#the most normal character that actually dates while everyone else pines for one specific person

[musubiki]

this meme has not left my brain for three days and three nights

[yume-fanfare]

hi i am that anon from like 29th Dec (last dang year) who said i read ur tsuki no hime and loved it and that u understand Aizou. i have read more of ur stuff since then and now i NEED to ask you for writing advice, on both characterization and general writing tips since I didnt mention it before. Sorry about that! i just forgot i sent an ask and i do not get notifs at all (or does anon asks not get notifs?) Also, ART STUDENT! That's why the nice art and art leaning!! I feel smart for sensing it

oh yup, tumblr doesn't send notifs for anon asks! but i'm glad you did see the answer anyway

this post is hideously long, so answer under the cut!

so, on characterization: it is mostly a matter of what would they say, rather than what you want them to say. the joke about "the characters do what they want to" instead of what the writer wants is pretty much true if you want them to be in character lol (that's why sometimes a little bit of OoC isn't too bad)

checking the source material is the most important thing: look at prior similar interactions the characters have had and how they reacted

this is kind of hard with LIPxLIP, as there aren't that many translated texts about them but with honeyworks the most canon and reliable thing to use as reference are the mvs. the mvs are drawn in a way that can pretty much be understood even if you don't have the lyrics, and sometimes it's even better if you can't read them, to properly focus on the images better

look at their expressions closely: while aizou is always explosive in his anger, yuujirou often has a more indifferent expression. so, when they fight, aizou is probably the one to blow up first while yuujirou maintains his composure better. it's kind of the classic "this was only a brief passing panel but i am going to expand on it" www

but the thing about fanfiction is that it's always a bit of a character analysis in itself. you don't start writing having already a color-coded folder of possible situations and reactions a character would have for each setting. you just throw the characters in a scenario and then think from there onwards, and eventually you'll be able to have the folder of situations and what you think their reactions would be like. (though, this links back to the prior point, if the characters have gone through a similar situation in canon, use that as guide! plus, finding little references to canon when reading is always fun)

for general writing, i'm going to mostly talk about my own experiences and process! i'm in no way a professional though

the basic is reading a lot. not just books but also fanfic. in fact, since you're writing fanfic, i Encourage you to read fanfic. even if your story ends up novel length, the way of treating the story is different from that of an actual novel. for example, because you're working under the premise that everyone knows the characters already. the general style of fics is different as well.

in fact, the style is the main reason i'm saying this slfkslfkslkf

read a lot of stuff and find a style you like. think of it as sewing together pieces from here and there to make a frankenstein amalgamation: this person's metaphors, the comparisons from here, the descriptions from there

personally, i adore the "long one-shot with a long title formatted (like this)" fics that are mostly feelings and descriptions and as little dialogue as possible, and some that occasionally play with the "show don't tell" rule, and some months ago i read a book whose descriptions amazed me because you could feel what the character was focusing on the most, rather than being general descriptions of the situation (i actually have a lot of thoughts about descriptions but that's a post for another day). but also i really like dialogue and plot-driven stories, descriptions can get boring and before trying to break rules, you have to be really good at following them

but, let's go step by step: developing an idea

for this i'm going to mostly reference the multichap i finished a while ago as an example

i started with just a few vague concepts in mind: non-idol au with aizou who does some sport and likes music but is insecure about his singing and yuujirou who does some music related thing and encourages him to sing in a way that's somehow related to the hozier song to noisemaking (sing), because it's what inspired me to write in the first place

then, from then onwards i wrote down what would happen in the first chapter of the story bullet-point-list-style, including things like the roommates part or the clubs the boys were in (at first yuujirou was in the choir club lol the change was a last second decision that idk why i took) and then bits of dialogue here and there that would be The Turning Points. those first dialogues were for the fight at the end of ch 1, the apology-date in ch 3 and then some vaguely unused ones for the "yuujirou encourages aizou" part, as those were the first key moments i thought of

because, since it's enemies to friends to lovers, an important aspect was character development

not all fics have character development bc not all of them are long enough (if you're aiming for short and sweet then there's no need). but if they do, i recommend you write down how the character was at the beginning of the story and then how they were at the end and then fill in the middle later, think of what those key turning points that made the character change were (the more little things you add, the more gradual it'll be)

samishigariya illustrates this very nicely: the song starts and finishes with the same lines, but the ending ones feel more light-hearted. the beginning has pre-arisa ken and pre-getting-along-with-yuujirou aizou, when they were the lonely people the title mentioned, and the ending, when they're not lonely anymore. the in between can be seen in depth during the other songs: ken before arisa was a playboy who didn't take love seriously, but after meeting her he realized that games were not all there was to love; and aizou used to be quite cranky and high-key a loner, but then he "meets precious things and knows of love". i will not elaborate on that because this isn't an aiyuu post but Oh You Know

for the fic, aizou would go through that same process, more or less: someone who doesn't really form meaningful connections with people but who, in the end, would end up having quite a bunch of people who care about him as his relationship with yuujirou advances too

since the relationship was the main focus, i wrote a very simple outline for how it would develop throughout 5 hypothetical chapters that was just: 1. civil w each other but mostly bad > 2. bad > 3. half friends > 4. pining > 5. date

and then with that in mind and the bullet point list, the final basic outline ended up like this:

there were scraped ideas and ideas that made it in later, but i believe having a simple outline, a bare skeleton to add things to, is important. stories need continuity, development requires a prior buildup

it's especially important in multichapter fics where you post as you write, you need to have a more or less clear idea of what's going to happen because you can't ignore scenes you've already posted

shorter stories don't need it as much, you can think as you go, but it's still helpful to know where you're going with things to avoid getting stuck

and, on getting stuck: don't be afraid of deleting things. if you can't figure out how to continue things, then delete the situation and start again. it might feel like you'd be wasting time but in the end, it is so much better than being stuck on the same scene for weeks

in fact, you don't have to write in order. jump to the next scene and you'll figure it out later. you Can write the scene you want to write and then build everything else around it

it's normal to write a scene and then realize it would make more sense later in the story, or that it would be better if you added another scene earlier, or sometimes you just find it easier to jump from one part of the story to another. rely on your outline to keep track of what you've written, what you have left to write and what's the best way to arrange your story. make your story understandable

which bring us to editing

there's a lot of much better posts on editing stories, but yeah ctrl+f is your best friend: don't repeat yourself too much. and be sure to vary sentence and paragraph length, as well as sentence structure, to give dynamism to the writing

now, i've mentioned before the show, don't tell rule, but i'm going to talk a bit more about it because it's quite important

once again there's a lot of posts that explain more in depth what it is, so i'm not going to expand too much on that, but, very basically, try to avoid things like "then some time passed and they became friends". explain it: what happened exactly? how did they become friends? if it's important, show it to us, instead of summarizing

since things like these make the story longer, it also gives room for more development and proper explanation for things that happen

for example, the fic was originally going to start with them already in the room, and the whole situation would have been explained in a single paragraph somewhere, but by actually adding the scene where they first arrive to the dorms and argue with the lady at the main desk, the story flows better and it let me actually describe their first meeting

and uuuhhh i think that's all? this took super long to write i hope i didn't forget any super basic stuff lol

i want to add that for enemies to lovers i greatly recommend this post bc it's super good but yeah i think that's basically it, if you have any more specific questions just shoot me an ask

[calliecat93]

My Top 10 (Current) Favorite Ships

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I am once again single and have still never so much as held hands with another person! GO ME AND HOW MUCH I SUCK AT LOVE! HAHA... wow I just made myself sad. But hey, just because my love life sucks doesn’t mean that I can’t celebrate it. So to celebrate the holidays, I am going to talk about my Top 10 Favorite Ships... at the current time anyways.

I have a... complicated relationship with ships. I don’t like getting into them much. I have several, don’t get me wrong, but they’re normally either canon ones or ones teased hard enough. But because of shipping wars and stuff, shipping has become a tainted subject for me. The A:TLA and Voltron fandoms alone have made me concerned about creators personal safety cause how dare these two specific characters not bang. But this isn’t about that, this is about the ships I have enjoyed. Ones I grew up on, ones I got into recently, and ones that have stuck with me throughout the highs and lows. Which can perfectly describe true love, sticking together through everything throughout the good and the bad.

