#its that i WILL create rarepair crackships

[licensedfool]

i so desperately want lyney and childe to team up as eldest siblings who have seen the horrors and want to protect their family by bringing down injustice THEIR way

[thisishoneyy]

Thank you twst for letting me play barbies with my two boys, now i have Rook/Cater!! I won't starve <333

[yodepalma]

Surprise self-rec time! Pick 3 of your favorite things you’ve written and share them here, then put this in the inbox (anonymously or not) of your fellow writers to spread the positivity and help celebrate already written fics 💞

I spent a ridiculously long time overthinking this, primarily because I literally could not choose a favorite of my Kingdom Hearts fics. So I'm cheating! I'm basically picking 3 fics from 3 different fandoms, just so I can be indecisive about KH.

Final Fantasy XV

1. At the top of this one I'm going to have to put Hardest of Hearts. This is purely because it was my first foray into the crackship that would end up eating my life, and I have to thank it for its service.

2. Equally well-loved is Sir Stabby and Friends. I had so much fun creating little robot friends for Prompto to make! And the unexpected OT4 was a nice bonus.

3. And a VERY close second to those is going to be Jewel of the Sea. I love soulmate fics SO MUCH y'all don't even understand, but I very rarely end up writing them. And despite it being another rarepair I feel like it really helped me flesh out my voice for Prompto and Dino.

Fullmetal Alchemist

1. This fandom is significantly easier, though I do have to do bonus cheating for this. Number one is Ruin the Sky. You will pry my scifi AUs out of my cold, dead hands.

2. Next is going to be Nine Lives Cafe. This one was just fun to write! And there was a surprising amount of thought put into it in the background, although I'm sad to say I'm sad to say that I lost my notes for continuing it several years ago and it's doomed to be ""completed"" as is.

3. And finally the part where we double cheat: the Dragon Scars series. It is the most self-indulgent thing I've ever written in my life. Mark my words, one day I WILL finish writing this bitch.

Kingdom Hearts

And finally, the reason for the cheating: I literally can't pick a favorite of these three.

1. Time of Your Life. Listen, 99.9% of the stuff I write is fluff or at least has a happy ending. And some sort of AU. This stupid crackship fic is a tragedy, entirely canon, and I am actually very pleased with the pacing of it. And, seriously, it's the only thing I ever finished that doesn't have a happy ending. I can't help but love it.

2. The Song That No One Sings. Another one for the crackships, but otherwise the polar opposite of the above. It's just a soft, simple urban fantasy romance. I do wish I'd actually fully fleshed out the worldbuilding for this, but we can't have everything.

3. The Forest. Not for any particular reason, I'm just still very fond of the fairy tale style writing I did. But I'm still sad that this remains my least read/liked fic for this fandom.

(And I'd also like to throw out honorable mentions to The End of the Beginning and Crumpled Memories, the two Good Omens fics I don't entirely hate. As well as Best Friends, a deeply unserious Ronin Warriors fic that basically wrote itself.)

[aemondsa]

As a fully paid up member of the Jonsa community I have to say I'm enjoying the Aemond/Sansa content being created.

It's the only other Sansa ship that's gotten my attention and that's it's a crackship is what makes me like it even more!

The Jonsa to Aemondsa pipeline is real. 😆💗

I did my time in the Jonsa slammer—I’ve been an inmate since the dawn ages when it used to be a rarepair and had 5 authors to its name; till the sunset where we copium-ed our way through the fallout of season 8 with Jim Frost and geography memes.

But almost two years ago, I broke out of my Jon Snow shackles and left the short man for Aemond. I have never been happier. Canon has no hold on me any longer. I am free to frolic in field of my own delusions, holding my friends’ hands cause they are right there with me, having fun without being beholden to such trivialities as ‘timeline’ and ‘what do you think will happen in AWOW?’

Life, when enjoying a crackship:

[mhrarepairmonth]

Rules & Guidelines (pretty much everything you need to know)

Prompts ✦ AO3 Collection ✦ Asks/FAQ

Hey ghouls! As MH Rarepair Month creeps closer and closer, here are some rules, guidelines, and everything you need to know for this event!

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, comments, or concerns that may not be addressed under the cut!

What is Monster High Rarepair Month?

This event is dedicated to super rare romantic pairings from all generations of Monster High. The 'spirit' (pun intended) of this event has its roots in crackshipping, any ship that has less than 10 works on AO3 is permitted. (see the fandoms tagged for g1, g2, g3, the g3 movies, and general 'toys' fandom tags to see if your pairing is eligible)

Monster High Rarepair Month will run during the entirety of September, with prompts being delegated on a week-by-week basis.

How do I participate?

Just create something about an ultra-rare pair! Whether it’s fanart, fanfic, edits, headcanons, meta, poetry, analysis, gifs (gifsets if you’re feeling fancy) - anything and everything you can think of is welcome! Following the prompts is encouraged, but if you’re really inspired by something outside of the prompt list or want to combine them in any way, that’s cool too! (PS - if you have a really niche crack pairing you've been waiting to show off, this is your time to shine!)

Please use the tag #mhrarepairmonth in your works as it will be tracked! You can also mention this tumblr, mhrarepairmonth, in your submissions if you want to be extra sure it gets reblogged!

Feel free to add your work to our AO3 collection! It's by no means required, but it's fun to have everything all in one spot.

All submissions will be reblogged to this blog by the end of each week. Late submissions are also permitted, whether it's by a week or even longer! :)

What pairings count?

As mentioned above, ships should not exceed more than 10 works in the above MH AO3 fandom tags. We’re counting counterparts from each generation as separate characters, so if there’s a ship with >10 ships but they’re marked under the Monster High (Toys) fandom tag, take a closer look and see if the pairing from whatever generation you want to create for is eligible! Some exceptions to our >10 fic limit may apply, see this post for more information.

Polyships/OT3s/OT4s+ are allowed, provided they also follow this rule. Get creative - maybe you'll even create an entirely new relationship tag in the process? :)

Since this is a ship-focused event, your work should be focused on a romantic pairing; even if the characters aren't explicitly dating, they should hold a romantic interest in one another. Incestuous pairings and selfshipping will not be included in this event.

Are crossovers allowed?

Unfortunately, crossovers from fandoms outside of Monster High won't be permitted (sorry EAH we love you 💔) Feel free to cross over the various generations of MH characters, though! As long as your pairing follows the rest of the rules, go crazy!

Other Rules

1. Follow general fandom etiquette; The principles of being kind and respectful of others’ works and don’t like, don’t read apply (for the latter, where applicable). Ship/character bashing will not be tolerated, and most importantly: tag your work properly!

2. Works that have been plagiarized or generated using generative AI will be excluded from this event.

3. NSFW works will be allowed - non-con/dub-con and adult/child relationships will not be permitted. Please be sure you follow Tumblr’s guidelines regarding explicit content. Worst case scenario, you can post your submission elsewhere and just link it here so it can be shared :)

4. Whitewashing, racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, sexism and any other forms of bigotry will not be tolerated. However, works that explore these themes (i.e, internalized homophobia) will be accepted, provided they are tagged with the appropriate warnings.

5. Have fun! Rarepair month is supposed be a fun and silly event to explore or create really rare pairings.

[myfaveisfuckable]

Rants!

Hellucard/Guardian Angel: Eddsworld is an animated series created by Edd Gould, starring the fictional counterparts of his friends. All of the characters featured in his animations are fictional and the plot lines follow fictional absurdist events (just clarifying in case you worry that this is RPF - its not).

In the 2005 Christimas Special, a Guardian Angel comes down from heaven to show Edd what the lives of his friends would look like if he didn't exist. Guardian Angel helps Edd to be more generous and kind towards his friends because of the visions he grants, in a plot line comparable to A Christmas Carol, and he gains his Angel wings as a result of the successful task. He is never seen again in any other episode.

