#maybe that's why I'm a multi shipper actually

[mcyt-rarepair-tournament]

seeing what people will do to get people to vote their ship is so funny to me. i’m willing to bet this entire tournament has gotten at least one person out of their writers/artists block

Shipping is serious business, lol. I hope this helped people with their creative blocks, that'd be really funny.

[lemotmo]

I'm going to try and approach this a bit differently. We have all been in a position where we desperately wanted something from a show. We can all relate to the desire for something you love to become canon. I still fret about whether or not they'll actually give us Buddie. Yes it has been sign posted but it's been sign posted for years and we're still waiting. Anyway I say that part to say this next part. They are sign posted. The canon signs are there and there everywhere. None of it is made up from nothing. Yes there are headcanons but that's true of every ship. But most of the headcanons have canon scenes that they stem from. The BT stuff is all headcanon. I keep seeing gifs of Buck with gifs of Lou from other acting rolls and them being tagged as bucktommy. Those gifs have nothing to do with 911 and aren't Tommy. None of it is based on canon. It has all come from their cameo conversations with Lou. And that genuinely dumbfounds me. Because now I see less and less Buck and it's increasingly Tommy centered.

Buck is the character the show cares about and they know that. I don't know enough about the SWAT theory to speak to it's truth or not but the timing of its renewal and him going 911 dark does somewhat feed into the rumor. I don't know, it's bad enough so many of them have become horrible towards Eddie but now they're starting to change who Buck canonically is to fit their headcanons of Tommy (the whole damsel in distress nonsense enrages me). And while I understand the desire to push for what you love, basic knowledge of the show has to play into your expectations at some point. It will be interesting(terrifying) to see how they react when his arc finishes, and he himself stated it was an arc(hello people he said this) so I'm just forever dumbfounded as to how we got here and I'm someone who genuinely tried to see where they're coming from.

*sigh* sorry for the length of this ask. Your blog is lovely.

Yes Nonny. Yes! All of this! This has been on my mind for so long now and you managed to summarize it so beautifully.

I simply do not get how we got here. A couple of months ago, everything was great in this fandom. We had no great expectations of Buddie canon, but we were happy to be on ABC so we could maybe get some more Buddie scenes. And we did get them. Season 7 was great for Buddie.

Unfortunately it also brought along Tommy. I was and still am thrilled for Buck being revealed as being bisexual. It's wonderful! And the initial thrill of it was exciting. I immediately started tying this in to Eddie. A lot of us in the Buddie fandom have long since theorised that, as soon as one of them would come out, the other would follow because it would be the only thing to make sense. Buck and Eddie have both been queer-coded for so long now and finally we would see some movement in their story.

Imagine my surprise when suddenly some people decided that Tommy was the best thing that had ever happened to Buck. It was all Tommy this, Tommy that, Tommy with the sun shining out of his ***. I was so confused. Even some of my Buddie mutuals who I had known for years, just kind of gave up on Buddie and started worshipping at the altar of Tommy Kinard.

And the fact that Lou started spouting his headcanons in those cameos definitely didn't help either. Some people really believe in those headcanons.

And listen, nothing against headcanons. I have some of my own. But there is a reason why they are called 'head'canons. It's because they are things you see and recognise in a character, but they aren't discussed in the show, so they aren't 'canon'. They remain 'fanon'.

Now, don't get me wrong, ship and let ship. But there is a difference between normal 'shipping' and liking the pair, and the total craziness the Tommy-hype has become.

I know a lot of people that are multi-shippers and I have mutuals who like BT as a transitional relationship, but ultimately still want Buddie. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the people who suddenly started talking down on Eddie as if he was treating Buck badly and how he was a bad father. And how, even if he were queer, Buck would never choose him over Tommy. Where did that come from? They didn't say that before. Why now?

And I ask the question: What is so special about Tommy? I keep seeing people that say Buck is in the best relationship ever. HOW? WHAT? WHERE? What do these people see that I don't see?

We have seen Tommy in a handful of scenes. In all of those scenes he has been dismissive, disrespectful and frankly not very interesting. There is no chemistry at all with Buck either. I mean, if there had been some palpable chemistry I might have liked it more, but it just seems as if Lou is going through the motions in those kisses. If they are such a great couple, where are the little couple things? Where is the handholding? The little in-jokes? Nothing! I mean, Oliver does his best to keep their scenes somewhat afloat, but Lou is clearly not even trying. So I truly do not understand this strange -almost obsessive and gatekeeping- behaviour when it comes to Lou and Tommy.

It's obvious-- and anyone with eyes can see this from miles away-- that Tommy is a narrative device to have Buck explore his bisexuality. Every single thing in the show, but also around the show, is pointing in that direction.

Think about it. There was no promotion whatsoever for BT, only for bi Buck and Buddie. They had one abysmal interview where they talked for 2 seconds about BT and Oliver looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. They have given Tommy no screentime whatsoever. He is only there when it is required for Buck's storyline. It practically screams: plot device.

Then we have Ryan giving interviews where he, once again, talks about Buck being a co-parent and how Eddie will explore himself in season 8. How he will push that refresh button and he will ultimately find the partner he needs. All gender neutral by the way.

I mean, look... I admit to having been delulu in the past over small things when it comes to Buddie. What can I say? It's been a long 6 years. But this? This is no longer about being delusional. This is full-blown 'in your face': BUDDIE IS HAPPENING! It's all right there when you look at it logically.

But yes, somehow, we are wrong because our ship isn't canon and it's apparantly homophobic to be against a canon ship?

Which... do these people know what fandom is actually about? It's about fictional people and we want to see these fictional people get interesting story arcs and we want some of them to end up together because they have such a great history and chemistry. Like Buddie.

So yes Nonny, I agree. And listen, I do too still fret sometimes that I might be seeing things that aren't there. It's in my nature as a libra to doubt everything.

But then I start putting all of the evidence in- and outside of the narrative together and... it can only lead to one thing: queer Eddie (which is about time) and eventually Buddie.

And imagine the payoff that will be. Imagine how the viewership will get a boost. So many more people would turn in. Bi Buck was big, but the fan favourite queer slow burn getting together after 7 seasons by then? The internet will explode. It will be epic.

For 6 seasons we have been rooting for these men to open their eyes and to see what is right in front of them. There were plans to go there, but FOX stopped it. Now they are on ABC and obviously ABC is okay with queer characters on their shows. I mean, look at 'Grey's anatomy'.

So yes, I proudly declare myself no longer delulu and 100% certain that Buddie is in the works. There is no more need for clown noses and clown cars. We are beyond that now. It's a matter of 'when', not 'if'.

Mind you, just my humble opinion here. But I stand with it.

