#rvb rarepair answers

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

@hipstersoulgushers

the mother of invention wasn't even an ethical ship

[lostlegendaerie]

1 for throw away the key, 18, 25 :]

I refuse to do just one answer bc I absolutely HATE making decisions for stuff like this so. be prepared for multiple answers!

SOME LINKS MAY BE 'BROKEN' BC MY AO3 FICS ARE LOCKED TO AVOID AI SCRAPING

1. Share a song that makes you think of Throw Away the Key

I have a playlist of like 30+ songs I looped endlessly when writing this fic but if I have to pick FIVE in order would say;

1. Knots by Anna Nalick

2. Sloppy Seconds by Watsky

3. Another Life by Vienna Teng

4. Classic by MKTO

5. I Wanna Be Yours (Slowed Down) by Arctic Monkeys

Also! Fun fact! I never got around to stating it in the fic, but a very early concept was that this fic was an actual reincarnation of Canon York and Carolina, thus some of the past lives imagry, and the "throw away the key" was a reference to the RvB motif of memory being the key - a rejection, of sorts, of fate and making choices because of obligation and destiny. Again, it's not in the fic itself because I couldn't work out how to make it work but! That explains the Vienna Teng inclusion at least.

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

EUUGHHH I DONT REMEMBER MOST OF WHAT I WRITE WHICH MAKES THIS SO FUNNY BUT aside from the ones that are summaries, like "who will you be when no one loves you?" from Jet Pack Blues it's probably either:

It occurs to him that the monsters in most of the stories have to be invited in. - Friends in Low Places, a Bioshock rarepair collab which to this day is one of the best pieces I have ever been involved in writing

"Then live, you bastard,” he snarls in the inches between them, “and show me [you love me]" - every bit of beating heart, a Fire Emblem fic

25. Have you ever upset yourself with your own writing?

Yes??? But only in the good, cathartic way. In the way that exercise burns your muscles or a cold shower shocks your hot skin. Relief and release and all that stuff. It's why I don't like the whole "anti" fanfic movement; experiencing grief and horror and rage in fiction can help you process it in the real world.

Mostly I just upset myself by looking at some of my old, really good pieces and go "how the fuck did I do that??? And why can't I do it on command????"

[aces-to-apples]

Tagged by @sl-walker!

How many works do you have on AO3? 92?? Christ how did that happen???

What's your total AO3 word count? 207,007, apparently. Buckwild.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Sticking with AO3 (and specifically this AO3 account) and discounting fusions/AUs: Star Wars, Red vs. Blue, The Magnificent Seven, The Umbrella Academy, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Stargate SG-1, Game of Thrones, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, iirc.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? The Fallacy of Freedom: 2035 Pretension Is Key: 1614 poor reception: 566 Renegade: 473 two can keep a secret: 436

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? Not usually tbqh. When I first started writing I tried to be the sort of person who replies to each comment but honestly it’s pretty exhausting spoon-wise and I rarely have anything to say to most comments that don’t have, like, specific questions/comment to respond to. Plus it artifically inflates the comment count and honestly I get few enough comments that that’s just depressing to me.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Ah. Hm. I don’t view myself as much of an angst writer, and honestly angst doesn’t interest me much, but like maybe? philter of the phantom? since it’s got kind of an ambiguous ending?

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written? I tend to do AUs more than crossovers because crossovers tend to involve, like, actual plot and shit? So I think the only crossover I’ve actually written is Starvb/Haat Verd?

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Not....really? I mean mostly I just get Fucking Stupid comments, or That One Asshole Who Pretty Much Always Leaves Bitchy Tags On Bookmarks. I think there was that one twit fairly recently who bitched that the second chapter of poor reception “should have a noncon tag since cody isn’t in the right mind to consent” as if it didn’t already have a fairly explanatory “Dubiously Consensual Blow Jobs” and “Identity Issues” tags.

Do you write smut? If so what kind? Yes! When it doesn’t drive me fucking crazy! *looks over my pornographic portfolio* It looks like I tend to favor consent issues, mild to moderate kink, possessiveness, and wonky power dynamics. And if it’s tagged “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” I’m probably extremely fond of it lol.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge? I think that tends to happen to more plotty writers tbh.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Breaking my “only on this AO3 account” rule because yes! One of my older, on-a-different-account fics, was translated a few years ago! I think it’s in Mandarin...?