Hellucard is a recurrent character that exists solely as a gag, frequently seen waving at Edd and greeting him with a catchphrase (he says "'Ey Hedd" instead of "Hey Edd"). His last few appearances in Eddsworld featured his death (in WTFuture) followed by Easter Egg cameos of his dead body (seen floating in space in Space Face, and seen as a zombie in Fun Dead).

I (@thecuddlesystem ) first created this ship after entering every Eddsworld character into an online spinner wheel and using the wheel to create crack ships, solely out of boredom. Hellucard x Guardian Angel was one of the results, and I've been obsessed with it ever since (despite there being literally no fanart or acknowledgement of this ship in the fandom).

The main focus of this ship is due to the "opposites attract" trope, and how the two characters can be seen as narrative foils of each other.

Hellucard has blonde hair and wears a black shirt, while Guardian Angel has black hair and wears a white shirt. Hellucard constantly tries to interact with Edd throughout multiple episodes (for no real reason) but never succeeds, while Guardian Angel interacts with Edd directly with purpose for a single episode. Hellucard is associated with death and has the word Hell his name, and Guardian Angel is...well, an angel from Heaven.

I'm also pretty fond of angst content for this pairing because I think angst content for such minor characters in a comedy-centric flash animation series is a funny concept.

In conclusion: please consider my blorbos for this bracket. They'll probably lose but I'll be so damn pleased if they're even mentioned by anyone but myself.

Danny Fenton/Randy Cunningham: You can just call this ship EctoHam for short. Danny is half-human and half-ghost due to an accident with his ghost-hunting parents' ghost portal, and he fights ghosts as a superhero called Danny Phantom. Randy was chosen to be the Ninja, a role that is secretly passed down between the citizens of Norrisville every 4 years, and he has to fight robots + monsters to protect his highschool. Neither Randy or Danny can reveal their secret identities to the public due to how dangerous the outcomes would be (both are at risk of death). That's pretty much all you need to know for context about this ship - if you remove the secret identities, they're just two dorky teenagers who struggle with a lack of popularity.

[daedalusdavinci]

spell homestuck

GOD. THIS IS SO MUCH LONGER THAN TWO FACE. i typed too much and theres too many qs so under the cut it goes

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or....... i guess comics, these days, but i HATE READING COMICS they juST HAVE MORE COMPELLING FANDOMS. book fandoms are PUNY nad everyone is STUPID. youd think actual literary fandoms would have reading comprehension and understanding of literary critique but no!!!!!!!!!!!!! its literally my eternal fuckign struggle. somehow comic fandoms hit the perfect medium between compelling, readable content and the enthusiasm of cartoon fans without the childishness of cartoon fans

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

this isnt really a thing i do. the only time i associate characters w songs is my own ocs. barbies theme is miltons tower from the what remains of edith finch soundtrack!

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

i have also never really been one to project myself into stories. its just not how i consume media. i think sollux and rose already closely resemble the kinds of friends i make, so maybe them?

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

(freddy fazbear vc) vanessa.... ive done things, im not proud of.

i dont even know if i want to answer this question bc its so fucking humiliating LKJSNDLFSDNFSDF the truth is yes. i am solely responsible for. a lot. particularly in the pjo fandom. i created several crackships ground up all on my own way back in 2014 and developed a following for them and i. dont wantto tell you what those ships were. LSKJDFNSLDJNSDFSDDF ive also pioneered many ship tags for other fandoms and i ship a lot of rarepairs and stuff but i dont think im RESPONSIBLE for them?? in that some ppl already were into them/talking abotu them or tht theyre still not popular (augh. to the ones that became popular) but i AM liTERALLY responsible for some crack shit in the pjo fandom and its. it haunts me sometimes. i dont want to talk about it. IF YOU REMEMBER WHAT I DID NO YOU DONT

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

this is so vague. my headcanons are shifting and nebulous and aus are my constant companion in everything, but uhhhhhhghhusjkdjnsdg i think. roxy writes the same way dave draws comics. its extremely memey and meta and self aware and largely just for the personal lolz, and were all doing her a disservice by pretending her writing looks like roses, when in reality dirk is probably the one whod make comics the way rose makes books (which is probably why he doesnt make comics). its more of that thing where roxy and dave are the same and rose and dirk are the same ykwim. well YOU dont corvus but im sure someone else does

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

jason takes after bruce in terms of like. adopting entirely too many kids. he broods

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

harvey is a heartwrenching character when written well, with a complicated view of morality, heartbreaking ties to our main hero, and a lot of internal conflict. something about such a hopeful character deadset on making a different in the system becoming a victim of it, and the potential he has as a vehicle for critiquing the law.

percy is my favorite character from pjo bc it was the very first time in my life i ever read a book and saw myself in it. hes aggressive, impulsive, and rebellious, he fidgets and has a hard time standing still, he acts on emotion without always thinking it through, he gets in trouble in school and hands his mom a murder weapon to kill his stepdad, hes just... hes a lot of the things ive always gotten in trouble for, things i couldnt help being, and hes a hero. he means everything to me.

vriska, i will maintain until the day i die, is one of the best homestuck characters- maybe just characters?- ever written. shes dramatic, shes impulsive, shes manipulative and mean and creative, and shes just so messy about it. shes a mean girl in a way that feels real, where her trauma impacts and shapes her as a person, and shes complex, with warring wants, and people she cares about, and dreams, and shes so messy. shes rough and rude and shes doing what SHE wants to, being a version of herself that feels right to HER, rather than some caricature of the hot badass evil lady. shes thirteen!! and she FEELS thirteen. shes a thirteen year old weird girl who is kind of an asshole, and she means literally fucking everything to me. shes a pirate!!!!! shes a swashbuckling badass dressing up in her larping outfit and yelling at her friends on the playground to swab the deck and she is the bestest ever, the end.

i didnt mean for each one of these to be longer than the last but here we are.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

i hate jdedave peace and love it just feels weird as hell to me. dave, for the most part, is hyper respectful of other peoples choices and boundaries but when it comes to jade hes always trying to mke choices for her, to protect her, and it gets to the point where even jade points out how much it bugs her. jades crush on dave also seems to come from a place of misunderstanding to me, admiring a lot of the parts of himself that he exaggerates and pretends to care about as a result of trauma. it always felt like a kid crush that they shouldve grown out of with time. dave also just sort of seems to... go along with whatever romantic relationships people push him into at that age, rolling with whoever flirts with him jsut bc hes trying to maintain the image of a player, so its really hard to take him seriously any time he hits on someone?

that is just my interpretation of it tho

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

well. i havent finished my reread of homestuck, so that feels difficult to comment on just yet, bc im sure ill have a different opinion when i do finish it. no one in dc gets character arc bc theyre all just undone immediately, so thats like. yeah. and in pjo the arcs are pretty weak bc 1) kids books and 2) RICK UNDOES THEM ALL. AUGH. regardless of all of this, i am going to say jason grace. he had a lot of development in like the last two hoo books, or maybe just like.... hints of how he couldve developed? promise? which rick immediately set fire to in toa when he killed him, but fUCKING WHATEVER. UGH.

anyway actually tho eleanor from the good place. bisexual icon. queen. probably one of the best character arcs of all time. the episode w her mom has some of the most powerful fucking dialogue ever and i think about it. all the time. i should rewatch the good place.....

[threewaysdivided]

I posted 353 times in 2022

That's 114 more posts than 2021!

