#haven't answered in a while (haven't done much of anything regarding The Army

[fennaboysenberry]

Fen would probably start by yelling from the sidelines, and when she realises that isn't working, she'd most likely resort to rushing forward and grabbing at her arm, trying to pull her back. if that doesn't work (which is likely - Korey's probs too strong to budge) Fen would shield Korey's from whoever she's fighting

and if THAT doesn't work, she'll genuinely start throwing hands (both Korey and her opponent, take your pick lmao)

Hehe I'm working on a lil smt smt rn :3 it MIGHT turn into a lil animation too! So have these scrapped drawings I made!

Point is- drawing these made me think of a lil scenario :D! I might have asked this before, but oh well-

How would your bug react to Korey getting into seriously big fights, like full on gang fighting (btw, she does this every fucking week. Her ass is an instigator)

She's very good at fighting, but there are times when she's too exhausted to focus on the fight and losing in the process.

This is one of those situations, and Korey's about to get her ass stabbed-

And! How would they be after the fight? Would they lecture her? (Telling u rn, yell at her all you want but she is NOT stopping)

@willowve01 @asmrbrainrot @iistxrmyskyii @astralbulldragon13 @kaiamtt @stxph-artist @aspenm00n @fangsshadow @keyaartz @rustycopper4use @piffany666 @idontevenknow7878 @lunaritychuwolf @littlesiren79 @castbracelet240 @strayharmony943 @wilderrorcard @tiefling-chaos @diamondzoey @fennaboysenberry @lightdragon789 @pinkcocopuff-aqualoid @not-5-rats @itsargyle

Anyways ima go put my ass to sleep-

[t1meslayer]

Trying something a little different today.

Inspired by the incomparable @alchemicallymoon, I'm going to do a postmortem commentary on my latest fanfiction. If you haven't read "Stone-Cold Lovers" Chapter 3 on AO3, now's your chance!

I've done similar things in the past, with my Pre-Preparation of Shiver post for "Splatoon B-Mix," but I'm really testing the waters to make this a more regular occurrence — possibly even going back to older works. If you enjoy, let me know!

Tons of rambling beneath the cut. You've been warned <3

Alright. I can't think of any better place to begin talking about "Stone-Cold Lovers" than to mention it's a classic piece (in the era sense, though also in the literary sense). I started publishing fanfic in 2019, right around the time I was graduating from college. A bunch of pieces I wrote are still exclusively available on FanFiction.net, but I've slowly been transitioning them with a fresh coat of paint.

"Stone-Cold Lovers" was the sixth story I published on FanFiction. As I mentioned in Chapter 1 of the AO3 version, it came back to mind after Pokemon Masters EX introduced a Halloween alt for Roxanne.

Pokemon Crystal was my first "real" video game (not counting educational content like Sesame Street games), but Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire began my infatuation with the series. This was partially due to the fact that I could read the text on my own, which meant I could keep replaying to do little challenge runs.

===

Fun Fact: One of the most prominent challenge runs I can recall involved catching a full team of Wingull. I named the Pelipper of my team "Sergeant," and the rest had other army designations. I would later copy this idea using shiny Ambipom and Aipom in HeartGold and SoulSilver that I obtained through entirely legal means for a rare item Pickup group.

===

More Fun Fact: My favorite challenge run to this day is completing Pokemon FireRed with a single Clefable. I always really liked how many TMs a single Clefable could learn.

===

All of that is to say I seared Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald into my brain by playing it all the time on the schoolyard and at my grandparents' house in Florida. It remains my favorite region to this day. However, I didn't fall in love with Roxanne until the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire character designs came out.

Important note: I have shipping charts for basically every character-heavy... Anything. Something about pairing people up always makes my brain go brr. My body of creative writing speaks to many of the headcanons I've whipped up over the years. Similarly, I have headcanons about which Pokemon protag serves as the "main character" or "rival" in each title.

Yes, you can ask about my opinions. I will undoubtedly answer.

Brendan and Roxanne came into this framework because as much as I also love Brendan and May, I quickly fell into the rabbit hole of Brendan Champion/May Contest Idol, and therefore I'm legally obligated to ship May and Lisia. My original FanFiction Author Note says I'd been thinking about the idea for "a while," but frankly I don't remember where exactly it originated. All I know is that my goal was May scolding Brendan for being an oblivious dope.