So without further ado, let us begin!

#10. Tommy Oliver and Kimberly Hart (MMPR)

Even before I knew what shipping was, I loved these two. Like a lot of 90′s kids, I grew up on Power Rangers, and I still keep up with it form time to time. Even with my faded childhood memories (MMPR came out when I was like... six months old), I remember adoring these two. No specific reasons why, I just remember seeing them to all the stuff that even as a kid, I knew that couples did. GO on dates, give gifts, kiss each other, all that cute stuff. They were happy together and while the characters are kinda bland, their chemistry worked really well. Even now as an adult, as cheesy as the original show was, I still squeel whenever I see Tommy and Kimberly just talking or kissing. It was just sweet, and I loved them... even if after Tommy became the leader, Kim fell into damsel in distress mode more and more, but hey she still had her awesome moments.

It was also the first ship I had that got royally screwed up by the writers! Kim left the show because her actress wanted to quit, which is fair enough and it was handled very well. What wasn't handled well was in the Zeo season, they had Kim send a Dear John letter and break up with Tommy off-screen cause she found another guy. Why? To That Tommy can hook up with the current Pink Rangers. Now I have nothing against Cat, she was a perfectly fine character... bUT THIS WAS STUPID. No build-up, it’s done out of nowhere off-screen, it caused a rushed/forced romance that no one wanted, and considering Tommy appeared in the future and was single, it went NOWHERE. If they wanted a romance, they had plenty of other options. This was a HUGE middle finger to everyone who cared about the characters imo, and I am still bitter about it. In my mind years later, Tommy and Kim hooked up again and IDC what that one Christmas episode said. That is my headcanon, and I am sticking to it until I die.

So yeah, Tommy and Kimberly. My very first ship and it still holds a special place in my heart. Couldn’t make this list and not mention it.

#9. Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable (Kim Possible)

Tommy/Kimberly was my first ship... but as a little kid, I wasn't that invested in it. I just saw them do cute couple stuff and found it cute. But Kim and Ron? I watched Kim Possible since the day it premiered. I got to watch their relationship form beginning to end. I imagine that most have seen KP, but for those who don’t, Kim is a spy why can do anything while Ron is her buffon best friend/sidekick. Kim is confident, strong, and popular while Ron is goofy, easily scared, and very clumsy. But Ron is also more grounded to reality and capable of normal things like working in fast food or cooking, while Kim constantly stresses over things like romance and at accomplishing everything. Two very different people, yet they complete each other. Kim can get Ron to stand up for himself, and Ron can bring Kim down back to earth. It’s really funny when we see how they met, where Kim was very insecure and Ron stood up for her, and it was that act that provoked Kim to fight back.

Throughout the series, they bicker a lot but are there for each other. Ron helps Kim on her missions despite his incompetence, and Kim appreciates him for that. Ron supports Kim through situations like talking to a boy, even if he doesn't necessarily get what she sees in them. There’s always been this underlying theme that they might have feelings for each other with things like A Sitch in TIme and the episode Emotion Sickness really emphasizing their relationship/potential feelings. It finally came to a head in So the Drama where Ron fully realized his feelings when Kim got a ‘perfect’ boyfriend. It has Kim stressing over prom and not wanting to go with he r’just a friend’ Ron, Ron feeling alone cause Kim barley pays him attention in a way that’s sympathetic and not asshole-ish, and it ends with Ron helping Kim back up at her lowest point, Kim realizing how Ron had always been there, and... well look at the screencap I used to see how it ended.

Kim and Ron complete each other. They bring out the best in each other and bring them back down when they go too far. They bicker, but they also support each other, even if they don’t always like what the other is doing. We get to see them together at their best and their worst, and it ends on a very satisfying note... and then S4 happened, but meh. It’s still a great ship with two really good characters, and ho boy do i still love it.

#8. Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste + all other subsequent combos (Miraculous Ladybug)

Probably no surprise to my followers that this is on here... but some may raise a brow that it’s only at eight. To put it simply, with how the show has been going as of late, I have a LOOOOT of issues with it right now. But I want to use this to praise ships I like, not break them down so I’ll save that for another day.

This one is cute. Marinette is a good-hearted girl who has a huge crush on Adrien, while Adrien is in love with Mari’s superhero identity Ladybug. And with his hero identity of Cat Noir, we have one of the most insane love triangles in history. Adrinette, Maricat, Ladynoir, Ladrien, you get so many flavors of ships with just these two people! My favorite version is Ladrien since it’s the most natural imo and the one with equal pining, but they’re all the same two people so IDT it matters.

The show is about these two’s relationship. That is the heart of the show. Again, there are problems that I’m not going to go into, but overall I like them together. Marinette can get a little... too into her crush, but we do see that her feelings are genuine and it’s because Adrien showed her some kindness. While Adrien doesn't know that Mari is Ladybug, his feelings for Ladybug are because of her confidence and strength, which he starts to see in Mari too. This is the longest Slow Burn story ever and tbh, I want them to just go ahead and get on with it. But hey, I will find them cute and I like their interactions, so there’s that~

So of course a TMNT ship was going to end up on here. Now I almost put Apritello on here... but nowadays after all the recent stuff in the news, it’s... a little hard to look back on. So I tried to think of someone else, and while I considered Ramona... I decided to go with this:

#7. Hamato Yoshi/Master Splinter and Tang-Shen (TMNT 2012)

One episode.

The show had one episode to show these two’s relationship. Shen had been mentioned in the past, but this was the one and only time we’d get to see her. And OMG, did they pull it off perfectly.

They sold me on this romance in a single episode. Yoshi is a loving husband, but also tied to his fmaily loyalties even if it contradicts what Shen wants. Shen wants a happy life with her husband and child, but has to put up with Yoshi’s indecisiveness and she’s understandably fed up. They do a very good job of showing Shen as a strong-willed woman whose first priority is her daughter but that she does love Yoshi and is understanding. Yoshi is a very flawed person, but he does try to make it work and his love for his wife and daughter are very clear. It’s not perfect, no marriage is. But that love is so clear, and you can feel it every second that Tale of the Yokai plays.

TMNT 2012 has received many critiques in how it handled romance. It went too quick, the girls were reverted to just love interests, the boys are creepers, plenty of things. And they are understandable. But they clearly recognized that if they wanted this episode to leave the impact that they wanted, they had to make YOshi and Shen’s relationship strong. And they did. From beginning to end, you feel for both of them. Shen isn’t just some woman that existed for backstory, she had a personality and independence, which makes you care for her and about her relationship with Yoshi. And therefore, even though you know how it’s going to end, when Shen inevitably gets killed and you hear Yoshi just sob in despair, you’re sobbing right along with him. 

So yeah, I love these two. It’s tragic, but beautifully done. I love it~

#6. Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell (FMA: Brotherhood)

For the record, I am specifically talking about the Brotherhood version, not the 2003 version where their relationship went nowhere.

Okay, Ed and Winry. God I LOOOVE them. I know that Roy/Hawkeye is the favorite... but most of their relationship is left implied and open-ended with no actual ‘I love you’ or anything. So even if it was obvious what Arakawa was saying, I... felt like there wasn’t enough to make me care about them as a ship. Not the case with these two!

Their relationship is just so sweet. They’re childhood friends who both go through crap. Winry lost her parents at a young age, and Ed and Al’s mother died of illness and then the alchemy stuff happened and.. yeah. Throughout it all, Winry supported Ed and Al, helping Ed with his automail even when he keeps breaking t and supporting him through his quest to restore his and Al’s bodies. Throughout the series, Ed tries to support and protect Winry, especially when she tries to kill her parents killer and he talks her down. Overtime, they start recognizing their feelings and it was funny, cute, and after all the Hell everyne goes through, something that they deserved. 

