#who has been writing about a rarepair for the past year

[aerodaltonimperial]

I'm really not used to people paying attention to me, I just sort of lost most of my wrestle fandom friends in the past year or so, and I guess I just want to say hi? Thanks for being here? I've gotten more followers in the past week than I've gotten in several months. 💚

[sieglinde-freud]

thinking about them and banging my head against the wall again whats new. they are making me so emo. god. what the fuck

[plague-of-insomnia]

WIP Wednesday: Sebardagni 1920s AU: Snippet - Bard meets Ruby

I'm back on my business hoping 2025 is finally the year I get to fill your lives with tons of kuro rarepair AU content!

Here's another scene from my 1920s sebardagni AU that has been floating around in my mind for months and that I was finally able to write the other day.

It's the first of two scenes in which Bard meets Sebastian, aka "Ruby," for the first time, and he's immediately smitten--even after he realizes "Ruby" is a man.

About this AU:

Sebardagni, multichapter, 1920s AU, Human Sebastian, Disabled Sebastian

Set in the US during the 1920s when Prohibition of alcohol was at its peak. Sebastian has a mysterious past that becomes central to the story as it unfolds, but when it begins works out of his apartment as a music tutor and at night performs at Undertaker's speakeasy. That's where he meets Bard, who was left aimless after the end of WWI, and now works as a bouncer for Undertaker in his club. Agni (who isn't in this snippet) is a doctor and who was living with Sebastian when Bard and he met.

*the image above is a preview of a comic by @luci-on-the-moon that will be revealed later

Enjoy, and if this is an AU you're interested in, let me know!

~#~

A hush fell over the entire club as all attention fixed on the piano, which played a simple, tinkling melody that seemed to float through the air like a mist. In the center of it all, spotlight illuminating, was Ruby, dress and jewels the color of her namesake glittering in the light. She was even more beautiful than Bard had imagined she’d be based on everything he’d heard. Her long, luxurious black hair draped over her shoulders, not chopped short like was the fashion, and Bard wondered if, despite the fact she was singing in an underground club run by a shady character like Undertaker, she might be a traditional, classy girl. Her lips were full and lashes long, with skin like fresh cream that Bard longed to touch. But then the piano swelled and she began to sing, and suddenly the entire world around Bard faded away into the soulful sound that cradled him like a warm embrace after years at war. “What’ll I do? When you are far away and I am blue.“ Bard’s mouth went dry as he listened, ash falling from his cigarette as he remained enraptured, as if Ruby were a siren mesmerizing him with her song. The melody was simple, letting the richness of her singing shine through. Bard could feel the emotion she was pouring into every word as she sang sadly of the lover she would never see again. The music crescendoed as Ruby leaned back on the piano, her long legs peaking from the slit in her unfashionably long dress. Though it fit her like God himself had made it for her, so Bard wasn’t about to complain. She wasn’t curvy, but she had a magnetism that made her beauty radiate. “What’ll I do with just a photograph—” She dropped her gaze, those captivating long lashes brushing her cheeks, and when she lifted it again, Bard could have sworn she was looking straight at him. “—to tell my troubles to?” Ruby smiled, amused, but only for a fleeting moment as she continued the song, heartbreak hovering in every note, “When I’m alone, with all the dreams of you that won’t come true. . .” Ruby paused, and so did the music, to let the audience hang on every single second, waiting for her to finish. She stared down at her legs, her voice shifting so that Bard would have sworn she were on the brink of tears. “What’ll I do?” The final chord played and the speakeasy erupted into whistling and clapping, most of the crowd jumping to their feet. But all Bard’s attention was still fixed on Ruby, her red dress glittering as she shifted, blowing kisses to the crowd and winking occasionally before the spotlight slid to the left and the MC began introducing the next performance. As much as he wanted to keep his gaze fixed on her until the last moment, when she disappeared backstage, a fight broke out to Bard’s right. which meant he had a job to do. But after his shift ended, he was gonna pay Ruby a visit.

[evanorphia]

okay, so if you follow me on tiktok you’re probably already aware of where this rant is going because i’ve spoken a bit about this on there, but i really need people to understand that fandom operates on a ‘don’t like; don’t read’ basis.

you can dislike/hate headcanons/ships/characters/fics/etc in this fandom (i have ships and hcs i dislike, and that’s okay, everyone is allowed to have different opinions and preferences) but the issue comes in when you take that dislike towards something and post about it publicly; when instead of ranting to your close friends, you put it on social media and/or hate on other people for liking/engaging with that thing. by posting about your hatred of something, that could a) be someone’s first impression of the thing and that can lead to them not forming their own opinion on it (i know this happened to me, my first interaction with one of the popular fics was negative and so i automatically disliked it rather than forming my own opinion on it), and/or b) upset them or make them feel bad about liking that very thing. this is detrimental to fandom as fandom spaces are supposed to be about creativity, sharing ideas, and a safe place.

the issue gets worse when, instead of just posting about the hatred on your own page, you go into the comments sections of other people’s posts. whether it be an edit/skit/etc that the person has made, they made it for free and out of passion for whatever the contents is. i’m going to use jegulus for this example because it’s a popular ship but this issue can apply to all ships (and more so applies to rarepairs), by commenting things such as “jegulus is a monstrosity of a ship” or “in canon this would never work” or “jegulus ruined this fandom” (which btw, it didn’t, no ship can “ruin a fandom” whatever that means) you’re actively making people NOT want to create content for this fandom and actively making people feel bad for things that they shouldn’t have to feel bad about.

moreover, this fandom seems to really care about characterisations of characters and i have three things to say on this. 1) we do not know enough about the majority of these characters to be able to mischaracterise them and the characters we do know about, we meet when they’re in their thirties and have been through copious amounts of trauma and a whole war to get to this point, they are bound to be different in their teenage years than they are in thirties. 2) the majority of this fandom is fanon and that’s the joy of it, everyone can have different opinions and headcanons and people can take inspiration from each other. if everyone characterised the characters exactly the same the fandom would be so boring and everything would just be a copy and paste of each other. 3) arguing over headcanons, especially stuff like “fem vs masc sirius” can have real life consequences. by saying that someone making sirius feminine makes him “less of a man” or “straightens wolfstar” you’re actively opening the floor for transphobia and homophobia and, as a transmasc who presents femininely and is in a relationship with a man, are you saying that our relationship is now “straight” or that i’m a woman purely because of how i present? please, let that sit with you before you argue over these headcanons again. if you don’t think the marauders boys would wear skirts, scroll or click off of the fic. (also btw, not everything has to be time accurate, that’s the joy of AUs).

