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formosusiniquis · 7 months ago

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my @steddiesummerexchange gift fic for @oh-stars! I was so excited to work on this prompt: penpals through childhood until they both graduate -- road trip to meet one another in person. Epistolary fics are always a favorite of mine. oh-stars is such a brilliant writer and bright spot in the fandom, I was excited to be able to write a little something for her, I hope you like it!

October 13, 1976 Dear Eddie,

Mrs. Simpson says I’m supposed to thank you for volunteering to be my partner even though you’re a fifth grader. I don’t know why I should though since now I actually have to do this stupid pen pal project. I know she only paired me with an older kid cause she thinks I’m dumb. But thanks for the extra work I guess.

She said she wasn’t gonna read these before she sent them off, just that she was gonna make sure they were a page front and back like they were supposed to be. But I don’t really believe her. So I guess I should actually write this right.

Hi Eddie. My name is Steve Harrington. I’m 10 years old because I got put in Kindergarten late cause my parents were too busy in wherever my dad does his business stuff and my au pair -- that’s fancy for babysitter who lives in your house -- couldn’t do it. My birthday is in September, almost at the end (the 27th), so I guess that’s why it was okay. When’s your birthday (Mrs. Simpson says a friendly letter is supposed to ask questions.)

My favorite things are yellow and sports. I’m the best at red rover and kickball, Tommy says it's cause I’m the oldest and biggest in our class but he’s a sore loser and couldn’t even break through the girl side of the red rover line. Do you play games? Mrs. Simpson talks about your Hawkins like it’s on a different planet but you’re just in Kentucky. It’s right across the river. I’ve been there a couple times when Dad likes me and we’ll go watch Louisville play basketball. Basketball is my favorite sport but the only outside court is at the park and the big teenagers are always on it.

When you write back you can tell me what sports and games you like. Does your Dad ever bring you to Indiana to watch stuff? The Pacers only played okay last season and they lost to Kentucky in the playoffs. Is that who you root for?

Oh and I’m supposed to ask you about school since this is like homework. I kinda already did that at the beginning, remember. Do you like English or something? Is that why you asked for extra work? Or was your pen pal last year just a super dud?

That’s front and back now.

Sincerely (cause we aren’t friends), Steve Harrington

October 25, 1976 Dear Steve,

First of all I didn’t ask to have to write a letter to some fourth grader. I was told because I’m the only kid who didn’t do it last year that I had to be your partner. I do like English but extra work isn’t fun for anybody. I’ve never had a pen pal before so you’re the best and the worst one I’ve ever had. Are teachers allowed to call people dumb at your school? Mine just look at me like a really weird bug on the road or something.

Your teacher sounds like a real pain in the side, that’s what my Uncle Wayne would say. I think it’s cause he’s pretending he doesn’t know the word bitch. She talks about this Hawkins like it’s on another planet because it’s in the Appalachian Mountains and people think everyone here is stupid and marries their cousins.

Some of them are stupid but they would be like that anywhere it’s not because they live out here.

I’m actually from Lexington though so it isn’t even my Hawkins, but my Uncle Wayne lives here and he has to watch me for a little while.

You didn’t really ask me anything good about myself. I’m Eddie Munson, I’m going to be 11 when it’s my birthday this year (Halloween the coolest birthday cause everyone gives you candy). Red and black are my favorite colors. I don’t like any sports at all, they’re all stupid but everyone knows about basketball here, it's more important than church. Everywhere has games but when you get to fifth grade you learn which ones are for babies.

I like imagination games the best cause then I don’t have to worry about anyone else playing with me. There’s lots of woods here so I can go in them and hunt monsters or dragons or be an elf like in my favorite books.

Wayne’s looking over my shoulder and says I’m supposed to ask you a question. So what’s your favorite book? Do you like fantasy, that’s my favorite but the science fiction stuff with aliens is cool too.

I know you asked about my dad but since I live with Wayne I’m gonna use him instead. He hasn’t ever taken me to Indiana cause “his truck weren’t meant to leave these hills” whatever that means. He said he roots for The Colonels but he wishes your Pacers luck this season. What’s a Pacer anyway?

Do I have to ask you about school too? I don’t think this is homework for me more like extra credit. If you don’t like English what do you like? Don’t say recess or lunch those are cheating answers.

Not your friend either, Eddie Munson

Continue on AO3

#steddie #steddie summer exchange #steddie fic #my fic #friends to lovers #childhood friends to lovers #hurt/comfort #Appalachian Eddie Munson

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mostlymilkwood · 3 months ago

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Their Story and The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All

Recently I've been thinking about the success of The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All and how it feels like seeing where Tamen de Gushi could have ended up, had its publishing issues not lead too various hiatuses during its peak.

To give a quick summary of events; Tamen de Gushi (aka Their Story/SQ Begin W/Your Name!) is a manhua created and posted online by Tan Jiu. It was incredibly popular around 2015 to 2018, during which time it had big ad campaigns, cute merch, animated promos and a print volume of the manhua itself. Just the one though. Sadly a the start of 2018 Tan Jiu announced that volume 2 would be indefinitely postponed as their publisher had requested several scenes be removed, which they refused to do. People speculated the scenes were the romantic ones between the leads, particularly the Big Kiss that would have been in that volume, but it was never specified. Regardless, this had a pretty disastrous effect on the manhua, as without the revenue from volume 2 Tan Jiu understandably began working on other projects and updates basically stopped altogether outside of occasional illustrations and short comics detached from the main storyline.

