#this will be post-ship bracket but I need some time to set it up

[cloning-vat-mistake]

Quick engagement test for something me and a couple of friends are throwing around:

If I made some sort of Google form/poll/something else(?) to ask folks about what their fav yog ships are, would people be interested?

I'm mostly intrigued by seeing the data for what some of the the most popular ships in the fandom are, and also why if folks wanna share.

The form will most likely ask for your top 3 ships, and have an optional place to put in why you like them! (This way people can add some smaller ships they really like as well as bigger ones that may be more popular)

[quinloki]

I have no title for this story...

I've had an idea for a modern AU story for a while, and while I had a "moment" I was building up around, I didn't have enough details to really get it rolling.

It's taken up residence in my brain the last few days, and now I have 12 chapters of outline for it.

First Off - Thanks be to @wttcsms for this post and thus the idea I built up from. I can see it working well for so many characters - Sir Crocodile for one, but what really struck me was that idea for Sabo.

Specifically - Sabo as part of a trio of up-and-coming Super Star Models - the ASL boys have taken the world by STORM \o/ Of course our adorable reader is a fan, but, well - if you're curious

I'm putting the "outline" I have under the cut.

Each set of brackets is a chapter. So in this way you'll get to see what I'm working on (and what may or may not change, since I have a tendency to jump ship with my outlines >.> ), and also the extent of how well I outline ^^;

[celebrating getting hired by the company you were hoping for by having some drinks at your favorite bar. You’re approached by a brunette who strikes up a conversation with you. The two of you end up arguing about the ASL brothers, and he suggest maybe you could fuck out you’re differences - when you tell him you’re married, flashing your false ring.]

[There is no way this is happening, the shit at the bar is The Scarred Prince?! You are a big fan of the ASL brothers, and had spent the majority of last night arguing with the Scarred Prince on his behalf. You’re mortified and angry.]

[Sabo is delighted to be able to “assist” you in every which possible way.]

[you’re tasked with helping Sabo - he needs more hand prints on his body for a photo shoot (this flusters you both terribly) - and Sabo still thinks you’re married!] (thank you @kazieai for this idea)

[You lost your wedding ring.]

[Sabo gets you to admit your lie, and in exchange for lying to him, he wants to take you out on a date. “I won’t force you, but I think it’s the least you, as my greatest fan, could do to ease my tender heart.”]

[Sabo’s in disguise for the date, and keeps it lowkey. You have a really good time and almost kiss at the end of it]

[ Sabo thinks you don’t like him that way, and you think he doesn’t like you that way. He isn’t sure how to broach the subject, because he doesn’t want to make you uncomfortable at work, and you figure your debt’s been paid and you don’t have a right to the prince’s time anymore.]

[You and Sabo are both at the office late, bumping into each other accidentally. The awkward energy is broken quickly and the air cleared. After agreeing to a second date, Sabo offers to walk you to your car. On the way there a black van pulls up and snatches you both.] (I really dislike miscommunications, and as you can see, I don't let them linger for long).

[Sabo puts up an incredible fight, actually gets you tossed out of the van. The kidnappers stop the van and point a gun at you. Don’t run girl, and Sabo better stop fighting. They get him gagged, bound and blind folded, and you learn Sabo is a legitimate, actual prince.] (Ah, just gonna pause here for a moment and appreciate Captured Sabo <3 )

[Getting off the island is tricky, the kidnappers are waiting in a safe house type location. They keep promising him that as long as he behaves, they’ll let you go, but one of the kidnappers is already overtly and uncomfortably interested in you.] ( >.> the question here will be how intense things get).

[Rescued! Sabo breaks free and beats the shit out of the guy who was creeping up on you. He’s injured and drugged, you’re pretty sure they’ve been keeping him doped, but when a rush of teal and gold flames flames fill the room he relaxes, practically collapsing into you. (Thatch has the fire fire fruit in this AU)]

And that's it - 12 chapters worth of outline. Really really often an entire sentence easily becomes One Chapter all on its own, so this could easily be closer to 18-20 chapters worth of notes. Especially if I decide to try and fit more modeling shenanigans in there >.>

[pearlescentmoonshippingbracket]

I don't know if you're aware of this or not already but Pearl has said multiple times that she is incredibly uncomfortable with people shipping her, whether it be her real self or her characters. I know this is supposed to be "for the fans" but personally as a fan I find it kinda gross that people who are supposed to be fans will still purposefully go against boundaries that she's made clear many times over, fully knowing how uncomfortable it makes her. even if you go to the lengths to make it that much more unlikely that she'll see it, you can't guarantee that she won't see and/or hear about it.

I'm going to try to explain my thoughts as succinctly as I can because this is a mentality many people have and I feel like providing the viewpoints of the other side of this discussion is important.

I understand that it is important to respect the boundaries of CCs and to not actively make them uncomfortable. But the thing about boundaries is that it only applies in spaces where we are interacting with the CCs.

Boundaries are set to avoid CCs from coming into contact with uncomfortable situations in their personal spaces where they are interacting with their community. It's there to make sure their environment is comfortable for them.

I haven't mentioned this blog to cc Pearl in any way, shape or form. I haven't entered into her personal spaces to inform her about this bracket, or the fact that people ship her or anything to do with shipping, thus I have abided by her boundaries. Respecting Pearl's boundaries is not mentioning anything about this to her and not invading her spaces.

If you believe that abiding by her boundaries is by not making any of this then I disagree. Because fandom isn't her space. Fandom is a place for the fans. It's in the name, fan-domain. This is a place where fans exist and interact with each other and discuss things related to the creator but it's not for the creator. This isn't a place created for the CCs and the CCs aren't obligated to enter fandom spaces. If they are engaging in fandom spaces it's because they chose to and thus they need to understand that fandom doesn't operate on their rules, because fandom is a shared space and so they don't operate on any rules! Everyone enjoys content differently and it's not up to us to tell other people what's the right and wrong way to enjoy something. Fans shouldn't be expected or forced to make and share things based on what a small handful of people feel comfortable with because in that way it's them invading our personal space.

For example, a person shouldn't be forced to use an ingredient only in the way the manufacturer intended nor should be forced to listen to what a chef thinks is the right way to use it. If they like putting cheetos on a cupcake then they should be allowed to do that, sure some people would find it weird and the creator of cheetos wouldn't have intended it to be used that way but if they enjoy it then they enjoy it and if they post it on their socials saying how much they like it then they should be allowed to do that!

@/codgod's diagram is a good way to visualise this

Pearl does have a Tumblr that she is active on so as a way to prevent Pearl from finding this I don't use #pearlescentmoon for any of the shipping content (polls, propaganda or prizes) which is her main tag that she actively looks through, instead I use alternate side tags which allow people to find stuff related to Pearl while not being seen by her, thus I am not invading her space (I don't just do this with Pearl, if a cc is actively on Tumblr I make sure to only use their side tags). The event is also over which further reduces the chance of her finding it, and if she does find it, she can block this blog.

Blocking this blog will allow Pearl to not have to see any of the content here thus making her space comfortable again, she has every right to block me and shouldn't feel the need to tolerate seeing this blog on her dash. The same applies to you, if you don't like what's on this blog or my response you are more than welcome to block me, you shouldn't force yourself to interact with me if you don't like the space here.