furthermore, fanfiction is created for FREE. you do not get to criticise and hate on a fanfic like you do with published literature. fanfic writers have written fanfics for you out of passion with nothing in return other than kudos or comments, they are not making profit off of fanfiction (which would be illegal if they somehow were) and it is NOT their job like how it is with published authors. by hating on fanfics (no matter how popular or untouchable you believe them to be), you are actively discouraging people from writing their own and who knows — that could’ve been your new favourite fanfic. furthermore, a lot of ships lack fanfics because people are scared to interact with anything other than wolfstar and jegulus because of the hate that rarepairs get. there’s plenty of amazing ships out there that have so much potential but people are too scared to create for because of the hate/backlash they may get for creating for that ship.

all in all, like what you want and don’t like what you want, but don’t make it everyone else’s problem and if you don’t like something, scroll. thank you.

[zukkaoru]

it has come to my attention that i have not been talking about wlw ships enough, and for that, i am sorry. i apologize for flooding my mutuals' and followers' feeds with nothing but rarepair yaoi; as a lesbian myself, i should know and act better. i should simply like the most popular ship between two canonically female characters in every fandom i'm in, regardless of whether or not i personally feel they would get along or enjoy the majority of the fandom's characterization of them and their dynamic. and i should stop talking about rarepairs with male characters, instead only talking about mlm ships if they're popular, like real lesbians do.

since i first created my Ao3 account in december of 2016, nearly eight (8) years ago, i have only tagged fifty-four (54) fics with the f/f category, and an entire four (4) of those fics were also tagged with the m/m category. this is unacceptable behavior on my part. and while my span of time creating for the f/f category goes from january 10, 2017 with my first fic ever posted on ao3 to september 25, 2024, i realize this means it has been over one full month since i have posted a f/f fic, and none of my five most recent fics on ao3 are tagged with the f/f category. this is a huge misstep on my part and i will work my absolute hardest to rectify it as soon as possible. i understand, too, that my total word count of 266,147 words for f/f fics over the span of these past ~8 years puts me at only approximately 36,018 words of f/f fics posted each year, which is not nearly enough in any way, shape, or form. from the bottom of my heart, i apologize.

in the future, i will work to write more f/f fics, and i will do my best to make sure those fics are only the ones most widely accepted by the fandom, and most easily digestible for anyone who may come across them. this, of course, is simply the duty of a lesbian in any fandom, and i cannot express enough how sorry i am for failing in my job. i will no longer create new tags for sapphic rarepairs and instead pour my energy into making myself like all of the most popular wlw ships in whichever fandom i may find myself in. i will also refrain from going too heavy on the niche headcanons, so as to entice the maximum amount of readers. i have seen the error of my ways, and i accept that i am entirely in the wrong.

please bear with me while i work to better myself. any current wips i have of ships that do not fit the acceptable criteria for a lesbian in fandom to write about will be scrapped, and i will be dropping out of all events i have chosen to take part in if i cannot mold my work to fit these terms, since giving up on rarepair yaoi entirely is clearly the only way i will ever be able to redeem myself.

thank you all for your patience.

grace zukkaoru ❤️

[salty-autistic-writer]

For @911-rarepair-week, day 4: "What's your emergency?" Ship: Josh / Tommy

Josh chews on his lip. Maddie’s suggestion of a blind date is haunting his mind. He’s conflicted. Careful interest mixes with concern and resignation from past experiences. “I don’t know Maddie …”

"Come on, Josh, trust me. Chimney knows him. They've been working at the 118 together."

Josh perks up. "Really? So … Chimney would know if he's a serial killer, right?"

"Tommy is a pilot," Maddie says, smiling. "You might even have talked to him already."

A pilot. A first responder. Someone who saves people. Someone who worked with the 118. With Chimney. Really doesn’t sound like someone who would turn out to be a first-grade asshole.

"Fine," Josh sighs. “I’ll do it.”

At this point, his love life can't get any worse anyway.

* Tommy is a mountain of a man, holding a tiny box of pralines in his big hand. When he smiles down at Josh, his nose scrunches and wrinkles surround his very blue eyes.

“You must be Josh. I’m Tommy. Sorry, I’ve never done something like this before. I mean. A blind date.”

And oh God, he’s not only hot, he’s also cute. This isn’t fair. Josh was entirely unprepared for all the cuteness and hotness hitting him at once.

Tommy pushes Josh’s chair back for him, then bumps into the table while getting to his. Josh thought it was a good thing they would be able to talk about work and share experiences. But they don’t even need that.

Talking to Tommy is … easy. He’s a good listener. Attentive. Understanding. Asking for more information. Josh feels like for once, his date isn’t just waiting until they can talk about themselves. It’s nice.

He also never was out with a man who was that enthusiastic about ordering dessert after dinner. It’s endearing.

It’s too soon, he tells himself while scooping up delicious tiramisu. Too soon to get his hopes up. But … he has a feeling this might actually work. *

"How did it go?" Maddie asks curiously.

Josh doesn't even try to hold back. "Oh, I felt like a fool from the moment I saw him. He's big, kind, attentive, snarky, a dork, and so so so hot. He made me feel like a loveworthy fool. And ordered tiramisu. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since a man ordered me dessert?”

Maddie smiles. "That sounds nice. So. Are you seeing him again?"

"Yes," Josh says, his heart fluttering. "Absolutely." * They have many more dates. They also have a lot of good sex. And some fights. Stupid fights. Sometimes it's about things that bother them, sometimes it's about past baggage. Deep lying issues that keep coming back and threaten their happiness. They always manage to talk about it and reassure each other though. Clinging to each other like magnets because deep down they can't imagine not being together anymore.

All in all, it’s a healthy relationship with all its emotional rollercoaster hills and Josh is really happy. More happy than he’s been in quite a while. Years, actually.

He smiles when Tommy kisses his forehead one morning, holding a big bouquet of flowers that smells like spring. “It’s Valentine’s Day,” Tommy points out. “And you’re going to eat the best pizza in Los Angeles today.”