[glassofapplejuicee]

ok ok so the idea of a camp au has been floating around in my head forever and at this point i just need to put pen to paper! now i’ve never been to camp so keep that in mind. and god only knows if this will become an actual fleshed out fic or a WIP that will collect dust in my drive forever-

anyways, it's called Camp Spruce Trails (get it, Spruce Trails, ST?) and I'm imagining this au is still set in the mid 80s, but none of the upside down stuff happens ya know? or maybe upside down stuff happens while they're at camp? but i'm kind of leaning towards letting these guys have a normal childhood-

the camp itself is your classic 6 week sleepaway camp, there’s canoeing, arts and crafts, knot tying, competitions, campfires, etc. going to camp is a borderline religious tradition for The Party and they will do everything in their power to make sure they attend. one of their favorite parts of camp, is the staff:

Argyle Franco: 17, Kitchen, he isn’t huge with the kids but Jonathan convinced him to apply for the job, fridays are always pizza nights, he keeps to himself usually but cheers on his favorite campers during their games

Robin Buckley: 18, Blue Cabin Counselor, frazzled 24/7 but trying her best, wears the handmade jewelry from her campers like it’s made of gold, knows all the camp songs by heart, cries when camp ends, no longer allowed in the kitchen after the incident of ‘84

Nancy Wheeler: 18, Yellow Cabin Counselor, by the books and her campers know that, but they still have fun, always excels in the art competitions (much to Billy’s dismay), she's the most strict counselor however she takes great pride in her ability to get all the campers in bed by lights out

Jonathan Byers: 18, Groundskeeper(?), no one really knows his exact job title, he just sort of shows up every summer and nobody says anything, he fixes leaky pipes, kitchen appliances, pulls weeds, whatever needs done, he helps out a lot in the art cabin though

Steve Harrington: 19, Green Cabin Counselor, mostly stable but the coffee rings stained into his clipboard are telling, tries to be the "cool counselor", and if you stay on his good side you’ll be fine, however he will not hesitate to drag your ass to the office and call your parents if you step out of line

Billy Hargrove: 19, Red Cabin Counselor, parents hate him, but his campers are loyal, they demolish every single athletic competition, stole Eddie’s whistle (now annoys everyone with it), also no longer allowed in the kitchen after the incident of '84

Eddie Munson: 20, Lifeguard, but he sort of pokes his head in wherever he pleases, was deemed unfit to be a camp counselor so they stuck him as lifeguard, plays guitar around the campfire at night, multiple writes up for smoking on the job

if i were to flesh this out more into a full au fic (or more realistically, a series of ficlets??) you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a giant love hexagon thing that will be going on as a subplot to the camp activities. i'm not even a huge multi-shipper or anything but picture it: Nancy asks Robin to watch her campers for a minute so she can go flirt with Jonathan? yeah sure why not. Nancy gets back and finds Robin sulking cause she's jealous? i'm sure Nancy would be happy to cheer Robin up with a kiss! Eddie and Argyle bump into each other smoking behind the shed? oh whoops my finger slipped and now they're shot gunning a joint. Steve find's Billy and Eddie chilling at Skull Rock? well shit now all three of 'em are making out a la Challengers.

[logansargey]

https://www.tumblr.com/logansargey/756207872957874176/what-did-the-lstappies-say-i-must-be-blocked-by

It got even more unhinged (derogatory) after that. Massive tantrum. Still no explanation either. Her spin on it does show the PR training or background that she claims to have, though, so good for her, I guess? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think she just irrationally hates Daniel, because it’s blindingly obvious that Max likes Daniel more than he likes Charles, and that Max and Daniel are actually friends.

Hilariously enough, as we all know, Charles is also good friends with Daniel. It just suck to hate someone who is liked by the person you claim to be a fan of.

I think the only reason she hates Maxiel is because she hates Daniel. And I looked at her post and she never really explains why..? She just says she doesn't like him. Not shipping Maxiel is completely different than hating on it. And that's what she's doing. I try not to hate someone just because of their opinion on a driver, but only if they give reason on why they hate that driver. I don't hate a single driver and I'm also a multi shipper, so I have the best of both worlds. And Charles and Daniel are friends, they have been for a long time. Daniel was friends with Jules and kind of took Charles under his wing when he went into F1. On a real note, don't call yourself a fan of someone if you're going to hate on one of their friends.

I don't ship Lestappen but you don't see me making long posts on why I don't, unlike her. I think she's just reflecting her hate of Daniel onto Maxiel. And also I think she hates that Max and Daniel are friends and post each other constantly. Idk, not really my place to tell. But I don't stand for Daniel hate bc he's one of my comfort people and Maxiel is one of my comfort ships. The first thing I did after getting out of the mental hospital and when I got my phone back was read a Maxiel fanfic (I'm not even joking 😭) Also, I've realized that Max fans tend to lean more to Maxiel bc of their relationship and that Charles fans lean more to lestappen. Maybe it's bc it's a famous ship for Charles, but I see that Maxiel shippers ship it bc of their closeness and their cute friendship. This is just my take on her post. No hate to her though. I'd love to go in more detail on why Maxiel ppl choose Maxiel but I won't. I'll spare you the torture of me yapping.

[scoobydoodean]

Dean cared about Benny more than he ever cared about Cas. Benny was a vampire and Dean wanted to save him and be with him. They formed a bond that rivaled Dean's bond with Sam in the space of a year. Dean and Cas never managed to do that in over ten years. Dean even looked for Benny again when he went back to Purgatory. There's no objective argument that Dean cared about Cas more. You're delusional.

I love Deanbenny and have said on many occasions that it's my favorite dean ship. It doesn't matter to me that other people don't like them as much or like other ships better for various reasons—such as preference for a larger breadth of canon material, just not vibing, etc. If I feel bothered by someone's commentary on deanbenny or deanlisa or anything else, I just filter/unfollow/or block if necessary.

I think maybe I've said it before a long time ago... but Dean has so much love stored up in his heart. Any attempt to diminish what the people he loves mean to him kinda aches a little for me as a deanfan? And that very much includes people trying to diminish what Cas means to Dean. In fact, that might be the relationship I've happened to see people attempt to diminish the most throughout my time here because it's such a popular ship and because some people respond to that with a need to compete and prove whatever relationship they like the best is better... and then Dean ends up being treated like a doll being yanked back and forth in a tug-of-war instead of a person, and that in particular is why I keep non-shipper in my blog description for when I'm in particular moods.

There's an unfortunate pitfall I sometimes see within the non-shipping/multi-shipping/rarepair community where people start to become what initially pushed them away from popular ships and those circles to begin with, and it feels like that's what's happening here. "Delusional" is a word that's been highly favored by hardcore wincest shippers for over a decade to hurl at destiel shippers as they obsessively stalk their blogs looking for anything to whine about. Comparing how Dean feels about Cas or Benny feels the same as when shippers of popular ships make similar comparisons to try and prove their ship is better. This really feels no different.

And to be quite honest... reflecting on all of the SPN hate mail I have ever laid eyes on in all of the time I have been on Tumblr, the amount of hate mail I have seen from fellow deanbenny shippers thrown anonymously at people who ship other things—this year alone—has at this point exceeded all other combined hate mail from other shipping factions I have ever seen. This includes the hate mail tinhats throw at each other, and it's pretty wild for a group of hate anons who love a rarepair to excede what tinhats are capable of hurling at each other. Basically at this point, I think people who anonymously come into people's inboxes to complain about people who don't ship deanbenny have poisoned the pairing in the minds of tons of people and have begun to ruin deanbenny for everyone by being horrid, block-evading bullies, and if you actually want people to like dean and benny as a pairing, the best thing you could do is post with love about them and enjoy yourself instead of choosing (and I do mean choosing) to be angry all of the time and lash out at strangers on the internet about what they may or may not enjoy.

[md-confessions]

I don't understand why people tend to lump in ThUzi shippers with those annoying Envy stans who are like "uhm ackchually Envy and ThUzi are canon and endgame, NUzi is just a mass hallucination you all came up with to cope with the fact that it never existed and will never exist because [insert made-up problematic reason here] and 'cuz Liam said [insert extremely paraphrased thing that Liam probably never actually said here]."