Meanwhile The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All (lets go with the insane shorthand tgswiiwagaa from here on) is a manga created and posted online by Sumiko Arai. First starting in 2021 it has become incredibly popular, which has lead to big ad campaigns, popup shops and cafes, a drama CD and print volumes of the manga itself.

So there is some surface levels similarities between the two: both are released via the author's social media account, both feature a high school slice of life stories, both gained a huge followings outside of their original language due to scanlation efforts, and both were/are the the face of digitally published yuri.

I don't think we'd get tgswiiwagaa without Tamen de Gushi, or at least I don't think it would be as big as it is without the groundwork Tamen de Gushi lay within online spaces. I can't speak too much on Tamen de Gushi's domestic fandom, or even its Japanese one, (though it was clearly popular in both) but at least in English-speaking yuri circles it was the breakout hit that brought in a lot of new readers to the genre. (Which is crazy to think about since it was before Mangadex became the dominant host of scanlated works, so it was primarily released on Tumblr! with only some chapters showing up on Dynasty Reader later.)

And I don't wanna say it was the only game in town back then, as around 2015 was a real golden age of manhwa and manhua popping off with the likes of Her Tale of Shim Chong, What Does the Fox Say? and PULSE. They're all still popular recommendations when people ask for top yuri picks, deservedly so. But as I said, there's something about tgswiiwagaa that reminds me of Tamen de Gushi in particular.

That popularity which lead to fanart, edits and fancams in the English side of the fandom feels kind of important to totgswiiwagaa's future international success. Like it widen the net so when totgswiiwagaa came along with a story that had even more western pop culture touchstones than a manga reader might normally get it was able to scoop up way more fans than ever before.

I think when it comes down to it, It's just nice to see tgswiiwagaa go even further than Tamen de Gushi did. There's been plenty of talk about if tgswiiwagaa will get an anime and/or a live action adaptation, and honestly I hope it gets everything and more! Because just like Tamen de Gushi before it, I know tgswiiwagaa is laying the groundwork's from some other wildly popular yuri that will come to surpass it in the future. And I can't wait to read whatever new stories come out next!

#tamen de gushi #their story #The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All #tgswiiwagaa #manga musing #yuri

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mittensmorgul · 1 year ago

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Hi everyone! I just need like two minutes of your time.

Have you enjoyed all the scripts that the @spnscripthunt has posted over the last few years? Have you screenshotted them and written meta and made gif sets or just cried over your favorite scenes again? Have you supported the group in any way?

Would you like to OWN one of those scripts, autographed by the stars of Supernatural?

Maybe you miss participating in GISH, doing some wacky fun good in the world and the style of fundraising we learned there-- that many people making small contributions can come together to change lives.

Well, we are down to our last little stack of scripts now, with no new scripts coming on the horizon. This project has been thrilling, and we're trying to send it all off with a bang. We're giving away the final portion of the collection, all signed by the cast and crew, and hopefully doing a little good in a very big way.

We picked RIPMedicalDebt as our final charity, because of the exponential power of increasing how far our donations will go. $10 donated pays of $1,000 of medical debt, free and clear with no tax burden to the recipients! With a small donation, you could literally change someone's life.

We get that folks outside the US might not understand how completely messed up the US healthcare system is, so for some perspective, 65% of people who file for bankruptcy in this country do so directly because of crushing medical debt. We know personally how horrifying the medical insurance system is in this country. One illness, one accident, can be financially devastating. But we can save a few people from having it completely destroy their lives.

We got the idea from John Oliver. This entire episode is eye-opening about debt in the US in general, but the part we're specifically interested it begins around 17 minutes in.

youtube

We're already a quarter of the way to our goal! Thank you to everyone who's already donated! What we need now is to spread the word!

If you've spent any time at all enjoying the work we've done, the scripts we've collected and shared with fandom, we're hoping you'll consider sharing our posts widely with anyone who might be interested. Our contact network has been demolished as twitter collapses (and historically the vast majority of our contributors have come from twitter), and we're practically begging just for a signal boost.

All the details on how to donate, and then enter the raffle can be found right here:

You can also see all the prizes we'll be making available, too! And if for some reason you're not interested in a prize and just would like to support the campaign, that's fine too, of course!

(but the prizes are super cool... at least we think so...)

You only have until November 5, 2023 to enter the raffle, and our final group of prizes will unlock when we hit $5000 donated (which could pay off half a million dollars in medical debt!)

Please help us spread the word, and good luck!

#supernatural #spn script hunt #signal boost #Youtube

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captainsophiestark · 8 days ago

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Snowed In

Rex x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

This work was created for the 2024 @cloneficgiftexchange, for @jedipoodoo! I loved the prompts you gave me, and I had a ton of fun writing this - I hope you like it!