“I can’t wait,” Josh says, taking the flowers, his heart fluttering. Yes. He’s happy. *

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

“Maddie?”

“Hey, Tommy. Are you alright?” “Right now. Yes. But I don’t have much time.”

Maddie takes a deep breath, her heart beating faster and a cold shiver running over her back as he realises what might be happening. “What’s going on, Tommy?”

“Rotor problems. Gonna crash for sure. Guess I hit a treetop or something. Didn’t see it in all that fucking smoke. Is Josh there?”

“Yes. Can you tell me where you are? I’m … I’m going to send rescue.”

He tells her coordinates and Maddie writes them down, her chest clenching when she hears him curse and something makes a shrill noise in the background. “Josh,” he says again. “Is he there? Can I talk to him?”

Maddie swallows. She turns, looking at Josh who is talking to two co-workers, a mug of steaming coffee in both hands, laughing carelessly, eyes bright. He’s happy right now. And Maddie has to shatter his world. This is cruel.

“Josh!” She calls.

He perks up, raising a brow, approaching Maddie. And maybe he can see it in her eyes. Because his smile fades. His forehead wrinkles in concern. “What’s going on?” “It’s Tommy,” Maddie says quietly, tears in her eyes. “He wants to talk to you.” *

It’s Tommy. He wants to talk to you. 

Tommy called 9-1-1.

Josh stares at Maddie, not able to move. His blood is rushing in his ears. No. This can’t be happening.

But it is.

Maddie gets up to switch places with Josh. He sits, his heart pounding, talking into the mic. “Tommy?” “Hey, Josh. I fucked up. I’m sorry.”

Josh closes his eyes, swallowing. “Don’t … Don’t say that. Everything is going to be alright.”

Tommy chuckles. It sounds sad. “Yeah. I don’t think so. Wanted you to know though, that you’re making me really happy.” “You’re making me happy too. You’re the best thing that happened to me,” Josh says, tears blurring his vision. Please … “That’s good to know. Josh, I -”

The connection breaks. Just like that. “No,” Josh breathes into the silence. “No, no, no. Tommy? Tommy! Talk to me. Tommy!”

This can’t be the end.

“Josh …” Maddie is there, crying too, wrapping her arms around him. Holding him. And Josh is sobbing in her arms, still somewhat waiting to wake up. Because this can’t be anything else than a nightmare. *

“Josh? Josh, they found him.”

He just nods, still on that chair, staring into the void. Josh hasn’t moved for hours. He can’t. His body is frozen in grief. He doesn’t want to hear where and in what state they found Tommy’s body.

Maddie crouches in front of him, reaching out to take his hands. “Josh. He’s alive.”

“What?” Josh raises his head, blinking. That can’t be right. Did Maddie just say alive?

She nods, tears in her eyes. “They said it’s a miracle. He got out of the helicopter before it crashed. Saved his own life that way. He’s in bad shape. Still in surgery. But he’s alive, Josh.”

“He’s alive,” Josh echoes, his throat dry. “Oh my God … Where? I have to … I have to go, Maddie. I have to be there for him.”

“Of course, I’m going to drive you,” she says, squeezing his hands. “Come on.” *

“Don’t ever do this again.”

Tommy opens one eye, glancing at Josh. “Wasn’t planning on it,” he mumbles, voice still slurry from the painkillers and everything else they are pumping into his body. “Bad experience. Would not … not recommend.”

Josh snorts and shakes his head. He’s holding Tommy’s not-broken hand and now that his boyfriend is finally talking again, he finds the courage to ask. “What was it that you wanted to say?” “Hm?” Tommy’s eyes are closed again and his forehead crinkles in confusion. “After you told me “that’s good to know”. You started with “Josh, I”  - and then the connection was gone.”

Tommy blinks one eye open. “Oh. I remember. I wanted to tell you that you can’t eat the cake in the fridge when I'm gone.”

“Tommy Kinard!” Josh sputters, but he’s beyond happy that Tommy found his (sometimes terrible) sense of humour again, after weeks of drifting between unconsciousness and brief moments of confused painful awareness. "You are the worst!"

“Sorry,” Tommy says, lips twitching. He squeezes Josh’s hand. “Actually, I wanted to tell you that I love you.”

“Tommy Kinard,” Josh repeats, but this time it’s a gasp. “Are you serious?”

“I am serious,” Tommy assures, looking at Josh. “I love you.”

“Well, I love you too,” Josh says, his heart skipping a beat. “I love you so much, I never ever want to think you’re dead again.” “I don’t want to be dead. I want to be with you,” Tommy mutters, head lolling to his side, as he starts to fall asleep again. “Always.”

“Always,” Josh repeats with a nod, blinking tears away and smiling.

(AO3 Link)

[thecloudstan]

To the previous anon who asked about Rufus/Cloud blogs, I'm going to, sadly, agree with what Heich said. As a longtime fan, Rufus/Cloud has always been a VERY, VERY, VERY niche pairing among the other widely popular ones in the both the Western/Eastern fandom. Thanks to the "Remake" trilogy, there's been more fans, but it's still a rarepair. You'll find fans talking about their sexual chemistry on Tumblr/Twitter, but there's no dedicated blogs for them. Heich's the only one around, I think. 😭😭

Thanks for the response, nonnie. Oof, it's so sad for me to consider my blog the only thing remotely close to a dedicated fan blog for the ship, but...it kind of is most of the reason I created this blog years ago, around the time I started writing NTYC. I've found that lots of people will discuss Cloud and Rufus' potential, throw down some fanarts and fics and whatnot, but not really create and hold a space for them. It's fine, everybody does what they want (and that's the fun of fandom), and FF7 has so many popular ships, I guess it's to be expected. Even if I do multiship them, it's always been more entertaining for me to center whatever ship intrigues me most and just focus on that.

There are so many people that create fabulous works for the more popular ships, like practically every SECOND, it's okay if I distract myself with a rarepair. It's worked for the past decade or so, at least!