This is also a really good post about this topic

This response isn't me justifying shipping, or me trying to persuade you to agree with me, it's just me showing my personal opinion on this topic. Honestly I expected an ask like this to come at some point and I don't blame you for not understanding why people continue to ship mcyt characters. I actually used to not like mcytshipping too back in the day, but I learned more about the community and realised shipping exists because of love for a CCs content. We see the stories they make and the interactions the characters have with each other and expand upon them. We get curious about what would happen if the characters developed feelings for each other, how would that affect the story, how well do their personalities balance each other, would their relationship be better if they were put in a separate context.

Creating new stories and new dynamics for these characters, and expanding them in ways the original media didn't isn't gross, it's beautiful.

At least that's what I think

[author-chan06]

Hello! Welcome to my Tumblr!

Personal:

Names: Ari, Jay, Roman, Blitzø, And Loki! You can use any or all of them.

Gender: Agenderboy

Sexuality: Biromantic Bisexual (Maybe??? Questioning This Rn Might Be On The Asexual Spectrum???)

Pronouns: They/He/It + Some Neos

Neopronouns That I Use:

Xe/Xem/Xyr/Xyrs/Xemself

Ae/Aer/Aer/Aers/Aerself

Ye/Yem/Yer/Yers/Yemself

Qu/Queer/Queer/Queers/Queerself

Voi/Void/Voids/Voids/Voidself

Vae/Vaer/Vaer/Vaers/Vaerself

Sym/Ser/Ser/Sers/Symself

Un/Un/Uns/Uns/ Unself

Nin/Nin/Nins/Nins/Ninself

Neb/Nebula/Nebus/Nebus/Nebulaself

Sti/Stim/Stims/Stims/Stimself

Pri/Prin/Princes/Princes/Princeself

Fandom Stance:

I am a proshipper, a comshipper, and a selfshipper. I do ship things that would be considered “problematic”, but I will not debate the ethics and morals of this on this blog. It’s just not really what I want to do, and it would cause me too much mental stress, as I’m not a big fan of being involved in debates. Any talk of this will be deleted. So anti’s do not interact.

So Tw’s for this blog:

Unhealthy Relationships

Toxic Relationships

Abusive Relationships

Manipulation

Underage/Adult Relationships

Incest

Sexual Assault

Rape

— And Just In General Some Dark Topics

If you don’t want to see any of that, that is totally fine. Just block and move on. If you’re leaving now, I wanna wish you a happy day and a fun time in whatever fandom you’re in! <3 <3

Fandoms And Ships:

I am in a lot of fandoms and I am a multishipper. So these will be the fandoms I’m in and a link to the post that shows my ships.

Batman

Sanders Sides

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva Boss

Gravity Falls

Marvel

The Owl House

Hamilton

My Hero Academia

My Ships Post

My Otherlinks And Fictionkin:

Otherlinks:

Loki (MCU)

Blitzø (Helluva Boss)

All Of My S/I’s

Fictionkin:

Roman Sanders (Sanders Sides)

Selfshipping/My F/O’s:

Remus Sanders (Sanders Sides) & Virgil Sanders (Sanders Sides) & Janus Sanders (Sanders Sides) & Patton Sanders (Sanders Sides) & Logan Sanders (Sanders Sides)

Blitzø & Stolas Ars Goetia (Helluva Boss)

Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)

Tomura Shigaraki & Dabi & Himiko Toga & Keigo Takami (BNHA)

Mammon (Obey Me)

Fizzarolli & Asmodeus (Helluva Boss)

Vox & Val & Velvette (Hazbin Hotel)

Darkiplier & Wilford & Bim Trimmer & Actor & Yancy & Illinois & Engineer Mark

SCP-049 “The Plague Doctor” & SCP-682 “The Hard To Kill Reptile” & SCP-035 “The Possessive Mask”

Slenderman & Jeff The Killer & Jane The Killer & Ticci Toby & Laughing Jack & Eyeless Jack & Masky & Nina & Clockwork & Ben Drowned

The ones with 2 or more people in one bracket thing are Polyam relationships! And I have made separate posts for most of them, if any of these interest you enough that you want to learn more!

The rest are newer and so they don’t have posts yet, but they will soon!

I’m totally ok with other’s who are dating these guys too! And while our relationships may not be the same, I would love to hear you gush about them, as long as you don’t mind me doing the same right back at you about us ahah

Request Rules And Request Limits:

Disclaimer! Any of these rules and limits to my writing have nothing to do the morality of writing these things and I hold no hate or disgust for people who write these types of things, I just don’t want to write these things or I don’t feel comfortable writing it myself.

Here are my rules and anything you might need to know about my requests: My Requests

Are requests open right now?

Requests are closed!

Links:

My AO3

My Old Blog

My Kofi (Not Fully Set Up Yet)

My Personal Tags

Well I think that’s everything! If you want to gush or ask questions or give requests, go ahead! I hope you enjoy your time at my blog!

[tremendouskoalachild]

Mralisola recruitment post

(no spoilers beyong the basic setup)

What is Mralisola?

Mralisola is the ship name for Zeen Mrala and Lula Talisola, major characters in the first phase of the Star Wars: The High Republic publishing initiative – specifically the works of one of its story architects, Daniel José Older. These include especially the comic line The High Republic Adventures (2021), some of its one-shot issues, and the young adult novel Midnight Horizon, as well as appearances in the manga The Edge of Balance and the middle grade novel Race to Crashpoint Tower. Phase Three of THR is starting this Fall, with the first issue of the comic's 2023 run releasing in December.

Who are Zeen and Lula?

Two Force-sensitive teenage girls who have a huge impact on each other’s lives. Lula is one of a group of young Jedi who come to help Zeen’s community during a disaster. Zeen has been raised to shun and hide her Force-sensitivity but is forced (heh) to reveal it in a moment of crisis. Being outcast from the commune that raised her, she joins the Jedi kids and becomes their close friend and ally, though she doesn’t join the Order herself.

Where does the shipping come in?

The girls are strongly paralleled from their very introduction and click immediately upon meeting. While the Padawan squad are all good friends, Zeen and Lula are especially close and are almost always seen together. Their growing feelings for each other are hinted at many times throughout the comic and acknowledged in their inner monologues.

Will the ship become canon?

It will be the star wars queerbait if not. Seriously.

But canon gays? In my Star Wars?

It’s more likely than you think! Look at this excellent guide to canon wlw by @chipthekeeper or the lineup of the ongoing @queer-starwars-bracket, which featured both of our girls. The High Republic is probably the most queer-friendly part of the franchise.

Yeah but. Lula is a Jedi. How does that work?

Non-spoilery answer is that there is definitely precedent for her situation in THR media and it will be interesting to see the characters grapple with it. The High Republic has many things to say about the Jedi Order and its view on relationships, and I believe Zeen and Lula are a major part of that theme, whichever way their story resolves.

Gimme some more reasons to get invested.

Girl friends to girlfriends. Complementary blue/pink color palette. The conflict of love and duty. Battle couple. Meditation couple (is that a thing? it should be). The theme of living as your true self in a loving found family. Pining. Helping your gf deal with the demons of her past. Teen sapphics, in Star Wars.

Okay, you got me! What do I need to read?

Definitely The High Republic Adventures 2021 (13 comic issues). If you get really into the setting you will probably enjoy the whole High Republic series, which has plenty of reading orders but is perfectly safe in publication order, such as on wookieepedia here.

While there are many crossovers between storylines, Daniel José Older's characters are almost completely contained to his own works, so for a mralisola-only reading spree you can just go through the list of Phase I picking out his works. (The comic miniseries Trail of Shadows and the manga volumes are skippable in that case, though you'll miss a cameo in the second manga volume.)