Fandom: Star Wars

Summary: Rex and his Jedi SO get stranded on Ilum in the middle of a bad snowstorm, but it turns out to be just the Life Day gift they were hoping for.

Word Count: 1,640

Category: Fluff

A/N: Special shoutout to @ghostofskywalker for the Fictober request that made me feel confident enough to write for the clones! It's been so much fun to venture into writing this part of the fandom, and I never could've done it without you 🥰

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

"Like I said, we'll try to get back to you guys tonight if we can. But I don't think that's likely."

Obi-Wan and Anakin frowned at me from the small projection on my wrist communicator in sync.

"Are you sure? We barely left a hour ago. Has it really gotten that much worse?"

I started nodding before Anakin had even finished the question.

"I almost lost Rex in his white armor when he went outside to scout before I called you. He was five feet from me. I spit and it froze almost before it cleared my lips."

"Why did you spit?" Obi-Wan asked, his frown deepening. This time it was Anakin and I's turn to give him a look in perfect sync.

"To see how bad it was by how quickly it froze," Anakin answered for me. "What else?"

Obi-Wan didn't dignify that with a response, just an eyeroll.

"Alright," he said, moving past Anakin and I's conversation. "If you aren't able to get off-planet by tomorrow morning, call us again. We'll come back with more equipment and find a way to dig you out."

I nodded. "Sounds good. I'll check in with you guys in the morning. Hopefully you won't have to make the trip back, but if you do... make a pitstop to grab some flame throwers from Ki-Adi-Mundi."

Obi-Wan huffed a laugh, while Anakin looked much too excited beside him.

"Hopefully, that won't be necessary," Obi-Wan said. "Stay warm and stay safe."

"Will do."

"See you tomorrow with flame throwers."

I snorted and gave the boys a little wave at Anakin's sign-off. Hopefully for everyone involved, this storm would clear and we'd be able to get out of here without Anakin needing to go within a lightyear of a flamethrower.

I sighed, surveying the space Rex and I would be occupying for the rest of the evening. We'd been here following a few strange feelings in the Force Obi-Wan, Anakin, and I had had surrounding Ilum, one of the best and only places in the galaxy to get the crystals for our lightsabers. For fear of the Separatists trying to mess with the place, Obi-Wan and Anakin had come with Rex and I, along with a good portion of the 501st, had come to investigate. We'd searched high and low and mediated on it at length, and thankfully, found nothing amiss. We'd taken our time moving everybody out, since we had no reason to rush, and Rex and I had planned to be the last out after doing one last check of the crystal sites and making sure none of our men left anything behind. We'd done both of those things, but we'd also ended up catching the beginning of one of the planet's worst snow storms.

Luckily for us, we'd set up a nice camp in a spacious, well-protected ice cave. It had been our whole group's base of operations while on planet, and now Rex and I had it all to ourselves. We hadn't even had to rebuild the fire.

In a weird way, this was exactly what Rex and I had been looking for. Despite some of the stricter interpretations of Jedi rules, throughout the course of the war, Rex and I had slowly but surely fallen in love with each other. We'd come to the mutual decision to act on those feelings a while ago, but between the need for secrecy and the galactic conflict we found ourselves in the middle of, we didn't get a lot of time to spend however we wanted, just the two of us, without interruptions.

"It's official," came Rex's voice, returning from his scouting at the mouth of the cave. He came into sight a moment later, stopping with his hands on his hips. "Looks like we're snowed in."

I sighed. "I figured as much. I just got off the phone with Anakin and Obi-Wan. They're gonna circle back for us if they don't hear anything from us by tomorrow. I told them we're all set with supplies and everything else we need for tonight."

Rex smiled at that, looking more relaxed than I usually got to see him as he crossed the space to stand just in front of me.

"So... you're saying we have this place completely to ourselves until tomorrow?"

I grinned. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Finally. We're overdue for a bit of time together, just the two of us."

"No kidding we are. So... I'll get blankets, you get snacks, and we can finally watch that new Life Day holo we keep seeing everywhere we go?"

Rex gave me a grin.

"That sounds perfect to me. Meet back here in ten?"

"Deal."

The two of us moved in separate directions, each going to the place where our gear was stashed around the now mostly packed camp. I grabbed a whole heap of blankets, then snagged my favorite sweater of Rex's and pulled it over my head. Hopefully he wouldn't mind.

I brought back my bounty of blankets and pillows to the center of the room, right beside the fire, then started the work of building them into a nice cozy spot where Rex and I could cuddle up. Our timing was proof of just what a good team we made, as I heard Rex coming back from the boxes of food and kitchen supplies right as I finished putting together our nest of fluffy things.

I straightened up with a smile, but my jaw dropped when I saw what he carried.

"Is that hot chocolate?" I asked, my heart absolutely leaping at the prospect. Instead of answering, Rex gave a little considering frown in my direction.

"Is that my sweater?"

I gave him a sheepish grin. "Yeah. It's so soft and cozy, I was hoping you'd let me get away with the theft."

Rex let out a theatrical sigh, but he smiled at me a moment later.

"Alright. As long as you promise to share the warmth."

"I promise. Now give me that hot chocolate."