[1lostsoul0fishbowl]

annual writing self-evaluation 📝

Many thanks and muchas smooches to @justhere4thevibez for tagging me! 🥰

1. List of works published this year (in no particular order):

chapters 56-84 of With a Little Help From My Friends (completed 5/15/23)

Next Time I Fall (24 chapters, completed 12/19/23)

Lost and Found and Turned Around (7 chapters, completed 11/16/23)

2. Work you are most proud of (and why):

I’m incredibly proud of all my works, but I think probably I’m most proud of Next Time I Fall. I created a brand new rarepair, shaped a beautiful fluffy love story for them, and persevered through extreme personal difficulty to finish the fic despite the temptation to abandon it.

3. Work you are least proud of (and why):

There are a couple of chapters in Little Help that I feel aren’t as strong as they could’ve been. 64, 73, and 81 in particular. I don’t know what I should’ve done to make them better; I just know they needed more.

4. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

I’ll pick one little snippet from each fic…

Little Help:

Wayne waited until she’d finished her tiny blueberry slice and was debating over which to try next. “Actually, sugar,” he said quietly to Max, “I wanted to talk to you about that.”

“About what?” she asked, puzzled. “About gaining weight? That was a joke.”

“No.” He watched Eddie let Lucy lick a tiny smear of pie filling from his finger, despite Chrissy’s protest that sugar wasn’t good for cats. “About staying with us.”

A chill ran through her. “It’s still okay, right?” she said hesitantly. “My mom’s getting out of the rehab next week, but Claudia said I could stay longer if I needed to. But if that’s changed…” She trailed off, swallowing hard.

Wayne patted her shoulder. “Naw, sugar, that ain’t changed. You can stay long as you like. Fact is”— he rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly bashful— “fact is, what we really want is to keep you for good.”

~~~

Next Time I Fall:

Gareth couldn’t imagine having to grow up without his mom and dad. He thought of the way Janie held so tightly to his mom every time they hugged, and a lump formed in his throat.

“They never found your parents?” he whispered. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”

Honestly, he hadn’t even thought before speaking, he’d just blurted that out. But somehow it had been the right thing to say; Eddie and Chrissy’s tense expressions melted into something that looked like relief, and Janie’s crushing grip on his hand finally relaxed a little. Gareth laced his fingers through hers, giving her hand a little squeeze, before gently turning it to examine the small number tattooed on the inside of her wrist.

“Is that where this came from?” He lifted her hand to his lips, softly kissing the tiny 011. “Did they do that to you in the Lab?”

She nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks. “It was my name,” she murmured. “That is why everyone calls me El. El is short for Eleven.”

Fucking hell. Gareth felt tears running down his cheeks, too.

~~~

Lost and Found:

“Jane, you need to wake up!” Kali tried unsuccessfully not to shout. “You really are naive! They can always take you if they really want you. You need to face facts. Your policeman cannot protect you, you have to be able to protect yourself. Are your friends helping you with that? Is your boyfriend? No, they just want you to be ‘normal’. They want you to suppress your gifts instead of using them, and they want you to forget who you are and where you came from. And if I stay here they’ll do the same to me. Putting on their hypocritical smiles as long as I convert to their idea of normal. I don’t want to hide who I am, and neither should you, Jane. You can’t heal by hiding. The only way to heal is to face up to the truth, confront and conquer your past.”

“Stop calling me naive,” Jane snapped, “just because I am trying to accept my past instead of confronting it. I confronted Papa face to face, and then I let him die, and it did not change anything. All your revenge has not changed you either.” Just as quickly as her anger flared up, it dissipated again. Her voice softened, her entire demeanor settling into something more gentle. “You talk a lot about healing, but you are still so mad, Kali. I think I am more healed than you are. Maybe if you stayed here, as part of my family, maybe that can heal you like it did for me.”

5. Share or describe a favorite comment you received:

I love every single comment I get, truly I do. But I think the ones that made me smile the most this year were the few on Next Time I Fall that basically said ‘I never would’ve considered El and Gareth together but your fic made me ship them’. Is there any greater compliment? 😄

6. A time when writing was really, really hard:

Basically the last eight weeks have been awful. I got covid, and had barely recovered from that when a family emergency happened and I was thrown into the role of caregiver, and since then just more and more stuff keeps going wrong. I’m exhausted and honestly in a pretty dark place, mentally and emotionally, right now.

And yet. In spite of that I finished both Next Time and Lost and Found. Neither of them seem to have made any great impact— I barely even got any comments on either finale— but it was a goal of mine to finish them both and I’m still proud I managed to achieve that.

7. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

Kali, in Lost and Found, was so much fun to explore! I rewatched “The Lost Sister” before I started writing this fic, and I realized that I still hated her obnoxious friends but Kali herself was a super interesting character with a lot of potential. I had a lot of fun digging into what might possibly make her want to reconnect with El, and what would make her feel drawn to Steve. Also it surprised me how much I ship Stali now!

8. How did you grow as a writer this year:

I learned that my stories come out better when I write them the way I want them, instead of “taking requests” and pushing the characters in directions I wouldn’t have chosen if left to my own devices. I feel like certain parts of Little Help suffered because of this, so I resolved I’d stick to my own plans for Next Time and later Lost and Found, and I think those two fics came out better for it.

9. How do you hope to grow next year:

Next year, if I write any more, I want to somehow learn not to be so obsessed with stats. Stop comparing my kudos/comments count to other fics and feeling sad and inadequate. I have no idea how to accomplish this, but it’s where I need to be if I’m going to keep writing.

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

Oh it’s 1000% @pearlypairings — she’s been all of the above for me and so much more! Lost and Found would never have happened without her, and Next Time would likely have been abandoned unfinished.

11. Anything in your real life show up in your writing this year:

Lots of things, yeah, I don’t think I can help adding little bits and pieces of myself to my stories. I write the kind of world I’d like to see, and populate it with characters I either want to be like or wish I’d had in my own life.

A very silly specific example, though, is that I made Eddie adopt a kitten because I lost my cat last year and I missed her so much.

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

Um. Not really? I don’t think I’m good enough yet to be passing on wisdom to others!!!

13. Any new projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

I have a couple fun ideas jotted down in my Plot Bunnies folder, but no definite plans to start anything new right now. I gotta get out of this awful headspace before I can even think about new projects.

14. Tag three writers/artists whose answers you’d like to read:

@sokkas-first-fangirl @bratanimus @slowandsteddie

[chainofclovers]

A fandom thing that brings me great discomfort is the assumption that "all" queer fans are naturally going to flock around a single ship, and if you don't see it happening you're definitely straight and possibly homophobic. Those are some wild things to assume!