Whatever books and comics you end up reading, don't skip the Midnight Horizon novel, and read Starlight Coda (contained in Free Comic Book Day 2023, and included in the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures — The Complete Phase 1 trade paperback) at the very end.

[sonicshipbattles]

How to handle Crossover Ships (from now on)?

NOTE: This is a longer post with a poll at the bottom. It will also affect all the tournaments going forward, not just the Knuckles one This has been something that's been on my mind for a while. Crossover ships are harmless fun, but the fact is that I'm not familiar with the source material for most of the ones that get submitted here. Which sometimes leads to backlash when folks point out something I didn't know, like "Hey, this goes against that character's canon sexuality!" or "That character is ___ age!" Now, I know some things can be solved by a quick wiki check, but not all of that information is on hand. As much as I'm loathe to bring it up, with the Mario drama from last time Mario's age isn't listed anywhere on the wikia, which I'd checked before including him, only to be met with people saying "How could you not know he's in his mid-twenties! That's common knowledge!" But the fact is... I didn't know! I haven't played Mario games (not even the Sonic crossover ones) and he wasn't part of my childhood at all. Maybe it is common knowledge, but it wasn't to me Now, obviously that was all solved by some kind people who saw I wasn't trying to be weird about it and linked me to some articles that had information the wikia did not. After that, he was omitted and we carried on. But it would be helpful to know all this stuff before I start setting up the brackets This is where you folks come in. You know the source materials of your crossovers better than I do. While I tend to just do a quick wiki check, you all know the websites and articles to help provide better information This is the long setup to explain why I think how I've been handling crossover ships here needs to change. Here are the options that I can see right now: 1. Allow crossover ships + keep going as we have been - This is where I take submissions on good faith and do a small amount of wiki checking on my own to determine if the ship should be included

2. Allow crossover ships + make a post featuring all of them prior to the bracket so people can say if there are any problems - This is my preferred method. It'll save a lot of time doing them all together at the end of the submissions period in one batch and will mean we can get to the actual brackets quicker. I also find people are more helpful in explaining reasons why something should/shouldn't be included than just voting yes or no on a poll 3. Stop allowing crossover ships - This one kind of sucks, but it would solve the problem. If I was judging this based on just the Sonic and Amy tournaments, I would've leaned more towards this one, since in both of those tournaments crossover ships would get knocked out as soon as they went up against in-universe ships. But the Eggman tournament was the outlier where crossover ships not only did very well, but the whole tournament was won by a crossover ship. Now, I do think that has a lot to do with the appeal of shipping Eggman with other villains that just isn't there with most of the other cast. But even so, everyone deserves a chance. Also, it wouldn't seem fair on crossover fans to cut them out of the fun completely ANYWAY, with that big long post done, here's the poll:

[fates-roll]

Welcome to Fate’s Roll

Fate’s Roll is an ask-driven story with video game inspired mechanics, set in an Undertale multiverse teetering on the brink of disaster where your & the player’s decisions- and a roll of the dice- will determine its ultimate fate.

> START GAME

> CURRENT EVENT [DIVORCE BRACKET!]

> CHARACTER LIST [TOYHOUSE]

> MORE INFORMATION

Rules

These will be expanded on later, but for now I’m just. Putting down what I can think of.

No sexually explicit, racist, homophobic, or any other generally offensive or crude content in asks.

Don’t attack/cuss out other askers for being rude to characters.

While asks about ships are super okay, please don’t send in asks about ships that include anything like siblings or an adult and a child. This includes specifically the Fate’s Roll versions of Error and Ink, as they consider themselves siblings.

Interactions

Interactions are currently limited to asks, where askers can speak to whoever is currently breaking the fourth wall, and influence the player’s decisions.

The current fourth wall breakers are Fate, Ink, and Error. You can’t physically interact with them, but it seems like you’re able to send gifts through now… maybe you’ll be able to do more in the future?

Posting

The queue is for three times a day, at 10:30 am, 2 pm, and 5:30 pm CST!

Once an update is finished, it’ll be added to the queue and bumped up either to the current day or the day after, with other queued posts being mostly filler.

The queue is currently paused so I can fill it up a bit, and may be paused again in the future.

Tags

#Fate’s roll - general tag for any fate’s roll content.

#Fate’s roll chronologically - simple tag for an easy way to start at the beginning. (You’ll need to go in browser to sort the tag so it’s in the right order.)

#Fate’s roll interlude - drabbles. Very very short writing of some bits not seen during the updates.

#Fate’s fun facts - ooc fun facts abt miscellaneous things to do with fate’s roll.

#Fate’s roll [character] - anything with that particular character.

Shipping

There may be background hints at ships, but the story I’m telling is not focused on shipping- the only canon “ships” will be oc x oc, and anything that’s already canon in undertale. And also The Divorce™️.

Either way, asks about ships are totally fine, as long as you follow the rules, though they’ll typically be answered ooc!

Mechanics inspired by:

The webcomic Fortuna (and, by extension, Homestuck.)

Dungeons & Dragons

Extra fun things:

Character playlist masterpost

TBA

About me

Hey! I’m the guy running the blog. You can call me Lamb or Axe, my pronouns are he/they/xe/it, and I’m 22. My main is @lambsbite, and my utmv specific side blog is @lambsbones.

I use a more simplified style here for the sake of both my time & enjoyment! And arms.

If any dialogue comes across as weird or off, it’s either on purpose for characterization or because I’m autistic.

… idk what else to put here lol. Thanks for looking through this all!

[classicsapphicships]

FAQ

To start, what is this?

With so many polls and brackets going around now, some of the classic ships that formed the basis of wlw shipping have been sadly underrepresented. This bracket is an attempt to fix that! It focuses on both the early ships that shaped and defined fandom, as well as some forgotten gems from over the years. And there are some more recent ships mixed in for a little variety!

There’s no bracket or ships yet, why do you have an FAQ?

Well, mostly to get things written down and ready before things get started. There are still a few things that need to happen before the bracket listing can be posted, and then all the polls have to be made and ready to post. Once all that’s done, the rest of this will make a lot more sense, promise!

Why isn’t my ship included?

Limiting the ships to 64 was incredibly difficult, and the result of multiple discussions across multiple days. We were limited by some early decisions we made, as well as trying to keep the number to 64! So if your ship isn’t included, know it was probably a difficult decision. 

So what ships did you try to include?

The first priority was older ships. Anything from the last 5 years or so had to meet several other criteria to be included. From there the goal was to keep it to one ship per fandom, to get as many fandoms represented as we could. Then, in keeping with the ‘forgotten gems’ theme, the ships were narrowed down within their fandoms. While an attempt was made to make sure every ship involved had at least a fighting chance for round one, priority didn’t necessarily go to the largest ship in a fandom. Second or even third largest ships could find themselves ahead of the big ones, just to shine some light on the ships that get pushed aside more often than others. 

You keep mentioning criteria, what kind of criteria did you use?

Ships in this bracket must be sapphic, for starters. While non-binary identities are so important to see represented on screen and in ships, we didn’t want to risk any chance of non-binary characters being misgendered by being included. So only female identifying characters were included. Second, a priority was put on ships with at least 300 fics on AO3, or similar sized fandom presence. That wasn’t a disqualifier, but it was a good test of whether they’d have a chance against some of the other ships. Third, as tough as it was, we stuck to live action shows and not animated. And last main consideration was that the ship itself didn’t date from the last 5 years. That got bent a few times for a couple ships, but for the most part very recent ships and fandoms were left off this time.