This is not autobiographical.

As far as I know.

My truest sense-memory regarding this piece is writing the Rustboro opening in a Barnes & Noble parking lot at night, on the same night that I scored a new freelance gig (it didn't last all too long in the end). However, I helpfully noted that the Brendan and May banter was inspired by a FanFiction story called "Critical Hit" by Alphinia (it's still live!) and Carly Chaikin's Darlene from Mr. Robot. That was ending in 2019. Pokemon Sword and Shield were about to come out. The timeline lines up.

It's also very funny to imagine May as a raunchy, tomboyish smartass who also happens to love the fame that comes with princess-y Pokemon Contest shenanigans. Good headcanon.

The seeds of an idea for a date follow-up existed back then. My first inkling was to do a scene where, essentially, Brendan fucks the whole thing up by using Sandstorm in the middle of a food court because he's trying to impress Roxanne. Most of the set dressing around that, such as using ORAS' Street Thug trainer class (here portrayed by Shio — after ramen to reference the naming scheme of every trainer in Mauville Food Court), came later.

===

Fun Fact (again): This is the first piece I've written using a new program called StimuWrite by Eve Harms, which was suggested by my beta reader. I liked being able to put my brain somewhere other than a blank white page, though all of the extra bells and whistles aren't all that necessary for me. Plus, I wound up jumping back-and-forth between the page and my 20 tabs of research anyway, so...

We'll see where this tool lands.

===

A lot of my decisions regarding the style of "Stone-Cold Lovers" Chapter 3 were based on concurrent reading; I recently joined a book club, and we just finished Babel by R.F. Kuang. My experience with Zine editors such as @kiliofdurinsline (Shrapnel) on Homemade in Hyrule (still available to pre-order!!!) helped me focus on creative writing structure and clarity rather than the more "vibes" based approach I leaned on. But Babel's rich descriptions suggested that I perhaps moved too far in the direction of snippets. So, here I tried to more robust scene-setting.

The bit about Gardevoir reading Brendan's emotions is being back on my bullshit trying to capture "vibes," though. I'm often a proponent for Psychic-types having full telepathy, especially Gardevoir given its canon emotional connections, but I decided the silent implications were more fun to play. I'm also a big proponent of leaning into the medium by using all of AO3's formatting HTML for things like Gardevoir's text. Hence my abundance of italics, or even the House of Leaves-style page falling apart for Arven's nightmare in "Paradiso."

Another note from Shrapnel that I took to heart: Give each character a stable of description types to help them emphasize their personality. That's why Gardevoir's movements use ballet terms (many of which I had to look up, like "bras bas").

One bit that I thought about a lot was Roxanne's response to weather talk. I knew that she should flirt by saying any weather would be great alongside Brendan, and the verbiage "would that it were" stuck. A bit of Googling revealed that the phrase doesn't mean what my brain thought it does — it actually refers to wanting a better reality than you currently have. But it rolls off the tongue... So, I decided to play with that disparity by having know-it-all Roxanne correct her old professor, even when recounting a heartfelt memory.

Also, I'd be lying to you if I said goofy teenager who can't speak French wasn't an integral part of my planning.

The battle scene is pretty straightforward, it was mostly fun to incorporate the idea of Brendan being over-leveled by having him immediately wipe the floor with this tough guy, Shio. This especially goes well with the Mauville Food Court gimmick of finishing your battles within set time limits. Hopefully little descriptors like the space-warping Boomburst help make up for how short it is.

But with all of that said, there's only one place left to go:

Roxanne's outfit

That's right! Brendan wears his contest attire, but Roxanne wears an entirely unique creation. I did something very similar to my experiments with Shiver by digging around Tumblr tags for specific outfit pieces to cobble together as part of Roxanne's preppy and academic wardrobe.

I essentially wanted to put Roxanne in an "elevated" version of her typical uniform. For example, something with a nicer blouse. When I saw this post by stiefel-rock-bluse, I knew it was the one. That ruffled 'V' is perfectly suited for comparisons to a fossilized ribcage.