(I'll note a bit of added context here: I don't participate in Twitter fandom, so Discord and Tumblr are my main exposures to character and ship discourse, and AO3 and Livejournal and fansites are the current and past places I've consumed fic. When I'm into a show, I tend to read widely in the main tags even if I usually gravitate towards one or more favorite ships.)

In my current fandom, my inclinations are mostly centered around a m/f ship as well as multi-shipping a variety of monogamous and poly ships (many/most of which are queer). This is a bit of a departure from most of my previous fandom experiences, which have been centered around very subtextual f/f ships in fandom spaces where the fic-writing and discourse is nearly entirely centered around femslash. My corner of this current fandom includes tons of queer fans (of which I am one), as well as plenty of fans who don't identify as queer. In all the fandom spaces I'm in and in all the pairings (and gen fic) I enjoy from this show, there tends to be a lot of nuanced exploration of gender and sexuality, including explorations of queerness, including within transformative works about that popular m/f ship.

Over the last few weeks, I've watched the ship wars in my fandom, which used to be largely focused around that m/f ship I happen to love, kinda shift into what I think is a bit of an emerging-from-within defensive campaign for a popular m/m ship.

(Some more context: I have zero interest in engaging in ship wars. I believe all ships with adult characters are valid ships. I am invested in what will happen in the canon of this show, but "endgame" has never been the driver for my participation in any fandom, and I'd be shocked if I don't continue to create transformative works about my favorite ships for months and years to come regardless of what happens with the show. I personally don't adore the popular m/m ship, although I definitely see the chemistry and for most of the time this show has existed, I've appreciated the enthusiasm for the characters and the ship even if it's not my cup of tea. I enjoy both characters and their canonical relationship, and completely understand why the romantic ship is very popular.)

I find it genuinely kind of funny and amusing that for ship war participants fighting for basically any ship within this fandom, the arguments they experience from antis are incredibly similar--for character x and character y to get together, or for character x and character z to get together, it would be cliche, it would be tired, it would be unnecessary, we already have plenty of rep like that, or there's no way these characters could make sense as rep like that, there's nothing in the text that supports this ship, etc.

What feels newer is this insinuation that to opt out of shipping a particular thing means you are unable to see it. If you just don't prefer it or don't predict that it will happen in canon, that must mean that you believe the people who do see it happening are delusional, and therefore you are the enemy.

And attendant with that viewpoint is this idea that there are only two options in media: "the" queer ship will go canon, or the entire show is a big queerbaity setup. Does queerbaiting exist? Yes! Is it happening right now? No! Queerbaiting is, essentially, a broken promise from creator to fan.

The reason all this bums me out try as I might to ignore it and continue having a grand time is multifold: it's a gender thing and a rarepair thing and a thing about ship-as-campaign that saps the fun and joy out of (sub)text and text and the beautiful mystery of watching a story unfold faster than anything.

The gender thing: the show I'm talking about has a character who identifies herself as bisexual in the first season. Do I want more about that story? Do I think that story could and should take up more space? Yes! But is it there? Absolutely. And it's been disheartening to see people either ignore her completely or chalk this part of the story up to "lame jokes" as if humor and flirtation are less-than or inauthentic ways to engage with one's sexuality. It's disheartening to hear people talk about how they hope this show will have its first queer representation when there's been a queer woman on the show the whole time.

The rarepair thing: fic writers, presumably of every orientation under the sun, have been creating very queer fic about a multitude of characters on this show (including, notably, characters who are women) this whole time. There are queer pairings with twenty or fifteen or even three, two, or one stories in their tag. And it feels like lately all these pockets of fandom, regardless of what we've been writing, are getting lumped into this generic "straight" soup of people who lack the vision for the thing that's now "the" thing. But the things that made me want to write queer fic (and, yes, m/f fic) about all these characters, including one of the characters who is part of the popular m/m fic, are things I picked up in the source material, too.

The ship-as-campaign thing: it's exhausting. And it takes something that's pretty inherently queer--the communal act of engaging with a text and transforming it in a million beautiful (or depraved, or silly, or gross, or genre-defying) ways--and splinters it into factions. And assumes stupidity (or outright bigotry) on the part of those who don't see it the exact same way you do. Of course there's bigotry in this fandom, and among casual viewers. It's shit. So why invent more of it that isn't there when we could all focus on eradicating what is there? I don't think there's anything wrong with hoping fervently that you get to see the love story you want to see play out onscreen. That's absolutely how I feel. It's the way this stuff gets treated like a political platform that needs to do numbers to win...that's what bothers me, regardless of which ship it's about.

This has gone on way too long and I very easily might end up regretting making this post, which is very obviously about the thing it is about. If you reblog it, do NOT use it to campaign for any ships or belittle anyone for enjoying the ships they enjoy. PLEASE. Every single one of the ships is great and interesting and worthy of being explored by fandom, and you're selling fandom and community and queer culture short if you assume all the queers have to go in one room and all the straights have to go in another. We can be excited about the things we're excited about without making those hurtful assumptions and making ourselves miserable over a thing that is actually extremely cool.

[aerodaltonimperial]

It’s nearing mid-December, I’m loopy as shit due to being heavily medicated for preschool germs that finally took me out, and that means I am gonna be REALLY SAPPY about fandom and fic and stuff for a hot minute, sorry in advance lol.

When 2024 started, fandom was, for me, kind of a shit show. We still didn’t know what was happening with Jack or if he’d ever come back to AEW and were heading into month five of his complete social media exile and disappearance. I had lost most of my OG fandom group after I deliberately walked away from the pairing I’d built my entire fandom reputation on. I was really feeling the effects of the overall decline across all fandoms of engagement and interaction, as things became less community-oriented and more of the (still true) TikTok content creation expectation that we’re still struggling against. It was a tough time! I really wasn’t sure I would stay! (In fact, in January of ‘24, I actually did step away for awhile, thinking I was probably done.)

The year 2024 starting saw me in this fandom writing almost solely for a pairing that A) did not exist prior to me getting obsessed with them in the spring of 2023, B) had not interacted in canon since May of 2023, C) half of whom was not even known to be ALIVE as the new year rolled over, and D) had never, ever been fandom darlings, let alone an actual thing beyond me dragging a few friends into rarepair hell with me.