Like, speaking as a NUzi shipper myself, all the ThUzi shippers I've personally come across seem to be either A) Folks who simply prefer it for whatever reason but aren't getting up on their soapboxes to preach about how you'll go to Hell before you die if you ship NUzi instead, B) Multi/polyshippers who just wanna make the robots kiss and aren't all that picky about which ones, or C) Those very same annoying Envy stans, who I'm almost half-convinced are legitimately watching a different version of the show.

But, y'know, maybe that's just me. I don't have TikTok and that seems to be the primary hotspot of NUzi shippers getting harassed over it by edgy 14-year-olds who probably shouldn't be watching this show in the first place, maybe there's some truly awful ThUzi stans over there. In which case, better they all be contained to one spot than to be spreading their influence all over the internet. Twitter is already bad enough as it is now.

.

[therealvinelle]

Why do you think fanfic writers lie in their fic tags? Like, a fic itself contains several semi-graphic depictions of het sex, and yet the tag is Gen. What is the thought process behind doing shit like this?

They're sick fucks, that's why.

To be more serious: I think few people set out to intentionally deceive their readers, and the ones that do usually want readers so badly they forget themselves. Genuine bad actors are rare, or so I choose to believe.

As it is, I suspect I'm a misleading tagger myself, at least to some.

The way I treat tags is as warnings, so I will tag ships featured in my works even if they're one-sided, background, or in the past because that way people who don't want to see that ship know to avoid my story. Edward/Carlisle and Jacob/Renesmee getting tagged in my fic Bleach on the Brain is an example of this: sucks if you clicked on the fic because you're a shipper but the way I see it, sucks worse if you don't want to see those and now you're reading a fic with father/son incest and a guy in his mid-twenties grooming a child in it. If I hadn't done this, if I'd only kept the pairings which were depicted positively, then the negative tags in that fic (grooming, sexual assault, etc) would have been assumed to be related to those and someone else would have been upset with me.

I tag this way because @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin learned the hard way (i.e.: got hate) that tagging only for endgame will get a lot of people very mad at you, but now A/B shippers have fics depicting their ship negatively. It's a losing game.

So that's bringing me to a major reason why I think misleading tags happen (which gets a headline so I can tell myself this post is structured):

People have different ideas of how works should be tagged

Some people want to tag for everything that happens in the fic. Literally everything, if it's a smut you know exactly what goes where just from reading the tags.

This also means they might tag characters who appear only briefly in a scene in chapter 35 (the fic having 56 chapters so far and being 500k+ long), because hey, the character appears. Or maybe they're brought up a lot and are very important to the fic even if there's not much actual screentime, so a character like Voldemort gets tagged in a Harry Potter fic focused on the war without him actually appearing all that much.

On the opposing side you have the minimalists. They tag the main two characters and put three more in the additional tags so it won't go in the character tag, and add a ship tag some 30 chapters in. There are two additional tags, both are very vague. If that - I've seen people who don't tag at all, or who just tag with a single character, or just the ship - it really is up to the individual.

I've noticed the type of author (whether Ao3 was their first platform, how much time they spent elsewhere, whether it's an imported fic, and how old the author is) and the type of fic (how old it is, the author's background, and genre (oneshot, drabble, multi-chapter, 5+1, etc.)) influences tagging.

Common to all authors, though, is they try to tag as they feel is appropriate for their fic.

Which brings me to the next issue:

How do I tag?

A lot of people are confused about this.

They're confused about what tags mean - what's freeform (I honestly keep forgetting what this one is supposed to be too), when something should be tagged, what belongs in relationship or character tags vs. additional tags, what additional tags are supposed to be.

Do you, for that matter, try to explain your story in the tag ("this is a roommate AU with feelings") or do you tag succinctly ("roommate AU", "feelings", "fluff") or a combination? A lot of authors seem to prefer the first and last options, from what I can tell it's become the norm. Most authors seem to use the additional tags to connect with the reader in this way, and so you get people placing more emphasis on the additional tags than the succinct tags.

How do I tag? Sensibilities section

Then there's the question of sensibilities: what's triggering to reader A may be great stuff to reader B, with the author not realising it could be triggering to anybody and should have been in the tags, or the author thought knees brushing against each other warranted big red warnings that "they literally had sex, oh god this is so dirty. so dirty!! can't believe i wrote this. ENTER AT OWN RISK" which of course is very disappointing to the sick fucks who wanted porn.

Or the opposite happens: the author knows the subject is triggering, which means people might not click on the fic, and they want attention so badly they ah weasel out. Or option three: the author can't tag without spoiling the story, and so they either put "creator chose not to use warnings", don't rate it, and let the readers enter at their own risk or they use tags uh strategically (have a look at how I tagged Nebuchadnezzar's Dream to avoid spoiling the bloody coup d'état that happens at the end. Today I simply would have gone for no warnings and no rating, but those tags are also a solution which I think is... alright, I suppose "massacre" could have been added but it was entirely off screen so to me would have been an abuse of the tag).

In other words, everyone will be tagging differently and sometimes it's because they've no clue which tag is warranted, sometimes they're trying not to spoil their story, sometimes they didn't realise they should or shouldn't have tagged for something.

Anthologies (when someone posts their oneshots as chapters of a story)

These used to frustrate me endlessly, until I saw a "how to help readers find your fic!" post explaining that with anthologies, your readers get a notification every time you post a new oneshot and it's easy to find them all!

Which, in retrospect, is the most fanfiction.net statement I've ever seen (indeed, OP was an old ffnet dog).

Ao3 allows collections, and is unique in this: to older fandom people, putting your thematically connected oneshots together as chapters of a story used to be how it was done, having 54 connected drabbles on your fanfiction.net profile where readers couldn't filter them out nor select to view only the drabbles put together made perfect sense. And then they never adapted to Ao3's features, and other users seeing these anthologies copied the action because hey, stats.

I'm still frustrated with these people and wish they would just post their oneshots individually, but I think a lot of them are just... really really keen on the numbers on their fics going up, and not thinking about the purpose of the archive, utilising its features, nor that they're making their oneshots harder to find and annoying a lot of people.

The tag difficulty with anthologies, of course, being that if you have two oneshots in it, one with characters A and B and you tag it for X and Y happening, the other oneshot is with characters C and D and you tag it for Z and W happening, and continue like this for 30 chapters, then you have a wall of tags so everyone will see your story, good on you, but your readers have no way of knowing what's happening in your story or to which characters, and they're either patient enough to click their way through every goddamn chapter or they just scroll past your thing. Either way you're cloying a looot of tags and the readers who wanted Z and W happening to A and B are pissed because they clicked their way through god knows how many chapters only to not get what they wanted (and now they don't like anthologies either).

(Disclaimer: sometimes drabbles or oneshots are so interconnected that it doesn't make sense to separate even on Ao3, so to every rule there's an exception.)

In conclusion

Most authors are making tough choices when tagging, or they don't know how to tag, or they want readers very badly (and what you as a reader can do to ameliorate this is to comment and kudos frequently! Even give positive notes in the bookmarks when you make a new one because believe me we check!).

Or they're writing an anthology, in which case you should be very skeptical about those tags.

