed that potential i guess which still baffles me. Then the bloody show came around and Hob and dream spent 8 whole minutes staring into each other's eyes, saving each other from Constantine and a million other things so glaringly obvious that there was no way for anybody to miss it. And I was left standing there in the corner like... PEOPLE, THE QUEER WAS ALWAYS THERE, IT JUST DIDN'T WHACK YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH A BAGUETTE!!

Okay I can try comparing differences I guess but those are just the result of the show's additions: there was no Hob jealous of Shakespeare and no Teacher!Hob. And dreamling all in all was perceived in 90% as platonic...

Fuck I'm getting depressed, anyway, the way this ship blew up after the show was fucking insane, I'm still recovering from it.

Hope this was coherent enough!

[ficforthought]

On being SO DONE with M*sha, a rant a decade in the making!

After giving this some thought I'm going to go ahead and give my opinion on Misha and yesterday’s situation in public for the first time ever. I was going to just post on Twitter but since this has been 12 years in the making I have exceeded the number of tweets I can put in one thread! There’s A LOT in here, so my summary is also long. I'm aware that I will lose followers over this, I'm not looking to offend anyone but it will inevitably happen. I wish anyone leaving all the best as fellow human beings.

TL;DR - having kept quiet for so long I’ve finally reached my limit and it’s all come bubbling out. I’ve never been a fan of Misha, I’ve been ambivalent for the most part, but have never criticised him in any hateful way, that's not who I am, but after all these years of putting up with his bullshit, attention seeking and troublemaking I am DONE. Deleting his tweet containing the word Wincest and replacing it with an APOLOGY just to pander to his Minions and save face is the straw that broke the camel's back. He has consistently pushed his ship on not only fans but on other actors (despite Jensen's discomfort, and him having repeatedly made his feelings known on it), he has stood by while his Minions/Hellers have harassed, victimised, doxxed and sent death threats to people based on their FICTIONAL ships. He has pandered to their gatekeeping, constantly demanded attention in obvious and not so obvious ways, and to the best of my knowledge never criticised their actions even though he's aware of it in a very real way. Some of his Minions have now taken their shit into The Boys fandom and created negativity for Jensen before the guy has even got a foot through the set door, and how is that supporting one half of your ship?

Misha has claimed to be a victim of targeted harassment from Wincest/brother fans (not only shippers) yet his fans have said and done the most despicable things on his watch, all in the name of what he must think is entertainment, or even his idea of a ‘joke’.

Any respect I had for the man based on his humanitarian work has gone because I can only take so much hypocrisy. He and his pandering because of a desperate attempt to be woke and wholly inclusive (which is actually impossible, no matter how good intentions are) are beyond pathetic. Whilst I have never seen why people think he’s so great I have friends IRL and online who genuinely adore the man, yet they have been shocked and upset by his contempt for half of the fandom that made him somewhat famous. It's disgusting and I'm not scrolling by any more. Misha, I hope to never see you on anything J2 related in future because none of us need that kind of negativity, *especially* not J2. Be gone, foul fiend!

OK, so to the too long part. Please be aware that these are my opinions as a fan of the show, of Sam and Dean, and J2, not only as a shipper. I can separate canon and fanon, and can view canon from a gen or shippy PoV. Whether you agree or disagree with my opinion let me be clear that I do not condone constant bashing and hate of a person or character so this isn’t the start of a regular thing for me. It's possible to have an opinion and not show the same vitriol that has been following this man around for years, and that’s what I’m doing. I've not posted this to prompt more negativity, it's simply to get it off my chest and make it clear how I feel. I stand by my philosophy of ship who you want to ship, enjoy it, but don't force it on other people and don't be a dick about it…hmm, that kinda sounds like familiar behaviour, though, does it not?!

I have ABSOLUTELY NO ISSUE with other people liking Misha, Cas or Destiel when it’s for the love of the characters and the ship. What I *do* have an issue with is people who are the true definition of a Heller. I don’t see that as a generic term, don't be ignorant and think I do because I know the difference between actual ship fans and the crazies, both ships have ‘em and I want no part of either of their venom. If you are reading this and class yourself as a Heller then you are part of the problem so run along and as you are all so fond of saying, 'get help' and take your bestie king with you.

I’m stating my opinion in what I feel is the most mature way I can, because unlike many people on SM, I am an adult and can act accordingly, with forethought and without resorting to temper tantrums and bullying of other people to get my point across. I am able to tell the difference between reality and fiction, I don't tar everyone with the same shipper brush and I don't expect everyone to agree with my opinion, but as we know opinions are like arseholes, we all have them and sometimes they stink. Unlike some, for the most part in life (online and offline) I *do* stand by what I say and don’t backtrack or delete things to appease the masses. I have spent a lot of time writing this out to be as clear as possible without being intentionally hateful. Bear with me jumping between actor and character where relevant, at this point they're conjoined. I will say this before I go any further, it doesn’t end well for Misha, I don’t mince my words and if you don’t like seeing facts and opinions laid out, this isn't the post for you.

I’ll say right off the bat what most of you have surmised - I’ve never held Misha (or Cas) in high esteem but I have never *hated* on him. I have shared mild criticism of his actions and opinions on Cas over the years but never, I feel, in any way that has made me feel I have something to apologise for. I have said several times I've been unhappy about Misha crashing con panels, taking attention away from J2 when at those cons *most* people paid their hard earned money to see the STARS of the show they love, first and foremost, and anyone else is a very nice bonus. The odd appearance here and there crashing a panel is fine (and Misha isn’t the first or last person to do it), maybe take up a few minutes then leave, but when someone commandeers an entire panel, that's just not on. It's not only selfish, rude and attention seeking but also disrespectful to other actors, fans and to the organisers who work hard to make sure everything ties in to give us the best con experience we can have. Everyone gets their turn on stage, there's no need to try and hog any more of the limelight, Veruca Salt style. Oh, and if you’re reading this and not getting that reference, (a) you shouldn’t be on my blog because you’re far too young, (b) look it up, and if you still don’t get what I’m saying… well then please refer to point (a). Thank you, kindly!

There was a time in Kripke's era where Cas was - I feel - intentionally used as a pawn by the writers to divert *canon* from the ‘questionable’ relationship between Sam and Dean, i.e. Wincest focus. Prior to that people (other fans) lightened up and just accepted the fact that Wincest had been there since day one in terms of the writing of the show and the fandom. All the cast and crew knew - J2, Kripke and JDM in particular - and made light of it, never judging, never shaming and often encouraging it because they understand it’s a fun part of fandom. Wincest was present enough to be part of the not so subtle subtext, as I said people just accepted it. Kink tomato was alive and well, so was ‘don’t like, don’t read’ and we all just scrolled over things we didn’t like without turning everything into a personal vendetta and excuse for bullying others who didn’t share our views. When the angels came into the plot I think most of us Wincest fans gave the Dean/Cas innuendos the small laugh they deserved and then turned back to the focus of the show which was the brothers, as it had always been intended. Misha, however, milked those moments as much as possible which was amusing at the start but got old *very* quickly, not just for fans (shippers and non shippers alike), but for other actors, in particular Jensen who is on record MULTIPLE times showing his dislike for Destiel. He told people outright that's not how he was playing the relationship between the two characters and CATEGORICALLY said "Destiel doesn't exist" but did it end there? No, it did not because neither fans or Misha let it go, in fact Misha only pushed more, goaded fans into flogging the same dead horse as much as possible. He’s never stopped, not even when there was so much discord in the fandom, a huge wedge was driven into it because of ships, which IMO he heavily contributed to.

Fast forward to over a decade later (a decade, seriously man, let it fucking go!) he didn’t even stop when Destiel did partially go canon. I have never doubted that Cas loved Dean (Sam, too) because in SPN lore angels are made to love, even rebellious ones. I, along with many others, liked that about Cas because who doesn't love a rebel, especially one rebelling for very good reasons, and because of those two wonderful men? Sam and Dean allowed him to see beyond what he'd been brainwashed to believe his entire existence. The fact is that although the nature of that love changed for Cas, it never did for Dean and was CANONICALLY UNREQUITED because Dean was incapable of loving anyone else as much as he loved Sam. All that mattered to Dean, even when he saw other characters as "family" was still Sam…ALWAYS Sam, every step of the way. Again for those who have too much Misha shaped wax in their ears, that’s canon. Whether people choose to see that love platonically or romantically is up to them, soulmates don't always have to be romantic, either way, brotherly love won out above all else on the show. No amount of Misha screaming ‘hey look, Destiel!’ changed that, but it sure didn’t stop him trying, did it?