79 posts created (22%)

274 posts reblogged (78%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@threewaysdivided

@sapphireswimming

@doodly-doop

@redrobin-detective

@2hoothoots

I tagged 353 of my posts in 2022

#young justice: deathly weapons - 97 posts

#3wd - 93 posts

#art - 70 posts

#danny phantom - 38 posts

#3wd answers - 34 posts

#writing update - 33 posts

#dc comics - 30 posts

#young justice - 27 posts

#batman - 23 posts

#chapter 19 - 22 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#which is how you get things like token ‘girlboss’ moments for female characters who are still written in fundamentally chauvinistic ways; or 

From this post

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

@thecatlounge​ asked: I just read that ask about Vlad that you did and was wondering if you had any thoughts about Jack and Maddie. They have clear love for there kids and when they know they are in danger they will drop everything for them, but they also don't notice when there is somthing wrong going on.  Valerie would be another good one, though I think that she mostly framed around how whe is manipulated by others (like Vlad).

(the Vlad ask)

So, I have quite a few thoughts on Maddie and Jack, and they’re probably some of the most complex.

I’ve talked about this before but one of the quirks/ bugs/ features of Danny Phantom’s tumultuous production and at-times-contradictory canon is that there can be multiple disparate readings that are all somewhat supported.  And no more is this true than for the (nominally) good Doctors Fenton.

Let’s talk about the meta-side first because it’s kind of fascinating.

See the full post

87 notes - Posted August 26, 2022

#4

Decided to update the original FFN-style ‘book cover’ art for my fanfic Young Justice: Deathly Weapons. 

It’s fun to see how the visual identity of this fic has evolved from when I first came up with and posted the initial idea (right) to now (left) that it has a fully-detailed plan that’s developed a vibe of its own.

[Art pieces inside the background-portals can be seen here and here.  Teaser summary for upcoming “episodes” here.]

See the full post

101 notes - Posted December 11, 2022

#3

@kaiobeast asked: So, in YJDW, Danny is still very much a solo-hero type. I imagine that's going to potentially cause some issues down the road, both with learning how to work as an equal with other supers and bonding with them since his own hero development is so different from the Team's. No mentor, the discomfort that the nature of his powers can cause, the mixed history he DOES have that's public knowledge, and the lack of real exposure to the rest of the superhero sphere of influence.

(Young Justice: Deathly Weapons)

So this is interesting because you're completely right; those are things that should complicate Danny's interactions (and potential integration) with established heroes and hero teams.

However, the specifics of Danny's circumstances and road to joining the Team in Deathly Weapons kind of alleviate or sidestep a lot of those potential issues. At cost of giving him a new catalogue of complexes to deal with but beggars can't be choosers.

See the full post

104 notes - Posted October 9, 2022

#2

I don’t have many strong thoughts about Danny x Kaldur outside of it being a rarepair crossover crackship with the potential to be cute.

However,

Deeply Disappointed that the ship name isn’t Sleeping With the Fishes.

118 notes - Posted August 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

@kaiobeast​ asked: So, I've noticed that DP fans and authors have a sliding scale for Vlad. They vary from "haha look at poor little meow meow who fails at everything" to "Vlad is an absolute psycho and the Fenton parents are criminally negligent for allowing him near their kids". I'm very curious as to how you view Vlad and his relationship with Danny because that variance is so huge, and since it kind of slides between the two in canon as well.

Ah, Vlad.  Perpetual runner-up of Dracula lookalike contests, consistent bronze medallist in the race for most-culturally-relevant-Vladimir, and called by the internet everything from Psychopath to Meow Meow to I regretfully inform you Daddy.

One of the things that makes interpretations of Danny Phantom characters more fluid/variable than others is that (as you said) canon can be rather slide-y at times - something which lends itself to multiple quasi-canonical potential readings.  I think I’ve mentioned before that for me this means I have a bit of an annoying tendency to change my headcanons depending on what best facilitates a given story concept, rather than being wedded to One True Version���.

That said, Vlad is probably the major-character who I have the most consistent read on.

See the full post

276 notes - Posted July 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[thewrongmoon]

Okay so I honestly never venture over to the mlvn tag. Like I don’t see the point in it and I know I’ll just end up feeling frustrated when I do. However, someone posted something vaguely anti-byler in the tag so I went to check out their profile (big mistake) and stumbled upon the worst take i have ever seen in my life.

the post in question was someone saying "i don't like byler as a ship because i don't consider it as a ship. it's not real. it doesn't exist. it's not a ship." which. is confusing as fuck for those of us with functioning frontal lobes i'm sure.

they elaborated and said that byler is not a ship because mike doesn't return will's feelings. according to them, ships only exist if love is requited.

this is so frustrating to me not even as a byler, but just as someone who has existed online for nearly 10 years and understands how the fandom space works. because it's truly such a dumb, non-logical, non-supported take. like do you know where ships come from? where the idea of slash fiction formed?

now the term "ship" itself was first used in the mid 90s by fans of the x-files who shipped scully and mulder. and the reason the term ship even came to be was because they THOUGHT-- KEY WORD: THOUGHT-- they should be in a romantic relationship. they were shipped together before they became canonically romantically involved.

now on to slash fiction, where ship culture has its origins. who were the first slash relationship?

kirk and spock from star trek.

that's right. you had housewifes in the 60s making zines and fanart of these two in a romantic relationship. now are either of these characters romantically interested in one another? no. are they even gay? i highly doubt gene roddenberry intended them to be.

BUT THEY DIDN'T CARE!! they continued to create content and make little scenarios of them being romantically involved, whether they truly believed they would be canonically together or not.

when shipping culture and it's roots have existed for over 50 years, how are you, a random tumblr user, gonna say what is and isn't a ship? like what kind of authority do you have? because it's clear that you're new to the fandom space because you have no fucking clue what you're talking about.

on that topic, another thing i want to clear up: shipping terms.

byler is not a crackship. you very clearly do not understand what that term means. let me explain it to you.

a crackship is a ship in which:

the two characters have never interacted a single time in canon

the two characters are from different media franchises completely

byler does not fit either of these two categories. here's another shipping term, just because you clearly need the education--

a rarepair is a ship that is not very popular in a fandom space.

let's go through a few to demonstrate:

byler is a popular ship.

jancy is a popular ship.

henderhop is a rarepair.

byclair is a rarepair.

robin/chrissy is a crackship.

willhail is a crackship.

these terms are not innately bad, they just have a specific meaning. byler, no matter how much you stretch your imagination, is not a crackship.

TL;DR- i'm begging you to do a single iota of research before posting your dumbass takes on this site, like, google is completely free, holy shit.

[rimouskis]

i want a way to find other ppl who’re into (or at least willing to consider or talk about) smaller, weirder/more situational ships. nothing against the big ships, but it’s way easier to find ppl to talk about big ships with than someone who’ll even consider listening to ideas about rarepairs—and yeah that’s kind of the deal with rarepairs but there used to at least be some. in pens fandom specifically it feels like smaller ships died off after the 2018 collapse—there was so much fic about the young callups during the 2016 and 2017 cup runs, but now there isn’t even a single fic for po joseph/drew o’connor on ao3 even though the wedding car prank would’ve been enough to spawn a good dozen back then. and whenever i do see a new rarepair fic crop up on ao3 it’s almost impossible to find the authors elsewhere, and in other fandoms ppl seem to have forgotten what crackshipping even is almost entirely. where did all my old rarepair buddies go? there’s gotta be some of them out there somewhere but i don’t for the life of me know how to find them again, and it’s so damn lonely without them

That's really interesting; I wonder if rarepair-interested people left hockey entirely or shifted to other team fandoms; I feel like I see a fair amount of "ship anyone with anyone" activity for a few other teams, but I also think those teams lacked a "big" ship, meaning fans were sort of starting from scratch, as opposed to working within a team that had a ship with more (sub)cultural weight or history.

I also wonder if different people are drawn to different teams for similar reasons. like, if you're into an established couple's dynamic (like sidgeno) you might be more inclined to become a pens fan if. you're entering through shipping, but on that same bent if you're into a different dynamic (rivals to lovers, young guns, whatever) you might just become a fan of a team that visibly offers that! I think, too, with multishipping/multi-team-supporting being very common these days, some people might say "why should I ship two fourth liners from pittsburgh when I can get a similar dynamic on this other team?"

