#it was fun to answer despite the added salt djfhjg

[reginrokkr]

Anonymous asked: In the past few days I saw more people open to share their ship preferences for their muses, but most of the tiers (more like all of them) don't include Dainsleif yet. So question for the mun! what do you look for in order to ship? and if it's easy for you to respond, who would you ship Dainsleif with?

I hope you know what you're in for, nonnie— as this is going to be a ride that may contain some salt.

What I look for first and foremost when it comes to shipping is plausibility. Yes, I'm aware that some muns may go like "oh, I like this character so I'd like to ship them with my muse and see if that works" and that's perfectly fine. I am no different in having these thoughts myself, but 95% of the times I ignore them for other reasons that will be stated later. Dain himself is a complicated muse with unique circumstances and background. If the likelihood of him not interacting with a great part of the cast in ways that it becomes meaningful and under normal circumstances is high, you can imagine how it must be the case of shipping.

Which leads me to the next point: because of Dain's complications it is hard to build something with strong foundations that won't crumble at the earliest scenario of him not providing what's expected in a healthy relationship. He has many ghosts of his past and the present time, a mission that was given by someone else or self-imposed that goes above everything —even himself, as he clearly states that doesn't relish his solitude in Shenhe's miscellany or that he knows about the heartache of the Adepti in Xiao's miscellany, which clearly belies the fact that he's ignoring things he would've preferred for himself for the sake of a grander scheme than himself—, a great trauma of the past that intertwines with self-hatred and guilt. He won't accept easily that someone in the know of all these things would still choose him. There is the Abyss that can warp his senses even if he's done a great job for the past centuries in remaining sane. There is a curse that goes with a chronic physical pain and even more ghosts to add in his mind that exist or the abyssal factors of the curse will ingrain in his mind. And there is the possibility that the Sinner is part of said ghosts in his mind, given that he might be the one who narrates Dain's introduction based on Chinese word choices to say who the author is.

In order for a ship to work with him, the other part has to be aware of all these things and even so be willing to stay by his side —more metaphorically-speaking than personally, because they'll be in for long periods of absence from Dain's part alone and most certainly that other person will have their own responsibilities too—. I love to ship romantically as the next person as much as it looks like I'm adding layers and layers of difficulty to do that, but I don't want to step over key aspects of what makes Dain who he is just for the sake of shipping at risk of making it incredibly shallow and without substance. Because one of the things that I look for in a ship is also development: for every muse in particular and in a personal way and together as a pair.

This is why I'm terribly iffy about ships that not only erase Dain's autonomy, but also ignore completely his own principles for the sake of shipping such as Dainsleif / Kaeya when the latter goes the Abyss road and in all this design Dain is just someone who is there without any word in anything other than to serve. Yes, he was a knight that served royalty in Khaenri'ah. But he isn't some mindless puppet who would throw away everything he worked for or the honor of others who he believes is being walked over unfairly like, guess what, the Abyss Order does. And something in a similar vein happens with the ship of either Lumine or Aether as the Abyss counterpart of the Traveler and Dain in a romantic ship, only that I've seen worse here to the point where they would do with him as they please and treat him unkindly while ignoring completely that he's not only an intelligent individual with vast knowledge, but also strong whose power is indirectly praised by someone of the likes of Skirk.

The last thing I look for in a ship (but not any less important) is communication. Extensive communication with the mun. For one I like to build ships from the very beginning and see how they evolve over the course of time and events our muses are subjected. But I'm also aware that we're adults with responsibilities and priorities other than a hobby that might make this incompatible, and still the interest of creating a meaningful ship is there. Which is why, for me, communication is equally as important as the aforementioned points. If I can't talk with the mun, how am I going to know their feelings on what's happening as our muses progress? There is a void left in my chest at the thought that I can't gush about things that happen with my RP partner in question which I have encountered in the past when I was less experienced in RP and more driven to what the majority used to do— but it simply doesn't work with me. If we won't be able to do things from scratch in a linear way, I want to have the opportunity to talk to my partner and at least build it through extensive discussions. Later on we can always jump in various points of our muses' timeline to observe in IC ways how certain things go. But... communication is simply a must to me. And if I happen to not mesh well with the mun for whatever reason (but still not to the point where IC interactions becomes incompatible, as we can still do IC things without necessarily ever talk if that's how it works between us) or lack that chance to talk things through with them... as much as I hate to say it, I won't ship it no matter how compatible our muses are.

Lastly, and this will be complicated to say so I'll just stick to what I've found the most compatible with Dain to have solid examples. The most 1:1 character I've found that Dain can be compatible with in Genshin is Neuvillette, without a sliver of doubt. There are others that would work well and that I don't necessarily ship (although I wouldn't turn the other way if it were suggested to me) like Xiao. Another 1:1 character I've found compatible with Dain that hilariously is all the way in HSR is Blade.