The ending to Brotherhood, with Ed’s dorky proposal, is still one of the most heartwarming moments in anime period. Ed got the happy ending that he earned, Winry got to be with the boy that she supported through Hell and back, and it felt natural and super satisfying. It promised a happy future for everyone, and like everyone had truly earned their happy ending. We had gotten to see these two together, through both the good and bad, and how far they were willing to go for each other and their well-being. It’s just a super sweet romance, and I thank Brotherhood for existing so that we could have it.

I REALLY wish that I had more same-sex ships on here. But many of the more popular ones either are fetishisized, the actual work never had that intention, or the fandom got so rabid over it that it killed any potential enjoyment for me (looking at you Voltron). Doesn't help that in animation, there’s so few same-sex couples even if stuff like Steven Universe has been helping. But... I was able to think of one that I liked.

#5. Avatar Korra and Asami Sato (The Legend of Korra)

YOu have NO IDEA how happy I was when this became canon. Okay yes, I know that it wans’t said in the show, but Bryke confirmed it and explained why they couldn’t do anything more explict (Nick didn’t want to anger international audiences). As such, I am forgiving of it and still happy that it’s a thing.

While I liked The Legend of Korra (more than A:TLA even if it is the better show), they... sucked at romances. Dear God everything they did with Mako in S1 and 2, I do NOT even want to think over it. Let sput it this way, I got tired of the live triangle so much that I started crackshipping Korra and Asami together because they deserved SOMETHING happy. When S3 had them getting closer, I liked it as I liked seeing two girls just be friends and not over a boy... but I didn’t see it as shippy since I thought that there was no way that Nickelodoen would allow it, plus after the previous mess I didn’t want them to touch romance EVERY again with this series.

Then the S3 finale and start of S4 happened... and I seriously started wondering. Asami was the one specifically reaching out to and helping Korra after what the Red Lotus did. Asami was the only one that Korra tried to reach out to after she went home. They both seemed very happy to see each other again, and much of S4 is focuse don them together as well as the previous one. And, of course, the series ended specifically with them, just as A:TLA specifically ended with Aang and Katata. Like... when Korra suggsted jus tthe two of them went away for awhile and them just looking into each others eyes... yeah, it was obvious what they were trying to do. And I was sold.

I love these two together. Even if it started sour int he beginning, the two grew into close friends as things went on. They were supportive, protective, and caring towards one another at their best and worst moments. They’re booth strong young women who play a huge part in the world and can take care of themselves. Korra may be more tomboyish and Asami feminine, but they learn to respect each other and that slowly shifted into friendship, and ended with two former ‘rivals’ (it was pretty one-sided on Korra’s part tbf) over Mako becoming lovers. For what they were able to do, I thinkt hat Bryke did a good job, and I still love these two to this day.

Alright, I have to put a Disney Princess ship in here. But of course which one to pick? There’s Ariel/Eric, Tiana/Naveen, Aladdin/Jasmine, plenty to choose from. Since Mulan is my favorite, you’d think I’d go with her and Shang... but that really doesn't play a huge part in the movie imo. I did some thinking... and I finally made a conclusion.

#4. Rapunzel and Eugene (Tangled franchise)

Words cannot describe how much I love them. I’ll even go ahead and say it, they are THE best developed couple in any Disney film. Why?

In the original film, they play off each other well. Rapunzel is a naive girl who wants to see the lanterns, Flynn is a smug thief who bolsters himself up. Rapunzel is idealistic and positive, Flynn is sarcastic and more grounded to reality. They’re interactions in the beginning, such as Rapunzel freaking out and Flynn just looking stoic throughout is hilarious. But the movie shows has them grow to understand each other and learn form each other. Rapunzel becomes braver and more independent, while Flynn becomes more selfless and honest, even going back to being Eugene. They both are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for each other’s happiness, their love for each other shining brighter than the sun. THat love saves them both, and that alone is just beautifully done int he film.

Then the series happened, and it became better. Eugene is ready to take the next step, but Rapunzel is scared to and then her hair becomes magic again. Eugene? He accept sit. He’s willing to wait for however long it takes because he loves Rapunzel, and he’ll support her through everything. Even in the series, they both go out of their way for each other and try to support each other in any way that they can. There’s the occasional argument/disagreement, as with any couple, but it’s never devolves into sitcom-esque antics where you wonder why the hell they’re still together. At the end of the day, they are there for one another. Int he S2 premiere, Rapunzel goes to Hell and back to save Eugene form a forced marriage while Eugene makes it clear that he loves her and only her. It’s just SO GOOD to see a couple in a modern cartoon that I like together. Now since Happily Ever After exists, we know that they’ll get married eventually, but I can wait for the show to get there. I love seeing them, and God I aspire to have a romance like theirs one day.

#3. Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos (RWBY)

TIME FOR ONE OF THOSE TRAGIC SHIPS AGAIN

God this ship... THIS SHIP. This was probably THE biggest ship (that isn’t Bumblebee) during RWBY’s early days. Jaune is a loser who forged his way into Beacon and feels like a constant failure... and his lack of fighting skill doesn’t help. As such, he ends up attracting the attention of Pyrrha, a well known and tainted fighter who helps him start to grow out of the kindness of her heart. It became clear that Pyrrha was growing feelings for Jaune... but Jaune was oblivious and crushing on another girl. Despite this, Jaune respected and cared for Pyrrha as he started to learn to recognize others feelings and during a school dance, Pyrrha expressed how Jaune not knowing of her fame and talking to her like a normal person is what attracted her to him. He didn’t treat her like a celebrity who was above anyone’s expectations, but just as some other girl, and that was what she wanted more than anything. And it ended with Jaune asking her... and wearing a dress. It makes sense in context.

Their relation was mutually supportive and provided growth for both of them. Jaune grew into not just a better fighter, but a better person as Pyrrha taught him to be more considerate and to recognize others feelings outside his own. Pyrrha had someone who made her feel normal and accepted as she pursued her goals of being a Huntress to help people. Which resulted in V3 when the Maiden offer comes, and for Pyrrha makes her doubtful and scared of her fate. She can’t tell Jaune, but he realizes that something is wrong and he tries to provide comfort, even telling her that she was the first and only person to believe in him, even over his own family. While it sadly ended badly when Pyrrha’s fears make her hurt him on accident and Jaune feeling like he messed up, it still really showed how much their relationship had grown, and after the Battle for Beacon commenced, Jaune comforted Pyrrha and got her back onto her feet.

But of course, as we know, Pyrrha ended up being killed... but not before kissing Jaune before launching him to safety. It left Jaune not only losing his friend and mentor, but realizing what Pyrrha’s true feelings were as well as recognizing his own. As we see, he struggles with this. How his closest friend lost her life and how much pains he was really in, how he now has to pick up the pieces as he gets lead into something much larger than anyone thought, and having to accept that Pyrhha knew fully well that she wasn't coming back. Thankfully, by V6, he came to realize that Pyrrha did what she did because she was a Huntress and regained his will to continue on, thanking her for making him a better person.

Arkos, to this day, makes me cry if I just so much as think about the end of V3. The two’s relationship was super sweet, Jaune’s idiocy throughout aside, and it was just nice to see these two grow from each other. It’s sad that Pyrrha died, but she went out doing what was right, and Jaune came out as a better person who will keep living his life. If he finds love again, I’m okay with that and it’ll show how he’s moving on as Pyrrha would want him to. But no one is ever going to forget Arkos, and for what we had of it, I’ll always cherish it.

#2. Dexter Grif and Richard ‘D*ck’ Simmons (Red vs Blue)

Okay, we all knew that this was going to be on here. It’s the ship I’m currently most focused on, and even the first I think that I gave a shipping tag to. I have talked about them multiple times. IDK if there’s anything new that I can add because I’ve said just about everything. But I guess in the spirit of things, I’ll go over it again.