Had to tuck that blouse into a nice skirt, too. I did toy with the idea of going full suit-style with slacks, but Roxanne feels like a skirt girl to me. So I settled on this pleated skirt shared by zoesrepository, at least in-part because I wanted a brown-and-white motif to reflect... Rock stuff.

Having exposed legs also introduced the opportunity to describe a bit of Roxanne's obsession with fossils. If I get callouses on my hands from doing ceramics, she can have some scuffs on her legs from digging in the dirt.

My inspiration for her off-the-shoulder draped jacket is largely me doing silly cape shenanigans with my jackets, but for the style I went with this cover image from an article by The Girl From Panama:

In brown, of course. That really emphasizes the idea that it looks like strata.

Because rocks.

Unrelated to rocks, I was originally toying with a different idea for her jacket, one based on this image of Kendall Jenner uploaded by disarmluna:

Ultimately I liked the draped idea better, but I kept on the idea of it being corduroy. Also, I took Roxanne's "loafers" from here.

For accessories, I riffed on one of my favorite pieces of lore introduced by Pokemon Masters EX: the idea that Steven Stone is in a club with all of the Rock-type experts who love collecting shiny rocks. Steven knows how to give some specialized gifts, and in this case I gave Roxanne a single earring, as shared by gemville, because 1) red; 2) flowers; and 3) stalactite. I went with one rather than a pair because I think it's a cute asymmetrical thing.

Then, of course, I imagine her nails alternate blue and red ala Nosepass/Probopass. Finally, Roxanne's elevated school uniform look had to retain a tie. What better way to keep that tie in place than with a clip inspired by the one, the only, our boy: Anorith.

If the Yanma inhaler from "Peaks and Caverns" is anything to go by, y'all know I love to invent kitschy merchandise that will unfortunately never be acknowledged by Game Freak/The Pokemon Company.

===

That's about all I've got. I'm not sure whether I'll return to this story again — the five-year pipe dream is already a big accomplishment in my book. But I'm really glad I finally closed the book on a longstanding idea in celebration of Valentine's Day! And I'm sure one day, if I can get through the rest of my insane backlog, I'd be happy to write further shenanigans between these two Hoenn lovebirds.

[givemethatgold]

Fix’er Upper Pt. 5

Pairing: Frankie Morales x F!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of past abusive relationship, swearing, past drug use, alcohol

Word Count: 1.8k

Notes:

Parts ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR

Your injury, and consequential recovery time, couldn’t have come at a better time. The harvest was done and the apples had to rest before being pressed, which meant Frankie was now free to start working on your home. The work didn’t often require more than two hands so the days found you doing menial tasks being his gopher.

“You know,” Frankie had had to explain to you, “Go’fer this, go’fer that.”

This mainly consisted of you passing him tools while he was swearing under his breath in the attic, or groaning after rapping his knuckles under the sink, or white-faced and clinging to the weathervane on the roof. 

You had discovered Frankie’s sweet tooth on the first day of renovations, not noticing until after he’d left for the day that more than half the cookies you’d baked that morning were already gone. Making sure he was kept happy, you had a new treat ready for when he walked in the door. 

He was a coffee drinker though, and while you owned a coffee press you had never actually used it yourself, preferring tea leaves for your dose of caffeine. You’d tried, the first morning, to make a cup for him. You even googled How to Make a Cup of Coffee? to make sure you didn’t fuck it up. 

You could laugh about it now, but the look on Frankie’s face after he’d taken his first sip made you worry you had poisoned him. He had spat the black sludge out and handed you back the mug with a look of bewildered disgust. Apparently, you needed to grind the beans first, who knew?

An efficient, if not quite comfortable, rhythm had been forged between the two of you over the past week and a half. Frankie would arrive at nine in the morning, scarf down half a dozen treats while discussing the day’s projects. You would run to town in his truck (yours was still at the autobody shop awaiting parts) and buy any supplies that would be needed while he set up the worksites and organized the tools that would be required.

You had added popping into the local café for a large coffee for Frankie and a red rooibos latte with almond milk for yourself. The first couple of days you had bought him a brownie too but stopped after he’d only half-finished the first one and mumbled through the crumbs in his mouth that yours were better. It only took you three days before the owner had your order ready for you before you even walked in the door, five days before you noticed the sidelong glances the little old ladies were giving each other as you walked out.