What’s your all time favorite ship? Ah. Ahaha. Not really something I can definitively answer, sorry, I’m a multishipper at heart and also have debilitating ADHD.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? Ooh, yikes, again with the debilitating ADHD. Um. Probably that Gravebone fic, the Fright Night fusion with vampire!Graves? Idk maybe one day I’ll get bitten by the Fantastic Beasts bug again but idk I kinda doubt it.

What are your writing strengths? *blinks* Um. Funny rarepairs, maybe?

What are your writing weaknesses? *blinks harder* I definitely can’t do plot to save my life, I know that. And also I assume “the writing part” isn’t an acceptable answer.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I think it’s fun! But also my first real fandom was RvB so like! I have an extremely lax viewpoint on making sure that the other language is actually accurate! Like I actually tend to try with Mando’a but that’s literally because it’s like a fun little puzzle, trying to make something make some kind of sense in a fake language! Actual languages I tend to just Google Translate because, again, Red vs. Blue was a formative fandom.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? ...........Yu-Gi-Oh, next question.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written? Uhhhhhh, that’s a really hard question? “bells sometimes ring for weddings” and “darkness hides and always lies” and “trouble in mind” are things that I wrote purely out of spite that I ended up really really liking, and “peace is a lie” has indirectly made me a shocking number of friends, and “got me all beguiled” was the first thing I wrote for a fandom exchange, and “she wore it wonderfully well” came out pretty decently even if only about three people have read it, and “The Sun, The Moon, And All The Stars” is The Worst AU In The World (affectionate), and “where there’s poison, there’s a remedy” chews on my brain nonstop. So like. It really depends on how you’re measuring that.

Tagging: whoever wants to play because I’m shit at tagging rn

[arse-blathanna]

So for the fanfic Questsions, 10 and 20?

10.  Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

The answer to this question has historically always been “yes” because I tend to be pretty chickenshit about breaking into new fandoms. GOT was a big one for me for a while but that pretty much dropped off at the end of Volume 2 when my favorite writer in that fandom jumped ship for another one (its also about when the show stopped being good imho, but that’s a different talk.) I read Voltron for a hot minute before that fandom utterly exploded, and I dabbled in Zelda fic for a short while before I completely exhausted my rarepair of choice. 

Right now... uh... RVB? But I’ve been trying to write something for that lately so I don’t know whether or not it counts. Schrodinger status is real. 

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

Uh... Yeah, kind of. I’m going to go with RWBY for this because that’s where I’m established at the moment. Ironqrow was a big surprise at the beginning because I seriously picked it up after randomly seeing one of @anipendragon‘s fics float across the Ao3 front page for the fandom. I didn’t expect to start shipping it at all. Tynder I guess would definitely qualify. I wish I could genuinely say that I was surprised by Grandmasters but I’m not.. WitchHazel tho? That was a shocker. 

Martial Arcs falls under this category, I guess I would also have to put Crime Dads and Weiss/Neptune as well. Monochrome isn’t a shock. 

Anyways Chain of Command OTP.

[asymmetryestablished]

valentine fandom ask meme: homestuck for all the odd ones and rvb for all the even ones