[mdverse]

Oooh for the salt ask: numbers 6, 10, 12, 26 and 27?

(I dunno if your supposed to ask so many of these at once sorry :'))

ask as many as u want!! there are no rules here :)

6: Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

mmm maybe not to that extent but there are def ships i used to not care about/dislike and that i've since grown to appreciate! i'd say kurtbastian is the main one (shoutout to bella) and to a lesser extent kurtofsky (shoutout to robin). for the most part i think my opinions haven't drastically changed tho

10: Most disliked arc? Why?

whatever they had going on in ikag... kinda ties into my answer for 12 but i feel like there was a way to approach the idea of finn outing santana and then both of them dealing with the ramifications of that and it could've been interesting but my god it was handled so poorly in canon. honestly it doesn't even last long enough for me to consider it an arc bc most of it gets dropped after that episode. like idk can u imagine if finn had actually faced any consequences or taken any accountability for doing that and grown from his mistakes instead of somehow turning the tables and "helping" santana get through it like it wasn't his fault in the first place... if they hadn't done the stupid lady music week where people are just singing at santana and picking songs that didn't really do anything (puck i am looking at u in particular but i also think that i'm the only one gcv is one of the better songs in the ep ngl) (like context aside i think the gcv is fine and there are worse ones in there)... if there had been literally any scenes involving brittana bc it's kinda crazy that we didn't get to see britt, santana's girlfriend, supporting santana through a major shitty event (i don't think she even has that many lines?? she barely speaks the whole time and more of her lines are about the student council election than about the shit santana is dealing with? unless i'm remembering incorrectly?) (ur telling me that we get pezberry singing i kissed a girl instead of like. idk. a britt solo or a brittana duet or even just them talking about it???).... that ep has exactly one good scene and everything else makes me want to scream into a pillow and break things. it's not real to me. there was a way to make that storyline work but the writers just went "nah lol"

12: Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

answered that one here :)

26: Most shippable character?

kurt probably! maybe this is just a by-product of being close friends with bella, a kurt multi-shipper with whom i've had many convos about almost every kurt ship, but i feel like most of his ships have sth to appreciate there

27: Least shippable character?

hmm i'd say finn bc i don't feel like any of the finn ships i've seen have ever gripped me? i think with every other glee kid there's like. a default ship that i'm at least ok with (if not super invested). but with finn i don't really have that

salty ask game

[galaxythixf]

@fatexbound said: ⭐ Send a "star / ⭐" and I will list muses I would be interested in throwing at yours, or potential muse combinations if you are also a multi. (If you are a multi and you want to see which muses I would be interested in throwing against a specific muse of yours, send ⭐+ that muses name) || Accepting

Lea Lea Lea, why do you want me to bug you even more than I already do? This is going to be very long so get ready.

Also I'm going to include all of your blogs so besides our Yochie …

Chie/Yu - This was actually one of the first ships I liked for Yu. I've only ever had the chance to explore it briefly before it was snuffed out but that was years ago. So I'm interested to see if I can fool around with it again, even if it's just as friends tbh. I just like their dynamic.

Chie/Yukiko - The besties. I love these two together either as besties or lovers it doesn't matter. We've talked about this before so I won't have to say much but I'm always down for interactions between these two. I almost never get to explore this one.

Naoto/Rise - I have always liked the dynamic potential between Rise and Naoto. Both being under such tremendous pressure and all, I just think I like how different they are despite their similar experiences. They're like total opposites but those types usually have an easier time meshing together for great interactions.

Naoto/Yukiko - I have always been … intrigued by Naoto and Yukiko interactions. I cannot explain where this idea came from I just think it would be interesting for them to hang out together. They're both busybodies that need to slow down. Maybe they should take it slow together.

Akihiko/Makoto - These two are slept on. There's potential here. Maybe Makoto should be dragged out of their damn bed for a change. Get up and do work, fool. Also join him in his likely very ill-advised adventures to Tartarus please. Having Makoto there really pushes him to do better and he likes that.

Akihiko/Hamuko - I know a lot of people like this dynamic and I'm welcoming any all interactions with it. I've seen his cringey dialogue/route with Hamuko and I love him for it. Haven't seen all of portable though but that doesn't really stop me. I mean I assumed the main story was essentially the same and paid more attention to the character interactions so if there's anything different main story-wise I probably did not see it but yes I am curious about these two.

Akihiko/Mitsuru - Ah, my first Akihiko ship. Brother, I love these two together. I am a 3rd year shipper first and a person second. I just really like their bond alright. She keeps him in check, he watches her back, it's so nice. This is like my bread and butter. I also just like how much she calls him out, it's hilarious. She knows him so well. Other than ships though I just like their dynamic in general I'm just biased.

Akihiko/Shinjiro - Shinjiii pspspspspsps. C'mere bestie, time to criticize Akihiko for his decisions again! The dynamic between these two has always been interesting, but I've never had a chance to interact with a Shinjiro before. Maybe I just like people that bully Akihiko is what I'm finding out?

Ken/Yukari - Yukari PLEASE tell Ken about your job as Pink Argus please please please. He may say it's childish or whatever but I cling to this interaction with my claws. He genuinely thinks it's so awesome, even if he's playing cool, he's definitely going to fanboy on the inside. Little brother wants to know what it's like, you're living his childhood dream at least fill him in on the details. He may have to collect her merch to support her.

Ken/Mitsuru - He's … trying to do his best at learning French to impress her but it's a little difficult, his English is better. I think he seeks her praise, even if he tries to act like he isn't. I'm a big fan of Ken seeking approval from his senpai and just genuinely valuing those bonds. Is this lingering feelings over the loss of his mother at a young age? Probably! But that isn't the point! The point is she inspires him and is the reason he's aiming so high in the first place.

Ken/Akihiko - Speaking of people that inspire him. Ken's still working on his physical routine but Akihiko is a still the goal he's aiming toward. Someone else to seek praise from and a role model he probably shouldn't be studying as closely as he is but that's fine, so what if he's a little reckless in combat. He admires everything ab out him and wants to grow to become as strong and reliable as him one day.

Ken/Hamuko - Hamuko couldn't escape this list. Past his little crush as a kid I just think he enjoys her company overall. She's quite possibly the person he feels is easiest for him to reach or talk to. Bearer of all of his childish and/or embarrassing secrets, I'm afraid. The same is essentially true for Makoto.

Ken/Shinjiro - Oof. Complicated. That's about how I'd sum up his feelings toward Shinjiro in general tbh. As much as he's accepted that truth too much as happened for him to simply act normal around this guy.

Ken/Futaba - Featherman buddies. Need I say more.

Ken/Makoto - Ken's like Akechi if he were actually nice. Ya know still traumatized and a little bloodthirsty but without all of the ugly personality traits. They have a lot of similarities what with trying to live up to all of that pressure they're under and really finding themselves. That's probably why I like when they chat so much? Because I feel like they could bond if they could get past all of the awkwardness. For some reason though I always feel like Ken's one emotional outburst from making this a very difficult path to travel by. It hasn't happened yet but I just feel like he's somehow going to shoot himself in the foot in this dynamic. On a lighter note, he'll watch your Yakuza movies with you Makoto and probably analyze them or use them as inspiration for combat techniques later. Idk how much you know about the Yakuza series but I'm so on board with them gushing about it because I also happen to be a big fan. I also just think … if these two just let loose for a second they could be giant nerds together, and that's just cute to me. Be silly together!