So now that the obvious has been stated, here's something else we all know - never once in all of the years on the show did Misha drop rallying of the troops to his precious, ego stroking ship. Never once (that I am aware of) has he called out his Minions and Hellers on their continued harassment of everyone involved in the show and other fans despite the fact that they have bullied, victimised and wished bodily harm, rape and death on people who don't see their ship and because didn't get the ending to the story that they wanted. Not once has Misha shown any remorse for the trauma his "fans" have caused, and I’m taking REAL trauma, here, not the kind Twitter stans see as ‘triggering’ - people have been driven to close SM accounts, attempted, and in some cases succeeded in taking their own lives. These Minions have openly mocked Jared’s struggles with depression and anxiety, and Misha - who claims to be friends with J2 and be supportive of them in every way  - has stood by and let it all play out, knowing full well some of the goings on, if not the full extent of how toxic these people are. We know he sees things being said online, and I have absolutely no doubt he spends time online searching his name for things that are relevant in some way to him in an effort to insert himself into a current conversation, or even start one so that attention is on him. Gotta stay relevant, somehow, right, Mish?

He has actively encouraged bullying by his actions of enabling the behaviours above, both by the flogging of the aforementioned dead horse, AND by not objecting to unacceptable behaviours. Remember when Minions and Hellers were slating J2, particularly Jared, for not posting on SM about BLM and other topics? Yeah, he didn’t ask them to stop doing that, either, even when he was tagged in things along the lines of ‘If Misha can post why can’t J2?’ etc. There have been some token protests, con vids I've seen have show his 'objections' which IMO have been done in a very tongue in cheek way, meaning that those people who needed to be pulled aside and told to change their ways just carried on, because their evil overlord didn’t explicitly explain it in terms a three year old could understand that bullying and forcing your opinion on others is WRONG. Not all of his cult are young and impressionable, not by a long shot, but many of the more vocal and vitriolic ones are.

As a father himself I wonder what Misha would do if he found out that his kids were behaving in ways his Minions are? I’m aware they’re young, but kids are cruel and bullying doesn’t just happen online. Even at whatever age they are, would he laugh it off the way he appears to have done with all of this fandom toxicity? Not bloody likely! I wonder if he’s as desperate to gain the approval of his family, friends and colleagues as he appears to be for that of his Minions/Hellers? I would certainly hope so, but that question can only be answered by Misha, himself, and I can and will not presume to speak on someone else's behalf on things in their personal life. For the record I would never presume I know what J2's answers would be on anything, however I do feel that after 15 years I have an accurate gauge on what kind of people they are so would be confident that any opinion I had on a matter aligns with their morals and ethics. As much as J2 have shared of themselves with us - willingly and under no pressure to do so, I might add - we don't *know* them, but we know enough to have an informed opinion. I can’t say the same for Misha because based on the behaviour he’s repeatedly displayed, things I've heard about from other fans as well as people I know IRL who have had direct dealings with him through cons or GISH (including some very actively in the early days when it was GISHWHES) he just hasn’t seemed like a person I wanted to follow on SM. I’ve never watched any of his solo panels, though I have watched ones with both or one of the J's, mostly being left irritated because of his behaviour. Watching the J’s put up with that shit is painful, and it’s a testament to how good they are as actors that they managed to hide at least some of their disdain for as long as they did. Microexpressions give them away, particularly Jensen, and they certainly have faces I have spent many years watching closely. Beautiful faces to go with beautiful souls, both of them! <3

I have precisely ZERO interest in Destiel as a ship, very little interest in Cas as a character anymore (though I did like him in the early days,and his relationship with Jack in late seasons) so I have absolutely no reason or desire to follow anything Misha does. That said, I've obviously been peripherally aware of some things he's been involved in because of friends, from things I’ve seen on SM and general fandom stuff. Despite the things I've already mentioned about his behaviour, up until now I have been able to maintain a level of respect for him as a person because of the humanitarian and charity work he's done. He seems like someone who really does want to change the world for the better and I am in full support of that fact, so much so that I have supported TWO campaigns relating to him. I bought one of the Super Good t-shirts for the campaign he did with Michael Sheen (a true angel!), the SPN/Good Omens x-over to help homeless charities, and I chose the design with text only and not artwork of Michael and Misha on, basically because I didn’t want to be wearing something with Misha’s face on it and I make absolutely no apology for that, whatsoever. I also bought Alex's #TheEndHasNoEnd shirt, which some of the profits went to Random Acts who do great work, so again, despite not liking Misha I still willingly contributed for a cause bigger than me, and to support Alex, who I absolutely ADORE. I'm aware that Stands aren't popular with some of the fandom, however since most of the cast of SPN are happily affiliated with them then I don't feel it's my place to either judge, or to discuss topics I know next to nothing about. But I digress, as a decent human being I have shown support tangentially to a man who I don't care for out of respect for the work he does outside the fandom. Telling you this isn’t to paint myself in a good light - I don’t need your approval, I’m a big girl, unlike some I don’t need constant validation! - only to provide background on how I’ve actively *not* hated on Misha.

Now though, any respect I had for him has come to an abrupt end, the events of the past 24 hours has seen to that. Whilst I have been annoyed at his behaviour in regards to shipping, I don't feel it's ever gone this far, or at least not that I've seen first hand. This man has, IMO, contributed to so much toxicity in the fandom by way of things I've mentioned before, he's claimed - without actually saying the words - that Wincest fans weren't interested in him as a character when he came onto the show, and hasn’t felt included because of the fans’ love of the brothers. Um, hate to break it to you, love, but when you come onto an established show that is about two people, and you’re a *guest star* you can’t expect everyone to love you. Some characters we as individuals do fall in love with straight away (Bobby, Charlie, Crowley and Rowena are good examples for me), it takes time to establish a dynamic, so if that’s how he felt then it was incredibly naive of him as an actor to expect instant acceptance from anyone. Also, why wait until after the show finished to bring it up AGAIN … oh wait, yeah, that would be to step back into the limelight in a way intended to garner sympathy from Minions and INTENTIONALLY piss off bro fans and Wincest shippers alike? How fucking self centred, desperate and disrespectful do you have to be to shit all over the finale of a show that for the most part accepted you and kept you in paid work for 12 years? Well, Misha Collins levels of all of those things, obviously.  

So, on the topics of self centred, desperate to stay relevant, attention seeking and being oh so needy, the tweet yesterday from Amazon mentioned Castiel. He wasn’t tagged in it, so I refer to my earlier comment about searching online, because how else would he have possibly seen that? It’s possible someone sent it to him, I appreciate that, but if we go off past behaviour it’s not any stretch at all to believe that didn’t happen. So, once again, having seen the tweet he took it upon himself to - oh so predictably - turn it into something relating to Destiel. When I saw it I immediately rolled my eyes and thought ‘here we go again’, but then also had a little smile because I really liked the fact that he explicitly mentioned Wincest, therefore seeming to accept that his poor old dead horse wasn’t the only one in the race. I actually mentally tipped my hat to him then because it appeared that he’s matured enough to acknowledge by name the ship that predates his inclusion on the show. Great, I thought, this is a positive thing in a sea of negativity surrounding the man and his sunken ship, because what followed was Wincest trending in the US (it may also have been other countries as well but I had to sleep!) … largely due to the fact that Hellers were responding to it, calling him out on mentioning the dreaded ‘W’ word. I’ll repeat that because it’s been a rare occurrence up to that point… the Minions were actually disappointed with their overlord for mentioning another ship. We all know what they think of it and I for one, don’t give a flying fuck about their opionion. Ship and let ship, it’s all fun (or meant to be) so we have different tastes, that’s life kiddiwinks, deal with it. I mean, you really don’t have much of an example set for you when your king has proven several times over to be one of the biggest obnoxious brats out there, but just give it a try for your own sakes, yeah? Awesome, good on you, besties!

An unexpected development - to my joy and that of other Wincest shippers - them doing that got the topic trending, only *kept* trending by the fact that were all coming online asking why it was trending. Wincest shippers barely lifted a finger, we just flooded each other’s timelines with lovely content and basked in the Hellers - and Misha - shooting themselves in the foot, which was awesome. But did the vitriol stop? No. Did he get the attention he so clearly craves? Yes. Was it in the way he wanted? Fuck no, so poor, emotionally wounded baby backtracked after seeing that his name was trending alongside Wincest because that’s *so* not what someone narcissistic to do it in the first place, wanted.