oH GOD okay let's see how this goes***Spoiler Alert*** by the way1. Your favourite non-canon ship? I don't particularly have one, though to be clear Homestuck has a hell of a lot of ships. I like pairing people up with Sollux tho, if only because I support Sollux getting lots of love.2. Is there a ship you didn’t like at first but ultimately started shipping? Tuckington and Lolix. both are things my friend who got me into RvB ships hardcore, but when I first encountered all the relevant characters I couldn't see them in the pairs. Tuckington I saw once they actually started interacting, in S11 or so; Lolix, after having seen their episodes in S14, although I shipped them as exes before then - like, I watched them and agreed that they'd had something but it fell apart before we met them.3. What is the rarest rare pair (that you ship)? I'm not really a rarepair kind of child but I do like Sollux/Dirk and Sollux/John, because programming and hands, respectively4. Name a popular ship you don’t get the appeal of. probably Chex I just really strongly believe that moving on is the best damn idea Church ever had5. What is your most fluffy + happy ship? fun question, because a lot of my ships could be fluffy or angst depending on what you look at. short answer: Davekat.6. What is your most angsty ship? FELIX/TUCKER OKAY HOLY SHIT MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FOR THE CHORUS TRILOGY BUT just picture when they're in Armonia and Wash is presumed dead and Tucker is having to come to terms with losing someone he hadn't realized he loved so much and also coming to terms with his love AND HIS SEXUALITY on top of that and Felix just slides on in because he's a slimy bastard who isn't above getting off on other people's emotional pain and/or just generally being an emotional sadist but also tactically brilliant and fucking Tucker while he's broken and I currently have an in-progress fic that is literally this and entitled "Felix Tucker emotional abuse" on my computer (ABUSE in my binder)7. A non-canon ship that should be canon? again, Homestuck has quite a romantically promiscuous canon. I think most of my really serious ships are canon??? but it's also been a while since I last acquainted myself with HS so I'm not sure. I do like Sollux/Karkat in basically any quadrant tho and I don't think they canonically did any quadrant stuffz or at least not all of them8. Your oldest ship; the one you’ve shipped for the longest time? Grimmons. still ship it. GRIF LITERALLY CONTAINS PARTS OF SIMMONS IF THATS NOT POTENTIAL FOR A ROMANTIC CRISIS FIC THEN IDK WHAT IS9. What ship represents the kind of relationship you’d love to have? Davekat as presented in canon, all soft squishy feels under a shell of crunchy banter and sarcasm; that, or Rosemary, which I read this fic once that mentioned them being a universal constant? like, there wasn't a single timeline where they didn't get together, and that makes me really happy. I also really like how Nepeta and Equius are complete polar opposites and both really fucking weird but don't care10. Is there a ship that makes your skin crawl? Churboose the way most people portray it. Caboose has the mental capacity of a child; I don't know if it's canon or not, but I am firmly of the belief that he is not entirely capable of distinguishing between romantic and platonic love, if at all, and sex isn't even a thing that he acknowledges. I can get behind the idea of Church accidentally and bizarrely and inexplicably falling in love with Caboose in a purely emotional sense, and Caboose loves everyone on all the teams in his own way, except the ones his family (because that's what they are, his family) genuinely hates, and those he does his best to fuck up something fierce. but don't pretend that Caboose and Church having sex would be anything but creepy as fuck and completely out of character. Also, the Director/Tex, because vicarious relationships, and Felix/Tucker but that one's a good skin-crawly one if done right (which it will be when I do it).11. What is a character you can only imagine in one particular ship? Calliope I can only see with Roxy, but damn do I ever see it.12. What is your favourite canon ship? if we're going with the cutthroat definition of canon, there aren't any, so going with the practical definition, Grimmons, because I'm not saying the secretly-married jokes are true, but I am saying they're extremely well-founded, even if one or both of them needs to pull his head out of his ass and notice.13. Name a ship that deserved more content. I feel like Vriska/Terezi, especially Game Over timeline Vriska/Terezi, deserved more, but I definitely needed more Terezi/John, because John learning firsthand about kismesissitude is a beautiful image.14. Is there a ship you feel gets undeserved hate in fandom? no??? the RvB fandom tends to agree that most of the characters have banged or at least that they could, so I haven't actually seen, like, *any* ship hate.15. What is the first ship you had? Davekat, which I shipped before getting into Homestuck, for which I blame the friend who got me into it in the first place.16. Is there a ship that made you realise something about yourself? uhm. all of them made me realize that I have a thing for temporarily inflicting emotional pain on characters, if that counts???17. Is there a type of ship you always go for? this goes for everything: banter. banter banter banter. example ships outside of these two specified fandoms: Bond/Q (Craig era), Romeo/Mercutio (yes, Romeo and Juliet), Rosencrantz/Guildenstern (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, specifically), Kate/Petruchio (yes I'm Shakespeare trash get over it), Skye/Jeffrey (The Penderwicks), wow I ship a lot of things I hadn't realized I shipped.18. Is there a ship the writers have ruined for you? no. unless you count the emotional abuse that is Ohio shooting Sherry and thereby ruining any chance they could've had, which nearly made me cry19. Is there a ship the fandom has ruined for you? not unless you count that tumblr post about Gamzee's relationships all being meticulously calculated and executed to do the most damage ruining my ability to enjoy pale Gamkar due to my new perception of Gamzee20. Have you ever created fan created content for a ship? hell ye. I have an AO3 but refuse to attach it to my tumblr. currently I've only got one RvB work and it's a really minor ship of mine, but I've got like four Tuckington, one Lolix, and that Felix/Tucker emotional abuse on the go.21. Favourite thing you’ve ever created for a ship? see previous comment re: not sharing my AO3, but my Snowman/Spades Slick WIP makes me really happy and I've got some damn good Davekat22. Is there a ship you’ll never admit you have? nope. not for anything I don't think. I'll even admit to shipping Annie and Teddy from the Magic Tree House books, and Dink and Ruth Rose from the A-Z Mysteries. I have always been a trashbaby and never given half a fuck.23. Have you ever started shipping a ship because of the fans? see previous comments re: Davekat. there was at least one more but I can't remember right now.24. What is one scene you want to see happen for all your ships? meeting in a bar, for the first time or after a long time or whatever. there are so many damn ways a bar meeting could go that it satisfies so many of my ships, and in RvB, all of them.25. Is there a ship you wish you didn’t know existed? all forms of Stridercest, particularly since I can actually tolerate Dirk/Dave. also Kurloz/Mituna because Kurloz is a confirmed creepy abusive fucker and Mituna is my precious pandamaged child26. Name a ship that ended like you wanted it to. Church/Tex, actually, if you disregard my temporary disappointment at Tex being female. the end of S9 gave them the best possible ending.27. Name a ship that deserved better in the end. Dirk/Jake but I can't complain too much because at least the abusive relationship ended28. Is there a character you have several ships for? Tucker's a slut, so yeah, but also I'm a big believer in breakups being a good and healthy part of life, so I ship relationships in the past tense. example: I support York and Carolina being together, and also thoroughly support Kimball finally getting Carolina to open up and fall in love again.29. What is the ship you ignore 98% of canon for? that's not really a thing I do, so. there isn't one.30. Is there a ship you like but you dislike the fandom? if we mean the fandom stuff for the particular ship, yeah, Churboose and Lolix in particular but I generally hate when people miss the point of what makes characters themselves in order to just make fanfic or whatever of their ship. in more general terms, I read the Maze Runner a while ago in order to be able to watch the movie for the sake of Thomas Brodie-Sangster (which I decided not to actually do because it's a really bad book), and I fucking hated the book, it's a really fucking shitty book, but Newt and Thomas all the fucking way man. (I think it was the nickname that really got me; nobody else calls him Tommy, and Newt doesn't give anyone else a nickname as far as I can remember, and also I'm really pissed that they cut the kiss scene from the movie because I might've suffered through it just for that)HOOOOOO BOY thank you anon that was way more fun than sleeping. also I'm having so much trouble figuring out who you are because most of my people I know are in one fandom or the other but not both, and the other people I can think of I can't imagine sending me an ask like this. aaaaa it's a mystery thank you for the excuse to ramble