Small towns, you thought to yourself, rolling your eyes, had the unique benefit and downfall of everyone knowing everyone else’s business. They’d quit with the hardly-concealed smirks if they knew how awkward working with Frankie was becoming.

You had been sure, in the immediate aftermath of waking up in Frankie’s arms while his truck sat in your driveway, that he was never going to speak to you again. The two of you and hopped out and began explaining away whatever conclusions Jacquie and Mark had made. Then Frankie, without even looking in your general direction, told Jacquie to get you inside and have your wrist looked at. 

To his credit, he had taken care of everything regarding your truck for you. The tow truck came and hauled it to the yard, Frankie had commandeered the inspection report and, after calling them out on trying to swindle you into buying unnecessary parts, had ordered what was needed and paid. 

You had, naturally, argued against this but you both knew you weren’t in a position to afford it. Frankie shut down your arguments gracefully, and broke his apparent vow of silence, with a gruff “I’m just doing it so I can drive my damn truck without you changing the radio station.” The absolute charmer.

It was your damn house, though, so you decided you'd talk as much as you wanted and it would be up to him to interact. Either that or you had music blaring from the radio, never playing his favourite country station purely out of spite. 

Never quite sure if he was listening or not, you rambled on about anything and everything. You explained your vision for the house and the plans you had for a greenhouse in the yard. Memories from your childhood were described in great detail, as were embarrassing stories from your year in college. Baking tips, waxing poetic about your love for sunflowers, interesting animal facts, you'd even downloaded a Word of the Day App and made a game of fitting the words into your daily uninterrupted monologues.

It took three days for Frankie to break.

You had been reminiscing about your trip to Disneyland as a child when he abruptly cut in, voice muffled due to the nails being held between his lips.

"You never talk about it."

You assumed he was referring to the little all-day nap you’d shared in his truck, as it had yet to be spoken of, but were taken aback by the slight accusatory tone.

"Talk about what?"

He took so long to reply, you started to think that he had interrupted purely to shut you up. The silence demanded an explanation though, so you kept your mouth shut and waited.

Clambering down from the attic, where he had been strengthening the trusses throughout the sagging section of roof, Frankie pinned you with his gaze and softly repeated himself.

"You never talk about it. The time in your life when you were married." He must have seen your hackles rise because he quickly set down the hammer and held his hands up in a placating wave.

"You still haven't answered my question about being in the army," was your quick response, finished with an ever-so-mature, "so there."

With a resigned sigh, Frankie twisted his hat around backward and scrubbed his hands across his face. "Come on" -waving you towards the patio doors- "these kinds of conversations require fresh air and a drink."

Reluctantly you followed him outside but rather than sinking down onto the porch swing you opted to lean against the post facing it. Opening two ciders, which you now had free access to, you handed one to Frankie and watched him over the top of the bottle.

Half of your drink was gone and your mind had wandered to greenhouse and flower garden placement before Frankie spoke again. His voice low and quiet catching you by surprise.

"Yeah," he broke the silence with another ragged sigh, "I, uh, I served. Started in the Air Force, worked my way up to Special Tactics Squadron. Made enough noise there to get recruited to Delta Force."

"Oh, fuck," your exclamation was soft with shock "you've seen some shit then." Blast your runaway mouth and its inability to wait for your brain to catch up before blurting out your inner thoughts. "I'm sorry!-"

"No, it's okay" Frankie interrupted, trying to reassure you and remove the horrified look that had come across your face. 

"No, no, that was totally uncalled for. Brad, my um, my husband, he was a Marine. He hated talking about it, said no one liked talking about it. I should have known."

"It's not that," Frankie reassured you again, "You were the first person to ever ask me about it, in all the time I've lived here. Just took me by surprise."

Leaning over in the swing, Frankie pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and handed you a photo from inside it. Five men beamed up at you. You could recognize them from a few of the photos that had rested on Frankie's mantle, they looked older in this one.

"Tell me about them?" you asked, knowing that most of the request was due to curiosity but a small part of you hoped that if you kept him talking you could avoid the subject of your marriage.