Rex laughed as he handed the mug over to me, then the two of us settled into the puddle of blankets. I curled up against Rex's chest, legs tangled on top of his as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I sighed once we'd gotten comfortable, weeks and months of stress from the war melting away in a single minute with Rex.

I sipped at my hot chocolate, letting the peace of the moment sink into my bones, then turned to glance at my wonderful partner.

"Where did you even get this hot chocolate?"

He grinned down at me. "Special supply request through the GAR. I said it was for morale, since it is."

I beamed up at Rex. He was truly the best bright spot and partner I could've asked for, and I wanted to make sure he knew it.

"I love you. You know that, right? I love you so, so much Rex."

He smiled warmly back at me, gently squeezing my arm as he did.

"I do know that. And I love you too. You're the greatest gift I could've asked for."

I leaned up towards Rex with a glance at his lips, and he quickly got the hint, leaning down to meet me halfway. The kiss wasn't anything especially scandalous or heated, just a soft peck, but it got my heart racing all the same. Moments like this were rare for both of us, and I treasured every single one, especially since I had no idea when the next one might come along.

"So..." mused Rex with a soft smile once we finally pulled apart. "Should we start that Life Day holo?"

"Yeah, let's do it. I'm excited to see what all the hype is about."

"If it reached us all the way out here in the middle of the war, it better be damned good."

"Right? If it's not, though, I do have a few backup holos we can use to recover from the disappointment."

"That's good, because I have a lot of hot chocolate stashed back there, and I think we need to finish it tonight. That way none of the men start asking questions about why I managed to dig some up for you, but not for them."

I shot Rex a look as he started the holo, the opening credits playing on our portable data pad.

"I'm pretty sure most of them wouldn't be surprised. We're a 'secret' the same way Anakin and Padmé are a secret. The only difference is we're not as oblivious about how many people have figured us out."

Rex just laughed. "True enough. I think all of them support us, anyway."

"I know they do. But just in case, I'll plan on making some time to bake cookies or something on the way to our next engagement. That way there's no hard feelings all around."

"...Can you make the ones with the peppermint in them?"

"Of course. As if I'd use anything other than your favorite recipe."

Rex and I shared another smile, then he kissed my forehead as we both shifted our attention to the holo just getting underway. I could hear his heart beating from where I rested my head against his chest, just over the sound of the crackling fire and the wind howling outside. The universe had apparently decided to give Rex and I a little Life Day present in the form of some rare time together, just the two of us, to spend however we wanted. And I couldn't thank it enough.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989 @space-helen @misshale21

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sunflowerrosewood · 6 months ago

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First Thoughts of You ~ Stardew Valley Bachelorettes

Author's Note: Since my other account @cheekyredwillow got deleted. I am adding some of my favorite fanfictions to this account and revamping this one with new ones. I hope to make an actual list of fandoms I am still a fan of! NO requests for the time being.

