#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

[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 ❤️

[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.

[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!

[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. 💚

[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.

[sunsetmaidenwrites]

Hi! In Your Eyes? 👀 (I have been down the Ava x Bucky rabbit hole before)

Hi! Thanks so much for asking me about this one. This is a rarepair that really captures my interest. I wrote a one shot for them not too long ago and have been wanting to write more. (I have a bit of an Ava Starr-agenda. She's made a few cameos in recent stories, too. I find her very fascinating!)

This one is a movie au based on an indie flick by the same name. It has a twin flames concept, with Bucky and Ava being strangers who can sense what the other one is feeling. Somewhat aware of this from an early age and not really understanding it, they've managed to shut the bond down and shut the other out.

But as they get older, both find themselves desperately lonely and at a crossroads needing a connection. Ava is trapped in a loveless marriage to a controlling man; Bucky can't seem to escape his troubled past. Feeling vulnerable, frustrated, and lost, their mental connection sparks back to life and they begin communicating with one another through their shared bond.

Here is a snippet (language warning):

After that visit, he’d gone back to his cell, huddled down on the hard lumpy cot that was his home for the foreseeable future and he’d sobbed. Deep, silent, shaking shudders. Surrounded by the moans and howls and cursing of his fellow inmates, the smell of piss, sweat and broken dreams hovering heavy in the air as he mourned every way he’d gone wrong. Every mistake he could never fix because every path set before him had always led exactly here.

If he didn’t die in this hell hole, it would be another. Alone and miserable, getting what Fate determined from the start he had coming. His hands clenched into fists, and he wished he could hit something…probably himself. He deserved it after the disappointment he’d seen in Steve’s eyes.

I’m sorry, his soul screamed, but who was he apologizing to? Steve? Becca? His Ma for turning out too much like his ol’ man? Or maybe…maybe there was someone else. Some distant aching memory he’d pushed and hidden away, never completely relinquishing though he’d refused to give it a name for fear it made him a madman. Carefully, in the depths of his misery and recrimination, he unfurled one hand, letting it rest listlessly by his side as he waited. He could do it. Just once, though it’d been years. He just had to concentrate, open his mind, pull the cord on his tightly shuttered heart and let the phantom light in. Gulping down breath, spit, and guilt, he opened his eyes and peeked into the void. There was nothing there. Just the peeling, cold unforgiving gray of the ceiling. No other pictures for his mind to cling and sift through, probably because he’d forgotten how to dream so long ago. But there was something…just beyond him. Out of reach. An itch. A tingle. A certainty that he wasn’t as alone as he insisted. I did it for you. His mind screamed, his fingertips twitching in desperate beckoning. Just once. One more time. One last time. And I’ll shut you out. I’ll never ask again. He swallowed hard, tears leaking from his eyes. He was 18 years old, and he’d already fucked up every chance at a decent life. Please. Then by some miracle he’d never understand—surely the imaginings of a fucked-up brain—he felt it. The flutter of fingertips, grazing the length of his own. Warm, safe, and capable as they traveled up the length of his fingertips, before flattening so they were hand to hand. His real palm and an invisible shadow palm that existed only in his mind but felt more fucking real than anything else he’d experienced. He felt the sliding sensation as fingers sank into the crevices of his and squeezed. Held on.

Bucky closed his eyes once more, the silent sobs abating as he sank into the serenity of the moment. A simple touch. Surely all in his head. But it didn’t let go. And neither did Bucky.

[the-king-and-the-druidess]

Sooo tell me about shipping Morgana/Mordred 👀

Where should I start, Anon? It's going to be a long post, sorry 🍀

First, even though the ao3 and tumblr tags are currently occupied by me (oops) this ship was already there when the show was on air. Fandom-founding fics, A Scandalous Friendship by shiny_starlight and The Witch's Quickening by ymaoh date back to 2010 and 2012 respectively. In the early days, there were Morgana/Mordred works on Livejournal; when the trailers for S5 were released, some fans on LJ were making theories that an adult Mordred was going to be Morgana's partner if you know what I mean (It made sense, didn't it?)

I started shipping (being creative about them) Morgana and Mordred between 2021 and 2022 when I returned to the Merlin fandom after a decade of absence, but even when I was watching the show for the first time, I felt some kind of subtext and tension between them. (I criticize their S5 arcs but that's another matter). Mordana or Mormor remain my second main otp along with Armor(Morgana/Arthur) and this weird angsty rarepair has a strangely strong hold on me :}

I see that Arthur is like Morgana's past, he is what's painfully left behind, represents everything she stands against; whereas Mordred is the future where the Old Religion reigns again, her own version of the golden age, magic with a capital "M", (what Merlin might have been if he wasn't a coward), he is what Morgana met when she realised that she was magical and found again in the darkest moments of her life. Despite the fact that Mordred betrayed her (oh, this angst!) for Morgana he remains a glimpse of light to her darkness, and the only human being she is still able to love. There was a comment by Katie McGrath somewhere that Mordred was the only one Morgana considered her equal. If the redemption and the golden age arcs happened, I believe they would have played a significant role in healing each other (Mordred needed healing too).