The sun was beginning to set and you'd long moved inside to eat dinner by the time Frankie was done sharing. It must have been cathartic, you mused, for him to bare this much about himself. He had never looked more relaxed in all the time you'd known him, which wasn't saying much and it could just as easily been due to the amount of alcohol thrumming through his system.

The room fell into a companionable silence, each of you digesting the information that had been revealed. You were in awe of the fact that, despite the life of violence he had witnessed, Frankie still maintained his humanity. Even after a messy divorce and lost custody battle, Frankie continued to choose the path of healing. He was clean, was fighting for shared custody of his daughter again, running his own business, and still had found time to endear himself into the town's hearts.

Frankie was, for all his sharp edges and gruff words, a sweetheart.

It put into stark comparison how Brad had reacted to the lemons life had served him. Born into an upper-middle-class home, the only son, doted on by his parents, Brad had been raised into a life where every door was open to him. Despite this, or maybe because of it, he had grown hateful of those weaker than him. He was controlling but had just the right amount of charm to pass it off as caring.

"I've met men like that," 

You nearly jumped out of your skin from surprise. Looking at Frankie with wide-eyed shock you wondered again what the hell was in the cider. This was the second time you'd poured your heart out to a virtual stranger, but this time you hadn't even realized you'd started speaking your thoughts aloud. 

Squaring your shoulders and holding Frankie's gaze you continued, almost challenging him to find someone worse than Brad had been.

"He made me quit college because he said he wanted to start a family. Then berated me and acted like it was all my fault every time the pregnancy test came back negative. You know what that asshole did?" Tears were threatening to fall but you held on to Frankie's gaze, "He had gotten a vasectomy months earlier. I didn't find out about it until after he died; going through paperwork that had been stored in his desk."

Frankie was up on his feet now, pacing around the kitchen island, too distraught to keep still. How could anyone be so cruel? Let alone be so cruel to someone as sweet and pure as you. He hated seeing you cry but knowing you weren't receptive to people being in your personal space, wasn't sure how to comfort you. 

Acting on pure instinct he grabbed the kettle and started preparing you some tea, not allowing himself to ruminate how he knew which flavour you preferred. Setting your favourite pottery mug in front of you, along with the little honey pot, he also decided to grab the fluffy throw blanket off your couch. 

"I get it now," he thought to himself offhandedly, "why women have so many fuckin' blankets and pillows in every room."

Placing the throw around your shoulders he was preparing to say goodnight and let you have some peace but was stilled by your hand reaching up and covering his.

"Please. Stay."

Part SIX

If you want to be tagged please send an ask! Replies get lost

TAGS:  @rebelliouscat @pedro4ever @speakerforthedead0 @yespolkadotkitty @ilikechocolatemilkh @weirdowithnobeardo @pedro-pastel @disgruntledspacedad @a-skov @trash-dino-5000 @reader-s-cantina @pascal-rascal424 @alberta-sunrise @pascal-rascal424 @bts17army @sarahjkl82-blog @grogusmum @radiowallet @vonschweetz @greeneyedblondie44 @diaryofkali @cassandras-nest @silverstarsandsuns @haapeaness

[theangryjikooker]

Hey TAJ :)

I've been reading your blog for a bit now and I realy like how well-thought out your answers are. I've had a moral dilemma I'd like your opinion on. Ever since joining this fandom I told myself that I wouldn't get involved in the shipping side of ARMY, because BTS are, you know, real people. But seeing the chemistry and dare I say, tension? between Jungkook and Jimin I couldn't help but get curious and started watching some of their compliation videos and even read some fanfiction about them. They're just very adorable together.

I'm personaly still kind of torn about RPS though.

Some of the stories I've read and drawings I've seen can only be described as beautiful art and since writers and painters have had muses for centuries maybe getting creative inspiration from Jikook is not soo bad?

I still feel like creating overly fetishized work about them (basically porn) or posting shipping content on platforms we know they frequent is too much though and crosses an, admittedly very blurry, line.

They themselves haven't said anything regarding shipping, but for me that doesn't give everyone a free pass to post whatever like they're fictonial characters. Where do you draw the line about fanwork, if at all? Do you think I'm being too prudish about this?

Sorry for the long ask, if you read it :)

Hi, anon! Thank you so much for the kind words. 💜

What an intriguing ask. I’ll do my best to offer you my two cents, but please know that you should always do what’s comfortable for you!