These are their first thoughts when they met you and when they began to fall for you...

~~~

Haley

"I'm surprised someone came out into the forest. They seem new. They were picking up something. They introduced themselves as the new farmer. They seem okay. I want to go back to taking photos."

🩷

"The farmer was coming by today. They had a present for my birthday. I was surprised to see a pink cake. My heart skipped a beat. I can't help but want to see the farmer. I want to be with them."

Maru

"I met the farmer today near the house. Dad was talking about the new farmer earlier today. He didn't want me to delve from my studies. They still seem rather interesting. They are not just a normal farmer."

🩷

"The farmer came by today and I felt my heart jump for joy. I was excited to tell them about my invention. They also love science and love to ask questions about my projects. I show them everything. I miss days when they don't visit me. Usually they are in the mines or working but I do worry about them."

Penny

"The farmer came by while I was reading and they seemed nice. They were asking about what I was reading and who I was. They introduced themselves. I remember Mayor Lewis talking about them. I found myself wanting to know more."

🩷

"The farmer came by the museum when I took Jas and Vincent outside. They wanted to check on me since they hadn't come by in a few days. I felt my heart skip a beat. They have such a bright smile. I would love to help take care of the farm for them. Do they think the same of me?"

Abigail

"The new farmer came by dad's shop and was buying new crop seeds. They introduced themselves to me and to me, they seemed cool. Mom discussed they would be new so I wonder how they will be here in our town."

🩷

"The farmer always seems to have amethyst for me during the week. It's nice they think about me with their tasks. Mom teases me that I like them. My heart races when I see them around and they say hello. But I do not know if they want the same..."

Leah

"I was on my way to the saloon and ran into the new farmer. They immediately introduced themselves to me and I said hello. They seemed to be gathering items around the town. They do seem interesting."

🩷

"The farmer came by to give me wine from their farm. They were making strawberry wine. I look forward to when they bring me this gift. It usually begins conversations of how we're doing and my art. I gave them a piece and they have it in their house. My heart feels elated that they did that for me. Do they care for me like I do for them?"

Emily

"I met the farmer rummaging through the trash. They apologized as they ran into the trash can. I pretended to not notice them pick up the bread. They introduced themselves to me and I did the same. They seem rather unusual but kind."

🩷

"The farmer came by the saloon today. They brought me an emerald they found in the farm. I got so excited that I was bouncing up and down. They called me cute and was glad I was excited. I felt my heart race and I thanked them. They left soon after and Gus teased me of my feelings for them. Even if I do have feelings for them, do they feel the same?

#stardew valley #stardew valley x you #stardew valley x reader #stardew valley fanfiction #stardew valley fluff #stardew valley bachelorettes #stardew valley haley #stardew valley penny #stardew valley leah #stardew valley emily #stardew valley maru #stardew valley abigail #stardew valley fandom

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haveyoureadthisfanfic · 13 days ago

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Summary: Something is very wrong in Hallownest. The Hollow Knight wakes up outside the Temple of the Black Egg. Hornet feels a shift in the kingdom from all the way in Greenpath. Together, the two of them discover the sacrifices each has made—and the grief neither one of them was allowed to feel. — Hollow survives the Hollow Knight ending, though severely wounded and close to death. Against her better judgement, Hornet takes them under her care. Along the way, Hollow begins to acknowledge their emotions, and Hornet slowly discovers she's been lied to about the true nature of Vessels.

Author: sugarbloom

#official fic poll #haveyoureadthisfic #pollblr #internet culture #fandom culture #fanfic #fanfiction #tumblr polls #fandom poll #lost kin hollow knight #hollow knight #no romantic relationships #authorless #ao3

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elainsgirl · 10 days ago

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every time i see a gw*nriel whine about how there’s nothing interesting about an elriel book and that elriel can’t move the plot forward i know they’re self projecting, hard.

when it comes down to it, elriel is the only interesting path forward. it would actually be new and interesting, unlike another fated mates story (the third in a row if gw*nriel were mates, fourth since they think el*cien is going to happen.) they cream their pants about it even though it’s literally the most boring thing possible, no matter which way you spin it.

gwyn has no relevance to the actual overall plot of the story. she is nesta’s friend. they don’t even want to admit she could be a lightsinger, which would be the one unique thing about her that would make her more important to the overall plot outside of nesta’s story. the only relevant part of their ship is azriel, which is probably why they constantly try to take things canonically belonging to elain and elriel and insist it actually belongs to gwyn and gw*nriel.

meanwhile, elain is made, therefore can wield made objects, which has clearly been important to the story thus far. she’s the cauldrons favorite; why, and what does that mean? why does it purr in her presence? she’s a seer, which we have never gotten the POV of before. what do her visions look like, how do they manifest for her? she has shown hints at being a spy, and that combined with her visions will be so cool to read about. this isn’t even getting into her connection to koschei, who is clearly being built up as the big-bad. none of these even have to do with az. she’s relevant entirely on her own, unlike gwyn who is currently only relevant in relation to nesta.

elain’s also on a very clear path to the first rejected mating bond, which, again, SJM has never done before, and i cannot wait to read about how it all works and what it means.

gwyn has none of this; she’s just a valkyrie, nesta’s friend, and we already got that story.

anyways, sorry for the long tirade; thankfully i think elain’s book announcement will be here before the 10 year anniversary, and since so many gw*nriels and el*ciens said they won’t read an elriel book hopefully this fandom will finally be free of them and we can all go back to just enjoying the books.

Hey anon 🫶

You explained everything so perfectly. The only people that claim elriel have 0 plot together are the ones that are purposefully ignoring huge chunks of the text, denying the plot points in favour to use it for their own ship.