I am so fascinated that Morgana forgave him for his betrayals, something she refused to give Merlin, Arthur, Gwen and her Father; and that they felt a bond at first sight(The contrast between the bond of true love and what the life has made of it). The Dragon, prophesying, put their joint destiny on the same scale level as the destiny of Merlin and Arthur (where are my Merthur vs Mordana fics?) Like Arthur and Merlin, they were predicted to become great together.

Mordred was so agonizingly conflicted about who to choose, Arthur or Morgana, and although he loved more the Morgana from the past whose spirit could be seen in her when she was with him only, in the end he realised that it has always been her, that she was right. After he has betrayed and sold everything and everyone, she was the only constant thing. Plus, since Kara as a character is basically a younger Morgana, he definitely has a type for a rebel woman that tears his heart in two :} (Morgana Le Fay is known as the most beautiful and enchanting woman of the legends, should I explain more a case of attraction between a young man with a bitter past and a brokenhearted mature woman like her? Should I explain the magnetism of darkness?)

For Morgana Mordred is a return to "the love she once had" (Mordred's best lines were uttered about Morgana), for Mordred she is a return to his druidic roots, to his magical heart, to the dreams and longing he had about her after they had been separated so cruelly. They both craved for love and peace deep down but were deprived of it and hurt by other people and each other.

Usually, I ship them in S5 with a ten-year age gap; in their evil self; I headcanon Mordred as 20-22yo and Morgana as 30-32. But I also wrote (and will write more, I hope) an AU where they were the same age and good and Mordred was already adult in S2; I tried to reconstruct his old none traumatised self in an adult form. (There's also a possibility of a forbidden love AU between a knight with a dark past and a magical princess who had seen him killing in her prophetic visions. I actually have many Mormor AU ideas, including Arthurian ones; strange for the characters that have so little screen time together)

Their tropes: lovehate and enemies-to-lovers, of course

who did this to you

I hate everyone but you

villain x hero (it seems even more delicious when it's an evil woman/good man or evil woman/good woman, not a traditional evil man/good woman. I find that Mordana is built quite similar to how a traditional villain/heroine could have been built, like she chooses him exclusively and wants him to be by her side and shares her secrets and plans whereas he is working for the opposite side.)

soulmates (they were destined to be)

unrequited love, one-sided attraction, bitter exes, I love you but I cannot watch how you are going mad (I like angst)

he will always return to her, meeting again

break up and make up

us against the world

the best friend of her brother

reluctant closeness, reluctant allies

I can fix him/her

femdom, touch starved, hate sex, reunion sex, first time, is age gap a trope?

Morgana and Mordred's aesthetic is a top tier for me. Triskelions, dark woods, abandoned castles, blood and fire, dusk and sunset, harshness of winter and gentleness of spring. A witch and a forsaken knight, a seer and a druid, a villainess and a traitor, they can stab each other and then kiss as if nothing has happened, a dark queen and a traitor who wanted to use her but then fell in love, the outcasts, depressed introvert x depressed introvert. Isn't the villainous darkhaired violent duo in black cloaks with revolutionary and vengeance agenda, with ancient crystals and magical swords beautiful? They are the embodiment of the Old Ways. I am also fond of Mordana and Aithusa background interactions.

Their dynamic is and could have been so complex and interesting for me; if the reboot ever happens, I want them to make Mordana at least semi canon, adult Mordred in S1 and/or him being really bad and working with Morgana.

[willow-lark]

not most people (but it's you) - wheelclair

took a break from my byler week fics to try something new and jot down a quick wheelclair drabble!! this one is dedicated to @booksandpaperss (💕🫶) who i was talking to a bit ab wheelclair aus the other day,,, ngl i'm becoming obsessed w these 2

As Mike watches, Lucas lifts his hand in a gesture that Mike knows all too well, with an uncertain smile on his face as he wiggles his fingers every-so-slightly in a wave.