So while I’ve never judged anyone who engaged in RPS, I’ve personally never liked it and never planned on participating in it myself at any point, so you can imagine my surprise that I’m now in the position I’m in.

I’ve read fic in the past, but it’s not something I do anymore (I have shared 3 fics here that I still re-read from time to time because they’re just that good). I still indulge in the occasional art if I see it on my timeline, but I avoid anything explicit.

There’s nothing wrong with artists/writers who choose to create more mature content, but it’s very much not for me. In the back of my mind, there are boundaries that I need to honor for myself with regards to RPS, and that means no mature content based off the boys.

I wouldn’t say you’re prudish, but the creators themselves aren’t criminal for drawing/writing what they like. I do, however, disagree with mature content being shared directly to the boys (some people have apparently done it), but if they’re keeping those in their own accounts and not directing those types of art to them, the practice is harmless.

I wouldn’t push yourself into exploring that side of fandom if you’re truly uncomfortable with it, but I do know some people whose barriers came down eventually and found it wasn’t so bad after they properly figured how to compartmentalize reality from fiction in the context of RPS.

So basically, RPS work of all forms and ratings are fine by me as long as the creators respect the fact that there are things that shouldn’t be shared to the boys, but I personally avoid fan work except for the occasional cool art or something (and even then I don’t intentionally seek it out).

Hope that somewhat helps with your dilemma, but I suggest not worrying and overthinking about it. Do (or don’t do) whatever it is that allows you to have fun in this fandom! 💜

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Hi. I'm a new fan, found this blog recently and I like that you do not step away from criticism and give your honest opinion. I'm really fascinated with fan behavior as I've done some research about it but what I've come to notice in this Fandom is the difference between Armys depending on the social media network they're engaging in. Armys themselves point it out, comparing each other's behavior and believing they're somehow "superior". Do you have any takes regarding this topic? Thanks.

Hi there :)

I haven't done extensive research on fandom behavior, but I did notice as well how there's a difference depending on the social media platform. Maybe everyone has a different view on this, depending on what they use the most. I usually check everything, but mostly what happens on twitter, tumblr, instagram and tiktok. The last two are definitely for a more younger demographic, so the content that exists is in accordance to that, especially on tiktok. Reading the comments, most of the time they ask where a clip came from, even if it was released the same day on official BTS channels.

When it comes to twitter and tumblr, that's where the actual discourse is taking place and this is where that feeling of superiority comes in. But the fact that some of them feel as if they're better is quite ridiculous. Armys on twitter can be like hyenas and given everything I have seen until now, it's like the pits of hell. You have so called ''celebrities'', people posting without verifying information, name calling, death threats, swearing and using horrible language in general when it's not even necessary (not that it would be normal in any situation), no critical thinking skills and following what a big account says, etc. There's so much more, but I guess these examples can paint a picture. A fandom cannot feel superior in regards to those on other platforms or other fandoms when this is how they behave. I have called out online Army and I will continue to do so. It's absolutely horrid and the arrogance just makes me dislike them even more.

When it comes to tumblr, I'm going to talk about the accounts that focus on written posts and who publish asks in order to create a discussion. The community is a bit more closed off compared to twitter, but they're not better. I saw the rise of tumblr ''celebrity'' accounts and the tactics they use to bring more attention, while posing as respectful fans. I'm not impressed by it and sometimes they can have no morals. I certainly do not care about those that use their blogs as just bulletin boards, posting endless asks, barely giving some answer, not really listening to what the anon is saying. That's not a conversation, even if they think it is. They have a status to maintain so they need to be very firm in their beliefs. I've also seen witch hunts, demands about identity reveals, throwing other bloggers under the bus cause that seems like the cool ''correct'' thing to do while offering platforms to those who liked to complain.

In conclusion, is it really justified for any part of the Army fandom to feel superior? Definitely not and the fact that each group has a stance on this demonstrates how it's all about perception and their own social power before anything else. The rest, it's just a footnote.

[btsandvmin]

Sorry, it's a long one. What do you think of the ARMY who doesn't recognize Vmin as a ship? I haven't seen that happen with english speakers, but I've seen it a LOT in spanish. As a spanish speaker, I commented this on a Facebook group and someone told me that Vmin are getting more attention because of their intimate interactions by other fandoms too. You think that's true? I mean, I respect their ships and all but... Vmin has a lot of important moments that doesn't seem like brotherly love.

