#in the act of doing so tho I've set myself up to be a target of arguments and drama so we'll see

[lampfaced]

unpopular opinion ahoyyyy

what I say: I ship Brainstorm/Nautica

what it sounds like I mean: I want them to make out and have sexytimes

what I actually mean: I wouldn’t actually change anything about their current dynamic of idiot nerd besties that have small intimate moments like hand-holding; but I don’t know how else to express how much I love their relationship in one word - I can’t figure out where the fuck the line between romantic and platonic love should be drawn because I’m aromantic and don’t fully understand what one of those is, and as a result I choose to headcanon them as somewhere on that weird-ass spectrum but not on one end or the other; trying to describe it as either one or the other doesn’t really work so I leave off any further descriptors

also I don’t want them to have do the nasty with each other; I don’t want anyone to bang because I’m sex-repulsed and keep that element out of every single ship of mine

elaboration in no particular order: 1) being aro-ace I don’t understand why a platonic relationship can’t be just as important, or more important and fulfilling than a romantic/sexual one, or that without sex/romance in a relationship it’s just not as great; but “platonic relationship” seems, to society at large, to mean “just best friends” when that’s not always the case, and because of that describing it as “just platonic” doesn’t cut it for me; 2) like I said, I have no idea where to even separate what counts as platonic or romantic, and it can vary so widely between individual cases what counts as something you’d do only with a romantic partner vs. what you can do with a close friend, so what some might see as romantic another might see as close platonic love, and I waver a bunch on whether I’d consider the ship one or the other but I say I’m okay with it either way; 3) they’re already amica endura and it’s the closest damn thing I’ve ever seen to a fictional equivalent of queerplatonic partnerships, and I choose to see them as having the capacity to be happy being each other’s queerplatonic life partners/most important people in each others’ lives and not need any other big relationships in addition, so “ship” or “OTP”  is still the best shorthand for me to describe it

idk with the series ending soon, and the recent little displays we’ve gotten so far in the comics that have resulted in people getting irritated with Stormy Seas implications over the other more popular “gay ship” options for the two (Perceptor for Brainstorm, Velocity for Nautica), I’ve been... mulling a lot. not gonna get into why I don’t ship them with said other options here because that’s slightly besides the point but if asked I may elaborate. I realize I don’t owe an explanation to anyone about why I ship what I do, or why I should have to explain why I don’t see it as a strictly “hetero” ship and that makes it more acceptable than an actual “hetero” ship. but for some reason I still wanna put this out there.

*I’ve put “hetero” in quotes because of how hetero-appearing couples could be made up of people that are bi/pan/ace or outside the gender binary, it doesn’t mean they’re straight, and also while they’re absolutely the majority, straight couples aren’t by default inferior to queer ones