I was once open-minded about Gwynriel when I first learnt about the ship, their “plot” consists of Azriel healing as he is in such a “messed up”place right now, developing feelings for Elain - another woman he can’t have. So he’ll be at the H.O.W, reflecting and recovering from his disgusting actions in the bonus all whilst Gwyn is going to be there, prancing around - teasing and challenging him. Ofc Gwyn hs no plot of her own so enter the Illyrian saviour plot where for some unknowns reason, Rhys will send Gwyn (not emerie; the actual illyrian) but her white bestie to go with Az to the camps -> there Az will heal (?) and begin to loooovvvvee his illyrian heritage - he will become bestie besties with the same people that mocked and emotionally abused him bcs why tf not. Now, again, this isn’t enough to carry an 800 paged book so enter Nesta, Gwyn for some odd unknown reason will again, help out understanding gwydion which will allow her: unmade, no connection to the cauldron, not starborn - self wield it all because Gwyn is amazing and everyone loves her. Eventually, both gwyn and az will go to the prison and BOOM. Through the power of song, singing a duet together, they will revive the prison. Az will realise “damn I love this girl so much, forget elain who I wanted to beg on my knees for, this is the girl for me, my gwynnie poo” Now ofc, none of this is original. Its plotpoints stolen from other characters and ships - as you mentioned.

I don’t even care anymore bcs gwynriels can yap about whatever gwynriel book they want. Sjm clearly said the spinoffs focus on the sisters and side characters from the og series which, Gwyn is not part off. Therefore to me - she is irrelevant unless she plays a role in the snowwhite retelling regards to elriel. A lot of antis will get a reality check soon and im all here for it.

Gwynriel doesn’t even fit the parallels and patterns sjm has used for Feyre’s and Nesta’s story which again, disproves gwynriel to me. Gwyn will not be a spy. Its Elain. Gwyn has nothing to do with TruthTeller or Gwydion. Elain and Az do. Gwyn has nothing to do with the 8 pointed star. Nesta & the archerons do. Gwyn has nothing to do with the prison. Elain and Az do. Gwyn isn’t needed to smooth things out in the continent with Mor. Elain is perfect for it. Gwyn is not an archeron. Elain is. Gwyn was not part off the og series or even acofas. Elain and Azriel - even Emerie were. Gwyn did not have 2 bonuses focusing on her. Elain does. Gwyn has nothing to do with the cauldron. Elain & Az do.

Its that simple to work out. You just don’t have to be biased.

The fact we are going to get Elains book announcement in the next 6 months(hopefully, I can’t wait any longer) is giving me so much excitement. I’ve been seeing a lot of antis say how boring or uninteresting elriels book will be and how they won’t read it which THANK GOD. Their disrespectfulness and entitlement is showing and this fandom? Is desperately in need of a cleanse. Hopefully elains book announcement alone will wash out the toxic antis 😌

#also i love reading every ask I get so no need to aplogise for how long the ask is #Im a ranter myself #elriel #pro elriel #elain archeron #azriel shadowsinger #azriel acotar #gwyn berdara #gwynriels back OFF 🤺

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end-otw-racism · 1 year ago

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The OTW Board Elections are over, and with that wraps up our second End OTW Racism action! Thank you to everyone who has participated over the last few months, whether by voting, attending the July 2 OTW Board Meeting, submitting questions for the candidates, sharing our posts, writing to the OTW Board, providing us critique and feedback, and more.

Now that we’ve completed two End OTW Racism actions, we wanted to take a breath and tell you a little about how we started. We began as a team of five people in May who felt spurred by renewed conversations we’d seen on twitter about racism within the OTW and wanted to do something about it. As we’ve shared in our FAQ, the core organizers are all fans and users of AO3, including both people of color and white folks, who have been in fandom for decades. We’ve added new core organizers since May, but also some organizers have rolled off, so we remain a small and diverse team.

Since the beginning, we’ve had four specific demands for the OTW:

Harassment policies that can be regularly updated to address both on-site harassment and off-site coordinated harassment of AO3 users, with updated protocols for the Policy & Abuse Committee to ensure consistent and informed resolutions of abuse claims

A content policy on abusive (extremely racist and extremely bigoted) content; by abusive, we are talking about fanworks that are intentionally used to spread hate and harassment, not those that accidentally invoke racist or other bigoted stereotypes

Hiring a Diversity Consultant within the next 3-6 months

Committing to a policy of transparency on this topic, with quarterly updates on the progress of these projects including challenges and their plan for overcoming those challenges. These quarterly updates should be published on OTW News page and newsletters, not solely discussed in Board meetings

This may be surprising, but we only began planning our first action in May five days before we announced it! And we’ve been working really hard since then on top of our other individual life obligations. We also rolled straight from our first action into our second because of the timing of the OTW Board Elections, which made things even busier.

We’re very proud of all we’ve accomplished and everything that has happened since then - not only the work we’ve done and the progress we’ve made on our specific goals, but also the way that a larger conversation has opened up publicly about many other forms of racism and dysfunction within the organization. These conversations have, of course, been going on for years, both inside and outside the OTW, and more recent efforts have built on the work of fans of color calling out racism in fandom for decades, particularly Black fans. The discussions that have happened since May included thousands of people in fandom and have become wide-ranging, and we’re thankful to everyone who has been part of them. Organizing and running this campaign has also been a learning process, and we've grown so much from the feedback we've received. We look forward to being even better as we continue on with our specific anti-racist lens.

We couldn’t have done any of this without all of you, the community that has fostered and spurred these conversations and put them into action. We’re also really excited to see that other campaigns are coming up to address aspects of racism in fandom that are outside our narrow scope. We hope our example of what you can do as a small team can be an inspiration to anyone else who wants to start their own parallel antiracist efforts too.