I also sometimes worry that in pens fandom specifically we don't foster rarepairs enough because there's a healthy handful of us (myself deeply included) who don't ship that many other pairings. like... if you're interested in doing a lot with a big cast of characters, you might look at pens fandom (and its relative dominance by sidgeno shippers) and be like... nah, I'll just go somewhere else. that's sad! it's not the energy we should really be fostering, but as someone who isn't deeply inspired by, say, poj/doc, I don't know how to help bolster that side of fandom when I'm not going to be creating content for it.

I think about this a fair amount... you know, just wondering if the way I've chosen to do fandom (I write what I want to write for, I just keep focused on that) is good for me but maybe not great for the fandom environment entirely. like, I'd love if more people read sidgeno *and* other penguins pairings, and supported the team and were involved, but it's always the question of "where do you find people to get interested?" and then "how DO you get them interested?"

it's a sticky situation. I feel for you, anon, and I hope we can see more crackshipping and rarepair delight in the near future!

[octopunkmedia]

Hi! My friend and I recently played D:BH and when we dipped a toe into the fandom, we found a LOT of Reed900. That confused us, because we hadn't even seen RK900 after our first playthrough and Reed seemed the opposite of nice. I finally watched your film and I really admire all the work you put into it, but I still don't understand. I love hearing people talk about the things they love, though, so could you explain what it is about RK900 that motivated you to make a whole-ass movie?

I've been in this fandom since literally day one, so I witnessed the origins of Reed900 and its growth personally (at least English speaking fandom. Russian fandom could be quite different). When DBH first came out, HankCon was definitely the dominant ship and primary reason we were all here, with some love going to Connor/Markus and Simon/Markus as well. A lot of people were non shipper fans. And you also had a handful of Connor/Gavin folks but no one gave Reed much development for the first 7 or 8 weeks. And at this time we all saw RK900 as evil. No one had any real "soft" headcanons for him. I remember seeing the Harrison Ford meme go around at that time where Connor was "Baby boy, baby" and RK900 was "Evil."

However, two things happened that changed this. One, a couple people started pointing out some of Gavin's dumb charm, like not being able to say "fuck" properly and winking with both eyes, which softened us to him. On top of that, as Hankcon casefics were written more and more, it started to become common to have Gavin as a background character at the DPD. And in many of these Hankcon fics, there was a subplot about how RK900 showed up and became Gavin's partner (often those stories were from Connor's POV and dealt with his feelings of meeting an upgrade of himself). Coupled with this, a lot of artists like Don Lemefo were making extraordinary beautiful art of Reed900 together, entertaining the concept of them being partners.

The fandom started to agree rather quickly that RK900 and Reed being partnered just made sense - and to me, I think this stems from the HankCon arc in the base game. Take a detective droid like Connor and have the asshole cop learn to love him - but Reed900 inverts many of the Hankcon tropes quite intentionally.

As more fics were written, people gave Gavin the habit of smoking to be "the opposite" of Hank's drinking. They gave Gavin a cat to be the opposite of Hank's dog. Many times Gavin is shown as anxious to contrast with Hank having depression. And then, we kind of can't ignore the big sexy elephant in the room lol. In Reed900, the human detective is generally seen as the bottom, while in HankCon, the human is generally seen as the top (don't @ me, I am speaking in majorities, not absolutes). As for 900, he is often a harder version than Connor - more sarcastic, more "take no shit," more aggressive in his dynamic with his human. I once saw someone say Reed900 was invented to give Gavin a dom, and I can't really disagree with that - although D/s and BDSM fics for HankCon absolutely did exist (there's one called Scratch that comes to mind) Reed900 seemed a more organic outlet for that sort of expression, imo. The fics I saw for Reed900 at that time were much more extreme, much more masochistic, just generally kinkier than it's sister ship.

So Reed900 provides a similar attractive dynamic, but offers a different version of HankCon, and allows writers to start from day ONE of their meeting rather than having the baggage of canon to deal with. Very quickly they started to become of equal importance to the fandom as Hankcon was, often paired up together as sister ships in solidarity. Kind of a Goofus and Galiant double date, where HankCon were loving and doting and Reed900 were the old married couple who called each other "assholes." Of course over time, fandom can't resist fluff, so Reed900 evolved from its BDSM/hatesex roots and a few slow burns like Fuck Pride and Like A Light I'm Luring You, along with some more comedic fics like DPD, cemented the idea that Gavin and 900 could actually LOVE each other. Even in the case of slow burns that were still sexy, like No Strings Attached, the softer side of the ship rose to become what I feel is now the most widespread version of the boys in English speaking fandom. Fanon Gavin was also softer and usually given a lot more redemption and development compared to his canon origin.

It always confuses me when people tell me that DE is the only Reed900 they enjoy because "regular Reed900 is too abusive." I have not seen such a thing in YEARS at this point. The overwhelming majority of Reed900 content created in the past year and a half has been incredibly soft, and very similar to how they are portrayed in Evolution. I did not invent that - it was pulled from all of my experience in fandom. The only thing I can say is that Russian fandom seems to have still held on to the idea of RK900 as a dominant tank, because I get a lot of comments from them about how my Nines is too soft compared to their version of him.

Also regarding the name Nines - I first saw this used in a fic by TerminallyDepraved back in July 2018 or so. Richard was the most popular name at first (a joke of his nickname being "dick", because....Gavin), especially because Brandon McCauley used it in what was, at the time, the most visible Reed900 casefic/slow burn series. It was also the summer of a thousand names of 900 lol, as every damn fic had a different one back then. Kay, Ace, Alex, Conner, Oleg (wtf Russia), Conrad, Conan, Collin, and some just left it RK or R. Over time the Richard name kinda faded for English speakers (although Russia holds it high still) and Nines/RK are pretty much the main ones I've seen for some time. Nines took awhile to catch on, as it's the name of a character in Nier Automata as well and that was hard for some of us to reconcile, but eventually it stuck.

TLDR, why I personally love Reed900 is a whole other story that basically comes down to "I'm Gavin and I need a Nines" (which Austin essentially is for me lol). I love enemies to lovers, I love work partners, and I love the possibilities. HankCon started to wear on me after awhile when I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over, and I eventually fell out of it. I didn't ever get that fatigue with Gavin and Nines for whatever reason. I just love them, more than I hate any of the struggle of making films, so that's the short of it.

Bear in mind this is one person's POV of how the fandom evolved so it's not an absolute truth, especially outside of English fandom. I was primarily on Tumblr and AO3 at the time but things on Twitter Jericho and Discord were not on my radar and may have been different back then (Hankcon was probably a lot hornier on Twitter Jericho than it was on Tumblr, for example).

What you gotta understand about Reed900 fandom though is 1) it wasn't random, 2) it wasn't a fucking "har har crackship" like people dismiss it as and it barely even spent time as a "rarepair", and 3) even though it isn't canon, it is so rooted in fanon at this point that there's a lot for new folks to catch up on, lol. Sorry I'm on mobile and can't put this under a cut rn - hopefully it isn't too annoyingly long. 👀

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Azula x cup girl for that ask thing

Ah yes, the rarepair. The best rarepair!

What made you ship it: Well this one time I typed a crack fic. And it got positive reception so I typed another fanfic but it accidently got kinda touching??? See I type as I go and let the story type itself and then that happened. Literally it was a joke but then suddenly it stopped being a joke. Whoops. 