This ship has broken every issue with shipping I’ve ever had. I normally don’t ship non-canon pairs, but Dear God I love them. I don’t normally seems fandoms use them just to have hot boy/boy stuff and I have NEVER seen any shipping wars concerning it that turned me off. In fact, fandom is what got me into this ship. When I binged it, I just saw them as two guys who love to hate each other... but the fandom did a really good job in convincing me that they were in love. S15 helped with that with how Simmons reacted to Grif quitting, and Grif clearly missing Simmons more than anyone and even leaving him out when he says he hates everyone later. But since until then the writers seemed uninterested in developing Red Team, I had to turn to fanficiton for it. And many gave them so much depth and their relationship as a result felt so much stronger and meaningful to me. This is the very rare time where fandom concerted me.

These guys are assholes. Grif is a lazy jerk, and Simmons is a kissassing rule-follower. Yet they compliment each other perfectly. They argue and bicker frequently, but it feels so natural and it just... works. And overtime, we see their relationship go from just kinda being stuck together to being actual friends. S16 really showed how much healthier and positive it was as the two matured, Simmons becoming more independent and Grif starting to actually try and work through stuff. Their characters got stronger, and as such theyre bond got stronger. Even if that doesn't necessarily have a spotlight put on it, form just their interactions, you can just see it.

I cannot imagine these two without each other, at least for an extended period. They work great as individual characters, but are even better when together. They balance each other. They, in their weird way, support each other. They have been through nearly EVERYTHING in the series together and they’d absolutely do anything to protect each other. They may suck at expressing all of that, but it’s okay. We all know. I love them, and I just hope that RT will allow it to be canon one of these days... I’ll wait~

Honorable Mentions

Sakura Kinomoto/Syaoran Li (Cardcaptor Sakura)

Greg Universe/Rose (Steven Universe)

Ichigo Kurosaki/Orihime Inoue (Bleach)

Arnold Shortman/Helga Pataki (Hey Arnold)

Candace Flynn/Jeremy Johnson (Phineas and Ferb)

Yugi Mutou/Anzu Masaki (Yu-Gi-Oh)

Ash Ketchum/Misty (Pokemon)

Max Goof/Roxanne (A Goofy Movie)

Mickey/Minnie (Disney)

Various other Disney ships

Inuyasha/Kagome Higurashi (Inuyasha)

Jake Long/Rose (American Dragon: Jake Long)

Superman aka Clark Kent/Lois Lane (Superman franchise)

Robin/Starfire (Teen Titans)

April O’Neil/Casey Jones (TMNT 2003)

Chris Kratt/Aviva Corocvado (Wild Kratts)

Sunset Shimmer/Human Twilight Sparkle (Equestria Girls)

Shining Armor/Princess Cadence (MLP:FIM)

And I’m probably forgetting a lot but this post is already super long and I can’t remember everything, so... onto Number One!

Grimmons was VERY close to being Number One since it is my current obsession. But then I remembered one other... and I HAD to make it Number One. It is something that I have followed along since I learned what fandoms were, and whenever I think of true love... this is the couple that appears in my mind. I could not leave it off, or not give it the top spot. So my friends, I present to you my Favorite Ship:

#1. Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon and Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask (Sailor Moon)

Ah, Sailor Moon, my first fandom. My childhood. My love. The series that taught me about love... even when I didn’t care about Usagi and Mamoru’s relaitonship. So it being Number 1 is probably a surprise... but I shall explain.

As a kid... and for the most part as an adult, I am more invested in the girls relationships than about Usagi and Mamoru. It doesn't help that in the 90′s anime, it was the standard ‘these two bicker a lot’ scenario and then it felt more like they only loved each other cause they did in the past. Then R had that stupid break-up plot that I still despise to this very day. Fortunately it was better in the following seasons, S was especially overall super sweet, but... well, it felt forced, stereotypical, and like their love existed because of past memories. Even as a little girl... it just didn’t feel right.

Then I read the manga. And it was SOOOO much better!

While I do still find the romance rushed int he manga, it felt much mroe natural. The two don’t argue like five year olds. They took at least a little time to get to know each other, and uncovered each other’s identities BEFORE the memories came back. As such, when they did regain them after Mamoru got hurt, it felt more like the past just strengthened the love. it showed that it would last throughout the ages. They already recognized their feelings prior, rushed as it was imo, and made it feel more genuine. In the subsequent arcs, they don’t have stupid breakup arcs or a forced love triangle in the final arc. There are issues, very stupid opens (Usagi getting jealous of her future daughter for example), but their love stands strong, they support and protect each other, and they just grow stronger as a result.

This is probably THE most famous anime romance in existence, and it’s not hard to see why. Even if I have issues in how it came to be, their relationship is shown as equal and supportive. It has been something that I’ve followed since I was five years old. Flr what I said about the 90′s anime, I did still like it and I’ve only grown to care about it more over the years... even if I still care more about the Senshi. Still, it’s a classic and to me, is still the one and only Miracle Romance

And that is the list! Trying to go through every fandom I was ever into to remember what I shipped was HAAARD. But I really enjoyed making this list and getting to revisit all of them again. I might do more Top 10′s in the future, so if you guys would like to see me do anything specific, feel free to reply/ask me! Thank you all for reading, and Happy Valentines Day everyone! 💕💕💕

[princegabriel]

Dear Rule 63 Writer

Welcome to the party, pal!

For this particular exchange, since I’ve been fortunate lately to have found and consumed media that mostly has gender dynamics I like, I’m mostly interested in seeing “the further adventures of character A and character B” except that one or both of them has a different gender. Doesn’t mean I don’t think anything would change about them, and I don’t mean to stifle your creativity, it’s just that there’s no specific Thing I want to see w/r/t gender. 

Here are some general things I really like:

Matter-of-fact declarations of love/friendship.

People being productive while pining–either acknowledging their feelings but realizing they still have important things to do, or straight up burying the feelings in work.

Women And Nonbinary People Getting Stuff Done

Fake dating

Black comedy

Silly comedy and bad puns

Conversely, people being very extra and having THE MOST feelings, in the style of 19th century romance

Stories where STUFF happens due mostly to people just being people

Places with secrets

Game narratives, as in, the MC(s) are playing some kind of immersive, fantastical, high-stakes game. See: The Game of Sunken Places, Doctor Who: The Ghost Monument. IDK how that would apply here, but they are neat and if you come up with a concept that you think would work, I bet it would be cool!

I know I didn’t put this in my sign-up, but here are some general DNWs:

Rape/dubcon/torture porn

Major character death

Tooth injuries

Misgendering

Characters’ defining characteristic being “in love with this person”

Unrequested non canonical ships

Diet talk

A/B/O dynamics

Any bodily waste products being used for sex

Unrequested AUs

Now for the specifics:

1. The Magnus Archives

Rating: G-M

Ships: F!Gerard Keay & Gertrude Robinson, Sasha James/F!Tim Stoker, F!Robert Montauk & Julia Montauk, F!Michael "Mike" Crew & Jude Perry, F!Adelard Dekker/Gertrude Robinson, F!Trevor Herbert & Julia Montauk

I love Gertrude Robinson very much. She’s a stone-cold badass and I love how straightforward she is when it comes to resolving some problems (just blow up the building where the ritual is, duh) and how sneaky her approach is to other problems (”why the tape recorders, you ask? well, I'm just an old-fashioned lady, haha!”). 

I’m a big fan of her mentorship with Gerry, and how she is explicitly not a mother figure. Like she has more experience and Gerry is a baby but they’re colleagues, really. I wouldn’t mind Gerry having some complicated feelings regarding Gertrude as a surrogate parental figure, though. I love Gerry being whip-smart and capable but still lacking in things that come from a healthy upbringing (you know, where one of your parents doesn’t murder the other and then recruit you into their spooky magic plots).

I’ve chosen to extrapolate from the bits and pieces we get that Gertrude and Adelard are the kind of close friends where even if they don’t speak for years they know where they stand with each other and can pick right back up. Of course, we also know that Gertrude didn’t let very many people get close to her, so there’s a pretty wide spectrum of possibility in there. In the case of a romantic relationship, I think Gertrude would not really want to talk about it while Adelard would. I also like how Adelard is characterized as terse and efficient in the “Distant Cousin” episode but more poetic in letters and statements to Gertrude. 