Now here’s where I could easily have just moved on with an unusually fond chuckle, giving him an ironic pat on the back and a ‘thanks, Misha’ for being the one to instigate hours of fun, but once again his despicable behaviour made that impossible. It’s been more than obvious for many years that he cares more about what his fans think than anything else to do with the show and the fandom in a larger sense, but to delete the tweet and APOLOGISE for daring to be so insensitive to the snowflakes’ delicate sensibilities for mentioning Wincest in the first place was absolutely disgusting. Stating , “I used a term that I had never really given any thought to other than, "that's a thing?! Yuck." is not only complete and utter bullshit, it’s pandering of the highest order.  

We all know he has referred to Wincest on multiple occasions, so to say he hadn’t thought about is a flat out lie, which IMO is an insult to everyone, not just Wincest shippers. Does the man have no self respect at all, why would you contradict yourself in the face of such overwhelming evidence? Instead of either ignoring all the people calling him out, or addressing it with another tweet saying ‘yeah, that happened’ or something similar he chose, I repeat, CHOSE the route of claiming he didn’t realise he was being offensive to people who felt ‘triggered’ by him using the word Wincest. He basically shat all over an entire ship and large sector of the fandom in an attempt to appease his own fan base which consists of a lot of children (or those that act like children) who have no idea what RL is like.

Once again, he’s reinforced the idea that if you shout loud enough at someone just because you don’t like something they said, they will back down and apologise for something even when there’s nothing to apologise for. If he wants to be such a role model then he could easily have pointed out that a fictional ship doesn’t condone RL incest, any ACTUAL trauma people have suffered because of RL situations, and made an effort to make sure people understand that. He COULD have used it as an opportunity to do some good in the fandom by encouraging people to build bridges, to accept that people are entitled to their beliefs and that sometimes we see things differently but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat others with BASIC HUMAN DECENCY because of it. Instead he YET AGAIN chose to show that he cares more about what Minions think of him, keeping them onside to constantly stroke his unbelievably fragile ego in everything he does.

It is my understanding that Misha is big on (or claims to be big on) putting positive energy out into the world, treating people with respect, helping others and accepting people for who they are, not who you want them to be… all this after YEARS of consistently practising what he preaches only when it suits him. He sends out a message that it’s perfectly OK to bully, to spread hate, to draw attention to yourself at the cost of others, to throw colleagues and friends under the bus and at the same time use them to further your own agenda and get hits for your YouTube channel. Is this really the legacy he wants to leave? Is this an environment he wants his own kids to grow up in as well as future generations? Is this what he thinks is a valuable contribution as a human being? JFC, the arrogance, hypocrisy and the need for constant validation this man exhibits is nothing short of cringeworthy… actually it’s beyond that. It’s deplorable behaviour, it’s not new, and he will continue to act like this for as long as he’s being enabled and this harmful cycle needs to end.

I have friends IRL and online who are (now, possibly, were) big Misha fans, who have supported him from either the beginning of his run on the show, or since they started watching, and this is how he repays this behaviour? He’s willfully alienating decent people (including multishippers) all to make himself look good by being seen to do everything he can not to offend people. Spoiler alert, you DID offend people, you continue to do so time and again and we’ve had enough. I can’t imagine how exhausting it must be to be such a perpetual people pleaser, but let me say it’s not doing you any favours in any way, shape or form.

Misha, you are *not* a role model, you’re *not* someone to look up to when you can't live up to the ideals you preach. You’re spitting in the face of people who have supported you even after some questionable things in the past, who gave you the benefit of the doubt because we’re all human and we all make mistakes. The key to growing as a person is not to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over, understanding *why* what you said and/or did was a mistake and making a concerted effort to make changes. I don’t ever see you doing that, you will continue down this path of only caring about Minions under the guise of caring for people in general. You are transparent, you are sad and despite the fact I’ve never particularly liked you, I didn’t speak up because I didn’t want to get involved in the drama. Well now I have spoken up and I’m saying you’re a disgrace, you have no respect for other people and nobody is fooled anymore. If it hadn’t been this tweet it would have been something else, but I for one am glad it happened so soon after the show ended so we can finally be rid of the limpet-like behaviour. It’s over, let it go for the sake of what dignity you might have left, for the sake of your family and friends and for the sake of anyone who isn’t capable of seeing through your ‘it’s a joke’ mentality.

You have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Misha.

For anyone who made it to the end of my ramble, thank you. This has been a cathartic exercise and I’m drawing a line under it now, I don’t think I could possibly make my thoughts any clearer. I urge you not to get caught up in any petty squabbles with his Minions, let’s celebrate J2 and other cast and crew members who have shown us all respect and who I am proud to call part of the SPN family. There’s always one member of the family who needs to be frozen out for the good of everyone else.

[littleteacupdragon]

I think we need to look at the issue of fans getting excited about literally anything from a different perspective. Yeah, a lot of the things idols or content creators do, especially towards people they are close with, are normal. Just plain old normal stuff you don't usually think about so it seems like fans make a big deal about nothing.

But when you realise that most celebrity news and gossip sites focuse on the negatives, on the scandals and dramas, and that the scripted media is also angsty as hell, well. It just occurred to me that we don't get that much positive representation of any real human relationships like that.

I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone who is asexual as well, so the things meant to be "hot" just don't work for me. But this little bit of a sideline view actually helped me come to this conclusion. I see a lot and watch some compilations of "shippy" content for stray kids. Most of it are just hugs or fond looks or flirty lines. And the thing is, all of that can be the most platonic shit ever but we don't get that much pure affection between friends on the TV. I think the most I've seen was the interview with Graham Norton where was it Reynolds who kissed the other actor just for shits and giggles? Yeah. That's the furthest casual affection I've seen. With all the media themselves forcing people into relationships just to get the drama for clicks makes it really hard to break out of this amatonormative mindset.

Maybe if we got more boys just hugging. More girls being supportive of each other. People absolutely ignoring any speculations that are rudely thrown at them because why tf are those journalists even asking about it. Maybe if more films had an actual plot be the focus and not the way for the two main characters to get together. Maybe if more movies were based on platonic relationships and all the flavours of them, the flirty "act as a pair but suggest anything and they'd vomit" and the just "two cuddlebugs who found comfort in each other platonically".

I just realised that may be why I liked Heartstopper the Netflix series so much. Yeah, they ended up being together romantically but that is fine, I don't say romantic relationships are bad (we do need more healthy romantic relationships in media too!). But I'm so in love with the scene when Nick tells Charlie that he looks really cuddly and goes for the hug. Yes, you could feel the sparks flying. It was more romantic than any purposefully romantic gesture, but it wasn't romantic because they hugged. It was romantic because before that Nick was chickening out from taking Charlie's hand and you could see he was nervous af. It was not the hug itself, it was the buildup, the emotions, the intention.

We don't usually get that. Characters kiss because they are meant to in the script. Getting them to kiss is the goal that overshadows any buildup. And then people are fed that bullshit, and they project it on normal human beings. Because we rarely see any affection that doesn't lead to something romantic very fast. Rarely in the mainstream media at least, but that is what most people consume.

And then there's the whole issue of fans projecting their own wants onto their creator of choice which is a completely separate thing (like a lot of people said in the comments of one commentary video I watched on the Phandom recently - a lot of them were closeted queers that just wanted what the boys had) and it is definitely also a thing, but it only proves that there is way more complexity to it than just "teenage girls sexualising their latest obsession". (and yes some just do sexualise but really, is that all a them problem or just the way they were taught to see the words as something purely sexual?).

[fyeahritchieholmes]

Am I the only one who loves how the Holmes/Simza plot was just entirely cut out? Like, thank you, we need to "love interest" for Holmes because he clearly already has one.

Wdym Irene? She's dead.

Like, no one can convince me Holmes isn't completely smitten by Watson, and is either too socially inept to figure it out, or had simply resigned himself to dying for his presumable unrequited love. The entire movie is literally Holmes being jealous and sad that Watson is marrying/married to Mary, as well as trying to save his life because he inevitably put Watson in danger himself by challenging Moriarty?

Also, knowing how RDJ and Jude Law feel about it/how they purposely portrayed their characters, as well as Ritchie's intentions, we all know Holmes is in love with Watson. Simza is just there, she's a neat character, but the romance wouldn't have worked - which is for the better. I swear, I'd believe it more if Holmes and Moriarty had a fling.