Okay but this ship is a classic/my favorite and it didn’t make the list.

Not every ship could! Going up a bracket size would mean 128 ships, and that would be way too many to do. Some absolutely deserving ships got left out just because of room, and trust me when I say the discussions on which ships to go with were fierce before a final list was settled on. And of course, as with any group project, there was definitely a bit of selection bias that went into the decisions. While trying to keep things fair and include as many fandoms as possible, the ships chosen did come from a limited group of people. Some fandoms probably got left out just because no one in the group watched that show, or remembered it while the list was being made. I forgot one of my own favorite ships until the bracket was already set! So who knows? Maybe there’ll be a season 2 with an entirely different cast and crew.

What’s the schedule for this bracket look like?

In a perfect world, the polls would run for 5 days, Friday to Wednesday, and then have 2 days to get the next bracket ready to go. Since Tumblr is our favorite hellsite, that doesn’t work. So polls will run for 1 week (at least for the first two brackets) and probably still have those two days of down time in between to prepare for the next bracket. Once we get to later brackets, depending on participation that might move to the one day per bracket to make things go a little faster. We’ll have to see when we get there!

Who’s responsible for all the graphics?

Okay so maybe this one isn’t frequently asked, but it should be. @mitski put in a ton of work on making sure all the graphics needed were great, and this whole thing would look nowhere near as nice without her.

[skiimbii]

> the 'ship' of theseus theory

I'm sure people have already talked about this concept a million times over, and I won't be new to the party, but the name I came up with on a whim is funny. I needed to share it somehow. So, I'm here!

It's scribbled on a post-it note on my corkboard: if you change one core aspect of a character with every chapter that you write, at the end of the fic - is it still the same character? Or is it just a glorified OC? Is it still the same ship? Not a crazy premise, of course. But it's something that I find myself thinking about a lot when I read various AUs online. It can definitely be hard to write a good AU without changing a single aspect of a character - and honestly, it's usually necessary to change stuff because oftentimes backstories changing means that personal values change - but I feel like there's a moment where your 'ship' stops being the same thing you started out with. Just like the original paradox, I don't think it's possible to know when you've gone too far until you've already placed yourself firmly in "I've mischaracterized them! Gotta add #OOC to the tags" territory. However, this doesn't stop me from wanting to be able to pinpoint that moment. Is there a way to figure it out? Can there be a formula made, or is it something that you need to figure out on a case-by-case basis? What parts of this ship can you replace without changing who the ship is, fundamentally? It's a hard idea to figure out! I don't think there's a solution, really, but I like the brain workout it gives me.

You can make a very barebones solution to this problem, I've found, by watching the second Spiderverse movie. Specifically, I'm talking about 'canon events'; things that need to happen in order for Spiderman to become Spiderman. Thinking about a character and their personality as a chain of events instead of one giant incomprehensible web of traits can help make the ship easier to navigate. Peter Parker's uncle must die in order to create Spiderman; [insert character's name here] must do [insert event here] to become who they are in the present. Everything else that happens is merely additional. I'll reiterate, it's a very barebones way of fixing things. But if you're confused, or new to the writing game, or just not very good at figuring some of this shit out, it's not a bad starting point, I don't think. And, much like in the movie, you can break this rule, if you think you want to do your own thing. (I think I'm clever.)

This isn't just for individuals, of course. I didn't call it the ship of Theseus for no reason :). If you have a ship that has, for example, the very best dynamic - #rivals_to_lovers - and you change it to #childhood_friends_to_lovers, for an AU you've thought up ... how far can you take changing the genre before you've ended up with a completely different pair of characters? When an author understands how to change the dynamic and really toe that line, I find that those fics tend to be some of the best pieces of writing I've ever read. It's about being able to fix that ship to fit your needs in that moment; to make it a galleon or a schooner or a yacht or a battleship, without changing the name painted onto the hull. (I would give examples of fics that have done this beautifully, but unfortunately my ao3 subscriptions stay between me and god.) The ship doesn't even have to be people, in all actuality. This little thought experiment of mine extends to be as general as just the concept of AUs themselves. It does get a tad convoluted at that scale - I'm thinking about that joke about how the darkest franchises have the most fluffy fanart - but it's still a track that can be followed. When you change a setting, you don't just change what background you've dropped the characters on, but rather you've changed the very heart of the story itself. If you were born in a different planet, or country, or tax bracket, you wouldn't be who you've grown up to become. Same concept, even if they are fictional. (In that line of thinking, any #yume or #Xreader fics could play around with that idea. I think it would be fun to ask yourself how you would act differently if you were raised in a different universe. Imagine yourself as a ship!) I like to think about changing settings as a form of translation, specifically translating songs; sure, you can translate the lyrics directly from one language to another, completely literally, but that'll just end up sounding clunky. Talented translators know how to bend and shape the words and phrases into the next language to sound just as good as the original lyrics. Good authors can change the setting while still maintaining the character as the character. Change a pirate into a college student, but keep their sense of (perhaps criminal) adventure, or whatever your situation might be.

You can read all of this and completely disagree, it's all welcomed. I'm not trying to say that this is the only way to create good media, because it isn't. Art is subjective, and this is an idea that came to me while eating breakfast, so it has no horse in this race. But, if you're like me, and you want to make something that follows the rules of canon without needing to actually follow the rules of canon - maybe it will also help you, to think about it as a boat. Or maybe you're tired of the nautical references. My ship passes you in the night, and we're both good because we're still floating.

[verycharismaticdragon]

Okay, as threatened promised, I am elaborating on why I think BingQiu is guy yuri in more ways. This is written as someone who submitted both of these ships to this tournament (as in, see the propaganda they have under the poll? for both ships, one of those quotes is mine), and consistently voted for both throughout the entire bracket. I very much think they both deserve to be considered guy yuri, but: BingQiu simply matches HuaLian point for point on every count, and then has some more qualifiers on top of that. Here we go:

Popularity of femslash version in fandom: both have dedicated tags for f/f content, #lesbingqiu and #hualesbians. Equally matched.

Gender shenanigans:

Hua Cheng has a (canonically mentioned) female form, and Xie Lian can swap his gender (as other gods canonically do). Neither of those things however actually happen on page. Xie Lian does dress in female clothes several times, and his Heavenly Ceremonial Procession costume is canonically noted to be designed with both feminine and masculine markers. But as for Hua Cheng, there aren't really any femme markers aside from the aforementioned never-seen female form, and many have actually noted that he is rather transmasc coded.

BingQiu, as already mentioned in the og propaganda, embody multitudes. Shen Qingqiu often casts himself as a wife, and sometimes also as a mother. At the same time, he consistently refers to his Luo Binghe as Bing-mei (little sister Bing) to differentiate him from the original toxic-masc version, and often compares him to a delicate-hearted young maiden. (If you didn't click thru the links in the og post, Pio has a nice compilation of Shen Qingqiu mentally femme-ing them both up here. This is far from complete list though there's so much more.) On Luo Binghe's side, while we don't get his inner monologue like with Shen Qingqiu, we do know that he very much performs the duties of ancient Chinese wife. This includes not just things like cooking and keeping the house clean, but also waiting on the husband and running the household. Like, when Luo Binghe does paperwork for Shen Qingqiu's Peak? He's putting himself in the role of a wife. Also, when he was proposing, he explicitly offered Shen Qingqiu both options for which of them would be "marrying in" - as in, which of them would be "the wife" socially. He was ready to take either. Additionally, while I think the genderfuckery described above is more guy yuri than what I'm about to say next, I'd be remiss not to mention that their dynamic lends itself nicely to t4t f/f reading. As previously mentioned, moving away from (toxic) masculinity is a major theme, and the ending in particular can be read as a transition metaphor. Like if you wanted to write a fic where they are transbians post-canon? You wouldn't need to change anything, you could just follow the thorough-line charted by canon.