Sasha/Tim is just cute. I’d love to read more of their banter, maybe see them working closely together while researching a statement, or see what they’re like outside of work. I’d rather this be set during season 1 or earlier, or have an AU where Sasha doesn’t get got by the Not-Them. There are some lovely fics where Tim is trying to figure out how accurate his memories of Sasha really are, but they are very sad and I can’t read them all the time.

Oohoohoo, Julia Montauk. I love Julia Montauk. She goes from having a seemingly normal childhood to her mom disappearing, but that’s okay because her remaining parent takes good care of her, then that rug gets pulled out from under her, and everything is wrong. And she really tries to be normal, and then Trevor saves her and not only is normal not really an option any more, weird and horrible is so much more fulfilling. 

I’m not a big serial killer fan, but Robert Montauk is just trying to keep Julia safe in a world that is so much worse. How do you do that, how do you kill that many people, after losing your wife, and still come home to your kid and make sure she’s safe and happy and has no idea what you do when you say you’re going to work?

And then there’s Trevor Herbert—homeless, recovering from addiction, and risking incarceration and worse because there are things out there that people don’t understand that can and will kill them. Trevor Herbert, who saves and inadvertently adopts an adult to form a little monster-killer family.

Mike Crew and Jude Perry: I just really like the idea of their being buds and hanging out or comparing stories of tormenting innocent people. Or maybe they have a weird symbiotic relationship—how do the Desolation and the Vast relate to each other? Are they rivals? Or do they have their own (Leitner) book club?

In terms of changing names, the only one I’d feel super weird about keeping the same is Robert—could be shortened or turned into Roberta, whatever works.

2. The Penumbra Podcast

Ah yes, my one-stop gender shop. I love the way this show approaches gender and sexuality, that even if characters don’t spell out theirs (which I think only happens once, with Jet), we can usually assume they’re not both straight and cis. Also, despite the show being a noir/scifi story set hundreds of years in the future, it feels very realistic w/r/t identity and personal interactions. Fandom-specific DNW: coming out. One of my favorite things about Penumbra is that everyone just knows everyone else’s pronouns. It’s not that people can’t or don’t realize their gender identity or sexuality later in life—they do even in the show, it’s just that I like the way canon covers it so much that I’m all set.

Rating: G-M

Ships: Juno Steel & NB!Rita, Buddy Aurinko & F!Jet Sikuliaq, F!Peter Nureyev/F!Juno Steel

I love Juno’s and Rita’s friendship so much. Would love to see them working together, especially after the events of Soul of the People, when Juno finally, explicitly starts treating her better. I love seeing characters getting to exercise their competence, so Rita’s hacking combined with Juno’s detective skills: *chef’s kiss.* Are they solving a case? Are they working a heist? Is it a heist that turns into a case?? Alternately, maybe they’re just hanging out. Juno needs a better work/life balance, and Rita’s a lot better at that. 

Buddy and Jet are also very much friendship goals. I love how Jet has Buddy’s back no matter what, which definitely includes calling her out when she’s doing something destructive, and Buddy loves and appreciates Jet for that. They know each other and accept each other, but they also grow and change together. Meeting when they were both in a really unsteady place could have helped that. I’d love to see one of them comforting the other during a difficult time, or doing a job together either before or during season 3.

Peter/Juno: I mean. This is my jam. Maybe something set during season 1 that plays up the thief/detective dynamic? Maybe something set during season 3 when they’re trying to navigate their relationship in a healthy way when they’re both simultaneously terrified and also just want to make out already? Pairing specific DNW: please please please no Peter alone in the hotel room at the end of or just after Final Resting Place.

Rating E:

Peter/Juno: I mean. This is my jam. Everything above applies here. Smut likes: praise kink, frottage, masturbation, phone sex, teasing, edging, sex when the characters are def supposed to be doing something else, sex in public places where other people probably can’t actually see them but it *feels* risqué.

3. Wolf 359

Ship: F!Daniel Jacobi/F!Warren Kepler

GOOD SHIP. The trust. The loyalty. The King Lear quote when they meet! I love the rare occasion when Kepler lets Jacobi in. I love how they try to let each other know how they feel through actions rather than words. I’d love another time-out from the job like in Mission Mishaps: No Complaints, or a high-stakes situation where they have to defuse a bomb or blow something up, or something in between.

Thanks for writing for me! I hope you have fun with this!

[miniwolfsbane]

Copied from @andalite-angel post. Edited slightly.

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, etc. are allowed.

Biospecialist, Marco/Rachel, Sam/Rahne, all cannon Disney Princess pairings, the two young kids Pacific Rim Uprising,  Lancitty, Evo Kurt/ Amanda,  Jott in Evo. Skyward??

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or ***** that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

Fanfic writers and Evo romy, adult Jubilee x Gambit, others.

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

Never gonna be big on Evo Romy ever again, will forever hate Rahne x Roberto, Sam and Rahne with anyone but each other!!

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

Evo Romy...somtimes. Because it does sorta make sense IN FANNON, but not in cannon. And Jean x Scott, because it’s so iconic, but I only like them in Evo, so...yah.

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

See my fan fiction.

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

The Little Mermaid and Star Trek have been there for 95% of my life.

G - Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? Who was in it?

Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, Sam/Rahne, Ariel and Eric (first when I was 5, even though I wanted to be Ariel), Rachel Tobias (first when I was actually gettin into fandom), Jake/Cassie (Animorphs), Clark/Lana, Clark/Lois (I think??) and Chloe/Ollie, Romy (even in Evo at a point!), and now Eliza and Goliath in Gargoyles. I keep saying I’m not a shipper, but I think I’m just a subtle one that pines and doesn’t read a lot of fanfic, but my heart swells over seeing my OTP on screen

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

TV Shows and Western (superhero) Animation mostly, but also a few animes.

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

I was annoyed by the Agents Of Shield fandoms behavior for a while, but I’ve never stopped liking any fandoms because of Tumblr. 

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

SuperWhoLock, Riverdale...some other popular teen shows.

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

Tie between Sailor Moon and Gambit I guess, but I’m sure there are lots of others. Sailor Jupiter has a good arc as well, even though she doesn’t have a lot of character development TBH.

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

Roberto Dacosta’s super strength power is pretty cool and he’s a chill guy. And rich. (I just realized that a lot of X-Men characters are rich, actually. Gambit, Xavier, Warren and him. Holy crap.)

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

Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Moon. TAS Rogue too, because she seems fun to hang with, and who wouldn’t like to be called “Sugah” all the time?

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

MORE GAMBIT (and comic Nightcrawler) IMAGINES!! And just more love and less fan wars across all fandoms, really.

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

Hero by Chad Kroger. Ship: Romy or Mollyx Remy. Character: Gambit or Angel.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

For any fandom? A mad scientist and a famous baker get together after the scientist contacts aliens, resulting in a warring invasion on earth.

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

To be perfectly honest, The Smurfs because we’re a Christain household and we found it had stuff in it we didn’t agree with. I was three.  Other than that, I’ve only given up one other fandom permenantly that wasn’t what I thought it was and chosen at a bad time. 

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

Kurt and Kitty in Evo, and Logan and Kurt is cool, but I don’t actually pay much attention to it.

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

Hmmm. One that isn’t too boring? Remy isn’t (wasn’t? He is married now) particular about a woman’s height and is comfortable enough with himself to date a woman much taller or shorter than he is. (Remember, Frenzy was freaking 6′7 before she got rebooted to a normal height and it was implied they had history.) For a while it was a wish of mine they’d pair him with a short gal, because all X-women are physically clones of each other, minus Rahne, Kitty and Jubilee. Blargh. Oooh, just had an idea for a new art project to make the girls look individual! ^_^

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

Besides the above? Uh...headcannon that Remy smells good and his hair is silky to the touch and yes I’m a sick, weird little person, I know. Haha, not really. I’m not much of a headcannon person. 