Hidetoshi/Mitsuru - We're testing this out and I'm still getting a feel for how he is but he genuinely likes Mitsuru and would like to spend more time with her if possible. He respects her, even if he's a brat sometimes.

Hidetoshi/Hamuko - Heyyyy Hamuko do you like bratty men? Because they sure do like you. I'd be lying if I said he wasn't going to try to look cooler in front of her in his own … unique way.

Hidetoshi/Yukari - Yukari you have the stamina for this, you'll be fine. Dealing with irritating men is like her forte. I have no idea, I just wanna see where this one would even go.

Goro/Makoto - LMAO you've answered so many asks for these two to guess the dynamic I might suggest here. I like a little rivalry. Maybe a little rivalry as a treat? Get under her skin for the hell of it? Could this turn into an actual friendship with a little work? Probably! Will Goro make that difficult? Absolutely! I mean he genuinely does admire a few things about her and Sae speaks about her enough for him to have an idea of what she's like outside of PT relations anyway but does he get a sense of joy picking on her? Yes, yes he does. He loves to challenge her.

Goro/Akira - Rivalry!! It never gets old!! But this time, gayer!! He simultaneously cannot stand and wants to get closer to this damned twink. A blessing and a curse. He has never met someone that he's felt so connected to and somewhat disgusted by in his life and it's really only because Akira has everything that he wants. He admires what he's able to do and that he's managed to get so many people to follow him. His charisma is natural and Goro's jealous of that. Jealousy and admiration. He won't make this easy either. He can never make anything easy.

[moonbowwcats]

all of them. Tell me everything. Any interest. Anyone. Give me the ships. Rant if you want. Idc

Yo cool :D My ship opinions are slightly boring, I like most canon ships honestly haha

Warning this is very long. I got carried away rambling

Gravity Falls

Dipcifica and Mabicifica! I love both because I'm a multi-shipper, but if I were to pick one, I'd choose Mabifica. I feel like it would just fit in better in the show

My opinions on the old men ships are more complicated honestly.

Fiddauthor and Fiddlestan are fine. I guess Fiddauthor's cool, it's cute, but I'm just not as invested. I like Fiddlestan for some reason though, despite the fact they didn't interact much. Don't ask why, it's that one ship you like purely based on vibes.

I like Billford, but, no offense, I feel like a lot of people in the fandom tend to mischaracterize it. There's no way Ford would develop any romantic feelings towards Bill after all the abuse he's done. Maybe if Bill were to ever actually get redeemed (and it would take so much time), he might consider forgiving him, becoming friends at most. Come on guys. I do find one-sided Billford on Bill's side very interesting though but that's a whole another thing.

Moving on!

The Owl House

Oh my god I love Lumity so so much. It's my number one favorite ship. I never understood why everyone said they liked Huntlow more. I mean, I respect all ship opinions, I just wish there were more appreciation for Lumity as a ship itself outside of the LGBTQ+ representation.

It's so good!! What I love about it is that it's somehow a balance of the dynamics I like! It's an "enemies to lovers" while not having it be toxic! And it's avoiding the boring "friends to lovers" trope.

Raeda, Huntlow, and all the other canon ships are cool too. I'm just not as invested as Lumity haha. I'm fine with ships like Huntmira and Huntric too, fan content made me like those too :)

Hazbin Hotel

Basically the canon ships (again). Chaggie, Huskerdust, Cherrysnake, and Staticmoth. I have a few complaints about Chaggie, because for me, it took me 5 episodes to be able to tell they're dating (and only when they directly stated they were girlfriends). It's cute, but I'm not really invested.

Ships like Radiostatic are really fun! I like one-sided Radiostatic, and also Radiostatic itself! I'm not sure which I prefer, we need more clues from the show to tell if it really is romantic feelings or if Alastor still likes Vox and is just good at masking like he doesn't care, many things like that, but both options are cool.

I also like Staticapple for some reason? No clue why, Lucifer and Vox literally never interacted. Maybe it's because they're my favorite characters and their dynamic sounds interesting (I don't want it to become canon though if that makes sense?)

Also Radioapple. I don't get why it's as popular as it is honestly, no offense. The dynamic is cool, but I'm just not seeing why it's so popular, since they interacted only in one episode. But I can see why it's shippable.

Amphibia: No strong ship opinions. I like Sprivy and other canon ships. I'm cool with any Calamity Trio ships, but I see them as just close best friends. Having them end up romantically just ruins the show's theme of friendship, in my opinion. I'm not against it though, just not my cup of tea.

DuckTales 2017 and Darkwing

Both shows are very underrated it's crazy. Anyway- my DT17 ships are Weblena, Dellumbra, Scroldie, and Drakepad. The other canon ships in the show are fine I guess, just not intriguing. Donaisy's chill, but I prefer Fendro x Gyro over Fendra.

Scroldie and Drakepad got me so so invested at one point though. Love those two ships, Drakepad is still my #2 ship. I prefer DT17 Drakepad over 1987 Drakepad, but both are cool.

AtLA

Ooh boy this one's long. Gonna try to organize it.

Kataang: To me, it's a little bland, I would've preferred if it went with a Wendip route (in which Aang gets over his crush of Katara), but it's fine, I'm not allergic to the ship.

Maiko: Feels like it was only used as a plot device. Maybe not, but they always argue, and they share too many negative traits in common. Just doesn't feel healthy, especially considering everything that happens in the post-canon comics, although maybe it's just me.

Zutara: It has potential and I prefer it over Kataang, but it's often mischaracterized. It's not nearly implied in canon as much as people say it is. In my interpretation, the only real evidence of them liking each other is in one scene in which they blush when someone had assumed they were dating each other, but that's it. I'm not a fan of "they argue because they secretly like each other" headcanons, I think they, or in the least Katara genuinely hated Zuko. Any sort of romantic feelings would probably be formed in post-canon, so to me, most of the ship's dynamic is purely fanon.

Zukka: I like it! Personally, I prefer Zuko ships in which the character sees Zuko for his true awkward personality, and I just don't get these vibes with Sokka. I wouldn't like the ship to be canon (because Sukki), but it has potential and I'm all in for seeing the fandom's take on it :)

Sukka: Love it sm ♥ Probably my favorite canon AtLA ship.

Zukki: Also great! Love a good polycule.

Tyzula: It's toxic and I don't ship it (since it's canon Ty Lee was scared of Azula), but I do love a one-sided crush on Azula's side. I think Ty Lee was the one who she had the closest bond with, so I'm very invested in the dynamic. I wish we could've gotten more of it.

Alright, that's all my current hyperfixations. If you read all this way, congrats, I'm honored someone was interested in my rambles. Have a virtual cookie! 🍪

[rosesinbloom7love]

College Au: How a seemingly normal group project led to Motoyasu & Naofumi confessing to each other.

(I know, I know, I don't usually do ship prompts that aren't TheRuFumi/RaruFumi,but, I wanted to do something different this time and I randomly remember this meme from a tv show that instantly made me think of this ship XD. Plus, it should be known that I am a massive multi-shipper. I always got a few ships for every fandom i'm in & after reading "The Reprise of The Spear Hero", the inner shipper just went brrr. Feel free to ignore this post. this is mostly for me :) )

--------------------------------------------

Naofumi: So if you take a look here, you'll see i've drawn up a complete work schedule, which lays out exactly when we'll be working together on that report.