Since it’s been an exhausting (but thrilling!) few months, our core team is going to be taking a pause for a few months to reflect and regroup before planning another action focused on our specific goals. We also want to figure out how to engage more of the community in our planning for future actions, since we know there are lots of people who are excited about this work, and we weren’t able to do that in the quick turnaround between the first and second actions.

In the meantime, we’re excited to announce that two partner projects will be launching next month! These will not be led by our core organizers, but by other fans who have volunteered to take them on.

Anti-Racist Fanlore Project: An effort to update Fanlore, the fandom history wiki run by the OTW, with articles that flesh out the history of racism and anti-racism in fandom. This will be a collaborative project run through a new Discord server, and we welcome people of all levels of experience with Fanlore editing, including people who have never done it before! We’ll need people for a wide range of tasks: project management, research, drafting, reviewing, and posting to Fanlore.

Anti-Harassment Street Team: A group aimed at supporting people who are harassed for talking about racism in fandom, including developing de-escalation practices, creating resources on curating your own space, correcting misinformation, and more. This project will also be collaborative and run through a new Discord server.

You can sign up for these projects on our Volunteer Sign-Up Form. If you already signed up for either of these projects at any time in the last few months, you will receive an email with more information when each project kicks off.

Apart from those projects, we’ll see you again for our next action in a few months. If you need to get hold of us in the meantime, you can email us at endotwracism [at] gmail [dot] com, though we may take a little while to get back to you. Thank you again for your passion and support in fighting racism in the OTW!

- The Fandom Against Racism Team

#end otw racism #vote to end otw racim #eotwr #ao3 #archive of our own #organization for transformative works #about us

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buckley-diaztruther · 2 months ago

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there is a lot of folks really heated at eddie for this last ep and I gotta say yall, none of it felt ooc to me. I think in the lead up so many folks built up a fantasy of what they WANTED from the ep (eddie fondly exasperated but indulging buck completely in contrast to cruel skepticism from temu) when the reality is eddienhas ALWAYS been a bitch(affectionate) when it comes to his skepticism. Just because it feels weird to us to see him getting along w temu again doesn't mean it's ooc. I think we also built a fantasy of him now aggressively hating temu because he saw he was classic petty eddie at the bachelor party. but 1. I don't think the show would be THAT overt w Eddie's jealousy, he always displays it in little looks and comments but is otherwise generally neutral if not nice to bucks partners. 2. it is possible for eddiento be jealous and still like temu as a friend, much as we wish he didn't. they've effectively written put temus dark past and it's all about him just being dry humor and sarcasm, which at times can line up well w Eddie's humor. there's a reason they got on so well at the beginning of s7, no matter how we as temu haters feel about it.

also, folks are really defensive of buck being roasted by both of them purely bc theyre defensive of buck in general (same bestie same). the fandom has clocked very early on that buck is some flavor of adhd and the RSD is out the wazoo on this guy. and a lot of us empathize w that, can relate to it. and inthink that leads to a LOT of projection. not a bad thing, but I think that it can make folks a little blind to the nuance. buck can be genuinely hurt by the dismissal from eddie and eddie can still be ok and fine for laughing and poking fun to an extent. him and buck have always had a relationship that was heavy with friendly jabs and mocking and roasting bc thats a very normal thing in relationships, esp ones that are secure. it's easy to be comfortable ribbing each other the way they do (and they've said some BOLD shit even early on) because they trust each other to not go too far and that their relationship is still secure at the end of the day. it's newer, less certain relationships where you're going to tip toe around sensitivities until you really understand a person's boundaries. and while buck has clearly struggled w being put down and rejected, outside of the divorce era it's never been something that is obviously a crossed line for buck and so I don't think this is anything more than a silly 'et tu brute' kinda feeling from buck. I don't think he's really THAT torn up about eddie laughing.

also I'm gonna say something a lot of folks hate to hear. even if buck genuinely is so distressed at every perceived rejection, that is NOT Eddie's responsibility. eddie is his friend (and future husband I know) and yes, he should and does have care for bucks feelings and boundaries. but sometimes people act like eddie has to coddle buck and treat him like a baby to protect his feelings or that eddie just never would ever be mean or dismissive to buck and 1. that's not true and 2. RSD means something that was 100% ok yesterday might feel like a devastating rejection today and unfortunately, that's for buck to contend with. he's an adult and responsible for his own emotions and reactions. he can be hurt and work thru them (solo or w eddie) but even in romantic relationships it's not all gonna be sunshine and rainbows and not every hurt feeling needs to be met with a thousand apologies and amends because sometimes w rsd your reaction can be disproportionate to the cause and that's up to buck to tackle w his therapist.

I say this all, BTW, as someone w extreme rsd who v much was amd is buck in a lot of my friend groups - the 'immature', naive and hyperactive kid who won't shut up and gets their feelings hurt at every little thing and then youre getting hurt more because you're laughed at for being sensitive. it fucking sucks and a lot of that was extrapolated by having shitty friends. and yall, the 118 are not that.

Anyway sorry that got way out of hand and I went on a huge tangent but tldr stop acting like eddie is ooc and a dick for laughing at buck and stop treating buck like a baby when he's a grown ass man thank u love u

#911 abc #eddie diaz #evan buckley #buddie #911 spoilers #anti bucktommy

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svt-kiki · 3 months ago

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( ⌨️ ) 𝐊𝐈𝐊𝐈’𝐒 𝐔𝐍𝐏𝐎𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒 ! ⌅ .

MAJOR MOMENTS

❪ one ❫　────　YEAR OF 2018 was the beginning of the rollercoaster she never had been before. kiki appeared in produce 48 as the dace trainer this year, and this set the fire for both wide public popularity and the price of fame. at the beginning, she faced with nonchalant backlashes from fans of miyawaki sakura because it looked like she was the only one who opposed to put her into A class.