That’s a really difficult way to be in a fandom! It can get lonely and difficult to keep motivation, and I feel like wrestling in general is hard anyway, simply because of the sheer number of characters and pairings and every single person in this fandom has attached themselves to something different. It’s a tough fandom to be in if you are creating, for sure, because you are really at the mercy of so much outside your control, haha.

We are ending 2024 in a way I never could have predicted, and I’m just so grateful for everyone who has been here or joined in this year or just supported me continuing to write the same crap all the time even if you don’t care much for them! 💚 Thanks to the feud I could not possibly have anticipated actually getting in canon, I was able to find so many new friends this year in fandom. We hit 100 works in the pairing tag before my birthday! I know it’ll never hit the numbers that the OG pairings in this fandom have, but that’s okay, and that was never anything I even expected. I’m just so happy that people are still open to reading my stuff and that I’ve got so many new people to flail excitedly with!

That’s really the part of fandom that matters to me: community. I love flailing with people, and being excited about stuff with people, and bouncing ideas off people. I love creating with people, because for me, that’s what it’s always been about. Being the sole creator gets really isolating, even if you love what you’re doing. And losing my original group I created with definitely factored into how tough I found times this past year and a half.

I didn’t get into this fandom expecting to make waves or anything, haha. I’m still kind of surprised that this rarepair ever took off and got as big as it has managed to, given everything. I wrote a shit ton of words this year as I dealt with the aftermath of finally admitting I failed at traditional publishing, and I’m beyond grateful that people took time out of their lives to read my silly fics. Sometimes people tell me that my fics made them smile on a bad day, or that they go back and reread old ones because they really like them, and I’ll never be able to explain how much that means to me to hear. I am so, so glad that I can make a handful of people happy with what I write. 💚

2024 was a weird year for me. My relationship with writing has fundamentally changed, probably forever, in the wake of failure. This fandom has had some real ups and downs for me that have changed the way I interact with people here. But I’ve also written some things I’m really, really proud of this year. And I’ve made some new friends who are so important to me through fandom. In the end, I’m still here, and I’m still finding joy in creating (when the depression isn’t bad), and I’m just really glad that you are here, too. Thanks for being part of things with me, everyone. 💚

[hungrydolphin91]

WIP Folder Game

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Tag as many people as you have WIPs. People can send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then post a little snippet/preview or tell them something about it!

Thank you Jay (@lildoodlecat) for tagging me!! You have such hilarious titles for your wips, I feel like mine are more boring/straightforward by comparison ��� luckily for me I recently made a list of all my wips and their words counts (the document word count, most of it is NOT prose) so I can just copy and paste it here. fair warning, there's quite a few, and some of them have been "on hiatus (i'll come back someday bet)" for years so i may have less to say about them if prompted. But without further ado here's the doc titles of all of my Tales wips!

Graces:

Grace richass hurt/comfort: 1456

Graces AU Compilation 2 Eletric Boogaloo (You Shape Me): 465

Graces AU of ambiguous definition but it's the same bullshit I always write (Training Wheels): 4982

Graces AUs in a jumbled mess (titled ones include: Seasons Are Changing; Lambda 2 Electric Boogaloo: There's Another One, Folks; Inside and Out. also a G/T Richass AU and a Psi POV story): 19,933

Graces Berzesty AU: 2285

Graces Chapters (Two Hearts Could Be One part 1): 47,862

Graces charcter reference and outline (Two Hearts Could Be One part 2): 92,690

Graces long fic: The Sequel (Two Hearts Could Be Two): 19,616

Graces rarepair Cheribert ideas: 2430

Zesty:

Living House AU: 15,857 (items with an * are wips under this same AU. Yes, they're all house-related puns)

*Room For Improvement: 4083

*Welcome Home: 5754

*Amazon Home: 951

*Shingles Virus: 2328

Joyride: 5339

Sormik timeloop angst: 1387

Innominat Returns (Falling Awake): 33,304

Zestiria but I dont have a name for it yet idk how to describe it either (personality nonsense): 1275

Zestiria ideas in a jumbled mess (featuring AUs such as human!mikleo, cult Elysia, noragami AU, Skyward Sword AU, that one kinky one): 14,695

Rose and Mikleo’s Day Off: 4185

Berseria:

Berseria But I Don’t Have a Title Yet (To Walk With the Reaper): 5453

Berseria Van Eltia Fluff (Maiden Voyage): 608

Bien-formant: 342

Diary of a Pengyon: 1579

Dotnw:

Dontw Polwiggle: 3115

Dontw Spur of the Moment fic (Didn’t Know I Was Lost): 1312

Vesperia:

Fighting of the Spirit: 1345

Ghost Trick Repede (Chance 4 a Big Reversal): 12904

Vespy nonsense of the self-indulgent kind (Angel/Demon AU with so many cliches you're gonna drown in them): 1471

Vespy Ooo (Without a Shadow): 6211

Xillia 1&2:

Eurydice: 378

Kind of a depressing mess (RIP Julius): 901

Notes for Leia (aka this girl has problems (and maybe a ghost) haunting her): 1153

Some kind of Xillia AU (ft. AUs such as spiritvessel!Jude and spirit!Jude): 4873

Sad fractured dimension stuff (jude's sister AU): 2091

Smol jude: 1281

Arise:

Werewolf!Law (You’re Running in Circles): 2332

Okay, that's all of them, currently! I really do write a lot for this fandom I just never finish anything ever so they stay stuck in my wips folder forever 😅 But anyone is free to ask me about these, in fact I will take your interest in my half-baked ideas as flattery of the highest form 💜

As for tagging others, I think Jay already snagged up my mutuals so I will open this up to literally anyone who sees this, Tales fan or no. And please @ me in it, I wanna see what other people are working on!!!!