Motoyasu: A work schedule?

Naofumi: Yes. It's color-coded so even you can understand it!

Motoyasu: Wait a second, what's this here? We're working 3 hours a night for the next four weeks!?

Naofumi: Well, I thought four hours a night might be too much for your smallish brain to handle.

Motoyasu: My smallish brain can handle plenty! It's my smallish eyes that are gonna have trouble cause they gotta look at you! Yeah! I said it!

Naofumi: Well actually, the human eyes are technically just receptors that pick up visual images which make no sense until deciphered by the brain. Which in your case happens to be smallish. :)

Motoyasu: Why do you have to one-up me all the time!? What? Do you just get your jollies by making me look dumb!?

Naofumi: Who said I think your dumb!? Maybe, I happen to think you're very smart! Maybe I just-!

Motoyasu: Well maybe, you just what!?

Naofumi: Maybe, I just like you!

Motoyasu: Well ma-!...*Processing* *Realization* *Blushing*...Well, maybe I just like you too!

Naofumi: Oh really?

Motoyasu: Yeah! Maybe i've liked you for a really long time, but didn't realize it, cause, I hated you so much!

Naofumi: Are you saying you like me or not?

Motoyasu: Are YOU saying you like me or not?

Naofumi: I'm saying I like you!

Motoyasu: Well then, i'm saying I like you!

Naofumi: FINE!

Motoyasu: FINE!

Naofumi: Then I guess we're boyfriends!

Motoyasu: One condition!

Naofumi: WHAT!?

Motoyasu: I GET TO BE THE BOYFRIEND!

(Meanwhile, Ren & Itsuki, who have been sitting there watching the entire exchange, stare at their two friends very confused)

Ren: What the f*ck, just happened?

Itsuki: I'm not entirely sure...

[bananakarenina]

20 questions writer meme!

Tagged by the wonderful @breakaway71! A little Friday night break to help me jumpstart some writing, hopefully?

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 26

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 219,077

3. What fandoms do you write for? Julie and the Phantoms, though I have a CW Nancy Drew fic percolating!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

our hearts can speak ourselves unseen (first collab with @where-you-go, peterpatterlina + modern cyrano de bergerac)

complications you could do without (remix of crescent moon, peterpatterlina)

for love's sake only (the fake marriage historical/regency au, rulie)

want your midnights (the OG! new year's eve 1994, hint of peterpatter)

heaven above and closer (the other collab with @where-you-go, the 90s road trip coming of age au, julie x luke x reggie x bobby, willex)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Oh gosh. i try, for real, y'all. i often put it off because i want to get a good grade in commenting/responding, which is something real you can achieve, and then i end up not doing it at all. but i love each and every one i receive! i'm just so inconsistent about actually replying.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? hmmmmm. excellent question; even if i write angst i tend to veer toward a happy or at least hopeful ending (example: leave the light on)

actually you know what, heart like a wheel is probably the angstiest if you think about it. it's just that the main character doesn't know it, lol.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? oh gosh. i love a happy ending, so pick one. they're mostly all varying degrees of happy, lol

8. Do you get hate on fics? i have been very lucky so far in that i don't get outright hate, no.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? it's not the thrust (heh) of what i write, generally, but i have: for love's sake only and its sequel, to love's self alone, are both in the vein of a paperbook romance and are written as such. i do have a carrie x reggie smutfic in the queue though...

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? i can't say that i have! i might nod to another fandom but full crossovers seem so ambitious to me--two different worlds to track, two styles of story. i love reading them, though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? if i have i'm not aware of it...

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? i have not!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? @where-you-go are now on our third collab (she, through some sorcery and witchcraft, got me to round robin on a luke x bobby fake dating story one week on here, and we're expanding it to a full fic, hopefully out before the end of the year!) and @daintyduck99 and i have put on that old song, aka the "i can't believe you married a rodeo cowboy" au, also hopefully coming soon! also maybe i'll poke @breakaway71 again about some dialogue i sent her ;)

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? i am a proud multi-shipper and you can't make me choose lololol

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? lol is "all of them" a valid answer? kidding. i have been struggling with getting over the finish line with WIPs this year so.

16. What are your writing strengths? dialogue, def. that's my theatre training/playwright classes coming through. i can always tell when i'm tired because my drafts devolve into dialogue only, haha.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Oh gosh. endings! i can never seem to wrap things up in a snappy way! also lately stakes. like figuring out what the characters have at stake to lose in terms of the story.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? i'll do it sparingly but i generally avoid whole conversations. my grammar in spanish is terrible and that's the only other language i'd feel comfortable writing any dialogue at all in. maybe i'd ask family about tagalog.

19. First fandom you wrote for? oh man. hahahahahahahaha the real answer might be "self-insert o-town fanfic in which my friends and i fell in love with the band members"? but i think it might be gilmore girls. i do want to archive all my ff.net and livejournal (well, the stuff i can find :( ) things so you may see them on an ao3 near you

20. Favorite fic you've written? oh gosh. i love them all because they're mine! maybe for love's sake only because it really feels like i finished a full novella with that one. or heart like a wheel because i love tertiary character explorations. or want your midnights because it started this whole thing. see, i can't choose. don't make me

Tagging @innytoes, @jmrothwell, @daintyduck99, @invisibleraven, and anyone else who sees this and wants to participate in the fun!

[rottedbrainz]

So kind of random but do you have any headcannons on Janice's twin sister, or maybe any on the idea of Lips being Zoey's dad (for some reason my laptop won't let me put in question marks). Last one in particular I think is a super neat idea and I think Zoey and Lips's personalities mesh well together!

Oh! Well actually I have been doodling Janice and her sister for the pass few days and I've come up with some headcanons! Not just with them as sisters but also them being older sisters to Lips!

I will be referring to Janice's sister as S because I'm confident that she will get a name sometime in the future.

☆Soo Janice and S have a very strained relationship with one another. I imagine that , though she would never admit it, that S is a little jealous of Janice. Not of the fame; but of her friends, Floyd, and pretty much just the care free life Janice has.

☆ S has a much different life than Janice. While Janice went out and traveled, S stayed close to home for college. When Janice was risking it becoming a musician, S got a safe job. (taking over Rose's beauty business it's totally canon 👀). While Janice was out with multiple partners, S settled and started her own little family. (I've been drawing up some designs for potential kids).

☆ They were color coded twins. S being purple and Janice being yellow.

☆ They had a good relationship growing up, always trying to pull classic twin shenanigans. But just like how all sisters do ,they fight. Now I'm drawing these next few examples from my own life cause I got 3 sisters and these are all true events.

- S was taking a shower and Janice dropped in live fish bait (worms)

- S got mad at Janice one day and while Janice was laying down, S dropped a rock straight on her teeth. Causing Janice's tooth to chip.

- They lock mom out of the car and start trying to drive it.

☆ S and Janice were okay older sisters They loved Lips, but they also liked to laugh at him. I imagine whenever Lips got his lips stuck to the trumpet Janice and S laughed their asses off. But they would always make it up to him by trying to make him feel better.

Now Lips and Zoey. I don't know what made me think of the idea of just dropping a random kid into Lip's life. But I did it and honestly I thought people would have forgotten abt it by now. But let's began.