What are your favorite things about the ship: I really love rarepairs a lot. I also like that there’s just a lot of uncharted territory here. Like literally there is no content for this ship and so it’s fun being able to create some firsts. Another thing I like is that Seicho (this is the name I’ve just been going with for her) is someone that Azula doesn’t have history with beyond one socially awkward/lowkey rude encounter that is probably looked back on and laughed at. I think that this is super important for Azula to heal; it’s more or less a clean slate and she doesn’t have to worry about ‘remember when you did x’ coming up in arguments. This can be said for a few other ships (like Teo/Azula & Jinzula who never met at all) but I like Azula/Seicho because they did meet it was just such a small moment that it makes it more intriguing. And finally the screenshot below; there is a whole vibe here and  oml. It’s chaos.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship: This ship is too rare for that? Maybe its existence is as anything but a crackship is an unpopular opinion?

[veliseraptor]

Separate thought in a separate separate ask! In the danmei world, do you have any thoughts to share about your favorite rarepairs/crackships, and what makes them compelling to you?

oh man! this sounds like fun. see the thing here is mostly that I feel like I have a lot of pairings in the danmei world that are more “wouldn’t it be fun if” rather than actively shipping them, where - okay, I think of my levels of “shipping” something in sort of tiers. 

I’ve idly thought about it and found it interesting in passing

if I was recced a fic or a friend wrote one I’d read it, but I wouldn’t go tag crawling on AO3 for it

thought of it and went tag crawling on AO3 because I was curious if anyone else had (subset of “got frustrated when discovered other people had but they weren’t doing it the way I wanted”)

thought of it, went tag crawling on AO3, and came out of it shipping it more

would read fic for it

checks the tag on AO3 every day in case someone has written something new

would write fic for it.

so then it’s like. which level are we talking about, here? but I guess I just go to “things where I have feelings about them” and run with that, eh?

wei wuxian/xue yang. look, we all know at this point how I feel about this one, right? that it would just be - okay, there’s that post, right, that says the good version of this is where they have really fun sex where sometimes one of them comes up with a really cool new necromancy idea in the middle and the bad version is where wei wuxian finds out xue yang has been creating bodies for their experiments himself. :D I’m bastardizing, but you get the point. look!!! they’re foils for each other and everyone knows that narrative foils make for fun pairings. dark mirror parallels make for even more fun pairings. both??? yes, thanks

xue yang/jiang yanli & xue yang/qin su. these are two different ships with different textures but they fit in sort of the same boat for me, part of the appeal of which is “xue yang being around people who are genuinely nice to him is a really fun dynamic” and also “two women who really deserve to have a semi-feral murderer looking out for them, and the opportunity to go a little apeshit.” 

nie huaisang/jin guangyao/lan xichen. look, I like 3zun as much as the next person (though I mostly live in xiyao, obviously), but I think if I had to pick a nie to put in the a-yao/xichen dynamic it would be nie huaisang because it makes everything terrible, and I just love terrible dynamics involving emotional manipulation, and relationships that are functioning on different levels depending on the pov of the character you’re looking at. every character in this triad is having a slightly different experience of the relationship. I’m into that.

jin guangyao/xiao xingchen/xue yang. look I thought of it once and I have no idea how or if it would work but I’m into the concept and it does smash together two (three hahaha) things that I like. so you know. there’s that.

jin guangyao/jiang cheng. didn’t see this coming and I’m still not sure I ship it so much in the classical sense as that I want to see the weird wine aunt coparenting energy that they have together, but I’m exploring my options and I like what I see in a general sense. 

hua cheng/mu qing. okay, look. again, I’m talking narrative foils (mu qing and xie lian but also I think mu qing and hua cheng). I’m talking proxyfucking. I’m talking hatesex. I’m talking really ill-advised decisions made out of grief (unacknowledged) and anger (acknowledged). I’m talking very lonely very angry ghost kings (kinks) during an 800 year time skip. do you hear me here

jiang cheng/wen ning. unexpected?? and I’m still sort of circling around it like a vulture waiting for the big predators to leave so I can stick my head in its carcass (that metaphor got away from me). but here I am. two traumatized younger brothers whose trauma is very tied together in a lot of ways, with some things in common but a lot of things not? yes, I would like to see where this goes, thank you

hua cheng/he xuan. I feel like I’m cheating because honestly this is another one where I’m not so much like I want a ship as I want them to be weird friends, but I really want them to be weird friends, all their existing interactions in the novel are so hilarious and I just. want more of that. 

I was like “drunken hookup during 800 year time skip?” but I feel like even if hua cheng got drunk he might just end up crying and then falling asleep on he xuan, and also can ghost kings (kinks) get drunk anyway. so, you know.

lan wangji/jiang cheng. this feels a little more...expected than some of the other ones here but there’s not nearly enough fic about mutual grieving proxyfucking hatesex and I want there to be more of it, so. give me that messy timeskip content don’t I deserve it. I just like people hurting each other while also hurting themselves, is all

I feel like I’m forgetting some here. possibly part of my problem is I don’t know what counts as a rarepair! like technically I think songxue is but it feels more mainstream I guess than a lot of the other ones on this list. songxuexiao is also like. smaller in the scheme of things? but has a solid community built around it.

this is also leaving off all the very thoroughly gen relationships I want explored, of which there are so many and this post would get truly out of hand if I tried to get into that.

[tempestaurora]

Any advice for getting your writing noticed? I have a 18 chapter with 37,000+ words and I have like 900 hits. It updates pretty regularly too

oof i assume we’re talking fic here, so here’s what i’ve got for you, take from it what you will:

check the tags you’re using, both character/fandom tags but also content tags. if something features, tag it - you don’t know who’s looking for that content at the moment. (on the other side of things, don’t tag every character who appears, just the ones you feel are central, because people don’t like minor character appearances when they’re looking for fics about a character)

posting towards the end of the week is, on most websites, the best time to do so. the closer you get to thursday/friday/saturday/sunday, the more likely people are to read your work during their friday lunch breaks and weekends

likewise, try to figure out what timezone the bulk of the fandom is in (for american shows, it’s usually - you guessed it - america) and try and time your posting for mid-afternoon there. i’ve found that posting for my timezone, eight hours ahead of the bulk of the fandom, means that my work can disappear very quickly beneath everyone elses

share your work on tumblr with the relevant tags (only the first five will show up on searches, so use the fandom, relationship, central characters for best effects)

there are, to my knowledge, fic fandoms on twitter and instagram but i don’t know them well enough to say how best to draw them in, but if you have fandom accounts there, its worth trying

make gifs/moodboards for your fics. i don’t know why other than its aesthetically pleasing to share them, but i’ve found that when i want to post a link to my fics, if i put a moodboard on it first, people are more likely to reblog it AND they’re more likely to read it.

(for moodboard examples, here’s my stucky moodboard for a fic that has only 86 notes, but i noticed readership growth after posting, and my hydra’s not a home moodboard that has 300 notes - my most shared hnah-related post. i’ve also made others for crack fics and ciaconnaa fics for funsies and they tend to get reblogged more than regular fic update posts)

leave notes at the end of chapters asking direct questions for readers to answer to increase comments. it’s a little like how other websites’ algorithms work with interaction, but what happens is readers sometimes see higher comment numbers on a post and just subconsciously think, oh people must be enjoying it. i know i’ve seen low readership/high comment fics and been intrigued enough to click before.

just keep going. sometimes readership will improve the further you get into a piece - people will see it completed and only read it then. 

make sure that on your chapter estimate, it doesn’t have a question mark. give it a number. your best guess at how many chapters there will be. that tells the reader you know how it’s going to end (even if you don’t) and you’re less likely to quit while it’s still going and actually finish it. you can always change it later. all my love forever was initially estimated at 6 chapters and it ended up with 18. eventually, commenters actually enjoyed my notes constantly saying, okay i was wrong it’s gonna be even longer than i thought.