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

* Gambit: Hot, suave, lit, accent, good cook, romantic, my fictional ideal man (told you, I’m sick and weird). * Sailor Jupiter: Sweet, loyal, living on her own at bloody 14 years old, strong physically and emotionally, had trouble believing/finding her feminity like me, tall (not like me!), brunette character, thunder powers. * Tuvok (Star Trek): My second crush ever, calm, reflective, hot grandpa, sarcasm galore, strong, suffers emotionally and physically, POC and like the only black vulcan that I know of, cute little boy chest, that butt (XD), frakin’ hot.

V - Which character do you relate to most?

Surprisingly, one I haven’t talked about yet and that I’m not really fandom-y about. Rapunzel from Tangled. When I saw the movie, I was attached to her immediately. I’d grown up homeschooled and at that point I’d been caregiving for one of my parents for six years at that point, unable to move out and get married and have much of a life, so I was always metaphorically in a tower too. I have childish interests, am artistic and creative, have done LOTS of self-insert art like her, and am a generally happy person (even if I don’t always show it and don’t smile enough). So, out of every character in my many fandoms, I relate to Rapunzel the most. Also, I have only 2 things of Tangled merch-the movie, the soundtrack, and a gorgeous bedspread that’s actually based on the show, but doesn’t look like it. (I don’t like it’s animation/character designs, so it’s been hard to get into it.)

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

OMG, do we have to go here? Anything over-sexualized or kinky or just plain gross/weird. (v***, gore, ect.) There’s this one X-Men:Evo artist on DA that would be brilliant, but I can’t stomach their gallery because they feel the need to do a few  v*** and bondage pics amongst otherwise G-rated pictures. *throws up* IT’S A SHOW FOR 7-YEAR OLDS!! 

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Huge guy, Tiny girl! (but it looks...weird...in live action. *Good Luck Charlie flashbacks*.) Also age differences. Some people are put off by Usagi and Mamo’s age difference in Classic, but I think it’s cute and they were really chaste about it. Specifically, I liked the part where he told her to do well in school for some reason. 

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)? Holy crap, Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables. No one on my dash is into them though, it’s a real life thing. Long story.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

I have written more self-inserts than is probably healthy, but at least I’ve mostly gotten past my teenage phase of thinking anime guys are hot and it’s extended to Gambit as well. I’d much rather see him be portrayed by a living, breathing actor semi-bringing my fantasies to life than as a drawn character. Well, not that I’m not happy seeing him animated and his voice in Evo is still super hot, but that’s another thing. Anyway, on that note, I wish XM:E weren’t a dead fandom and I could get more reviews instead of just faves/follows. I get so frustrated, because I’m not writing my fics for myself, I’m writing them to finish the story and for the fans. I know OCs/SI aren’t everyones bread and butter, but when you work hard on something, you want people to enjoy and appreciate it on it’s own merits. My regulars dropped off the planet and the fandom is just not that active online. (It’s still kind of active though, otherwise the Gambit and other prints on Steven Gordon’s online store wouldn’t have sold out so fast.) I wish it had been as creative as the MLP fandom, but even that wouldn’t have saved it. Thankfully, there are a few people “keeping the faith”, like Coldfusion180 and some others. They haven’t abandoned it and people have made AMVs for it in recent years, long after the shows cancellation. I know we’ve all moved on in one way or another, but it’s still nice to see the love for the show and it’s characters going strong, even if we’re now a niche fandom, tiny, but there. And even if I don’t get another single review up until the last in the series, at least I can say I finished it, if nothing else. Even if your fandom is dead, keep supporting it. If we don’t keep the characters alive, they die and are forgotten. They need us.

https://fanfiction.net/~miniwolfsbane

[lesbianlametron]

Bokuroo Week day 6

(maybe by day 7, I’ll actually put one out on time)

Prompt: Transportation

Title: Two Stops

Rating: T

Summary: ((I’ve been writing nearly all of these on the train, but I actually thought of this one while driving yesterday.)) Kuroo hates the train sometimes, but it is his daily excuse to see Bokuto every day since they only live two stops apart. Today something different happens and shakes up Kuroo’s normal routine.

Trains were not necessarily Kuroo’s favorite mode of transportation. They were stuffy and sometimes loud, depending on what annoying people were sitting around him. They sometimes ran late or ran early and he’d have to sprint to them. There was nothing worse than sitting on a train and being all sweaty. Most of the time there was a weird smell that permeated the car and clung to everything like dust. The worst for him was when there weren’t enough seats. He was already exhausted from pushing himself at volleyball practice and didn’t want to stand for the duration of his ride. Kuroo loved his personal space and there were very few people he allowed in his bubble. Two to be exact. Despite all of that, riding the train home was the best part of Kuroo’s day.

             Third car from the front, sitting hopefully with an open seat next to him. Two stops and then Bokuto would get on. Most of the time, he was grinning, but sometimes sullen depending on how practice went. Either mood was fine with Kuroo because he, with tips from Akaashi and a few thrown in, knew exactly how to cheer up his best friend. There were rare times when there weren’t enough seats and Bokuto was forced to stand in front of Kuroo. That was problematic only because of Kuroo’s huge crush on his best friend. Twenty minutes of being basically eye level with Bokuto’s crotch. Bokuto would point this out, but add the ‘no homo’ joke at the end. Kuroo would laugh, but internally, he was screaming.

             Next to him or across from him, depending was Kenma who would speak to him without words. They were mostly looks of pity, but other times, Kenma’s eyes said, ‘just confess already dummy’. Kenma didn’t understand because things had been easy for him and Akaashi, without try or really saying much of anything. Everything just fell into place. One day on the train they were sitting and discussing one of Kenma’s games and the next Akaashi sat closer with their arms linked. Kuroo suspected the only reason they didn’t hold hands was to give Kenma both his hands for game play. Akaashi would watch Kenma play with his chin resting on Kenma’s shoulder.

             Kuroo asked him about it once and Kenma said they just realized they both liked each other and started dating. It seemed so simple and for them it was, but Bokuto was complicated. He was moody and gave thousands of mixed signals. He was touchy with everyone so it was normal for him to have his arm around Kuroo or Akaashi or even the Shrimp from Karasuno when he was talking. Other times he felt like Bokuto’s touches lingered longer then they should or he didn’t know…they just felt different. And the bro and no homo talk, Bokuto only used with him. Like he specifically wanted to show that they were never going to happen. But then again, besides Akaashi, Kuroo was the only one Bokuto was closet to, and the only one who Bokuto called by his first name. They had known each other since middle school, so maybe that was why.

             The automated voice announced Bokuto’s stop and Kuroo felt his heart kick into high gear. Akaashi entered first looking tired and took the seat next to Kenma. He laid his head on Kenma’s shoulder and murmured something Kuroo couldn’t hear, but it made Kenma smile. Kuroo was happy there was someone other than himself that could make Kenma smile. Someone else to talk volleyball and trade strategies with, Kuroo had to actually thank Akaashi for keeping Kenma excited about volleyball.

             “Hey Kou.” Kuroo greeted his friend, hoping his tone was as level as he meant it. Bokuto gave him a weak smile. That meant either practice didn’t go well or it was more intense than normal. “You okay, buddy?”

             “Mmhm. ‘Kashi and I were just working on a new move of mine. It went well, but we ran it so many times. I’m tired.” Bokuto plopped down next to him and laid his head on Kuroo’s shoulder.

             “A new move huh? Maybe I should be scared for the next time we face you. We should do something this weekend.”

             “Sure, but will you do me a favor?”

             Kuroo’s heart jump in his chest as it stupidly got its hopes up. “Anything, bro, you know that.”

             “Will you wake me when your stop comes up?” He yawned and closed his eyes, missing the crestfallen look on Kuroo’s face.

             “Sure.” Bokuto was out in less than a minute Kuroo looked down between them and realized their hands were barely inches apart. His hand inched to intertwine with Bokuto’s, but he was able to restrain himself. Kenma looked and locked eyes with Kuroo for a moment and Akaashi raised an eyebrow. He could tell they were both telling him to go for it, but he just couldn’t. This was infuriating to say the least, but he was okay. He’d get over Bokuto eventually. He had no plans to ruin the closeness they had or the friendship they shared. They only had less than a year together like this and they both had plans to go to separate colleges. By this time next year, maybe he’d be coming home for break with a new boyfriend. Kuroo just resolved for sighing and looking out the window.