On this aspect, I'd say bingqiu are having more fun with it.

Applicable lesbian stereotypes: hualian are u-haul lesbians who moved in together the day they met; bingqiu are toxic lesbians with tons of drama and a blast radius of Their Entire Deal affecting other people's lives. Equally matched.

Religious themes:

Wait, you might ask, how is this even related to yuri? Well, consider how many yuris are set in Catholic schools and the like. Yuri loves its religious imagery and themes. There are some real-world considerations we could have about that, but for the purpose of this funi little poll, we will not be discussing that and just take the genre as it is, okay? Okay.

In hualian, we have yuri where gay love and devotion to God are considered as similar, one understood through the other. In an extremely on the nose way with Xie Lian literally being Hua Cheng's one and only god.

In bingqiu, we have yuri where gay love is explored instead through the motif of temptation and original sin. (This is not, btw, necessarily a negative in yuri. Some of them use God/religion as stand in for the patriarchal, so.) It even does something neat with it, by having the outward perception of bingqiu and the actual inner workings of their relationship not match. On the outside, Binghe is "the devil" (literal demon) corrupting Shen Qingqiu - who, similarly to Eve, is perceived as a witless victim: if only they could see it is the devil speaking to them, if only they took a moment to think and perceive the lies, then they wouldn't have sinned! But when you look deeper, Binghe is the one who was corrupted ("blackened") as a result of Shen Qingqiu's actions. And this is ofc paralleled with him being corrupted/"bent" - in Shen Qingqiu's perception - into being gay, also as a result of SQQ's actions. Even the heavenly demon mark on his forehead is called, canonically, a mark of sin! So: Binghe is Eve. Shen Qingqiu is the snake/the devil. And SVSSS is the kind of yuri that goes 'fuck the idea that female choice is inherently sinful and that being a man is inherently better than being a woman. Also Eve and the snake are girlfriends now.'

So: both are yuri-coded in this aspect, just use different themes. Equally matched.

Yuri-like plot points:

Dying for the other party (Hua Cheng: 3 times, Shen Qingqiu: 3 times. Luo Binghe arguably 1 time; an attempt was made.)

Watching the other party die (Hua Cheng had to watch helplessly as Xie Lian was killed again and again over the course of one night; Luo Binghe had to watch Shen Qingqiu die in his arms on three different occasions, the last of which prompted the aforementioned attempt to die too.)

Long term pining (yes, Hua Cheng did 800 years and Binghe only 11. But considering it as relative to potential lifespan, we only know about a version of Binghe going up to 200 years in age, and it's implied he is dying eventually; Hua Cheng could theoretically go on "living" indefinitely. His scale is naturally going to be different. Also, I'm inclined to give Binghe extra yuri points for tenderly and intimately caring for Shen Qingqiu's corpse, preventing it from decomposing, for 5 of those years. Reversing time in defiance of natural order is very yuri.)

This far, pretty matched. However!

SVSSS has an additional edge here because, as previously discussed at length, its entire plot is built on not one but two very yuri-like thematic frameworks. TGCF simply aint got that.

---

So, to sum up: bingqiu has pretty much all of the guy yuri features hualian does, but are having more fun playing with femininity and their novel's plot is much more yuri-like. They deserve the first place.

---

Addendum (1):

Actually, both Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu also have some interesting feminine-aligned coding that's not so much guy yuri as it's just. there, existing, which I want to point out for completion's sake.

Luo Binghe is an example of a danmei trope shàonǚ gōng - lit. young maiden top. I wrote about it in some detail before, for another character in this poll, but the short version is: the purpose of this trope is to fuck with the portrayal of the top as traditionally masculine, and it's done by giving him traits, values, or interests that are considered traditionally feminine. (This specifically originated as pushback against 'masculine top, feminine bottom' stereotype in BL.)

Shen Qingqiu's arc throughout the book, in a way, is him transitioning from fanboy to fangirl. (/a joke but not entirely) To explain: there are two pretty distinct styles to fannish activities, that I will call 'lore-keeping' and 'transformative' (because I lost the article I got this concept from and dont remember which words it used) We all know what 'transformative' means. For 'lore-keeping', think Star Wars fan who knows every kind of ship and every alien species in its extensive canon - in other words, it's a fan who expresses their love through knowledge of canon. Now, while both styles can be performed by people of any gender, and while any particular fan may perform both styles to some degree, due to the particular fannish spaces where each style originated, lore-keeping tends to skew male (fanboys), and transformative tends to skew female (fangirls). Applying to Shen Yuan|Qingqiu, you can see that he starts very much on the lore-keeper side. His gripes with canon are due to plotholes and structural problems and other things he finds lacking, which he expresses thru trying to shake those things out of the author. However, by the end of the book, he admits to himself that filling plotholes and knowing more brought him no joy or satisfaction, and only made him sadder for the characters. Instead, he finds happiness in transforming the original PIDW into a gay love story where his blorbo ends up happy and content. So: Shen Qingqiu went from demanding the story to be changed for him to changing the story through his (fan)work. From lore-keeper to transformative. From traditionally male-fan-performed fannish activity, to traditionally female-fan-performed one.

Addendum (2):

It isn’t easy being a cultivator girl… (famous bingqiu pad commercial, now in gif form)

⭐ Guy yuri tournament finale ⭐

All propaganda under the cut!

For Bingqiu: "One is a housewife and the other is a trophy wife. They both want to be each other's wife so bad (even though Shen Qingqiu would never admit it)"

"Where do I even start... Housewife x trophy wife. Every gender havers. Shen Qingqiu can't decide if he himself is wife or mommy, but is convinced his husband is a delicate lovesick maiden. Luo Binghe has self-assigned himself all of the wifely duties of an ancient Chinese wife years before Shen Qingqiu has become remotely aware of his crush. Also later in the novel he acts like a jealous girlfriend. And specifically girlfriend, like it was an important part of his arc that he stopped acting like a jealous boyfriend and started acting like a jealous girlfriend instead. This has won him his man."

"They're insane, fucking unhinged"

more here and here

For Hualian:

"Xie Lian is a god and Hua Cheng is his devoted believer, which is very yuri. They've also been separated for 800 years, which is very yuri too. Oh and they've been through The Horrors! With one of them forced to helplessly watch as the other suffered unimaginable pain! Now that's extremely yuri of them, if magical girl animes are to be believed..."

"What's more yuri than 800 years of devotion? Nothing that's what! Ghosts usually move on and disappear after a century of so, Hua Cheng is fueled by love so strong he very literally crawled out of hell, became a Ghost King, fought and defeated 33 gods and searched for his love for centuries until they were finally able to meet again. Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are so yuri there's an entire section of the fandom that just draws/writes them as women, not too weird since being separated and then connected by fate to ultimately defeat a really powerful evil god together is sapphic culture"

this post as well

[destinywillowleaf]

alright, this is one HELL of a shot in the dark, but...

I'm trying to find the origin fic of this song. "Too Big For Us" was a song that was included at the end of a Voltron Legendary Defender fic and I cannot for the life of me find the story.

There is every chance that this fic was deleted.