[nebulousmistress]

2024 Fic in Review

format lifted from @luddlestons who borrowed it from @ziskandra but nobody will notice since I live in rarepair hell lol

Total number of fics: 44, tho this includes WIPs I posted to that I'd started previously

Total wordcount: 342,031

Fandoms: 4, if lumping all Dragon Age into one fandom. 18 Stardew Valley, 24 Dragon Age of various types, 1 Original Work in the Cthulhu Mythos, and 1 Original Work of my own

Smut scenes: 6 explicit, more if you count alluring suggestion

Most Popular Fic (by bookmarks): A Farmer's Madness with 12

Most Popular Fic (by kudos): The Green Rain with 154

New Things I Tried: 60 thousand words without ever naming one of the main characters. Liberal usage of 1st person POV but not for all of it, nowhere near all of it. I started just to see if I could then it became a running joke then it grew into a realization of eldritch proportions

Fic I spent the most time on: Memento of Legacy, it went deep into left field and dragged an entirely new rarepair out of me and AO3 kicking and screaming. And it's still a WIP

Fic I spent the least time on: The Purpose of Aesthetics, about half an hour

Favourite thing I wrote: Confessions, I don't even go to this or any western religion and yet there was something delightfully cathartic about this one. Sebastian was trying to get me to torture more but I kept the Templar rape out of it. Man was a masochist looking to get punished. He's better now and this fic is part of why

Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, Or About What You’d Expected? [looks up at 300k words] Honestly I expected that number to be lower. But I wrote about as much as usual? This is fairly normal for me. I write when I'm stressed and A Lot happened this year

Story Of Mine Most Under-Appreciated By The Universe, In My Opinion: Most of them? I have to go with Safe, an original work with only 18 hits. I knew it would never breach a hundred hits but I posted it anyway. It's a EM-induced musing I had while the rest of the world marveled at aurorae and got migraines

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Either Protector of the Valley where I admit the Farmer's name and unintentionally reveal how much one version of me has done recently, or The Seeker's Quest: Kirkwall where I heavily imply one of the greatest secrets of the series

Biggest Disappointment: I still couldn't bring myself to work on my Star Wars AU, it's gnawing at me

Biggest Surprise: So @bengesko has been recommending this game for a while now, Stardew Valley, so I picked it up and on my very first playthrough... Now I've got 60k of fic and a series that might actually END all based on that very first meandering playthrough I ever did

My Favourite Part Of Fandom This Year: This was the first year in 20 years of fandom that I ever had the courage to actually commission art for a fic FOR THE PURPOSE of putting it into stories and it rocks ngl

Writing goals for next year: finish shit. Finish all stories planned for the past in Dragon Age. Finish this Eldritch Stardew series. Write for the Inquisition in Exile era. Enjoy myself in rarepair hell since it is where I excel

Did you meet last years goal? I had a goal? Lies

[shehungthemoon]

3, 5, 8 and 9 for the end of year fic asks?

tumblr ACTUALLY eats my mail so sorry I'm just seeing this now! 💜💜💜 thank you for the ask friend! x

3. What piece of media inspired you the most? Super hard question to answer because of my ADHD brain ping-ponging me through media non-stop, but based off fic stats alone it would have to be Alex Rider! The show finished airing this past spring and it seems has definitely ruined me just a bit.

5. What ships captured your heart? I don't think I can not say bucktommy here. This couple came out of NOWHERE and completely rewrote how I felt about one of my favorite shows. The ship and its fandom have given me so much joy and the best, warmest reception I've ever gotten on a fic ever. (And now I have a new TV papi and one less show to care about! Thx Lou.)

8. What fic meant the most to you to write? This baby right here was a labor of love that I am very happy to have out. The rarepair of all rairpairs, just two minor characters from The Conjuring universe, but I was able to flesh out their characters in my own way and I'm really happy with the results. I basically invented a love story from scratch, which was exhilirating and everything an author could want.

9. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? butter and seasalt, because I wrote it for one of my favorite people @mirabilefuturum who I have not been keeping up with as much as I want to, and whose Hannukah I hope has been very peaceful and warm 🤍 They got me back into The Godfather this year and I was genuinely very happy to be able to give them anything that might put a smile on their face. My love! (one day discord will let me log in again so I can talk in our chats).

[bluedalahorse]

Hi hello friend! Is there anything you'd like to tell tumblr about the road trip fic?

Hi friend! Thank you for asking!

There are so many things I want to tell tumblr about road trip fic. I will be vulnerable about this for just a minute. I have to admit, there’s a little part of my brain that is maybe taking this assignment too seriously, because it’s wondering what details I could share that would actually draw in an audience without spoiling them too much. I need to let that part of my brain go—the part that wants to figure out how to draw more people toward my controversial rarepair fic when it’s a little bit more of a niche thing that is never going to draw a lot of people—and remind myself that writing for myself is the most important thing when it comes to fanfic. I will admit I am very very bad at internalizing that, but I will also admit that I am working on it.

Next, I was going to share some bullet points, but then I realized I have an initial list of bullet points here. Which I know you saw!

So, I’m going to share some additional bullet points, mostly dealing with inciting incidents plus a few extra bonus facts:

The fic takes place about 8-10 years after canon, with the characters in their late 20s.

Air travel is suspended due to a volcanic eruption, and Sara and August both happen to be in Antwerp at the same time. They drive back to Sweden so they can get to Wille and Simon’s engagement party in time.

At the beginning of the fic, Sara has been living in either Malmö or Copenhagen (I need to decide) for the past five years or so. Simon and Wilhelm and Felice are all in Stockholm, so she enjoys visiting them, but she’s also a little worried they’ve grown closer without her.

As part of Sara’s backstory, she started up a vlog when she was in university, which then became a place where she talked about doing university and 20something life when you’re a person with AuDHD. She built up her skills and was pretty happy with what she was producing for a while. Then PuzzleChildren (a charity that’s basically that awful one you’re thinking of) hired Sara to vlog for them. They were attempting to rebrand after coming under criticism for not hiring autistic people, and at first things looked promising enough and they were offering Sara enough money that she felt confident about it. Sara’s feelings are changing at the beginning of the fic.

Sara has a neurotypical colleague named Hedda who co-hosts the PuzzleChildren vlog with her. Hedda is… well, she means well, she tries to be nice, but she’s problems for Sara all the same. Hedda also used to be an independent vlogger who made videos about how to be a supportive sibling to a person with autism, since Hedda has a non speaking autistic sibling. (As it happens, Hedda and her sibling are now estranged.) PuzzleChildren sells the story of Sara and Hedda as being sort of like, besties who are just like sisters, and they have to roleplay that relationship on the PuzzleChildren videos. Sara is increasingly frustrated with this.