             After a couple of minutes, he felt a pressure in his left hand and his eyes widened. They dropped a few inches to meet Kenma’s who was grinning at him. He almost didn’t dare, but his eyes traveled further South and he saw, yep just like he thought, Bokuto had grabbed his hand. He knew he shouldn’t take advantage of this, he should pull away, but he just didn’t want to. He couldn’t make himself either and just ran with it, lacing their fingers together. It was stupid and it shouldn’t have felt that right to hold hands.

             “Tetsu…”

             Kuroo froze thinking Bokuto had woken up, but his eyes were still closed and his breathing was even.

             “I have something to tell you…”

             Kuroo’s eyes widen even more and he was sure they would pop out of his head. He connected eyes with Akaashi searching his face for any clues, but Akaashi just smirked at him. Kuroo didn’t know what that meant, but Akaashi nor Kenma dared to speak in fear of waking Bokuto up. Kuroo wasn’t sure if Akaashi just knew that he liked Bokuto or if he knew what Bokuto’s words meant. He wanted to slap the smirk off Akaashi’s face, but he didn’t dare move.

             “…but I’m afraid how you’ll react.”

             Kuroo’s heart felt like it was going to burst and his stomach was doing so many flips it should be a gymnast. Suddenly Bokuto woke up, scaring both himself and Kuroo.

             “What? What’s going on? Did I miss my stop?”

             “We’re two stops away from mine, Kou.” Kuroo decided to be bold and to tease Bokuto about his sleeping words. “So what did you want to tell me?”

             Bokuto narrowed his eyes and his brows knit together. “What?”

             “I don’t know, you said you wanted tell me something while you were asleep. Were you dreaming about me?”

             “I did?”

             Kuroo couldn’t tell if Bokuto was playing dumb or just didn’t remember the dream. He was already halfway there and just decided to go for it. He could always switch to a different car or take a different train all together if this didn’t work out. He’d been pining for so long and these had been good signs so far. Bokuto had never held his hand before. “Does it have to do something with this?” He held up their linked hands.

             Bokuto’s eyes went wide, he looked over at Akaashi, and his face flushed. “What? Did I…you didn’t do that?”

             “No, but I don’t mind it.”

             “Y-you don’t?”

             “Well only if you don’t!” Kuroo said defensively, losing his nerve as a blush creeped onto his face as well.

             “I don’t…okay. Okay…okay, Tetsu—I mean—Tetsurou…” Bokuto looked over at Akaashi and Kenma who both gave him an encouraging thumbs up.

             WHAT? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? He used my full name, this must be serious and his STILL hasn’t let go of my hand.

             “I…I think I’m in love with you.”

             ...what? Kuroo was speechless for the first time in his life. He had dreamed about this moment so many times, but he never thought it would actually happen. He didn’t know what to say or what to do. It was like his whole brain stopped functioning.

             “Tetsu, please say something. I don’t care if you don’t feel the same, but say something…no that’s not right. I’ll be sad if you don’t feel the same. You’re my bro and I want to be with you forever. I mean we always say together until we die and even when we do, we’ll hang out in hell, right? Please don’t hate me.”

             Kuroo was blushing so hard and still couldn’t make his lips move.

             “Oh, come on!” They all looked at Kenma, surprised by his sudden, out of character outburst. He wasn’t looking at his game but directly at the two of them. “Kuro, you’re hopeless. He’s in love with you too.”

             Bokuto looked at Kuroo and grinned, “Really?” Kuroo finally managed to nod and Bokuto broke out into the most dazzling grin that Kuroo had ever seen. He didn’t think there was ever a time that he made another person that happy.

             “It’s Friday, do you want to come over?” Kuroo actually was able to make his brain function after Bokuto had accepted his confession.

             “Do you want to be my boyfriend?” Bokuto had said it at the same time as Kuroo spoke and they both just stared at each other before laughing.

             “Yes.”

             “Yes.”

             “Finally.” Akaashi muttered under his breath.

             “I know.” Kenma answered him and went back to his game.

             “WAIT YOU TWO KNEW?” Bokuto yelled.

             “Kou, babe, we’re on a train.” It was true, several people were looking at them and many with annoyed or disgusted looks. “I mean I’m excited too.”

             “I think everyone knew, but you two.”

             Bokuto was about to respond to Akaashi when he realized what Kuroo had called him. He turned to him and blushed. “Babe?”

             “No?”

             “No…I mean, not no, I liked it.”

             “Me too…babe.” Bokuto and Kuroo were just grinning at each other like idiots.

             “And we’ve lost them.”

             “Yeah, I’m not walking home with that. Can I come over?” Kenma wrinkled his nose and leaned into Akaashi.

             “Of course, Kenma, I always enjoy your presence.”

             “Wait! Before we get off, I’m not done with you, Akaashi. You knew Kuroo liked me and you didn’t say anything?”

             Akaashi sighed. “Bokuto-san, it wouldn’t be the same if I just told you. That would be rude to Kuroo-san. He should be the only one to tell you. Now this is your stop. Have fun you two.”

             Kuroo stood up, still holding his hand and led him out of the train. Bokuto was still glaring at Akaashi as Kuroo pulled him away.

             “Dude, we could have been dating longer if he had just said something!”

             Kuroo leaned over and kissed Bokuto’s cheek and that immediately shut him up. “It doesn’t matter, Kou, let’s just focus on right now.”

             “I texted my mom that I’m sleeping over.” Kuroo raised an eyebrow at him and Bokuto stuck his tongue out at him. “Geez, Tetsu. I was just going say we could cuddle and stay up late together. Sorry for wanting to spend time with my new boyfriend.”

             Bokuto dropped Kuroo’s hand when they reached his doorstep. “True.”

             Kuroo unlocked the door and took a deep breath. He hoped he’d be convincing enough and not blush in front of his mom. “Hey mom. Can Kou stay over? His mom said it was fine.”

             “Oh hello, Koutarou. That’s fine with me. We ordered pizza and ate without you. Your dad was hungry. Feel free to grab some.” She smiled at them and didn’t even suspect anything. They grabbed plates and took the rest of the pizza before sneaking off to Kuroo’s room.

             “I don’t think I would have been able to look at your mom if she made us eat with her.”

             Kuroo nodded and sat on the bed next to Bokuto who had already made himself at home. He turned on the TV for background noise, but also to muffle their conversations a little. “I know. I was convinced I was going to somehow give it away.”

             “I know! I could hardly contain myself. I’m just so excited.”

             “Me too.”

             “Oh, I meant to tell you, I’ve changed my mind for college.” Bokuto started between bites of pizza.

             “Where are you going?” Kuroo was hopeful and he could hardly contain his excitement. He hoped Bokuto was about to say what he thought he was about to say.

             “To Tokyo University with you. I accepted yesterday and requested you as my roommate.”

             “Hell yes. I’m going to submit my acceptance tomorrow! Babe, this is going to be amazing.” Neither even thought of the possibility of ‘what if we broke up’ they didn’t care. It was early, but neither even considered it because they had been friends for so long.

             “I’m glad you’re happy too.” Kuroo pushed their empty paper plates off the bed and placed his hands on Bokuto’s face. He didn’t care if he was getting pizza grease on Bokuto’s face. It didn’t matter. Before Bokuto could compute was happening, Kuroo pressed a kiss onto his lips. Bokuto’s lips were soft and he tasted a little like pizza. Kuroo loved it all the same and Bokuto eagerly pulled Kuroo close and kissed him back. They were both a little sloppy at it, but neither could find in themselves to care. They were together, they were kissing like the imagined a million times. It was way better than either could have imagined.

             “Geez, Tetsu, you could have given me a little warning.”

             “Nah.”

             Bokuto chuckled and laid down on his back. “That was my first kiss and everything.”

             Kuroo lay down beside him with a smile. “Mine too.”