From what I remember, it was a Lance-centric 5+1 about him being the one to act as support for the others (and then the team supporting him in turn). I'm 99% sure it was on FFN since I didn't really start reading fics on AO3 until 2019-ish. The song might've been something put in an author's note as a broken up YouTube link thanks to no outside links allowed on FFN. (It... COULD have been Hunk as the focus character? but I'm pretty sure it was Lance. I've been telling myself it was Lance as the focus at least. god if it ends up being hunk and ) There weren't any ships as far as I remember either.

The file says it was modified on February 19th, 2017, which I assume is the day I downloaded it or the day it was published, seeing as the listed "creation" date is in March 2022 and I know I've had it for longer than that. If I'm remembering things right, it was posted as part of the last chapter of the fic, because it was a multichapter (I'm... slightly less confident in the multichapter status but I'm pretty sure it was?)

The order characters are referenced in the song was also the order they were in each chapter... but I have no idea which section Pidge is supposed to be @~@ part of me says I was annoyed/confused about the lack of a Pidge section the first time around too but it's been like 6 years so idk how much of that thought I actually believe. Otherwise, I think the order is Hunk, Keith, Allura & Coran, Shiro, Lance, and Pidge was somewhere in the middle.

The lyrics, as best I can make them out, are under the cut. A few lines are covered up in just the wrong way by the piano chords so I'm sort of guessing with the words in the brackets. (The mixing really isn't the best but I have no room to complain since I'm not a musician of any variety)

Together we sit, as he relearns how to breathe His heart races with panic, deep set anxiety And demons fill his head as he fights off another's Ignore what still hurts as the light of hope is smothered

A boy in a bubble made of experience and fears A knife in hand and heart to protect him from tears Because bonds only seem to lead to pain Until someone can teach him to connect again

And in the end they'll come to me Cause everybody does And we'll fight together Cry together Wipe each other's eyes together In a war too big for us A war too big for us

A family in all but name, they say [stare??] comes in pairs A gentle touch is calming as a [??? braiding] hair When there is too much to do [without?] doing too much Go to him for support, drown their sorrow with a laugh

He's a fellow protector, with secrets to hide Whose fears and insecurities surface in the dead of night He's in need of help but doesn't want to burden That finds a companion, someone to confide in

And in the end they'll come to me Cause everybody does And we'll fight together Cry together Wipe each other's eyes together In a war too big for us A war too big for us

But sometimes your strength Could use some strength of their own, before it's too late Cause even the strongest of pillars Can crumble under the weight

But in the end they'll come to me Cause they know I need some love And we'll fight together Cry together Wipe each other's eyes together In a war too big for us A war too big for us

[itsclydebitches]

Do you like modern Star Trek? I'll be honest, I hate it. I know a lot of people do as well. I like cool plot heavy epic science fiction show and films. Stuff like The Expanse. But Star Trek was such a different kind of sci fi from a era of TV long gone. Modern Star Trek should be done in the same vein as old Trek, but with better special effects. It's just bland sci fi now.

I feel very, VERY strongly that Star Trek needs to be episodic with a few season/series arcs to hold it all together (the borg, the changelings, we're trying to get back to the Delta Quadrant, etc.) It's Star Trek's episodic nature that allows for a) lots of different Sci-Fi ideas — look, new planet! New species! New tech! New problem! — b) a lot of different social commentary attached to those ideas, and c) the ability to try some truly insane, balls to the wall, unflinchingly creative ideas because — this is really important — you're only committing to it for 45 minutes. First Officer's brain is stolen? Ship's doctor falls in love with the alien ghost her grandmother was seeing? Helmsman turns into a lizard creature and successfully mates with the Captain? Star Trek has all that and more because no one is keeping that insanity around for more than an episode! (Maybe two if it's a series finale.) Star Trek as a franchise needs the ability to tell 20+ largely self-contained short stories under the assurance that the crew will (mostly) reset at episode's end because it's that freedom that allows it to stretch its creative wings, resulting in both, yes, truly terrible episodes... and truly great ones too. Things like The Trouble With Tribbles, Pale Moonlight, Measure of Man, and City on the Edge of Forever. With only Pale Moonlight as the exception there, the lion's share of great Star Trek episodes rely on the story's ability to reset: quietly sweep the tribbles away before the next episode, take a break from long-running plots to discuss Data's soul, get Kirk and Spock to the past and back with minimal fuss. You can't do that kind of work in long-form storytelling, not without a lot of filler episodes that, crucially, modern TV is moving away from on the whole. It's that format that makes it feel like Star Trek rather than, as you say, another #GenericSciFiShow. There's nothing wrong with Generic Sci-Fi Shows... but they're not Star Trek.

I haven't given Picard a go yet, but Discovery felt like a Generic Sci-Fi Show to me and I ultimately dropped it. Does it try to follow in old Trek's footsteps in regards to diverse casting? Yes. Does it pull from classic Trek plot points like Klingons, the Mirror Universe, and the like? Yes. Does it feel like Trek when 95% of the focus is on Burnham, the war, and the obligatory modern twists the show is setting up? Not at all. I need episodes devoted solely to the other 10+ named crew members and their equally weird lives. I need scathing political commentary boiled down to a not so subtle metaphor that leaves me feeling both gutted and hopeful. I need filler episodes where the crew has stupid shenanigans on the holodeck, or are trapped and spend their time debating the ethics of their situation, or just experience something so downright weird that it makes you go, "YEAH they're exploring SPACE. Anything could be out there!" Modern Star Trek (particularly the movies) are like, "What if we fought a singular Big Bad because they're ~evil~ with lots of explosions and fight scenes like every other blockbuster out there?" and I'm going, "NO Star Trek should have the best special effects currently available AS WELL AS the stupidest fight choreography you've ever seen in your LIFE, bracketed by philosophical discussion. Stop being a coward and actually explore strange new worlds! Emphasis on the 'strange'!"

So no, I don't really like modern Star Trek. I'm planning to give Picard a fair shot though and I have very high hopes for Strange New Worlds. As this post has made abundantly clear, I'm over here pulling a Jerry Maguire with, "You had me at 'episodic'😍"

[anexlarrieblog]

A few weeks ago on reddit, I was browsing a post discussion on the worst fanbases. As expected Larries and toxic harries were mentioned. However, there was one particular comment that really struck me and illustrated how different stans operate in exactly the same way. Throughout the 8 years I’ve been into One Direction and now Harry’s solo career, I’ve witnessed the following type of behaviour. In brackets, I have put where the alarm bells went off for the striking similarities:

An example for worst fandom - the Adam Driver fandom. It is mainly people that ship Adam with Daisy Ridley and/or hate his wife and make up the most heinous things about her and their family (🛎 🛎 ).

They do not believe that he is the father of his child (🛎🛎) and is being abused by his wife (🛎🛎) and secretly hates her and needs to be saved (🛎🛎)

The most recent thing they did was harass his mother in law (🛎🛎). They spend their time trashing his wife and child on social media (🛎🛎), digging up private documents, obituaries, doing family search/ genealogy (🛎🛎🛎) and making up blind items for CDAN and Blindgossip (🛎🛎).