I think something super important to note is that if you’re writing for a rarepair, crackship or quiet fandom, interaction is likely to be low. writing for z nation, for example, meant that fics I worked really hard on got very little praise or interest at all - and that’s something you either have to be okay with, because you enjoy writing for that particular subject, or something you have to decide you won’t take part in for the sake of interaction.

but then again, if you’re only writing to have audience interaction, your motive is going to be your downfall, and that outside force for your creativity might leave you floundering. writing for your love of writing and the characters and content is your best chance at enjoying what you’re doing and keeping it up. 

and sometimes, loud fandoms with big relationships don’t always vibe with every fic. not every concept and au is going to be popular, even if you’ve worked really hard on it. the only thing you can do is enjoy what you’re creating and move onto the next thing you enjoy.

besides, those 900 reads means that there are people who are enjoying what you’re creating, and they are coming back for every chapter. they might not be many but they’re excited for your story nonetheless.

[tlozypaka-tina]

20 and 34 FE Fic of choice?

Happy Valentine’s special! I planned to do more but unfortunally that wasn’t possible ah- but alas!

I had to skip some parts of the fic in order to get it done today but I’ll continue to review it and once it’s complete, I’ll summit the updated version.

And now, you will all fall victim to rarepair/crackship hell: 20.- Teacher + 34.- Vacation. (Kliff/Julia)

Five years of restless nights had finally paid off. A diploma framed on his wall proved that Kliff had, finally, become a full-fledged teacher.

It took him a couple of months handing away curriculums to receive a call back for an interview, which thankfully got him hired- Finally. If he had to put up with more drunk morons late at night before closing that god-forsaken bar one more week he would have lost it.

The school that he would be working for grouped primary and middle schoolers together inside their main building, while a smaller section of the school was dedicated for the kindergartens. By 2 PM, that area would be empty and closed off, even for the rest of the students. The principal did not want any conflicts to rise due to missing materials or broken property.

When the school year began, Kliff was prepared for the worst- lots of yelling with a side of disrespect for the new Science teacher. After all, middle schoolers could be quite rumbustious. But alas, his love for knowledge and recently found passion for teaching others was slightly stronger that his desire for peace and quiet.

Just slightly.

But there was no way in hell he was going to mess with high schoolers. Now they were an absolute nightmare.

The bell rang and so, first period started. Kliff’s name was already written on the whiteboard by the time all of the students got inside the room and took their seats. Some had their backs turned; talking loudly- as if the little rascals would never have another chance to talk again- Others tried to sleep on their recently claimed cubicles, and a very small number fiddled with their fingers, waiting for class to start.

Well. This will be a long semester.

–

During the breaks, he would seek refuge in the teacher’s room, which his colleagues found extremely funny as he practically dashed into the room less than 1 minute after the bell ring. His seniors would reassure the young blood that it would get easier the more experienced he got. Kliff just nodded and replied “I know”, only to go back to shug his coffee.

He did make friends, of course, mainly with the rest of the Science department- but he didn’t hang out with them often since they were a bit loud for his liking.

Sometimes, around midday, he would catch a glimpse of the kindergarten teachers as they took turns to gather their things and just bolt once the last child had been picked up. They cycled on groups of three while the remaining ones kept watch on the gate.

One of them seemed to be a newcomer, just like him- well, if her young age was not an indicator, her attitude sure was: Didn’t chat with the rest of the teachers, apologized constantly when going to her locker, and left in a hurry once she was done. Kliff would instantly know when she had entered the room, even when buried deep grading papers, because of the quiet “Excuse me-” she mumbled on her way. Other than that, he didn’t interact with the kindergarten department much.

Months went by, and winter break finally came. Two and a half whole weeks of no noise, grading, or rising up early than the sun.

By the gods, finally.

Even if the time was limited, he was willing to enjoy it at its fullest, in his own way.

This is why he had booked a small cabin in a nearby camp to spend at least a few days of his vacation. That camp was just outside of the city, next to a beautiful forest, whose main attraction was the round, clear lake in the middle of it all.

He arrived to the camp by afternoon, and 15 minutes later he had the keys and was inside the cabin.

First things first…he had to start a fire on the chimney and unpack his clothes. Nighttime would fall soon and he was warned that it would get rather cold during that time.

Thankfully, some logs and old newspapers were available to use, conveniently next to the chimney. He kneeled in front of the chimney to place the logs correctly and surround them with the newspaper, pushing the ashes away from the wood. Some of it got to his nose, making him sneeze- creating a mess. “Ugh, just great…”

After the stack of wood and paper was done, Kliff started to look for matches to start the fire, but there were none in sight. The box that had been left on top of the chimney was completely empty, so, Kliff threw it inside.

As much of an annoyance as it was to get out and ask for matches or a lighter, he had to do it unless he wanted to wake up ill, and there was no way we would spend his vacations sick. He took some paper towels and cleaned his soot-covered face before going outside. His shirt would have to get washed during the night.

After making sure that he looked presentable, Kliff ventured out of the cabin, keys in hand, and walked towards the entrance, where he remembered seeing a small store there when he arrived. The dim lighting signaled that the moon would rise soon enough, and thus, he would need to hurry before it was too dark to see the way back.

Kliff entered the store, closing his eyes harshly thanks to the lamp’s bright light. The store clerk- who he was certain he had seen before- greeted him cheerfully. “Welcome! How may I help you with?”

“Uh, Good afternoon. Do you have any match boxes?” He asked, resting his arms on the desk.

“Of course! I have to look for them at the back, it’ll be just a minute!” And with that, the clerk disappeared to the back. Kliff sighed, reaching out for his wallet.

Just at that moment, someone else came into the shop, approaching the front desk. He wasn’t really in the mood to socialize thanks to the chimney fiasco, nor he particularly cared to see who had come in- so, he kept digging holes to the door where the clerk had disappeared to.

Until the mystery person was on his peripheral vision.

He recognized her; it was his co-worker- the one that worked with the young children. Of all places to be, they just happened to pick the same spot, and arrive the very same day, didn’t they? If that wasn’t a big, convoluted coincidence, he didn’t know what would be.

She moved her head to look at him, feeling stared at, to which he responded by clearing his throat and pretending to look at something in the stands by the side.

After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, the back door opened once more, the clerk coming out of it with a bright smile on her face. “Here you go Mister! A brand new box of matches! Please come to the register with me.”

He walked towards the register, and payed for the somewhat large box. “Thanks. I’m leaving now.” He replied, tired.

“Come back soon, and have a cozy night!” Closed the clerk, turning her attention towards the other customer. Kliff prepared to leave the store and stumble in the darkness back to his cabin, but the chit-chat happening behind him made him stop.

“Well, hello there Julia! Time sure flies if you are already here, huh?”

“Ahaha…Good afternoon to you too, Anna. It’s nice to see you again.”

A warm and welcoming chuckle left Anna. “Well, how long are you staying this time?”

The purple haired woman- who he now knew was named Julia- sighed. “Only 3 days. Everyone else has different compromises to tend to these weeks.”

Anna pouted, resting her cheek on the palm of her hand. “Aww, that’s a shame, but at least I’m glad that you get to spend a couple of days with us! Your presence and patronage is always appreciated.” She finished, with her trademark smile coming back to her face.

The woman in front of the desk returned the smile. “Of course, I would never miss a chance to come here.”

Anna, after a short-lived chuckle, clasped her hands together once. “Well! Reminiscing is nice and all but as you know, the policy in this store is ‘Time is money’.” Leaning over the desk, she continued. “What can I help you with?”

Julia blinked once, before straightening her back, she had forgotten momentarily the reason she had come into the store. “Oh! Right, I was wondering if you had some candles and sugar? We forgot to bring them…”

Another chuckle. “No problem! Wait here just a moment!” With that said, Anna disappeared once again to the back of the store, leaving both adults alone once more.

Kliff had been standing in the same place since the conversation started, unable to come closer towards the door. It wasn’t like him to eavesdrop- hell, he didn’t really care about their idle chattering, but for some reason his co-worker sparked interest.

…Maybe it was because she was a fellow newbie, like him.