Hi @litmusevidence and thank you for this ask. :) First of all I don’t think this was a long ask at all... and I am sorry for not answering sooner, as you sent this probably somewhere around when BV4 was being aired. Also, I don’t know how the spanish community might be different but I’ll just talk about my own views regarding shipping in general. (All of this can be applied to any fandom, not just with BTS.)

I think that people often seem to misunderstand what shipping is to begin with... I’ve talked about that before in my post  Shipping vs Believing.

I mean Vmin is a ship... Shipping doesn’t even have to have anything to do with reality. Then if others don’t recognize Vmin as beyond being platonic that’s their full right. They still can’t deny Vmin as a ship though.

I don’t mind ARMY who doesn’t ship Vmin at all as everyone is free to do what they want. I don’t appriciate it when they go after shippers in their own spaces though. I mean, using “shipping” was to begin with a way to separate shippers from general fans so we wouldn’t bother those not interested in romantic or sexual interpretations of those in the ship... But yeah, times have changed.

As for my own feelings I mostly don’t bother with other shippers or what general fans think about a ship as long as they aren’t aggressive or harmful in some way. But I do get a bit annoyed with shippers that say another ship can’t be shipped for whatever reason. I mean, I would never say “how can you ship ji/kook when they are just brothers”, because shipping is a fantasy and something you enjoy on your own premise. 

When a shipper says you can’t ship something else, they have missed the point of shipping if you ask me. Mixing fiction with reality when speaking about real people and using arguments for why you shouldn’t ship something while they ship something themselves is just being hypocritical. Mind you I am only talking about shipping here, taking it further with beliveing a ship is real is a whole other level. (In fact those that say “you shouldn’t ship x but rather y” are probably pretty close to believing in their ship as they see rival ships as “lesser” even in real life and not just as their own preference.)

Anyone is allowed to like and enjoy whatever ship they want. In fictional shipping communities there are “crack ships” that people enjoy despite the two characters perhaps never even having met. I personally see more fun in shipping things with potential to happen or where I get interactions I can enjoy, but really everyone has their own preference and reasons to ship. So basically let everyone ship whatever they want.

The way I interpret Vmin or any other ship will always be different to others, and even amongst Vminies we might not think or feel the same. Because there is no universal truth when it comes to interpretations. You and I think Vmin has moments that seems to go beyond brotherly love or being platonic friends. But, as every other shipper in the BTS fandom, we still don’t know. I think Vmin at the very least can be talked about as queerplatonic to some level, but honestly there is a lot that seems to go beyond that as well, in particular when looking at some of Taehyung’s gestures and actions towards Jimin.

Still, others not shipping Vmin or not understanding why we ship Vmin might be annoying depending on how they say it, but it doesn’t really matter. In fact if a ship is real not having a lot of shippers might even be a good thing in some ways. As long as people agree Vmin are soulmates and love each other and can be nice about people shipping something they don’t ship that’s what matters most. :)

So.

1. Let’s enjoy our ships in peace and let everyone think whatever they want.

2. If someone says “how can you ship x” while also shipping a ship themselves they are either a hypocrite or have misunderstood what shipping is.

3. Vmin having a lot or few shippers doesn’t change Vmin in any way and we can all keep enjoying them however we want as long as we stay respectful.

4. Vmin still makes the most sense to me if any ship in BTS would be real in some sense, but in the end that’s just my opinion and others will have clashing opinions and that’s totally ok.

Vmin are getting more attention as a ship for sure... Which makes sense when you sing about being soulmates and everything else they have done the last few years. I can tell you the Vmin community here on tumblr is very different and since BTS have grown so much I would say basically all BTS ships are big at this point. But yeah, Vmin has certainly gained more attention for many reasons, I just hope we can try to hold ourselves back and remain as peaceful as possible in the Vmin community even as we grow. :)

I hope my answers made sense to you, and would overall just suggest that you keep shipping Vmin and enjoy them with people who wants to enjoy them with you. :) Thanks again for the ask and I hope I understood your question correctly. <3