The overt romantic and/or sexual chemistry between Holmes and Watson makes so much of this movie, and it would make no sense for Holmes who is a) grieving Irene's demise and b) mourning his lost love for Watson while being terrified that his actions will inadvertently kill him to even think of anything beyond that point?

Also, I refuse to believe Holmes is the slightest interested in sex apart from maybe Watson, and possibly Irene.

Anyway, love your blog, love your work - and I'd love to chat some shippy stuff with you or anyone else who feels like it!

I need more Richie!verse fans as friends, so help me.

Wow, you’ve said a mouthful!

My personal reading is that in the first movie Holmes is realizing his more-than-platonic feelings for Watson, brought out by his jealousy of Mary. He also has some interest in Irene, but not enough to be taken by her advances toward him.

In Game of Shadows, not only is Holmes aware of his feelings for Watson but tries to do the responsible thing of letting him lead the life he wants and keep him out of harms way; it’s only when Moriarty refuses to leave him alone that Holmes feels the need to hijack his honeymoon. From there it’s like Holmes gets to indulge on his feelings for Watson (the flirting, the dancing, etc.) until Moriarty reminds him that Watson’s safe life is at stake, and as we saw in the first movie, Holmes will put his life on the line for Watson’s and he does it again at that showdown at Reichenbach.

As for Watson’s perspective, I believe in the first movie he has feelings for Holmes that he can’t quite name (“I’m psychologically disturbed”) but they are intense enough for him to slow his sprint to the altar. In GoS those feelings come to head when he almost loses Holmes. Said feelings are pretty complicated on Watson’s end since he has a certain view on Holmes, that he’s selfish, reckless and cold. Watson saw a bit past that after the explosion in the first movie and that illusion is gone completely when Holmes sacrifices himself in GoS.

That moment where he shuts his eyes after Holmes and Moriarty fall off the cliff, it’s both despair and things falling into place for Watson, finally understanding why Holmes is the way he is and Watson (thinks) he can’t tell him. It’s why Watson is by himself at Holmes’ funeral and throws himself into telling his stories about how great he was. He’s getting toward the “love” part of his feelings.

Whew! Now I said a whole lot! Anyone’s free to add or ask me their own feelings. There’s also a Discord if anyone wants to chat with other RDJHolmes fans!

https://discord.gg/F9WCEu6B

[dreamygeorgenap-archive]

i just saw someone said karlnap is the new dnf but better because look they're engaged! kiss! unafraid to say i love you to each other! honestly, i think their friendship is super cute but a lot of their shippy moments feel forced, performative, and overdone. i mean dnf has it fair share of ship bait but it doesn't get the vibe two bros playing up their bromance for an audience... at least not all the time. what are your thoughts on this?

I got another ask similar to this: 

Hi! 

My short answer is: If you’ve ever heard a group of straight white men talking *shudders*, they flirt the way Karl and Sapnap flirt. They constantly talk about how in love they are, fake kiss, giggle, etc. but it’s all fake flirting because you know they’re straight because they like football or whatever. 

My longer more truthing answer is: 

In my opinion, the reason dnf feels different and more genuine is because even if Dream and George are completely platonic, they have years and years of built up sexual tension friendship which leads to better chemistry. Karl and Sapnap just meet a few months ago and they have good chemistry, but they don’t know each other the way Dream and George know each other. Dream is George’s favorite person and George is Dream’s favorite person. 

George is much easier to read, even without facecam, because you can hear the smile in his voice and see the blush across his face when Dream flirts. Dream plays it up for views and Dream is a great liar, but his voice is very telling so you can hear when he is baiting and hear when he’s actually just amazed by George. It seems sometimes that line is blurred. I’ve said before that you know when Dream is flattered when he says “you’re such an idiot, George”. Speaking of that, perhaps “you’re an idiot” is George’s way of saying “I love you”. How romantic, Dream you deserve better. /j *he doesn’t /j 

Karlnap is two straight, completely platonic friends flirting for the fun of flirting. It seems forced because it is. For DreamNotFound, there is *evidence* (/hj) to believe that maybe- just maybe- it could possibly be that- okay there’s a slight chance that- their feelings are more romantic. 

[maskved]

hello, besties ! this is ami (she/her) and i’m probably late with this intro ! first i’m sorry for mass-liking every post but i’m already in love with all your lovely muses. also i must confess that i’ve only read the first book ( years ago ) and watched the show because i have an attention span of - 10 seconds.  but at least i’m a soc hoe, so we can scream about that ... please ... !!! so if i get anything wrong pls let me know or you can also not let me know and i’ll continue being embarrassing 😔. anyway, if you are interested in some juicy plotting pls LIKE this post or message me ( if you want to plot on discord we can also do that 💖). I’M EXCITED.

PINTEREST  . discor*d     six of hoes🔪#7888  //  YEVA

[ viktoriya zobova ], an [ twenty six ] year old grisha in the little palace. she is  a [ tailor ] and are known in the little palace as the [ viscerotonic ]. they are known to be [ resilient ] and [ elusive ] and vaguely resemble [ kristine froseth ]. 

death tw

- viktoriya zobova ( however, prefers to be called vika because every time one calls her by her full name she might as well be in trouble ) had never been more than average. born to average parents ( although grisha their powers pale compared to others ) into an average family and of course as the middle child, vika strived for more than simply being overlooked.

- truth to be told, she dreaded to be tested. to her it seemed like the final reminder that she was nothing special, average, merely an extra to someone other’s story. she even wished, she wouldn’t be a grisha, fearing that like her parents she’d belong to the lower ranks. however, if she turned out to be a simple human without any power, at least she’d be special within her family or could even try to make a story up that she was adopted or something ( i hate her -- ).

- however, the moment she found out about being able to alter people’s appearances with her ability *atla vc* everything changed - 

- truth to be told she knew she was considered to be lower rank among others but what really fueled her arrogance and the sudden feeling of self importance was her knowing that she possessed a rare ability. she didn’t care others treating her badly for her rank because “hey i can alter appearances and that is lit ( she probably didn’t say it that way - )

- ALSO ( here comes the moment i throw in my found family trope bcs i’m a soc hoe and this actually plays a big role in her story ) she’d found comfort in the friends she met.

- (lemme add my childhood friends trope bcs why not ) as vika was never close to her parents ( to be fair her being taken away for the training at such a young age did not really gave her the time to really bond with her family ) her little group of friends became her second family. they called themselves “blood is thicker water” ( gang ???) bcs 1) vika really thought the saying was blood is thicker water and not blood is thicker than water 2) they thought they were incredibly funny.

- they were pretty much known as troublemakers, especially with vika being a tailor it was easy to sometimes shift the blame on others. truth to be told, it only caused vika to be more frivolous. all the fun they had blinded her judgment and she viewed her ability as harmless.

- well, lets say vika becoming more reckless did not end up being the best character development (lmao). as usual , everything started out as a harmless joke. her friend asked her to change his appearance. however, this time they wanted her to change their whole face. not just the colour of their hair or eyes. vika was reluctant at first, she’d never done it before but in the end she agreed to it and much to her surprise she succeeded. she even bragged about it and told her friends ( of the bloody “blood is thicker water” gang (???) ) .

-  to cut a long story short, their friend ended up dying because of it. i have two versions for their death ( i haven’t decided on it yet *clown emoji*)

1) the person they changed their appearance into apparantly was involed in some shady stuff and had some pretty morally questionable people around him. they thought vika’s friends was that person they were looking for (bcs of the changed appearance) and killed them for some reason.

2) vika’s friend was supposed to be part of some mission they didn’t want to go to, thus changed their appearance to escape from it. however, ended up having to do another mission and ended up being killed. 

RIP nameless but vital character to vika’s bio 

- vika pretty much blamed herself for it and maybe her friends of their friend group as well. this incident also ‘humbled’ vika and now instead of being proud of it she hates it.

- right now, she doesn’t really know what to do with her future. she has this ‘oh so grand’ plan that one day she might be able to change her appearance (permanently) and then leave the little palace and live under a new name and lead a life where she wouldn’t need to use her abilities anymore.

personality ( i’m trying to keep it short i swear, i’m just adding a bunch of sentence here bcs i’m throwing all my ideas into this paragraph)

- she’s known to be pretty social. she loves to talk and honestly doesn’t know when to shut up. she can’t deal with silence because it forces her to think about things she doesn’t want to think about. although, her tongue is sharp and trouble seems to follow her, she also loves to dance around the issue, pushing her feelings away and replacing it with a witty joke instead. as if everyone does it the same way, as if everyone is supposed to understand. 

headcanons

- although she was tempted to change her own appearance many times. she never did because she is a coward and doesn’t trust her skills as much others might think she does.