In the first chapter of the fic, Sara is on a panel at an autism conference, and explains that she and Hedda play their relationship up for the cameras, but that it’s not based on reality. She has a brother and a best friend she loves very much IRL, thank you very much. After confessing this, she moves into a space of anxiety, because she knows it’s going to get her in trouble. She wanders off (her conference center shares space with a zoo, so I imagine her wandering off to the zoo portion) and that’s when she first runs into August.

August has just left the monarchy maybe six weeks before the story starts? He has also refused to talk to the press about why, nor has he put out an official statement about that or anything. The rumors, naturally, are out of control.

Later in the fic though, August has found out a secret about Sara that makes her feel pretty vulnerable. She’s having a tough time. They stop the car, get some strawberries at a roadside stand, and eat them while looking out at the sea. Then August tells Sara he’ll tell her why he left the monarchy, as a sort of evening of the playing field.

I won’t tell you why August left the monarchy, but it has something to do with his dad.

Vincent (now divorced) will briefly show up with his preschool aged daughter, who also has ADHD. I’m sort of interested in the existential crisis Vincent could have if he had an ADHD kid and heard himself saying the same things to her his parents said to him, and wanting to stop. It’s a small part of the story but I want to nod to the idea that even he can break his awful cycles.

Honestly? I might write August and Sara as bi4grayro just to spite the anon haters who call them boring because they’re “just straight.” (I mean do we know either of them is 100% hetero? DO WE? I don’t believe it.)

This fic is on hold until January due to grad school. I hope I’ll feel motivated to write it when I’m done!

[my-cabbages-gorl]

I am so happy I found youuu <3

I love love your writing about ZukAang in AO3 and I am here to support you in this agenda °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

This Aang x Zuko dynamic is meant to be explored more and I just believe it creates such interesting tropes (Fated Enemies --> Lovers/ Yin & Yang/ The Banished Prince x The Avatar/ The Peacemaker x The Conqueror/ Younger!Top x Older!Bottom ETC) AIYOO THE MATERIALL??

I am just here to tell you that I really loved your writings it is just really well done and you bring more depth into them which makes it is such a good story. I love how you envision Aang as he grows older to be more grounded and stable, still very faithful to what he believes but there is still parts of him that he gets to be a BIT greedy for (ahem *cough* zuko *ahem). Then you have Zuko, someone who just got restored his honor and home, yet his past haunts him. He is such a babygurl to me and he definitely needs someone that he can be vulnerable with, and to just let loose and to be mentally grounded (ahem *cough* aang ahem) LIKE TOGETHER THEY BALANCED OUT SO WELL. (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ)

Anywhooo I hope you get more inspired <3 <3

well well well this has to be the nicest, sweetest, most uplifting and inspiring thing anyone has ever said to me??? thank you so much?? I know i speak for a loooot of fic writers out there when I say this kind of feedback keeps us GOING. Especially for zukaang, a modest lil ship that's been squeezing it's way out of rarepair territory for the last few years and into the mainstream- your excitement and support is the wind in our sails. THANK YOU so much sending you lots of love and appreciation

[ffviirarepairweek]

Hello! What is the definition of rarepair?

I feel this group is overtaken by the same old popular pairs we see everywhere all the time

Hi there, so there’s two parts to your question.

I’m going to address the second part first – that it’s just the same popular pairs being shown. Before your ask arrived in the inbox, I had reblogged the following pairings for this year's event (in no particular order):

Reno/Aerith

Sephiroth/Elfe

Reno/Veld

Ifalna/Lucrecia

Biggs/Wedge

Scarlet/Lucrecia

Reno/Tseng

Aerith/Kunsel

Reno/Rufus

Seph/Zack

Vincent/Veld

Cloud/Wedge

I’m also writing requests for Seph/Elfe, Seph/Lazard, Reeve/Vincent, and Biggs/Wedge which will be posted later in the week.

I wouldn’t call that list just all the same popular pairings. If you mean there’s a lot of repeats from previous years of this event, well, yeah. We have a number of repeat participants who, unsurprisingly, still like the same pairings they did last year.

In order for me to share a pairing, someone needs to make content for the event for them (and of course Tumblr has to cooperate in showing it to me, or they can mention to me that it exists – a quick reminder to please do let me know if I’ve been missing your posts, we’ve already found one person who the tag is ignoring > . <) so that I can share it. (Or, someone can request a pairing and I will write something for it to the best of my ability.)

The second part – what is a rare pair.

On the prompt post ( https://ffviirarepairweek.tumblr.com/post/740152122290618368/ffvii-rare-pair-week-2024 ) I have the opening as:

Urban Dictionary defines rarepair as “A ship or pairing that not many people ship or is very rare to find fanfiction and fanart of. Typically happens within small fandoms or with minor characters.”

Of course, people often ask for more specific clarifications because some events are very specific about this. I’ve answered this previously, and this year in this post: https://ffviirarepairweek.tumblr.com/post/740261946911260672/is-there-a-number-of-fics-on-ao3-that-you-are

I’ll copy that reply here as well however:

Obviously there are the big huge pairings that you can’t avoid, and no one is going to mistake them for being rare, and there are some pairings people feel are rare on AO3 but may have had a bigger home on other sites in the past. There’s always debate on what counts as rare. If a pairing has their own currently running active annual event week, then I’d encourage folx to seek those out for those pairings first, as someone is trying to create a space for that pairing already and I’m not trying to take that away (but not everyone knows those are happening either!). My general policy is I’m not going to police a rare pair. At the end of the day, I want folx to have fun and encourage people to create above all.

To further elaborate on that, my goal, as always, in running any event (week or otherwise) is to encourage people to have fun and create for the things they love. To help people find others that share their interests. Maybe introduce others to a pairing they may not have thought about yet, when it comes to rare pair week in particular. I would much rather people feel welcome to create, than sit here looking at every fan site calculating how many entries there is for each pairing and tell someone, sorry, your pairing has x number more things than another, so you’re not welcome in the playground. My table has enough room for us all to sit at for show and tell.

I'll try to be better with tagging the pairings so you can ignore the pairings you don't like for the rest of the week - I was working off mobile the last couple days to post things more frequently. That's on me. If there's something particular you need tagged, you can always send in an ask or message me directly.