Mike is tempted to reach up and pull down his window shade to cut off the interaction, to ignore Lucas and feed into the hurt lodged deep within his gut that he’s never actually let go of, and nursed for all these years. But—Lucas isn’t doing anything to hurt him, in truth. Did he really ever? Intellectually, Mike remembers the barbed words, the harm both he and Lucas caused each other. But it doesn’t feel like those things matter so much right now. It didn’t seem to matter this morning, when Mrs. Harmon paired them together for their new history project, and Lucas stuck his hand out in the aisle between their desks and Mike took it in truce. Somehow, even surrounded by meatheads and having assimilated into the ranks of all the thug-headed jocks that leech off the walls of Hawkins High, Lucas has retained the good faith that Mike remembers in him, putting loyalty above all else, and trusting those he cares about.

Lucas was always a lot nicer than Mike was, he thinks. Lucas doesn’t snap at people unless he has a good reason. He’s only got a bone to pick with people if they hurt someone he loves. Not like Mike, who gets angry at the people he cares about for no reason, uncompromising and mean even when he doesn’t mean to be, demanding that everything goes exactly his way.

Once, Lucas was Mike’s closest friend. Once, Mike would have reached for his walkie to radio Lucas, and they would look across at each other in their windows and talk late into the night.

Now, though, Mike lifts his fingers in response, and sends across his own tentative smile.

...

“Hey!” calls a voice behind Mike, who slams his locker shut and whips around. He didn’t sleep well last night, staring up at the ceiling with a pounding heart, mind all caught up in thoughts of what was and what might have been. It is only Lucas, leaning casually against the row of lockers in his crisp letterman jacket, grinning at Mike with that same easy smile he’s always had.

“Hi,” says Mike, grumpy, sudden butterflies in his stomach doing their damn best to flap all the way up his esophagus. He doesn’t look nearly as put together as Lucas does right now. The Hellfire t-shirt he’s wearing definitely needs a wash, and so do the jeans that he’s worn every day for the past two weeks.

“You want to come over to mine after school today and get started on this project?”

“Okay,” Mike says before he can fully think it over, but as he does he realizes he doesn’t really have an excuse not to. Corroded Coffin was supposed to get together and rehearse tonight, but Gareth’s home sick with a violent flu and Eddie called yesterday that he wasn’t going to be able to make the drive out from Indianapolis to visit like he had planned. “I was going to have rehearsal today, but I don’t anymore.”

“Corroded Coffin, right? That’s a sick name, man.”

“Oh, I, uh, I play guitar now.”

“Awesome,” Lucas says, and claps Mike on the shoulder. “I’m driving Erica home today, too, so let’s meet in the parking lot after class lets out. See you later!” and he strides off to whatever class he’s supposed to be at next period. 

Mike stands there, noise of the bustling hallway swelling around him. He can still feel the warmth of Lucas’s hand on his shoulder, an old and familiar touch. Mike’s not that touchy of a person. Most people, he’d snap at. 

Lucas isn’t most people.

hm. i May have to write more of them bc wheelclair is quickly shooting up my list of fav rarepairs. high school au wheelclair is something that can be so personal. like. they're so???? n e ways if u read this far i hope u enjoyed it!! mwah. xoxo.

[tavina-writes]

Intro?

Hi! I'm Tav! (known to some of you more commonly as Leaf). Also for clarity, I've been Tav for the past ten years, so I was here first or something. I'm a part time plant on the internet, who is currently doing a PhD in Plant Biology. My educational training in undergrad is in the agricultural sciences so I occasionally reblog stuff about that as well. The agricultural training is why I'm a plant btw. My plantsona is a Golden Barrel Cactus bc I Commit To The Bit. If you ask me how I can type on the internet I will tell you its magic!

I occasionally write fic on ao3 here and mostly reblog whatever I come across that's grabbed my attention. You can find what I'm writing/working on by checking out my writing which should be relatively up to date.

I do a lot of multifandom exchange events, and I rarely if ever remember to link my works to tumblr. Mostly I figure if you're interested in that you'd hop over to ao3! I have a lot of works over there.

Right now my fandom of interest is CQL/MDZS. This is a Nie Brothers stan blog which is probably how most of you (who don't know me from other places already) found me? I think? If that's not the case WELCOME. Here we love and support NHS (blorbo) and NMJ (Da-ge). I like a lot of rarepairs also.

HOWEVER while I don't always Naruto on main, I am a plant who has been writing Naruto fic for like, 7+ years now so occasionally there's Naruto on main. That's how it is here.

I appear to have gotten back on my Jin Yong wuxia bullshit. Not, that it ever really left but I figured I should say so!