- she views her ability as a form of art, perhaps that is also the reason she used to love to paint. honestly, she was never really good at it. average and above average with practice. her friend ( the dead one lmao ) used to paint with her whenever they could sneak away but with them gone, she doesn’t see a point in it anymore.

- she secretly envies the other grisha’s who can use their ability to fight. recently, she’d find herself trying to practice some punches so she doesn’t feel that useless in case of a dangerous situation. she also sucks at that so she’s probably in need of a training patner aka someone who is willing to train her or she has annoyed that much that they were willing to help her out ( wc ???)

- being personally trained by the darkling, one might assume that she’s loyal or even thankful towards the darkling. however, contrary is the case and she wouldn’t even grant him a dust particle of her trust. she doesn’t believe that he has the best interest of anyone in his heart and if she could, she’d probably spread rumors about him and telling others that he has some serious case of stanky breath.

wanted connections ( just some ideas, which can be changed ofc ! or some wcs can be connected ) 

(0/3) “blood is thicker water” friend group  : they pretty much grew up together. the death of their friend ( the friend needs a name - i swear...) caused tension within the group. while, one might have blamed vika for their death the other doesn’t and just wants them to be how they used to be. nevertheless, no one can deny that nothing was what it used to be). (( honestly these are just some ideas and we can plot wtv sddm )

training partner ( can be more than one ): connection mentioned in the hcs ! they help her a little out to become physically fit and level up her combat skills of -10. maybe they want something in return for it. help her out bcs they’re just nice or bcs vika annoyed the heck out of them etc.

person vika changed their friend’s appearance into: honestly we can do wtv with it. i just thought it’d be fun to play with the idea and having the person running around when they actually “died” and everyone belieed them to be dead until they found out that it was vika’s friend. might be angsty bcs it might remind vika of their friend.

angsty exes: listen, i love some angsty shit and i love to blame vika for all the problems. they might have dated before the whole dead friend fiasco happened. although, viktoriya acted as if she was fine after the incident ( which she wasn’t ),it only made muse a realize that vika and them weren’t as close as they believed and how much vika tied to hide from them.  BUT tbh anything would work i love a good angsty ex connection djddnd

random idea but i just liked the thought that this person once went to vika for some enhancing stuff. however, this day vika was not really herself, distracted, head in the clouds. so she accidenally might have gotten rid of some important scar or something.

enemies : lbr, vika might prbly be the type who has some enemies. she has no filter and might has stepped on someone toes because of it. (Also maybe gimme some enemies to lovers trope , adding this here quietly to not expose myself as a hoe for that trope )

HONESTLY GIVE ME EVERYTHING, gimme angst, fluff, tropes !!??? more friends, unusual friends, shippy stuff, platonic stuff, family connections djdsd GIMME 

[lesbian-vmin]

Why do you think Vmin are "allowed" these questionable (at least for those who ship them) moments? I find it curious that some things are really pushed to the front (jikook for sure), and then sometime we get the vmin moments and left to wonder are they real or fanservice? I really despise the thought that either Jimin/V/other members are doing this on purpose, because they genuinely seem authentic (as much as a celebrity can be on camera), 1/2

Honestly, the whole moment of Jimin saying that he didn’t keep in touch with his members at all was pretty weird. Jimin, since day one, has painted himself as someone who loves his members very much. He doesn’t want to be away from them for too long, and he seems more interested with collaborating with each one of them individually before moving onto people outside of his group. This might be why we don’t have him collaborating with other artists while Jungkook, Hoseok, Namjoon, and Yoongi have all done so. And of course BTS as a whole. (I don’t think Taehyung and Jin have? But I might be forgetting something) And Jimin has a great voice. There’s no reason anyone wouldn’t want to feature him in a song. So I’m sure there are people who want to collaborate with him, and I imagine he’s gotten offers. (This is relevant to the ask, I promise.) Although language barriers may be a reason (he might not be as comfortable collaborating with people he can’t communicate with well as some of the others are, excluding Namjoon (and maybe Jungkook is getting there) who is better at English.)

So we can look at this several ways. We can take Jimin at his very minimal word and assume that he didn’t communicate with his members at all during his vacation. In which case, I would assume that he took it as a very much needed break from them, and decided to focus on the time that he was able to spend with his family. Or, we can assume that not every word is 100% true. Maybe when he says he didn’t keep in contact, he doesn’t mean that he didn’t keep in contact at all. Maybe he messaged them once in a while to see how they were doing, but didn’t contact them regularly. Maybe he did keep in contact with them, but just wasn’t talking about his vacation. They could have talked about anything under the sun, but since they weren’t sharing vacation details, he may have counted that as not keeping in contact. Because people would question, “mm, if you guys were in contact regularly, why don’t you know details about each other’s vacations?” If they happen to be talking about something, and another member seems to not know the information. He didn’t want to give anyone a reason to question things like that. We can also wonder if he did, in fact, keep in contact with them, but he doesn’t want to share certain things about the members and his personal time. So he just told us that he didn’t stay in contact with them. I don’t know whether to take Jimin at his word for that specific moment, but I also don’t think it matters whether they stayed in contact or not. Even if the members are close and consider each other friends or family, they don’t have to remain in contact at all times. I don’t think it’s weird for friends to go on vacation (say, home for the holidays) and not talk to each other. In fact, it’s the truest friends that can come back after not speaking for a week to months at a time and act like normal (instead of being awkward each other). Act like no time was lost. (At least this is how I see it because it’s how I am with my friends. I don’t typically keep in regular contact with people who aren’t physically around me [I don’t text much, so unless someone like talking on the phone or video chatting, we probably wouldn’t stay in contact while apart] because I like to enjoy the company of those I am actually with. This might have been the case for them. It doesn’t mean they aren’t close or don’t care about each other.)

Disclaimer. This post may talk about topics that could offend easily offended people. If you are easily offended. Don’t read. You have been warned. Also I talk a lot about both Jikook and Vmin in here. Skip to the Vmin part if (for whatever reason) you don’t want to read about Jikook. But I’d rather you really read the whole post because this goes beyond shipping and focuses on them as people.

JIKOOK

The way Jikook is pushed to the front to me is actually one of the things that make me feel like they are fan service a lot of the times. (I’m not saying anything bad about Jikook because it’s pretty obvious that Jimin and Jungkook both adore each other and love being around each other, but they really are pushed quite hard and obviously.) I don’t know why that is. I don’t know the company’s reason behind pushing Jikook so hard, but I have at least one idea as to why they would do so (if they aren’t a couple). Because Jungkook is the “manliest” member of the group, and Jimin is the most “feminine.” You have Jungkook who is tall, broad, and strong. Then there’s Jimin who is small and cute, and he doesn’t try so hard to be manly these days. (I felt like he tried to present himself like a strong man in early debut because he didn’t want people to view him as the smallest and weakest member of the group, but it’s pretty clear that he became more confident in who he actually is over the years. And this is not a hint toward any gender-identity because I’m a firm believer that a man doesn’t have to fit the “masculine” spectrum to identify as a man. I feel like that’s leaning toward toxic masculinity).

Anyway, focusing on the Jikook thing, I think that’s why they get pushed forward a lot. And I hate to say that about Big Hit because it’s a bold statement to make, but it makes sense. They can easily look like a couple because it’s easy for people to imagine Jungkook as the “man” and Jimin as the “woman.” Since there are many shippers who ship for fetish reasons instead of gay right reason, these kinds of ships are likely to draw people in. It’s unfortunate, but it’s also true. Because of heteronormative culture.

The big moments between Jikook, like I said, often look like fan service to me. That being said, I’m not saying all of their moments are fan service. It just looks like interactions between them are more likely to be focused on during editing because of the reasons I’ve stated above. It might be something they aren’t aware of because it’s just editing their natural interactions to be the front and center focus of productions, but I think that’s what’s happening. And it kind of makes me feel bad for them because it’s like the company is making a show of their relationship (regardless of what kind it is). Even if they are in a real romantic relationship, I can assure that’s not why they are pushed to the center, and it’s far more likely it’s for marketing purposes. So, yes. I hate it for them, even if they are in a relationship together because it could be the company saying “look at these two. Aren’t they precious?” But it feels more like “Look at these two. Don’t they look like a “real” couple between a boy and a girl because Jungkook is oh so strong and Jimin is oh so dainty?” Even if Big Hit is LGBT friendly, it doens’t mean that they can’t do/say homophobic things (even unintentionally) or that they can’t market BTS for a heteronormative culture, and a culture that fetishizes gay people or uses being gay for entertainment. (Edit: and fantasizing.) I’m not saying it’s right for them to do so, because I don’t agree with it at all. And I’d hope that’s not the reality of it (because I really want for Big Hit to be different), but it seems like it sometimes.