             Bokuto reached between them and took Kuroo’s hand again. It was like their hands were always meant to fit together. “How long?”

             “Training camp during our second year, maybe? I think that’s when I noticed it.”

             “Shit…”

             “What?”

             “Me too.”

Kuroo groaned and curled into Bokuto’s side, hugging him. “We really are dense.”

“I know. I was totally flirting with you and being touchy because I just didn’t know how to contain my feelings for you. I used the no homo thing to cover it up.” Bokuto admitted.

“You ass! I knew it! You gave me so many fucking mixed signals. I was dying inside every time you said, ‘no homo’.”

Bokuto kissed his forehead. “I’m sorry. I promise I’m it was always full homo.”

Kuroo snorted and buried his face into Bokuto’s chest. “You’re such a dork.”

“I’m your dork now.”

“Kou!” Kuroo was blushing again and Bokuto laughed, running a hand through his hair. He could finally touch Kuroo all he wanted, flirt with him all he wanted, and not have to take it back.

“I’m glad I grabbed your hand in my sleep.”

“Me too. I probably would have waited until the day before I left for college to tell you. Then I could leave and get over you with some random college guy.”

“That would have sucked. I picked a different college for that purpose too, but I just couldn’t do it. I wanted to be with you. I was just planning on getting over you somehow while living with you. Either that or never wearing a shirt and seducing you.”

“I would have cracked so easily. Dorm rooms are not big. I would have probably gotten drunk at party and came home to make out with you.”

“Well, now you can still do that.”

“You bet I will.”

Bokuto rolled over and trapped Kuroo beneath him. “We don’t need to be drunk though.” He leaned down and eagerly closed the space between them with a soft kiss. It was much like the first, but they would get better with practice. They had plenty of time to practice now.

[bronanlynch]

recent media consumption summary time

could’ve sworn the last one was only two weeks ago but apparently it was three. sorry for becoming unmoored from the passage of linear time

listening: you know when you use a song lyric as a fic title and then you get that song stuck in your head for the next week? anyway Whirlpool by Sea Wolf sure is a song that I enjoy and also have had stuck in my head for a week. I feel like I should have smarted musical things to say here but I like Sea Wolf, they’re nice to listen to, they’re sad man with guitar music without being identical to every other sad man with guitar band

reading: finished my reread of Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, and my main thought this time around is that I love Kaz with my whole entire heart. also love a good multi-layered heist scheme. also also Wylan/Jesper is cute but I do think they don’t get nearly as much relationship development as the two m/f couples and like, I really like these books but that is very much a trend especially in sff YA these days

also finished Lord Seventh (Qi Ye) by Priest and. god I love the characters so much. a friend group can just be a bunch of horrible gay people pining for each other and betraying each other in order to save each other’s lives. extremely tasty. also,

(I would say that missed opportunity is my one complaint but like. my actual main complaint is that as much as I love the characters, I think that if the racism in your text is blatant enough that I, a white american with very little knowledge of the specific racial coding happening can pick up on it, then it’s uh. probably pretty blatant and that’s Not Great)

also did some pride month impulse purchases at my local indie bookstore, including Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Girl from the Sea, a lesbian selkie graphic novel, which did so many things to my heart. first of all the art is so pretty

second of all, I too have been lonely and starting to realize that I’m gay while living in a beach town with a summer tourism economy, drifting apart from a friend group that I didn’t feel like I was part of and wishing I was literally anywhere else even though I loved the ocean. third of all, gay selkies

also read The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon which I enjoyed even though I am definitely not the target audience for first person present tense novels, even if those novels are portal fantasies about fae power struggles and arranged marriages. I really enjoyed the three main characters and their relationships, and the worldbuilding was fun, though the twist at the end (and lots of parts of the ending tbh) felt a little bit abrupt to me. also, and this is a personal thing, but someday I would love to read a fantasy novel with a transmasc character that actually feels like it reflects my experiences. I guess that’s part of the problem with looking for this in YA, but that’s where I tend to see transmasc protagonists so here I am. anyway, valid for anyone but especially trans teens to want to read a narrative about someone being loud and open about their identity but that’s not my experience. which I think is why I tend to construct my own trans narratives around characters who like, aren’t canonically trans but have themes about lying and hiding and being defensive about their image because *that’s* a trans experience I actually relate to.

I’ve started In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens, which is not a book I intended to buy but 1) look at the cover

2) I am weak for gay people on the sea. it’s fun so far, I’m not expecting any sort of in-depth anything about royal power but it’s cute and light and I’m having a good time. my main complaint is again a personal thing, which is not actually a complaint about the book itself and more about twitter discourse about how there should never be homophobia in sff that takes place in different worlds and how we’ve had enough of that so everything should take place in a world where it’s fine and normal to be queer. and again, that’s fine! I do enjoy books like that! I am currently enjoying a book like that! but again, I have a harder time relating to characters whose queerness isn’t mediated by fear the way mine is (this book sidesteps that by making the main character a very anxious person, which helps increase the relatability, but also. there’s this whole thing about how people distrust him and there are rumors about his ~perversion and yeah it’s about his secret hidden magic but. felt very weird to have that set-up and then not have homophobia play any part in the way other people talk about him, y’know? like please, stigmatized magic as a parallel for stigmatized sexuality is Right There)

watching: finished Nirvana in Fire and am having lots of normal and moderate emotions about it. belongs in my mental categories of “media I want to consume over and over again and take it apart and figure out how to write like that” and also “things I want to rewatch when I have enough energy to appreciate it” because I do think if I weren’t so tired these days I could’ve tried to have predictions instead of waiting for the characters to explain their plans to me, as much as I do love it when attractive people smirk at the screen and monologue about their schemes

also watched most of Castlevania season 4 (I have 3 episodes left) and it’s. well. it’s not Good but it’s a lot better than season 3. however, I only care about a few of the plotlines and everything else is kinda boring. I like Alucard’s plotline and I like Greta and I liked the two scenes where Hector and Isaac interacted and I liked the vampire lesbians deciding that being gay was more important to them than doing war crimes. cannot be bothered to care about anything else though, especially St. Germain. more importantly, Alucard’s new look fucks. love the whole cape + tits out thing.

finally got around to watching the end of the first season of Elementary and once again, I enjoy it when people explain complicated plans to me. love a good mystery. also, predictably, I’m in love with Moriarty. her first two dates with Sherlock are about art forgery and Roman artifacts in the London sewers, how was I supposed to *not* fall in love with her. also every time she interacts with Joan after the reveal has extremely homoerotic energy. ladies is it gay to become psychosexually obsessed with a woman who outplotted you

also, very importantly, my roommate realized I’d never seen Tsubasa OVAs, and they sure are an experience. I read the entire manga in like two days in a fugue state last winter and remember very little of the plot of the second half of the story, so the second OVA which is like. a random section of the late plot was kind of a lot to try to process at once, though I do appreciate one of the main ships doing a Gift of the Magi thing except instead of selling treasured possessions to get each other gifts they’re sacrificing parts of themselves. however the first one is my favorite arc, because it should not surprise anyone that the post-apocalyptic vampire arc is my favorite. also, I don’t need to remember the actual plot to remember and appreciate how much of an Eliot-core character Fai is. look at him. prettyboy ice wizard pretending to be flirty and performatively useless to hide his trauma. also he’s a vampire. he sets off the cosplay and gender envy parts of my brain so much

playing: nothing new since last time, just more Tidepools and Beam Saber. maybe someday I will play a video game again

making: got to cook for just the two of us last week instead of having to find something that everyone would eat, so Zan and I finally got to make chicken marsala from this recipe and it was extremely good. next time we’re gonna double the mushrooms though I think, the recipe didn’t make quite enough compared to the amount of chicken

someday I will make non-food things again but unfortunately, when most of your energy has to go to either cooking and cleaning for other people or trying to get other people to cook and clean,

writing: posted three new fics: the Persona selkie AU, the Nirvana in Fire miserable sapphic makeout fic, and a slice-of-life Persona fic for an exchange, and worked on a couple of other things that are still secret for zine reasons