☆ So Lips has the title of a professor or some sort of doctorates since he gives lectures at universities. So I imagine that he would Zoey having a rock hyperfixation and try to help her get as much information about rocks as possible. He's egard to help her learn about things that she's passionate in.

☆ He loves watching Zoey mess with Elmos head. He thinks it's hilarious that they argue like siblings. Elmos parents aren't to keen on it though and ask Lips to stop encouraging Zoey.

☆ He likes to makes her clothes from his old baggy clothes.

☆ He loves doing activities that would be seen as girly by most. Play dress up, making bracelets, painting her nails, and letting her do his hair." Anything to make Zoey happy" is what he would say whenever anyone questioned why he'd let Zoey do it.

☆ Him and the rest of the band volunteers at Zoeys preschool as music teachers and help teach the kids instruments and music.

☆ Zoey has an old electric Mayhem t shirt that she's wears almost every night as pajamas.

☆ I'm a multi shipper whenever it comes to Lips. So I just see him as a single dad and whenever he does search for a potential partner he always says this "Look I got a daughter and she comes first. If you don't think you can handle it, then I don't think this is gonna work." And most people respect it, other people get pissed.

☆ Also this might be unrelated. But for some reason I see Yolanda and Lips as besties. So I totally see Yolanda being Zoeys God mom and baby sitting her whenever Lips needs to do something.

☆ I'm not quite sure what her relationship with the rest of the band is. All I know is her and Janice have aunt and niece dates.

This was kinda long. Was not expecting myself to have so many headcanons.

[cheesybadgers]

Shipper Tag Game

Thank you for the tag @thesilversun ❤️

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care about anymore? I'm trying to think back to what I was even into as a teen...I read and wrote bandfic around my early to mid teens, but I'm not naming the bands 😂 Beyond that, there was Buffy/Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sam/Gene from Life on Mars, Fraser/Ray K from Due South, Sirius/Lupin from Harry Potter. The only one of those I couldn't care less about anymore is the last one...the rest just make me feel nostalgic.

2. Which ship would you consider your first one? I can't even remember?? Probably something like Leia/Han in Star Wars, but I wouldn't have known to call it 'shipping' back then.

3. Your first fanfic was about which couple? It was a reader insert bandfic but I really don't want to talk about that lol.

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw fanart of? No clue at all.

5. Have you ever gotten into ship discourse? No. I avoid stuff I'm not into and don't get why everyone else can't just do the same.

6. Did you use to have any NOTP or have one currently? I used to be less open to multi-shipping involving the same characters when I was younger. Now, depending on characters/circumstances, I'm much more inclined to say throw them all in together and analyse the results lol.

Having said that, I hated what Sense8 did by inserting Dani into Lito's and Hernando's relationship. They could have done poly rep in literally any other way than how they did it, but what actually happened was just weird and creepy.

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read? Carmen/Richie from The Bear. I wasn't even really into it when I first watched the show, but after re-watching with my husband, I needed to scratch an itch I didn't even know I had.

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs? I never used to really think I did, but now, after spending the past 3 years writing a longfic for Javier/Horacio from Narcos, they're always going to hold a very special and unique place in my heart ❤️

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together? Not that I can think of, because in my mind, shipping is largely an entirely different thing to canon. It bears no relevance to the events of canon a lot of the time and fan fic means you can do whatever you want anyway. More often than not, my favourite ships tend to be non-canon, so I treat the two things separately in my brain.

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting? Not dislike, no. More likely never really considered before until a lightbulb switches on in my brain (maybe during a re-watch or if something happens in a new episode) and suddenly, I'm interested.

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, would've been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over? Don't think I'm important enough to be 'cancelled' lol, but I find shipping in general in fandom has become kind of vanilla and bland. People get really hung up on what is and isn't canon and miss the nuance of messy, complicated relationships and dynamics between characters. They stay away from a lot of rarer pairings and stick closely to the fandom-approved or actor-approved 'purer' ships. A lot of people say they want queer stories and characters, but when they're presented with actual queer sex and desire, the pearl clutching begins. I know this isn't true of all fandoms, but it's a pattern I've noticed over the last few years.

12. What is your favorite crack ship? Lalo/Howard from Better Call Saul.

13. What is the couple you read the most fanfics about? Probably McKirk from AOS Star Trek. I haven't read any for years, but there was a period about 10/11 years ago where I couldn't get enough of them. Stucky from the MCU is probably a close second...and most of that came in the form of fix-it fics after Endgame 😂

14. What do most of your ships usually have in common? Always carrying unresolved trauma, they're usually criminals, often violent/have killed people, always morally grey and they have a shared history with each other that goes back further than canon shows us.

15. What you absolutely hate in a ship? I can't stand love triangles where one party has to pick between two others when the obvious answer is either a) both or b) neither. Not a fan of big age gap relationships (unless they're non-humans and are hundreds/thousands of years old). Or when character A gives up everything for character B, but character B doesn't have to make an equivalent sacrifice (they need to be burning down the world for each other tbh, otherwise what's the point?). Or when the ship is presented as 'forbidden love' but there aren't actually any major obstacles in their way and it's mostly a lot of unnecessary melodrama. Love at first sight doesn't do anything for me either. Lust/obsession? Hell yeah. But I need more slowburn/history before the L word is thrown around.

No pressure tagging: @mariamariquinha, @thoroughlymodernminutia, @ejunkiet, @evilbunnyking and anyone else who wants to answer these!

[caixxa]

A1,A 2, B6, B9, BASICALLY ALL OF THE C QUESTIONS! PLS I WANT TO KNOW! (if you feel like responding lmao) thank you, love you and hope you are having a really nice day! <3

Sorry that it took so long to answer! I had a hellish day and we live on almost opposite time zones, so.

A1: When did you start reading fanfiction?

Summer 2016, after Euro 2016. As an adult, well past 30, I rediscovered the fun of being A Fan.

A2: How did you find your first fic?

I googled, learned new search phrases to google until I found the stuff I really liked. I think the first searches were like "Gareth Bale fan fiction" and the really effective one that I think finally led me to Ao3 (I have no idea what the first sites were) was more in the way of "Cristiano ronaldo gareth bale m/m slash" lol. I read only as a guest user for months, I didn't make my own account until I wanted to write and post my own work.

B6. What is your favourite story trope? Why?

Friends to lovers with sexual exploration on the way. Seductive younger man developing in a twisted power balance/imbalance relationship with an older man. Stuff with sexual tension and a vibe of something forbidden.

B9. Who is your OTP?

I'm such a multi-shipper! I always say it's Aho/TT because they are soulmates and the Finnish connection and two cherubs who share a brain on the ice and fly together and are stupid codependent bros. But I've come to think that the true OTP is Sepe/mentors and authority figures. I came to that conclusion when I heard on the Canes Corner podcast that in his first interviews, he always mentioned Ron Francis, and I couldn't but nod along. Of course he did. A franchise legend who drafted him, of course. He still mentioned him on the Siim Liivik podcast like last summer, you know. He loves Rod, he loves Pekka, he loves Justin Williams, he was so into Burns being traded to the Canes. He's a fireball on the ice but off the ice, his daddy kink can be seen from SPACE.