Now before I get into the Vmin part, I’m going to share a disclaimer. Because I hope people don’t come at me after I’ve already admitted that it’s pretty obvious that Jikook are close and love each other. I’ve mentioned a potential romantic relationship between them, so I’m not dismissing them as the “real” couple (and I’m also, ffs, not saying there is a “real” couple between the two). I adore Jikook, and I wouldn’t even be sad if they were ever confirmed. So. Keep that in mind for this next part.

VMIN

I don’t want this to turn into a post of me comparing Jikook and Vmin, and I decided to answer this ask because I was sure that I could answer it with that intention in mind. So let’s see if I can do this right.

When it comes to Vmin, I feel like there are far less moments that can be chalked up to fan service. There are clear moments that are fan service, so I’m not saying Vmin don’t participate in that at all, but it seems like they do less than Jikook. (And I know this is a comparison right here, but I hope it doesn’t get taken the wrong way but) When Jikook does fan service, it’s so seemless and natural. When it comes to Vmin, it’s sometimes a little awkward, and they’re more shy. I don’t know what that means for the two different types of relationships, but I’m not getting into that (because then it becomes comparing the two in a way I don’t want to on this blog).

I think Big Hit chooses Vmin friendship moments to focus on because they know that people love their “platonic soulmate” dynamics. But, when it comes to “shippy” moments, these aren’t pushed forward as much. Because Taehyung isn’t broad and manly like Jungkook, so it probably seems a little too gay. And that’s not okay. It doesn’t sell as well as a couple that can be imagined as heterosexual. (And I also think this is why Jikook is the bigger ship, honestly.)

That’s it, and I know I didn’t address everything in this ask. And I’m sorry for that. But I tried to focus on what (I think) was the main point. And I wanted to make it about something very real rather than about ships.

So while I did, in fact, compare the two, I’m not comparing their “realness” or anything like that. I’m comparing their marketing value because I think that’s what it boils down to when we get to see what we see. And if anyone comes at me for my comparison on a personal shipping level, you will be ignored because that’s not what this is about. And if you can’t get that from what I’ve said thus far, then you aren’t reading my words and heart correctly.

I do want to talk really quickly about them faking it, and I’m going to focus on Vmin for this because it’s a Vmin blog. I don’t think they fake it. Because some moments are so subtle that they’re clearly trying to be hidden, and some are so natural that they clearly weren’t thinking about it too much. That aside, I don’t think they would fake their close bond. When Jimin wrote a song and was told that he would sing it with Taehyung, he didn’t have to make Friends. He could have made the song about anything he wanted, and we would have taken it with just as much enthusiasm. It was his choice to make friends, and I believe he put his heart into that song. Since it was the first song he ever had part in for an album, it’d be pretty disrespectful to claim that he’s just trying to save face or not being honest in it. And I know a song could be chalked up to how well it sells, but I think that’s for the company to worry about, but as an artist myself, I know that your heart and soul goes into anything you create. And I just don’t feel right about blatantly disregarding a personal song, so yes. It’s one of my main arguments why Vmin are obviously, honestly, close and care about each other. And I will stand by that forever.

EDIT: All right. I went through this post and personally cherry picked the things I wanted you guys to focus on when reading instead of you doing it yourself. Because you’re hung up about the fact that I mentioned that Jikook has fan severice moments (even though I said the same thing about Vmin), so you’re clearly cherry picking, not reading the whole damn post, or getting hung about the fan service instead of focusing on my main fucking point. I NEVER said they weren’t close. In fact, I took the TIME to put a DISCLAIMER stating that it’s PRETTY OBVIOUS that they’re close, and that they genuinely like spending time together. I get that I said “Vmin has less fan service moments” or whatever. Let me clarify: What I meant was that it’s the EDITING and the fact that they FOCUS SO HARD on jikook that makes a lot of their moments feel like fan service. There’s no shortage of Jikook moments, and it’s NOT because Jikook are the only ones with moments, it’s because they’re the ones that make the cut most often. And I stated the reasons why I think that is. I literally even explained the thing about the editing and said, “It might be something they aren’t aware of because it’s just editing their natural interactions to be the front and center focus of productions,” but sure. Dismiss whichever statements you want. Because clearly you get to decide what I mean instead of me. Also, “So, yes. I hate it for them, even if they are in a relationship together because it could be the company saying “look at these two. Aren’t they precious?” But it feels more like “Look at these two. Don’t they look like a “real” couple between a boy and a girl”

And, in case it’s not clear from how I talked about their relationship here, I am, in fact, a Jikook shipper, too. I stated at least TWICE in here that I wasn’t trying to dismiss the realness of them. And I talked about how shitty it is for the company to use their relationship (if real) for marketing. And unless they’re ever confirmed, that’s what they’re doing. It’s marketing. Because if the company wanted people to care about their real relationship, they would let them come out. And that is NOT me dismissing the fact that they could be in a real relationship. If you can’t tell from what I’ve just written right here, I’ll clarify by repeating what I’ve already said in the post. Because if the are in a real relationship, I can guarantee you that is not why they get pushed so hard or shown the most. It’s because their masculine/feminine vibes are marketable. There are Jikookers, LIKE ME, who ship them because they like Jikook. But you can’t deny that there are a lot of Jikookers who ship them because they’re a straight girl in love with Jungkook and imagine herself in Jimin’s place because it’s easy to see. If you are one of the real Jikookers that ship them for their actual relationship and would LOVE it if they were ever confirmed, then fine. That’s not about you. But you have to admit that there are a LOT of shippers out there (not just Jikook) that ship them with guys because they don’t want them to end up with another girl that’s not the fan doing the shipping. Yet they still would be upset if they were ever confirmed because then it means they’re actually gay.

I love Jikook, and this post wasn’t intended to dismiss their relationship or bring it down. And I’d say I’m sorry if that’s the impression you got from it, but if you’d actually read and not choose which parts to focus on, you wouldn’t have gotten that impression. I just hate it that you guys got that impression because I do genuinely like Jikook. As much as Vmin, honestly. I was focusing on how the company treats the two ships, but sure. Dismiss every time I’ve drawn the post back to that point.

[the-currian]

Ok, so I feel like Kazunari and Tenma also have a crush on Izumi. Are there any boys other than Masumi and Sakyo that like her? A lot of things are hinted

Anon, let me tell you, this game is a freaking reverse harem; therefore the only acceptable answer is that everyone is attracted to Izumi to some extent sksksksk

I can’t say about the rookies bc I don’t follow the JP server that closely, but this is my personal opinion on how each troupe views Izumi. Feel free to disagree! Also I’d like to clarify that this does not reflect who I ship Izumi with.

Mankai’s Relationships with Izumi:

Spring Troupe:

Sakuya Sakuma: Admires Izumi for her tenacity and passion for theater. Deeply grateful for the opportunity she created for him by keeping the Mankai company alive. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Masumi Usui: Does this boy even need an explanation. Infatuated with the director; probably sees something in Izumi that draws him to her, might have something to do with his family issues. Still an immature bb tho and probably doesn’t have a good grip on how romantic relationships are supposed to work. Nonetheless, the attraction is real. Verdict: Views Izumi romantically

Tsuzuru Minagi: More or less same as Sakuya. Although there have been some instances where Tsuzuru has made some comments about Izumi, they can be interpreted loosely - I personally view it as friendly flirting. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Itaru Chigasaki: I’m kinda iffy on this one. I think that the potential is there, but I don’t think that Itaru is ready to fully commit to a serious relationship. He’s appreciative of how Izumi understands the real him, and since their ages aren’t that far apart, he's comfortable around her. As such, he teasingly flirts with her because it’s in his personality. I realllyyyy want to say he views her romantically, but ultimately, I think a serious romance is far off from Itaru’s thoughts. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Citron: More or less same as Itaru. But he has the factor of being a foreigner. Like Itaru, I think the potential is there, but Citron is also has other things on his mind and isn’t looking for a serious relationship. The attraction is there, though! Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Summer Troupe:

Tenma Sumeragi: Yep, I agree! It’s strongly hinted that he has a crush on Izumi. This probably stems from the fact that she was the one who supported him when he was vulnerable, and helped him overcome his weaknesses. I don’t approve though bc age disparity. Verdict: Views Izumi romantically

Yuki Rurikawa: I can’t recall any shippy moments between them? I view their relationship as a platonic, sibling-like one. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Muku Sakisaka: He’s admitted that he thinks that Izumi is attractive but I think it’s more of a fact to him than an opinion, if you get what I mean? He like acknowledges that she is an attractive woman, but he himself is not romantically attracted to her. Heck, he ships her with other members. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Misumi Ikaruga: Also iffy for me. In general, Misumi is a very affectionate person. He definitely likes Izumi, so she is also subject to his affections. Are they romantic affections, though? I’m not so sure. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Kazunari Miyoshi: I definitely think he’s attracted to her. Not sure how deep it goes, but there have been multiple instances that hint that he likes Izumi. Izumi often shoots him down, but I do believe that his intentions are genuine - it’s just that his personality makes it seem like he isn’t, and he isn’t the type to let it affect him too much. Verdict: Views Izumi romantically

Autumn Troupe:

Banri Settsu: Yep! It’s also been strongly hinted that Banri is attracted to Izumi. In various backstage stories he’s been shown to be jealous of other members when they interact with Izumi, and he tries to show off in front of her. Verdict: Views Izumi romantically

Juza Hyodo: Mmmmm kinda iffy? Like some other members, he definitely holds a deep admiration and appreciation for Izumi due to the opportunity she gave them. But there are also some moments that make me think that he could possibly have a crush on her, but he hasn’t realized it yet. But ultimately, I don’t think so. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Taichi Nanao: More or less same as Tenma. Is more upfront about it though, similar to Kazunari. The age disparity, though, hmmmmm. Verdict: Views Izumi romantically

Omi Fushimi: Whether he realizes it or not, I think he is attracted to Izumi. Many of his backstories show him opening up to Izumi, being protective of her, complimenting her, etc. He’s also quite flirty with her, too. But idk, there’s this vibe that I get from him that makes it seem like he’s holding himself back? Anyway... Verdict: Views Izumi romantically

Sakyo Furuichi: The biggest simp of them all. ngl kinda hard to elaborate on this bc it’s so painfully obvious and it just makes sense. Definitely. Yes. Their history? Their interactions? *chef’s kiss* Verdict: Views Izumi romantically

Winter Troupe:

Tsumugi Tsukioka: My gut tells me yes! There are some backstories that hint at it - he becomes quite bashful and blushy around the director. There’s this one that I can’t quite remember clearly, but it had something to do with flower language and my heart was just - uwu. Verdict: Views Izumi romantically

Tasuku Takato: Too much of a theater junkie to focus on romantic relationships. I don’t even mean this in a joking manner - I vaguely remember Tasuku saying something about him being completely focused on his acting. That being said, he does like to playfully tease Izumi - it probably comes with being around the same age and living in close quarters - but yeah, nothing serious. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Hisoka Mikage: More or less like Citron, I think. The potential is there, but Hisoka has more pressing matters to focus on besides romance. He’s too deep in his own issues to actively pursue a romantic relationship. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Homare Arisugawa: Now, this may seem a bit controversial, but I personally believe that Homare is one of the least invested members in the company. For him, it’s another way to express his artistry. Yes, he does have meaningful relationships with the members of the company, but I feel like he’s one of the members that is least in it for the sake of passion for theater. Their relationship is more of a working/colleagues/friends one - I really don’t see the two in a romantic light. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically

Azuma Yukishiro: More or less same as Itaru, but with more angst. I think he’s attracted to Izumi. There is potential. But I feel like Azuma tends to distance himself from more serious relationships? He has personal issues that he needs to overcome first. But he does enjoy playfully teasing Izumi - the whole company, really - he just has a flirtatious nature in general. Verdict: Views Izumi platonically.

--

And those are my opinions! Feel free to share your thoughts!

Thanks for the ask, anon! This was really fun to think about and analyze. I think that this is kinda telling about how I go about writing my fics ahahaha so I hope you enjoyed the glimpse of my thought process.

- Jen

[exhaustedfander]

I had an idea for a fic request^^ What about Roman and Logan, both being frustrated and sad over all after the whole wedding debacle and venting to each other to then decide they just leave the others to themselves and go hide in the Imagination(maybe in a castel they make). The others then have to try to get them back and shenenigans ensue^^ (If that's too long that's okay and I don't care if you make it shippy or keep it platonic) Anyway, I love your writing and please have a great day❤️

Hey, so this request is probably my favorite that I’ve ever received and I was having a lot of fun writing it but, big shock, this is gonna need to be split off into at least a couple parts. I want to get it right, and I feel breaking it up will allow me to do so. Logince was one of my first major ships in the Sanders Sides fandom, so it’s a lot of fun to return to it (even though it’s well known I’m a major intrulogical stan). I’d love to hear what you think of this first part, and thanks for the awesome Request, Mim! 

A03 link

Word Count: 2,320

Hideaway: Chapter One

Roman paces the floor of his room, hands threaded in his frazzled hair. It doesn’t make any sense! Thomas had taken Jan-Deceit’s side, disregarding any of his hesitations. He didn’t think he was the bad guy anymore. And Roman… for so long, he was sure that he was Thomas’s hero. But now? What can he believe anymore?

Roman stiffens when he hears a knock on his door, the pit in his stomach expanding when he realizes tears have begun to slip down his cheeks.

“I’m – uh, I’m busy!” Roman says, cursing the way his voice cracks. If their wise, whoever’s on the other side of the door will leave well enough alone. But then, a voice pipes up.

“Roman… may I come in?” Logan.

Right now, Roman would be prepared to send anyone else away without much of a second thought. But Logan isn’t anyone else, and there’s a raw, strangely quiet quality to his voice that can’t help but make Roman’s heart pang.

“I – maybe it would be best, if you came back later,” Roman says, furiously wiping the tears from his eyes.

“Please,” Logan says, so gentle it’s nearly a whisper, “Please let me in.” Roman couldn’t place it a moment ago, but now he’s identified the strangeness in Logan’s: it’s fear. And while Roman’s body is wracked with shivers, and the tears are slipping down his cheeks despite his will to just stop being so fucking sensitive, he opens the door.

“Listen, Logan now’s not really…” Roman trails off, seeing the broken look in Logan’s eyes. “Oh,” he says because it’s the only word that comes to mind, despite all the other things he wants to express. He steps aside, allowing Logan to walk into the room and shut the door behind him.

“You’re crying,” Logan notes, and there’s a fearful tremor in his voice.

Roman’s gaze flickers to the wall, his hand once again whipping at his eyes, wishing he could stop, praying he’ll be able to turn everything off, for just a moment, and breathe. Such desires are nothing but a fairytale, though, and they have been since the wedding and the horrible conversation that followed.

“No, really?” Roman asks, sarcasm thick and bitter.

He doesn’t want to act this way; he wants to comfort Logan through whatever it is he’s clearly dealing with. He wants to put on a brave face, the way Patton used to do (But that isn’t healthy. Does it matter?) He wants to prove to Thomas that he’s made the wrong decision, that Deceit isn’t to be trusted and that Roman can still be his hero. That he still deservestheir love.

But all he can manage is resentment.  

“I’m sorry,” Roman mumbles, his eyes still cast away from Logan’s prying gaze, “I – I don’t. I’m not trying to be… What was it that you needed?” Roman doesn’t mean to trail off and lose all semblance of what he was trying to say (not that he’s sure what that exactly was), but it happens nonetheless, and it seems he’s made a friend in deflection and distraction.

“I came to speak with you,” Logan says, his voice searching, begging to be let in, but Roman won’t let him, not like this, “After everything that’s happened… the wedding, and… and Janus.” Logan seems to struggle slightly through the name, but the Virgil-Esque growl that Roman delivers in response is telling of his feelings on the matter.

“Deceit mascaraed as you!” Roman shouts, his hands held in the air, “Again! And Thomas sided with him! For the love of Disney; Patton sided with him! Patton thinks, he thinks…”

Roman can’t even bear to face what it is that Patton thinks. That Deceit is worthy of a second chance? That he deserves a seat at the table? It was too upsetting to think about, not without getting worked up to a point of no return. And Roman is already dangerously close to that.  

“He did,” Logan agrees, distaste palpable, “He assumed my identity, once again, and… you all were none the wiser.” The words hang heavy in the air, tension electrified and unsteady.