It was only when he caught Julia staring intensely at him that Kliff realized what he had done until that moment. He probably looked like a dumbass at best and a creep at worst.

He felt self-conscious and was about to bolt towards his cabin, powering through the darkness and forget this awkward interaction ever happened, but before he had a chance to react, Julia spoke up. “…Um, excuse me? Have we met?”

'Well- shit. Can’t escape this conversation now.’ He thought.

He looked to the sides and adjusted his stance, so it wasn’t awkwardly leaning towards the door, he attempted to look relaxed by placing his hands in his pockets, but it was clear that he was not comfortable.

With an out-of-habit shrug, he commenced. “You work at the 'Askran Plains School’, don’t you? I have seen you there a couple of times.” ’Yeah- that sure doesn’t sound creepy.’ Kliff chasticiced himself. He even cringed quite visibly once he proceeded at what had just been said.

By some miracle, she didn’t freak out. Instead, Julia stared at his face some more, before a light bulb went off in her head. “Oh! That’s why your face was so familiar! You are a professor there too.” Julia rubbed her upper arm, retreating to herself. “Ahaha…I apologize for not recognizing you. I- don’t pay the most attention, sometimes.”

Kliff sighed in relief on his mind, but moved his head to the side to avoid her glance, just in case. “Eh, it’s no big deal, we never really talked.”

She lowered her head. “N-no, we didn’t.”

More silence. He scratched his head. She looked back at the counter. 'Fantastic.’

He coughed, “Do you, like- own the place or something…?” Kliff questioned, now curious about her casual chatting with Anna earlier.

The question caught her off guard. “What? Oh! No, no! It’s just…” Julia took hold of one of her long strands of hair falling on the sides of her face, rolling it around her finger sheepishly. “We…I mean, my family and I, come here rather often, so the owners and staff are familiar with us.”

“Ah…I see.”

Another wave of silence followed, this time less tense. The woman was the one that coughed this time, standing properly and allowing her hands to fall to the front of her body. It was the 'teacher pose’. “I-I guess that I should introduce myself. My name is Julia, Julia Velthomer.” She followed with a quick bop of the head. “It’s n-nice to meet you.”

“Uuh…” He stammered, slipping a quiet 'ejem’ while gathering his own thoughts in a, less formal presentation. “I’m Kliff Cinderand.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Same to you.”

Just then, the door from the back swung open once more. “I’m baaaack! Sorry, we recently got restacked so the storage is quite messy.” Anna, noisy and cherry as ever, was holding the requested items on her arms, ignoring the situation that her two customers were in.

Julia had been startled by the sudden noises, holding her hands near her chest. “Ah- don’t apologize for that, Anna, I understand.” She made her way towards the counter as she spoke, taking out her wallet to pay. The exchange happened without any extra derails. “Here you go! Come back soon!”

“Thank you Anna, and-” Turning around, she looked at her colleague. “See you soon, Kliff.”

Julia reached out to her bag once more, pulling out a flashlight. She started to head towards the door, when Kliff reached out his hand towards her, realizing something. “Wait!” He called out, pausing for an instant to moderate his voice. “…I’ll go with you.”

To say that said action surprised her would put it lightly. “H-huh?”

Anna raised her eyebrows from her spot.

“…It’s, uh, a bit dark outside and I don’t have a flashlight on hand.” He continued, looking downcast. 'Should have followed up with that from the start…’

The lavender lady blinked, switching her gaze between the lantern in her hands and the science teacher. “Oh! Of course, I’ll accompany you to your cabin.”

He rubbed the back of his head again, ignoring the chuckle of the clerk as they left the store. “T-thanks.”

The walk was silent, at first, other than the crunching sounds beneath them of the grass, dry leaves and stones that they stepped on. The flashlight fixated on the path ahead. “So…What do you plan on doing during your stay here?” Was the question that broke the quiet ambience, coming from the shy woman.

Kliff glanced at her direction raising an eyebrow at her curiosity. He expected that she wouldn’t talk to him after his pathetic attempts at conversation…but maybe she was bored or just wanted to kill the tension. “Enjoy the silence, the view…probably visit the lake on these days, I’ve heard a lot about it.” Was his answer, albeit by his tone of voice at the start of the sentence, she could identify traces of exhaustion.

“Goodness…Rough semester, I assume?” Inquired the teacher, turning at her companion. Kliff huffed, releasing some pent-up frustration of his students’ antics. “Tell me about it…”

Her eyes softened, as she understood the feeling from experience. Frowning, she pondered if it would be uncalled for to offer some suggestions so his vacations wouldn’t be so aimless. Mustering her strength, she took a chance. “Do you…know of the events the camp offers during your stay?”

“Erm- I gave them a glance at the entrance but, I would like to wake up after the sun rises during my break.” He confessed. It’s not like he considered them boring per se, but he missed sleeping in more.

“A-ah, I understand that. It’s just…” She hesitated. “Tomorrow there will be a guided stroll that will go around the forest. We will stop at the lake and then head back by lunch…And since you said you wanted to see it I thought that…I should let you know.” Julia exhaled, turning her eyes towards the path.

But that didn’t last for very long, as she started to feel self-conscious about her invitation. It sounded demanding, in her eyes. “N-not that I’m forcing you to come! It’s up to you, after all…” She cleared up, waving one hand in front of her dismissively. “But it’s good to have ideas in the back of your mind, at least, I think so.” 'There- I said it. Deep breaths Julia…He can agree or disagree, but you did your part…’

He shifted his eyes rapidly, weighting the pros and cons of the proposal. On one hand, waiting for his friends to get here by the afternoon would be eternal…but his precious first day of sleep would be postponed. One hand held his chin in thought. “…I’ll…think about it. Don’t get your hopes up, though.” Just then, the light of a lamp just outside a cabin caught his eye, making him stop in his tracks to stare at it. “Oh, we arrived.”

She stopped around the same time as he did, turning off the flashlight and staring in awe at the building. “So this is your cabin? That’s nice…I like the wood carvings above the doors. Makes it feel more…fancy." 

'Huh, she really likes these things…’ He realized, taking a tentative glance towards her. Julia’s lavender eyes had the spark of admiration in them. Kliff turned to the marking she was so intent in admiring, tilting his head. "It’s…nice to look at, I’ll admit.”

Silence once more reigned between the two, only this time, without the uncomfortable tension, with only the soft wind of the night echoing.

Many minutes passed when Julia recalled that she was needed back on her own cabin. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of worrying her family into looking for her just because she had lost track of time. “O-oh, well um-” She stammered, adjusting the flashlight and the groceries firmly on her arms. “Ahah…I’ll go back to my place now. It was nice talking to you.”

“Er- right. Goodnight Julia.” He wished her, taking his eyes off the decorations. It was starting to get both late and cold, and he would prefer not to freeze.

Who could have expected that going to buy matches would be so lengthy?

He waved at her from the door, gesture that she returned greatly flustered. “G-goodnight.” With that said and done, she turned on her heel and disappeared, farther away into the camp.

–

…And just like that, the vacations flew by. There weren’t many who were really excited to come back to class- but alas, such is life. They would have to smile and wave as the principal made their greeting speech for the second term- which no one would pay attention to- and then painfully wait for their class to be called, from youngest year to oldest, so they would depart to their classrooms.

Why couldn’t they just dismiss everyone at once was a mystery.

The first group to leave was Julia’s. She stood up, made the kids pair up with each other and then walked out of the auditory, holding the hand of the one kid who didn’t have a partner, in front of all others. He waved at her during a moment where she had turned around, and she quickly returned the gesture.

And then, more waiting, as his group was one of the last ones to depart. But, unlike the younger kids, they didn’t need to pair up and hold hands when leaving.

–

Break time arrived once again, and, on cue, Kliff was already dashing towards the break room to escape from the chaos of the unleashed students that ran all over.