[goobergamer]

idk what you ship in rvb, so stop me when i find one you ship. lolix? davence? docnut? and for just characters, how about the badass tex?

I’m not sure what ship davence is, but I can do it for the other two! (and also hell yes tex)

LO/LIX:

when I started shipping it if I did: pretty early on! I got into the fandom before I got to seasons with them, so I saw a lot of fan content that got the idea rolling by the time I met the characters (which then adapted my take on it a lot but the encouragement was still there).

my thoughts: gonna preface this with: I’m on the side of ‘ships don’t have to be positive to be interesting’. it’s a really great ship for exploring unhealthy content. I don’t ship it in a healthy fashion lol. I like fics that explore the idea of their relationship being a mutually assured destruction kinda thing (and if they’re exploring it in a canon setting, where that leaves locus after the end of s13). if it’s au, that can still be done quite well, just in a more subtle way.

What makes me happy about them: the uniqueness of their dynamic. I don’t think you could quite make it work the same way with any other characters in r/v/b.

What makes me sad about them: frankly I’m a little hesitant to talk about liking the ship at all lol because I know how people react heavily to fans who ignore the messiness of in-character lo/lix, which I can understand but it also makes it a little high tension for those of us who recognize the messy and want to feel able to explore them within those boundaries

things done in fanfic that annoys me: as stated above, not a big fan of when people either spin the in-character dynamic as a totally healthy thing, or turn them ooc to then make it legitimately healthy.

things I look for in fanfic: good readings on the characters, I suppose. Haven’t read much lo/lix but that’s what I would look for if I did

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: tuck/lix is my trash otp, loc/ington has interesting potential

My happily ever after for them: …they go their separate ways ahaha

who is the big spoon/little spoon: felix is lil spoon, though I feel like lo/cus would be a bad cuddler no matter what side he was on lmao

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: murder, in canon. lmao but in the shippy case, and with some in-canon stuff thrown in, I feel like it would be easy to argue that they would enjoy travelling to see new places together.

DOC/NUT:

when I started shipping it if I did: great question that I do nooot recall the answer to lol. May have been after they were living together (whichever season that was)? Or it may really have been spawned by seeing fanart for them, I don’t remember.

my thoughts: cute. precious. pure. A+ ship :>

What makes me happy about them: they’re both just such friendly characters, I feel like they could brighten a room walking into it together.