“Well, he’s – he’s a master manipulator! Cut us a little slack here, Teach! We didn’t – if we’d known, we would’ve done something! I would’ve done something, I-I swear. I just…” Roman collapses onto his ornate bed, his head in his hands. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to protect you, o-or Patton, or even Thomas from him. I tried, but… I wasn’t strong enough.” Roman sniffles, fresh tears clouding his vision. “Maybe you should leave.”

“Roman,” Logan says hesitantly, his voice so much gentler than usual. Roman shivers as he feels a dip in the mattress and a hand settle onto the small of his back, the action stiff but still expressing the intent of comfort. “It isn’t your job to ‘protect’ us from Janus, or anyone else, for that matter. I came here because… I was concerned, after what transpired. I was informed that you sunk out after a rather terse point in the conversation, and I thought it best to check-in.”

“I’m fine,” Roman says, despite the fact that his hands are still covering his face and he’s begun to tremble under Logan’s touch, “It’s just… a lot to process. But I’m alright. You don’t – you don’t need to be here.”

“Falsehood,” Logan says, and Roman can’t bear to hear him say that, “Roman… I know you wanted that callback a tremendous amount.” “Y-you don’t –.”

“I do,” Logan says sadly, “I’m not trying to make things more difficult for you, please, understand that is by no means my intention. But you’re going through a lot, emotionally. Feelings are by no means my area of expertise but…” Logan trails off, nearly losing his nerve before he pushes forward, rubbing slow circles into Roman’s back, “… I’m here. I’m here to talk about whatever it is you need to talk about, or to –.”

Logan gasps as Roman turns around and pitches himself forward, pushing them both down into the mattress as he winds his arms around the logical side, his face buried in Logan’s shoulder. Logan struggles for a moment, with Roman lying on top of him and soaking his polo with tears, but quickly he readjusts and resumes rubbing circles into the princely side’s back.

He doesn’t quite know what he’s doing. Emotions are a tricky thing, especially the intense, soberingly sad ones, but Logan is fairly sure he’s behaving as he should. He’s whispering words of comfort and reassurance (words he can’t be sure are true or not), and holding him close, and allowing Roman to ‘cry it out.’ He’s heard emotional release is very important, and by the looks of things, Roman’s been in dire need of it for some time.

He tries not to think about the fact that Janus yanked him from the discussion by his crook, or that his low-downs had been ignored, or that a great deal of his advice has been pushed to the wayside for some time now, or –

“Logan?” Roman sniffles, interrupting Logan’s frantic thoughts and oh, he must’ve stopped rubbing Roman’s back, his hand having gone uncomfortably still.

“My apologies,” Logan mutters, “I suppose I was, uh, figuratively lost in thought for a moment there.”

“What is it?” Roman asks, pushing himself into a seated position. There are still tear-tracks on his face, and his skin is rather flushed, but suddenly, all of his attention has been directed to Logan. And Logan doesn’t know if he likes it.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’re upset,” Roman says, “What’s the matter?”

“We’re focusing on you right now,” Logan urges, “We’re talking about how you’re feeling at the moment, Roman.”

“Well, I want to know how you’re feeling.”

Roman fails to mention the fact that he’s mind-numbingly embarrassed for having sobbed into Logan’s shirt for so long and breaking down to a point where it feels as though the same fate is imminent to repeat. He’s failed so severely, made so many wrong choices. It feels like everyone’s flipped the script on him. At the trial, Roman was chastised for so much as considering Deceit’s point of view, but now? Now it seems he’s the villain for not seeing eye to eye with the snake. He’s always tried to do everything he can, to live up to the expectations he’s woven for himself, and what he believes the others assume he’s capable of… but he’s failed. How is it that the hero can take such a fall from grace? Was he ever a hero at all?

“Roman…”

“Please, Logan,” Roman says, just edging on begging, “Indulge me. What’s going on in that brain of yours?”

Logan gives Roman a quizzical look, studying him for cracks in his slipping composure, before letting out a sigh.

“Believe it or not,” Logan begins, crossing his arms over his chest, “The decision to go to the wedding, and the events that have followed have been… less than ideal for me.” Roman tilts his head.

“But I thought you were impartial to either decision? At the trial –.”

“The callback was a rare opportunity,” Logan says simply, hoping, foolishly, that Roman won’t prod any further, “One that is unlikely to reappear. In terms of Thomas’s career…” Logan trails off, seeing the look of hurt flash in Roman’s eyes.

“Don’t remind me.”

“Additionally,” Logan says, fiddling with his tie, “I’ve found that lately, my advice has been… discarded, to some extent. It’s been made explicitly clear that my company is not always desired, and it seems, I’m having a little trouble accepting that.” Logan stiffens when he catches sight of the look in Roman’s eyes and, oh dear, it appears Roman’s portraying a great deal of emotions that Logan has no idea how to deal with.

“Logan…”

“I’m not trying to upset you,” Logan says, “I’m merely explaining what you asked of me.”

“We want you around,” Roman says, his hand reaching out to touch Logan’s, “I want you around. I know we have our disagreements – quite a bit of disagreement, really. But I want you, Logan and, for the record… I’m sorry.” A shiver runs down his back as Roman laces their fingers together, the touch overwhelmingly tender.

“What are you apologizing for?”

“For making you feel unwanted,” Roman says, “I’ve gotten so lost in what I want for Thomas, and what Patton says is morally right. And now – well, now everything’s so much. But I am sorry.” Logan wasn’t expecting an apology, or the warm sensation of Roman’s hand in his, buy both things provoke feelings in him that he cannot comprehend.

“I’m sure the others will be wondering where we are soon,” Logan notes, pulling his hand away. Roman frowns. But then, his expression changes and Logan doesn’t quite trust that look in his eyes.

“What if… what if we went somewhere for a while?”

“What’re you talking about?”

“You and me,” Roman says, standing up, his face lighting up with a look of hope Logan can’t account for, “What if we went away? Took a break from all chaos and expectations,” the last word comes out just a whisper, sorrow tinting it.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Logan says, still trying to make sense of Roman’s sudden energetic outburst, “Where would we go? Where could we go? Furthermore, how could we go? I don’t think I need to be the one to remind you that we have a job to do, Roman. We cannot leave our posts, regardless of personal issues.”

“The Imagination,” Roman says, as if the explanation clears much up for the logical side, “I have somewhere we can go. Just for a little bit! We wouldn’t be gone for more than a day if that! Just a little time to take the edge off, to breathe. Aren’t you tired, Logan? Aren’t you exhausted?”

“I –,” Logan pauses, shuddering under the intensity of Roman’s gaze, “I’m not sure about this.”

“Oh, come on, nerd,” Roman says, grabbing hold of Logan’s arm and pulling him to his feet, “Come with me. I promise, whatever you want to talk about, I’ll listen. You can catalog the flora and fauna of The Imagination! Oh, I’ll show you everything. You’re going to love it! Please, come with me. Take a break. I don’t want to be alone.”

Roman doesn’t bring himself to say, “can’t be alone,” but Logan picks it up regardless. Roman is at the end of his tether in so many ways; it would be wrong to leave him on his own now. Dangerous, even. And despite the building hesitations, the idea of some time for themselves, if only for a little while, is more appealing than it ought to be.

“Just for a little while?” Logan asks carefully. Roman nods up and down quickly.

“I promise! A-are you coming?” The desperation that takes hold of Roman’s voice is devastating. Logan doesn’t know how he could tell him no, at least not now. Logan nods.

“I am. I’ll come.” Logan stiffens as Roman throws his arms around him, once again pulling him into a suffocating tight embrace, though Logan isn’t sure he’s entirely opposed to such a thing.

“Then let’s not waste any more time,” Roma says, taking Logan’s hand, “Let’s go.”

A more rational, composed part of Logan is screaming at him that this is a terrible idea that can only end poorly. Roman’s in an incredibly fraught mental state (Logan’s not sure if he’s much better) and leaving the problem isn’t going to magically fix it. Logan should have better sense than to agree to something like this but… he doesn’t. Not when he’s been so tired for so long, not when Roman’s offering him salvation, not when all he wants is a little peace.

And so, Logan allows Roman to lead him through a door and into The Imagination, foolish curiosity outweighing reason.

=+=

Taglist:

@nadiestar 

@unoriginalgayboyalex 

@maryann-draws

@bella-in-a-bag

@igonnatalknothing 

@elizabutgayer 

Let me know if you wanna be added to my taglist! 

[vortexparadox]

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