The moment he went through that door, a familiar face made him stop in his tracks. Standing still, clearly nervous but looking around the room, was Julia. “Oh, Kliff! I feared I would miss you today.”

“Ah, it’s you, Julia.” He replied, much relaxed than before. “Don’t worry; I’m always here once the bell rings, so you’ll never miss me.” He arched a brow. “Did you need something?”

“Well…kind of.” She rummaged through the bag that hanged from her shoulder, taking out a familiar book. “I wanted to return this to you…Since I forgot to do so earlier.”

The newly graduated blinked slowly, recognizing the object in her hands. “Oh…I had almost forgotten about it."  

She came closer, placing the object carefully on his hands. "Well- I guess it’s a good thing that I remembered to bring it today.” A smile appeared on her face, her hands resting on top of the cover. Kliff took hold of book, his own fingers lingering for a short time on the back of her hand. “Heh, yeah. It was a good thing, Thank you, Julia.”

Once the item was safely back with its owner, Julia stepped back, taking her hand away and began to turn around, but at that moment the break room door burst open, causing both teachers to jump. “Professor! We have our assignments-” Recognizing those voices, Kliff turned around, seeing two of his students with the sheets he had handed out that morning on their hands. “Ah.” He sighed, approaching his students, retrieving the papers. “Thank you for returning these. Remind the rest of your classmates that they have until the end of the day.”

The two teens looked at each other, nodded, and bolted from the room.

Kliff turned to Julia, who was holding her bag tightly. “Are you okay?”

“O-oh, I am! I just…got startled.” She awkwardly laughed. “My…your students are quite rowdy, aren’t they?”

“Eeh, they have been worse in the short time I’ve met them. But I’ll manage.” he said, visibly cringing at one specific memory regarding a desk and a broken chair…

Some silence lingered between them, as Julia recovered her composure. In the midst of that silence she realized that she had stayed longer than the usual time, and her co-workers would start to worry.

Adjusting her bag on her shoulder, Julia walked backwards towards the door somewhat rapidly. “Well- I guess I’ll see you later!” Julia said, waving as she left the room from the back door.

He sighed, disappointed from being unable to say anything else during that quiet moment. Sitting on his desk, he left the book on one side, and the small mountain of work sheets on the other.

Maybe they could hang out again soon, but for now, he had to focus on work.

[chronotopes]

tagged by @benjameme-sisko; answers and questions (?!) under the cut

1. which starfleet uniform is your favorite? 

it’s a close race between the later-season ds9 ones that were introduced for first contact and the red-and-white wrath of khan uniforms. i think both of them reflect the tone of the works they’re in very well and also they look damn cool. i know a lot of people on here don’t like the gray ones but they’ve grown on me big time. 

2. do you create any fanworks of your own?

my m.o. before this has been “make fun text posts and call it a day, feat. occasional art”, but yeah for ds9 i’ve written two fanfics and .... WANT to write more, but who fucking knows am i right. in a true-to-brand fun fact, they both involve Jezri Hell in some way. 

3. if you could have a holodeck program of your own, what would it be?

if this is assuming i already live in the star trek universe, i think it’d be, like... definitely one of the #historical #rpf ones that all the NERDS on the shows are so fond of. maybe one that lets u hang out with byron and the shelleys for geneva ‘16. or maybe i could do one that’s themed after a dumas novel, that’s the right mix of romanticism and fun adventure  

4. your favorite tacky costume in star trek

ooh um it’s a tie between a) the mauve shirt jim kirk is wearing in the search for spock / the voyage home, which makes me Very Angry but is also funny, b) julian bashir’s asymmetrical v-neck, because garak so obviously made it, and c) quark’s vacation look. (GOD i’m so mad at that episode for being bad. i’ve said this like three times now but it SHOULD have been gold.) 

5. your favorite character in all of star trek; you’re allowed to choose only one

kiraaaaaa. she was my introduction to ‘women in star trek that are written like actual fucking people’ and i would die for her. 

6. if you could change any plot line in any trek media, what would it be? 

oh god. um i feel like the objective answer is to fix either a) the maquis storylines on voyager, or b) the development/’mentorship’ of seven, also on voyager, but i haven’t SEEN voyager so i can’t exactly be a #1 source on this. so.... i think i’d change ziyal’s arc so that a) she isn’t used as a convenient resource to straightwash garak, and b) she lives to see the end of the war. waltz still happens tho, i guess she fakes her death or something. dukat’s arc post-waltz is another thing that i think needs fixing (summoning bajoran satan kind of seemed to come out of the left field) but right now i don’t have any good ideas as to how. 

7. wackiest crackship pairing? 

quark/grantaire from les miserables. they don’t even fuck, they sit in the bar and tell one another all the ways in which they’re terrible people and this gives them sexual gratification. yes i’m aware that i’m the only person who finds this concept funny, am i going to stop bringing it up? hell no. dril voice “i will never log off”. anyway this relationship would be something that’s detrimental for them both and validates their worst aspects, which means it’s an in-character enterprise. 

8. favorite rarepair? 

kira/cretak!! i like kiradax but after the early seasons they REALLY don’t interact a great deal, and i guess kira/cretak creates lots of exciting post-canon possibilities. that jumja stick conversation? yeah, they need to fuck. 

9. episodic storytelling, or serialized storylines? 

hmm i mean. this is just in application to star trek (everyone knows the episodic x-files eps are the best ones) but i think i’ll go for serialized; there’s a reason ds9 is my fave, and i’ve been a lot more into dsc lately. that said i like the way ds9 does serialization more than dsc sometimes, in that i wish (i know this isn’t in line with today’s conception of television) that dsc had more in the cards-style episodes, where serialized plots are still happening in the background but the characters get a chance to slow down and relax and have nice things happen to them. we kind of had that with magic to make the sanest man go mad, which i think was one of the strongest early-season dsc episodes; i think we could do with more of that.  

10. which is your favorite title theme? 

it’s a tie between ds9 (which i am the most emotionally attached to, and which i think sets the tone for the series so well, and it’s ALSO absolutely beautiful) and tng (which is just.... A Fucking Banger)

11. give us an episode that never fails to make you happy, and an episode that never fails to make you sad. 

happy: in the cards (jake! nice things happening in times of war!), sad: what you leave behind (jezri! everyone saying goodbye to everyone they love!) 

okay uhh i don’t have that many star trek mutuals that i know for sure enjoy doing these things, but i’m going to tag @ensignhoshisato and @little-vulcan (SORRY, i know you were already tagged in the prev. one, you Really don’t have to do these), @bajroan, and @twentyeightghosts (idk if you do these but i like hearing your Thoughts on things so it’s worth a try.) yes anyway none of you have to obviously, and if you’re someone who wants to but wasn’t tagged then please do it. do you guys see why i don’t tend to tag people in these things. 

anyway, 

you’re called in to make a new season for the star trek series of your choice; which do you pick, and what are some things you plan to do? 

similarly, you’re called in to create a series bible for an entirely new star trek show; are there any characters/settings/timelines/gimmicks/central themes that you’re drawn to?

you get to make any recurring star trek character a regular, but to do this you have to demote an existing regular on that show to recurring. whom do you swap?

if you had to swap fashion senses with a star trek character for a year, who would it be?

what’s your stance on the mirror universe?

this link takes you to a random memory alpha page; what did you get, and do you have any opinion you’d like to express on this thing?

do you care about any kind of star trek Lore(tm) in terms of like, years, names of dominion war battles, runabout types, conlangs, etc, or are you like “fuck the lore this is my town now”?

do you read star trek novels? if so, what’s your favorite one, and if not, what would convince you to read one? 

which star trek show was your first, and is that one your favorite? 

what’s your ideal endgame for your Favorite Star Trek Ship Of All Time Ever? (i mean ‘pairing’ here but if you’d rather answer for a literal ship then go ahead) 

if you served on a starfleet ship, what would you like its name to be?