What makes me sad about them: they both deserve more screen time, definitely ;~;

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I don’t know that I’ve ever read a doc/nut fanfic! I’ve never heard about overdone tropes for them, so I don’t know that there would be anything bothersome even if I did?

things I look for in fanfic: see above. I can say though that something I always always always look for is good characterization tho so you could apply it here.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: hmmmm pastry // train is pretty great for donut, and for doc… I don’t know! I’m going to come up with a random rarepair right now: doc/doyle. Two characters desperately not made for war lmao but stuck with the crazy bgc anyway, who end up showing some great bravery when they need to

My happily ever after for them: they get to remake their little house with a garden and live domestically together forever

who is the big spoon/little spoon: I’m gonna say donut is big spoon. seems fitting

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: well everything’s always a little sexual with donut lmao buuut besides gardening (which also intersects v nicely with my farm au which is why I fan over the idea so much) imagine doc joining donut for his wine and cheese hours because a) moderate wine drinking is good for you and b) they could be all fun and fancy together

TEX:

How I feel about this character: LOVE DAT LADY. she’s my fifth favorite character in the whole series, which I feel is a big deal since there’s so many fckn characters

All the people I ship romantically with this character: CHURCH. hhhhh that’s honestly the big one lol, like any time I see another tex ship I always think it’s cute but ch/ex is the only one I’d say I actively ship (like looking up content for and whatnot).

My non-romantic OTP for this character: her and york, her and north.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t know that I have any unpopular opinions?? mmmm I guess my facecanon for her would count, since I don’t headcanon her looking like allison (I hc her looking like cl/arice starling, which I drew here, shameless self promotion ayyy [x])

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: TEX DESERVED NICE THINGS. also even though I don’t really feel dissatisfied with how things did go, it would have been cool if her and caro got the chance to really interact, especially after the fall of pfl

my OTP: CH/EX 5EVER

my cross over ship: oh man, I’m not really a fan of enough things to come up with good crossovers hnnngh, sorry

a headcanon fact: I feel like tex would secretly love 90′s boyband pop, like the BSB

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

Some ship results from the survey!

I'm still organizing a lot of the information but thought I'd share some things I found interesting!

Most shipped award goes to: WASHINGTON 🎉 (surprising no one)

Wash being in 16 total ships!

Runner-ups being

Tucker with 12

Felix with 11

Caboose and Kai tied with 10

Honorable mentions:

Leonard Church for a total of 15

Epsilon 3

Alpha 3

Director 3

And general Church 6

Of course these are all subject to change as more surveys come in! I'll keep updating these numbers and sharing interesting finds as they come out!

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

you heard @theosphobia get on it people 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

Maine/Grifshot/Grif (Maine and Grif are not being shipped, they’re both in love with the same gun)

this is insane we shall have a spring wedding

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

Most obscure ship wins (this is totally not a plot to get people to dig up other peoples underrated ships and give them attention in the hopes that their own ship will win by being unknown)

Is this what my english teachers meant by man vs self

Lmao good luck winning against the people who have OC ships from a fanfiction or this person

( @willingcannibalvictim )

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

@lordsireno

I like how you think 👀

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

I hope I can explain this well enough ^^"

So basically you create whatever form of content you'd like of your favorite rare ship. You'll post it to your own blog, @ this blog in the post, and tag it using these tags:

rvb rarepair week dos

rvb rarepair week 2024

And I'll reblog it to this blog so everyone following this event will see your wonderful content!!

Hope this clears up any confusion but my dms and askbox are always open for further questions!

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

hiiiii i have a little question i forgor to ask when filling out the surveyyy.

what should we do if characters being shipped don’t have canon names? (ex: soldier 1, soldier 2, other background characters, etc etc)

Good question! I don't know yet 😅 putting the season and episode numbers in the survey is helpful for me making the spreadsheets. As for tagging I think trying to find whatever they're called in the credits or rvb wiki is the best place to start.

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

@voidedbattery

You can create whatever you like regardless of what you put in this survey! This survey is just gathering info on what people are interested in doing and not a sign up for certain content. Sorry if that was confusing!

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

@w3llf4ll

Bingo cards are such a fun idea! If anyone wants to make them go for it!!

Also a fan zine for rvb is literally my dream 💙 maybe soon

[rvbrarepairweekdos]

@leonardalphachurch

yeesssssss, exchange plans are definitely in the works for next year