A list of relevant tags that I keep for blog organization:

art by friends - when I originally started reblogging art to this blog ages ago, this was mostly populated by reblogging the art of friends, which is why my general art tag is now "art by friends" even if I don't know the artist bc it FEELS WEIRD to have a "art by friends" and "art by strangers I don't know on the internet"

writer memes - where I keep my collection of pain inducing memes about writers that I relate to. Other writer related stuff can be found in: writer stuff, writer woes, or fandom stuff.

laugh rule - not necessarily memes, just stuff I laughed at that I can be counted on to have a good time looking at again.

tav watches cdrama - my running list of gifsets/cdrama rambling from dramas that I have watched/am currently watching!

meta and my meta will have related things that are meta that I either want to engage with or that I wrote. Some of it probably doesn't actively belong in meta but it became too serious a shitpost for me to like, not put it there.

I will occasionally reblog hanfu under a variety of tags! Your best bet is probably to search my blog for hanfu, women's hanfu, hanfu accessories, or aesthetics to find photographs of people posing in GREAT clothing. Aesthetics also includes photosets of cool places that I like.

I have a large running list of relationship tags that are simply too numerous to keep a list of so I won't edit this post to include them bc it's too hard sorry.

[television-bodies]

fic writer tag game

thank you for the tag @palmviolet ! love things like this. blessings upon you and all your sheep

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

five! my ao3 account is but a baby

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

63k. in approximately ten days this is going to jump by ~15k so perhaps i should have waited to do this tag but alas. impatience

3. What fandoms do you write for?

currently only les mis. so many themes to explore... so many characters to sink my teeth into... so many dynamics to look at and so many situations into which i can drop people...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

i mean. this is going to be all of my fics but here's the ranking

suckerpunch

visiting hours

restoring the balance

tech week

the two sides of monsieur valentine (the perils of rarepairs)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes!!! i love comments. fuel. life blood

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

well. there's a major character death marinating in my drafts, yet to be unleashed

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

currently all of them have pretty happy endings, which is something i'm sort of trying to change because i'm starting to get a little bored of writing that all the time. sorry. scared of getting myself into a funk! all things considered though, it's probably tech week. those final lines were in my head from the very start of the fic, and with the whole christmas vibe... yeah. that one, i think

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not so far! hoping that will not change!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

not as of yet and i can't see myself doing so if i'm honest but i'm also a big believer in never saying never because i don't know who i am (or more importantly, who i will be). so. not at the moment. but in ten years maybe i'll look back at this and laugh. you know

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

again, not as of yet! not a full crossover, with characters from each thing intersecting, anyway. i've got some AUs for les mis that are specific to other interests, but nothing closer than that.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i don't see many fics in the les mis fandom getting translated at all anymore! the fandom is so lovely but it's definitely quieter than it has been in the past, so it doesn't surprise me. i'd love for it to happen, but no, not yet.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

nooo. i like the idea of it, if there was someone i think i worked well enough with -- but i don't know anybody over here well enough for that yet, i don't think. i am currently bad at messaging people/interacting on any level deeper than reblogging posts or commenting on their fics, which is really something i should work on. open to the possibility though!

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

enjolras and grantaire, oh my god. living in my brain for goddamn YEARS now. years upon years. with that said, i do have certain Feelings about them -- maybe i'll go more into detail with this someday on some other post but really i think that the way they're done in canon is kind of perfect, which is why i don't write canon era fic for them. there's nothing i can do to that that would make it worthwhile, to me. but putting them in different time periods or situations? ohhh yeah

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i've got bits and pieces of a les mis AU for the BBC series race across the world which i am still sort of attached to but can't see myself doing anymore, purely because writing the logistical parts of how the race etc functions in that show was boring me, and i don't want to be bored by something that i'm doing for my enjoyment. but maybe i'll do a post at some point laying out the main plot points if anybody's interested because i do still like the concept

16. What are your writing strengths?

probably still nailing this down, if i'm honest. i like descriptions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i always think i'm not great at dialogue, but i've been told the opposite, so who knows! i think my issue with it comes more from wondering where the conversation should go/what should go in the middle of two points i want the characters to make, rather than making it sound realistic. i think i'm fairly good on the realism front.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

occasionally i'll make characters say the odd phrase in another language, but nothing more than that. i'm not fluent in any language other than english, so unless it's something i'm sure of in spanish i think i'd just be worrying if the translation is correct, which isn't worth it to me (and there isn't much use for spanish in what i'm currently writing lmao)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

fanfiction dot net days are ones we do not talk about... a haze in my mind... banished to the darkness... but i actually do know the answer to this -- it was dracula, for some fucking reason. (i know the reason. but i'm not sharing)

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

i'm quite fond of suckerpunch, just because i think it's sort of speedrunning my personal exr manifesto, but i don't know! seriously no answer to this! taking that as a good sign: maybe my favourite is yet to come.

no pressure tags go to @pumpkinspice-prouvaire @sereendy @shamedumpster and anybody else who wishes to do it!