They send his wife and child death threats and fantasise about killing her (🛎🛎🛎)

They create accounts just for harassing his wife and child (🛎🛎)

They doxxed Adam and his wife repeatedly on every social media platform (🛎🛎)

They doxxed and harassed their family via social media, posting their telephone numbers, addresses (🛎🛎🛎)

They harassed his stylist, manager, groomer and other people that work for him (🛎🛎🛎)

Pretty much everything above is a giant alarm bell for larries and any other invasive conspiracy theorists that sadly still plague this fandom. What we are seeing in this one and others, are groups of people that can’t separate fantasy from reality. And this flaw is heightened when it is validated in a) a group setting and b) done anonymously. The internet creates the environment for both and so this behaviour is in various fandom spaces but the blueprint remains the same. Online fan communities foster conspiracy because in many ways we are projecting onto total strangers and in order for some to belong, they fully buy into “beliefs”. A lot of larries are scared of unlarrying for this reason. They’ve built relationships and friendships and have a sense of community through this and it’s a betrayal to leave. The definition of a cult and I don’t see where the end is unless we drastically change how we operate on the internet.

I, sadly, completely agree. Even if Larrie were to die out (or at least enough to be barely existent) conspiracy theorists are still going to linger in such places. Idk what the answer to addressing it is, but the internet indeed has a lot to answer for.

[mellowswriting]

Kisses

pairing || Max Philips x afab!Reader

summary || anon request for  “I know I’ve kissed you like ten times, but just like another ten, please.” with Max Phillips

word count || 1,352

warnings || a little sauciness but no explicit smut (this is a post sex fic lol), fluffiness, uhhh blood drinking (this is a vampire we’re talking about here), a bit of praise

Main Masterlist  |  Join the taglist!

If anyone had told you that you would find yourself in your boss's bed, sweat slick and sated, you wouldn’t have exactly been surprised. There was a tension that held the two of you tightly, wound around your bodies and left your words dripping with need. It confused the shit out of you - Max Phillips wasn’t exactly your type, per se.

In fact, he was a dickhead.

Every time you entered his office, Max’s  eyes would find your tits before your face. Nearly each conversation was marked by a cocky smirk and some downright terrible come on that would make your eyes roll into the back of your head.

But that eye roll was forced more often than not. Max’s crude promises of torn sheets, love bites, and too many orgasms to count were tempting despite his cockiness. Normally men like that didn’t have the goods to back up their claims, but there was something… different about Max.

It was that glint in his eyes when he saddled up behind you in the break room, trapping you between his body and the counter with his arms bracketing your body, his voice low as he asked you to pretty please pass the coffee creamer. It was the subtle tightening of his fists when you returned his teases, his biting remarks. It was the way he ran his tongue over his teeth as he gave you one of those looks, the ones that told you he wanted to eat you up right there in his office.

You didn’t learn that he was a vampire until after the first time he fucked you. You were well aware that they existed, had met a few before in your lifetime, but that didn’t retract from your immediate reaction of surprise. It made sense, though, once you got over that initial shock. You had never met someone more ‘vampire’ than Max fucking Phillips.

Your head rolled on his pillow slowly, the hazy exhaustion that followed the orgasms he wrung out of you still heavy in your veins. A soft pair of lips were trailing over your bare shoulder and you sighed at the feeling, your hand finding the back of Max’s head to bury in his hair. The groan that followed as you scratched his scalp gently made you hum with happiness. He was so responsive to your touch. It was something you loved about him.

Max tilted your head so he could kiss your lips and you could feel him settle over you, his knees pressed into the mattress on either side of your hips. His presence made you feel safe. It had surprised you the first time you felt it, but you had grown used to the protection you felt at the firm press of his body over yours, had even grown to crave it. You held him close, leaning up into his touch slightly, and you could feel the smirk he gave against your lips. He broke away for a moment, his eyes finding yours and holding your gaze with an unexpected softness.

More kisses were pressed along your jaw, Max seemingly just reveling in getting to touch you and soak in your warmth. You sighed, tilting your head to give him all the access he could possibly want. Chills worked over your body at the gentleness, the soft side of Max Phillips that no one else got to see. The nip of his sharp teeth pulled you from your pleasant haze and you slapped at the back of his head slightly before grumbling a low, “Gentle,”

“Let me have a taste, baby.” Max cooed against your neck, licking along your pulse in that way he knew you loved and trailing up your jaw to nibble at your earlobe.

“Hmmm,” You hummed as he leaned back to look at you, his chin set on your sternum. “Ask nicely.”

“Pretty please?” Max gave you his best puppy dog eyes with his bottom lip pouted out slightly, and how could you deny that?

You said nothing, just smiled and guided him back to your neck. The first time he had sunk his teeth into your soft skin, you had been apprehensive. Just knowing that the man that buried his face against you could kill you with little effort left you borderline terrified - but he had been surprisingly gentle, kept checking in to make sure you were okay. Plus he showed his appreciation afterwards with his face buried between your thighs for damn near two hours.

The first breaking of your skin startled you a bit, just like it always did, made you hiss in pain but you knew the hazy, almost drunk feeling would flow over you soon enough. It reminded you of the stretch of his fingers buried inside of you, the sweet bite of pain that promised a heavy dose of pleasure to follow. Max moaned against you, his tongue working your skin with repetitive rolls as he took you in, drank your endorphin rich blood with fervor.

Max didn’t stay there for long, didn’t want to take too much, never ever wanted to leave you actually harmed. He gave the wound little kitten licks, letting the healing elements of his saliva patch you right up. Your eyes were half-lidded as you absentmindedly continued rubbing at the back of his head, but you weren’t as out of it as you seemed - the second he leaned in for another kiss, your other hand covered his lips.

“Rinse your mouth first.” You mumbled, cheekily kissing the back of your hand right where his lips would have been if you hadn’t so rudely stolen his favorite affection. Max listened though, rolled right out of his bed and went to his bathroom. You took the opportunity to grab his white undershirt where it was tossed on the floor and slide it on, relishing in the extra warmth it brought you.

It made Max whine as he climbed back into bed and right back into your arms. “As good as you look in my clothes, I wanna feel you, sweetcheeks.”

You just grabbed his hands and guided them under the shirt, unsurprised when he went right for your breasts. He buried his face right back in your neck and you were just so comfortable, you couldn’t imagine getting yourself back to your own apartment. It was an unspoken part of the little tryst - no sleepovers. But that rule felt absurd with how fucking right it felt to have your favorite asshole vampire in your arms. So you swallowed your fear and took the step. “ ‘M too tired to drive, Max.”

“So don’t.” He sighed, kissing at your collarbone. “Stay. Be my little space heater.”

“Am I gonna get any sleep tonight?” You teased, referencing his annoying need for barely a few hours thanks to his vampiric nature, trying to hide the relief you felt at his immediate acceptance.

“I’ll let you sleep, baby.” Max said in an unusually gentle tone, and you glanced down at him, softening at how blearily happy he looked in that moment. He took a deep breath, obviously trying not to let himself be too vulnerable, the position one that made him deeply uncomfortable and itching to slip back into that frat boy persona he had perfected over the years. But he didn’t want to be a dickhead to you - not entirely at least. “I know I’ve kissed you like ten times, but just like another ten, please.”

You smiled, sleepy and bright. “Of course,”

Max pushed you further into his bed, enthusiastically kissing you like his life depended on it. He may be a dickhead, he may drive you fucking crazy with his innuendos and constant need to make everything dirty, but he was your dickhead. Only you got to kiss him, only you got to bury your hands in his hair, only you got to feel the brain-melting pleasure of his hands and his tongue and his cock. You curled your arms around him as the kiss slowly became lighter little pecks, happy to exist in your little bubble with your favorite little vampire.