THe C section:

What trope are you tired of reading? Why? Self-harm or suicide as a romantic plot point. It should be self-explanatory, I detest all variations of the trope where romantic counterpart saves the protagonist from shit they should figure out with themselves first, especially if there is a "love as a miracle cure" element to it. I feel similarly about th "you deserve better, let me save you from your abusive relationship by making you mine". No. If this happens from a base of friendship and they develop love later, that works, but falling in love as a cure because The One Sees Your Beauty When Others Don't is yucky. Elaborate proposals in front of an audience gathered specifically to celebrate the occasion as peak romance is so weird too, maybe I just don't get American wedding culture. (These tropes are more present in m/f imagines than m/m rpf, tho)

What word or expression always makes you cringe when you read it? "Too" when it's supposed to be "to" is the only one of those that I often see in fic writing, but in general, "Their" when you mean "They're" or "it's" for "its" when native speakers do it... IT'S YOUR OWN LANGUAGE! HOW CAN YOU NOT GET THE EASY ONES RIGHT?

Is there anything that makes you nope out of a story? What is it? Double spacing between each paragraph. I know that it's mostly because the Ao3 rich text editor doesn't copy/paste google docs right. I will have to be REALLY drawn into the story and want to read it really bad to struggle through that.

What thing that fandom loves do you actually kind of hate? Why? Hockey fights. They're so unnecessary, they're just an example of the American fixation on violence and vigilante justice. It's okay to me that hockey is a rough game, cross checking and body checking is absolutely fine by me, but dropping the gloves.. it's such a stupid, primitive thing to do. Hockey does fine without it. I know this is unpopular bc y'all love violence. I see all the wrestling posts y'know, and all the "hot" tags in hockey fight posts. *points at all directions, staring judgementally*

What character that fandom loves are you just kinda “meh” about? Why? Hockey players: Anthony Beauvillier. This is just about his looks, I don't see what most people see, he looks so plain to me.

Is there anything in canon that made you want to quit the show? What was it? Why did you hate it? Are we still talking hockey/sports because all i read is sports rpf? Well, I used to like F1 but Ihave very little interest in it now. I just don't think that a motorsport that is done on vehicles for no other use than driving on these extensive tracks made of concrete and asphalt just for it is just gross. In rally, there is at least something organic (lol) and relatable. Also, the last Cristiano Ronaldo fic I read was after his transfer to Juventus, after that I think he's made a fool of himself.

Who is your NOTP? Sepe/Seth Jarvis, Sepe/Jordan Martinook. I think it's bc I have zero attraction to the other guy haha, plus Jarvy only gives me goofy little brother vibes, not ship vibes. Also, Cressi was the big ship when I entered football rpf and I could see the two superstars, rivals, el clasico etc etc intellectually but I just sensed no chemistry between cr7 and messi whatsoever so it's always been kinda NOTP for me.

What is one plot twist you wish people would stop using?  Do all the plot twists your heart desires, man, writing is supposed to be fun! But what I said in C1 counts here too.

What show did you really try to watch, but you just couldn’t? This happens with all the shows. I watch a few episodes but can't find the time to finish them. I also skipped a lot (most) of NHL games last season because I need to sleep.

What book could you just never get into, no matter how hard you tried? I don't try hard with my reading, if I don't like the book I quit. The hardest I've tried was probably War and Peace which I read so slowly that I eventually forgot what had happened before and kinda drifted off it after maybe 20%.

Thank you for the ask and have a super duper fine summer!!

(the ask game post is this)

[terrainofheartfelt]

out of curiosity, what are the readership numbers like for pairings like date or jennate that aren’t fully rare pairs the way haizen is, but aren’t dair/chair/serenate-tier either? outside of dair stories, which have gotten the most hits for you in the gg fandom?

It's hard to say. I mean, I'm not the data scientist in my friend group (though we do have one!), and I can really only go from what my ao3 stats are and what I know of my own information behavior as a fic reader.

my date fic with the highest amount of hits is 1.3k hits, and that is significantly less than the fics with the highest numbers. but, those high number fics - while all centered around dair, are long, multi-chaptered stories, and the date fic mentioned is a smut oneshot.

my big jenate fic has a pretty decent hit count of 1.1k, but I also tagged dair as a background ship, because they are present in the story, so a reader, though they don't seek out jenate fic on the reg, would see it in the dair tag and maybe take a glimpse at it.

And, when looking at the ao3-generated bar graph of stats on my most recent fic, my last four completed works are all oneshots of various fic genres, but 2 are strictly dan/nate, 1 is nate/dan/blair, and 1 is dair. The three non-dair oneshot have only about one-third of the hits that the dair oneshot received.

which is just to say, there's a lot of variables to compare, and while I love love love that ao3 has a statistics page for writers, the way to get that kind of granular data just is not readily available.

maybe is just because of my little fandom ecosystem, but there are more date shippers about that are reading and writing for that pairing, so I'd say that's my second most popular main ship with I write, but to be fair I have not written much outside of that.

but this discrepancy isn't only about ship to ship comparisions. fics that aren't romantic-ship-centric get significantly less hits. my all time lowest numbers are for character study oneshots that have nothign to do with said character's romantic relationships. (like I have one about jenny and my tattoo headcanons for her, and one that is JUST about dan & milo. only dan and milo. not date and milo or dair and milo).

but that makes sense, right? the tags that I have pinned to my ao3 homepage are ships, and that is typically how I browse. because GG has a wiiiiiiiide range of ship preferences, so the main tag has got to be pandemonium (that's also why I never check the main gg tag here on tumblr. if a post is good it will make it through S's peer review process <3). So, the only way *I* know about new fics that aren't about the ship tags that I have my eye on, is if one is written and posted by one of my writer subscriptions. aka, like all my mutuals [affectionate]

and maybe another reason is that dair is a very unifying kind of ship. It's sort of the umbrella under which many GG meta opinions fall, such as: Season 6 Is Fake; Dan Humphrey Is Not Gossip Girl (unless it's funny); Chuck Bass Is Terrible, Actually; She [insert name of any woman character here] Deserved Better; End the Girlbossification of Blair Waldorf; and Rufly is Endgame -- dair kind of intersects with all of those opinions, so it's sort of a gathering point for fandom. I know it was for me, and from there I've branched out into exploring so much more about this garbage fire of a teen soap [affectionate/derogatory]. Dair is perhaps the most universal of the non-canon GG ships, so it's a common point for many people, which could explain why, as a point of intersection, it gets more vested interest from fic writers and readers. And, speaking as a writer, it's easier for me to write dair because I know people will care about it, it's hard to put in the time for something - even if you love it and the idea - if you feel like it's not going to reach anyone.

But all that said, I don't think any of these circumstances are an overall Bad Thing. I mean, of course I would hope that if someone liked my dair fanfic enough they would like to read something about another ship, or maybe something i wrote that's not "about" a ship at all, but the lovely wonderful thing about ao3 is that you can construct your searches to your own preferences, you can choose to exclude themes and ships and tags that you don't want to read about, and in a fandom like this one where there are so many strong and polarizing preferences, it is so unbelievably nice that if you choose too, you can section yourself off from what you don't want to see, and explore what you do. And I too, am extremely picky about writing quality, if I click on a fic I want it to be good and take me out of my cynical head for a minute or two, so I tend to stick to writers that I know do really great work (and if I follow you then you are one of them that's just how that works <3)

I guess if there's a moral to the story it's: if there is a dair fic writer you love, check out their full list of works and see if there's something you missed because it wasn't in that tag, and if you like it, tell them! they will love it!