{Taglist}

@iamburdened @everyhowlmarksthedead @jenrebloggingfics @xserenax-13 @silverstarsandsuns @luminescentlily @peterpstuff @leonieb @lazybeeches @withasideofmeg @freeshavocadoooo @chattychell @ew-erin @i-ship-it-ironically @artsymaddie @mrsparknuts @wyn-dixie @notabotiswear @lunaserenade​ @jitterbugs927​ @theorganasolo​ @the-witty-pen-name​ @northernpunk​ @lemonlime09​ @la-lunaluna​ @andruxx​ @greeneyedblondie44​ @bloodsuckingbastards​ @coldlilheart​ @gracie7209​ @marvelousmermaid​ @cjbtw​ 

[antimony-medusa]

I guess all the cool kids are doing intro posts?

Name: Medusa

Adult: Yes, and despite the fact that I’m in this very young fandom, I’m in my 30s. Just so you know!

Pronouns: She/Her

Writing: My ao3 is Antimony_Medusa, writing tag here is my writing, I have a breakdown of my stories here (note this is pretty out of date). 

Fandoms: I post about general MCYT, but my heart is still owned by emduo/aeduo from DSMP, OSMP, and SMPEarth, so you will see the bird and the pig man. Occasionally my queue drops below 200 and I go into my archive or into the Technoblade tag to fill it up again. We post emduo here, sir.

Meta: Occasionally I am struck by lightning and write DSMP meta, the tag for that is dsmp analysis. If i'm analyzing the fandom itself the tag for that is fandom meta. My Ao3 Stats series is under MCYT on Ao3.

Character Critical: My understanding of DSMP lore is that c!dream is a villain and I post untagged stuff to that effect. I kinda am not into villain/morality lenses of the DSMP in general though? Show me a block man without sin. You can’t, because Ponk is not a man. This trend continues for QSMP. I’m not here for who’s right, I’m here for who’s entertaining.

Shipping: I'm still mostly a gen writer, but I do find shipping to be very fun/funny and reblog various arts from various servers without tagging dsmpshipping, trafficshipping, qsmpshipping, etc. If you need shipping or a specific ship tagged to avoid it, this might not be the blog for you.

Tagging: I don’t really tag much or coherently, this is my side blog. I try to remember to tag major triggers with [cw trigger] but I fast reblog a lot and I can’t promise that this blog will be free from untagged triggers, especially if it comes up noticeably in mcyt lore (like gore, cannibalism, child death, and pregnancy). This is my fandom blog and I try not to put real-life politics here, but that is ocassionally on my main if you follow the account that will show up in your notes, @medusasstory.

If you want more info, feel free to ask.

I block blank blogs that follow me, sorry.

Exchange info

How To Set Up An Ao3 Exchange

How To Sign Up For An Ao3 Exchange

I run a lot of events! Some of them are

MCYTBLR Sexyman Bracket

Extreme Timed Challenge Exchange

MCYTBLR Aufest

MCYTBLR Holiday Exchange

Technoblade Duo Bloodbath

DSMP Pinup Calendar Project

MCYT Recursive Exchange

Comment Day 2024

Fic in a Box

Hotguy Calendar

More coming soon

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

Oooh last day for requests! Congrats btw you deserve all the followers in the world 😌🎉 My request is for Captain Pike, for handholding: 'not wanting to lose each other in a crowd' and for kissing: 'secret kisses' ♥

Part of Youvebeenlivingfictional’s 2K Follower Celebration Notes: Thank you so much!!! 🥰🥰 Rating: T Warnings: Fluff, light angst, smooches, mostly fluff tho!

It was fairly rare that so many Captains were physically congregated for some conference or another. Typically the Academy would find a way to simply have you each view the presentation or present from aboard your starships. To have so many ships docked on Earth, at the Academy, was practically unheard of. However, it being Starfleet Academy’s hundredth anniversary, the Academy had gone out of its way to ensure that several of its best and brightest were in residence to give speeches or talks to the current class of students.

You hadn’t seen Christopher Pike in years. The last time the two of you were on the same planet, things had gotten a little...Heated. The fact of the matter was that, seeing as both of you were captains, you’d both agreed that pursuing anything serious romantically would be something of a folly. Having never been in a relationship, giving up your posts for the other would be jumping the gun; commanding your own starships meant being away from one another indefinitely. It had resulted in a long-distance flirtationship that was both enjoyable and maddening. You liked Christopher — you always had. The two of you winding up in bed together hadn’t done anything to lessen those feelings; if anything, they’d grown sharpe. The two of you were not in constant contact, but you spoke fairly regularly, either through PADD messages or through holos. That was why you didn’t need more than a second to recognize the murmur of, “Enjoying yourself?” Behind you. You couldn’t help but smile as Christopher came to stand beside you fully. You glanced up, finding his gaze set ahead of you on the current speaker. “Sure,” You shrugged a shoulder, facing forward again. “‘Sure’?” Christopher repeated, amused, “Incredibly high praise, Captain.” You rolled your eyes a little. “Forgive my lack of enthusiasm, but a seat-free hour-long talk on the history of deck arrangement and its impact on morale isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.” “What if your idea of a good time?” “I believe you’re familiar, Pike.” “...Yes, I believe I am,” His voice dropped to a warm murmur. You couldn’t help but glance up at him again. This time you found him watching you, a smile tipping his lips. You mirrored it before turning away again. You felt his shoulder nudge yours before his breath brushed your ear, “We could always excuse ourselves.” “Oh?” You didn’t turn to meet his eyes; you were afraid your eagerness was stamped across your features, and you didn’t want him to see it, “Did you have something in mind, Pike?” “Well,” His fingers brushed against yours, sending goosebumps flitting over your skin, “Perhaps something similar to the night we spent on Canov.” You bit your lip, but allowed no other cracking in your composure. “I see,” You murmured. “Of course, that is if you’re interested.” “...Did you have a location in mind?” Christopher’s fingers hooked around yours, and he began to lead you through the milling captains and ensigns rather than answer. You followed, ducking your head and staving off a grin. The two of you moved fairly swiftly, making it to the back of the lecture hall and through the open door in a matter of moments. He led you outside, and down the side steps to a passageway that you’d hardly used while you were at the Academy. “Where are we going?” You laughed softly. Christopher tugged you into a deep stone alcove along the passageway. The cover was shaded by the branches of a nearby willow tree, affording you two privacy. You arched a brow, looking around. “Bring all your dates here?” You teased, peering up at Pike. But you found something different on his face from his normal teasing smile. He crowded close to you, arms bracketing you in as he dipped his head for a kiss. You met it warmly, raising a hand to hook in the collar of his jacket. It wasn’t long before you were fully pressed against the alcove wall, both of your jackets undone and a little askew. You tipped your head back against the wall, closing your eyes as Chris’ lips trailed kisses along the line of your throat. “Missed you,” he murmured against your skin. You tightened your hand in his hair a little bit, squeezing your eyes shut. “We talk,” You argued weakly. He lifted his head, gripping your chin gently and tipping your head to meet your eyes. “It’s not the same.” You nodded. You knew exactly what he meant. You smoothed your hand over his hair, righting the coif you’d disrupted. “I know,” You mumbled. You pecked his lips softly, then again as you slid your hand under his jacket, “Let’s not waste time while we have it, hm?” Christopher’s eyes romaed your face before he leaned in, sucking your lower lip between his. You groaned, fisting your hand in his shirt as he tugged it before letting it go. “Pike—” “I thought we weren’t wasting time,” He teased, grinning as he dipped his hand under the hem of your shirt.