　however, during the program she gained a lot of positive attention from audience due to professional yet soft and kind behavior towards the trainee. she quietly addressed the mistakes and the points they should modify, gave a thoughtful advice but never raised the voice pointlessly. she carefully curated her attitudes and reactions entire time of filming to avoid causing any evil editing. viewers pointed out the amount of time she was on the screen behind the main object of the scenes, often got caught giving advices and training girls more than any trainers, despite the busy schedules as an idol.

❪ two ❫　────　at the end of the year, she hosted mama 2018 in japan thanks to the reputation through the program. however, at the end of the award show while all of the idols roaming around the stage and greeting with the audience, her heels broke and kiki needed to get to the backstage for the extra shoes. she took off both of heels and tried to reach the stairs which was like miles away before wonho noticed her incident and offered her a ride ‘til there. seventeen and monsta x were always super close, so she declined his suggestion in a friendly way, but wonho lifted her up anyway, since he cared about their little sister so much, and she could got hurt in those bare feet. the audience in the venue thought as just “iconic” moment in those award shows at that time. although most monbebe hadn’t any problem with it and the way monsta x boys cherish kiki was certainly famous among the fandom, some of kpop stans brought up the opinion on the table as she’s being “unprofessional” in the award shows.

❪ three ❫　────　YEAR OF 2019 was the most tough ride among the trails of her career. in march, kiki faced the false bullying accusation from the former pledis trainee. it was quite shocking and back stabbed moment for her, because at that point the ex-trainee, SONG NARI had been working as a back-up dancer for the group about a year. kiki was puzzled, hurt, sad and disappointed all at the same time.

❪ four ❫　────　however, this false accusation was shut down no longer after, due to several former trainees of pledis, just like SONG NARI herself stood up to clear her name, including LEE GAEUN, SAMUEL, LIM NAYOUNG, KYULKYUNG and JANG DOYOON. also pledis announced the statement to deny the rumour completely right after, so this commotion just proved kiki is innocent and she was loved by all people around her — when you took a glimpse from the outside.

❪ five ❫　────　it looked like she’s all fine, stunning in her own beauty. MAMA 2019 IN JAPAN was the turning point that laid the foundation for her later reputation as the it girl. kiki’s visual at the night was no joke, red lips and white & black gown highlighted her natural beauty and showcased jaw dropping allure. the whole venue screamed just as she was projected on the display. after the night, she was recognized as THAT GIRL in mama, marked as the most iconic moment at night.

❪ six ❫　────　of course, the optimistic view only lasted until she announced her first official hiatus from group activity in feburary, YEAR OF 2020. according to the statement issued by pledis, “kiki has recently been undergoing a detailed examination and diagnosis of her health, due to symptoms of distress. after the discussion, all of the seventeen members, including kiki herself, agreed that it would be best for her to take the time to rest and concentrate on the recovery of her psychological well-being.” eventually, she came back after almost a month with her first japanese academy award winning and the announcement her appearance in the upcoming kdrama, “it’s okay to not be okay,” as the lead actress.

❪ seven ❫　────　unfortunately, netizens hadn’t known how to leave her alone. on april, shortly after her resumption from hiatus, they brought the topic on the table which was her demeanor in the newly published youtube video of her, joshua, hoshi and dino’s bangkok trip in 2019. anonymous commented it’s weird and wild how she’s close with male members in the pool, especially they were just wearing the swimsuits and all three boys revealing their upper body. someone was dare to speak up about the “lovestagram-trap” photos kiki and joshua took for fun, that looked like the lovey dovey pictures of the couples in social media. some of the netizens showcased unpleasant of how “sl!ut” she is, repeating the same old story. however, the thing started slowly changing this time. if it was few years ago, couldn’t really say such opinions were rare. but throughout her career as seventeen, how sincere and thoughtful person she is, her hardworking, finally starts blooming. tons of netizens, not only carats, rage about how it is misogynistic and dumb opinion. they pointed out the basic facts such as they’re in the same group, spent several years under the one roof, still living together as a family. the people who has a common sense and brain cells to think things straightly has her back this time, and kiki also senses the shifting as well.

❪ eight ❫　────　in the regard of her first drama appearance, kiki made an interesting announcement during the individual live streaming — perhaps, controversial. she said, “there’s some scenes may implies the smoking in the drama i’m shooting right now. it won’t portray the exact moment of inhaling from cigarettes or anything, mostly just holding a lighted one due to avoid the higher ratings for the show. but i thought it would be better if i know how to smoke at least, because if i had no idea, it would look like a fake, you know. there could be a lack of reality. so i thought it would be more nice to let you know beforehand i start smoking practice.” she continued as “i’m aware that cigarettes not always has a good public image, and quite difficult to quit once it became your habit. although i have never interested for smoking, and still is, because it is certainty not good for your health, i discussed with people around me and maybe i can try and see what i can learn from it. i have no intention to be a smoker, but i don’t know about the future... i will try to not to though,” and indicates that she will understand if carats didn’t like this at all, also she could do without making public about this at first place, but someday the picture of something that shows her smoking could appear online and carats would be shocked and surprised more in that way, so wanted to let people know first the actual intention. kiki also added that cigarettes are unhealthy luxury items, so please don’t think it’s cool or anything just because she tries to learn how to.

　most carats showed understanding what she said because of the trusted relationship she built with her fans throughout the career, known as one of the most well behaved, thoughtful and attentive person. they can see why she’s doing this. however, subsequently, it became to be considerd as her only scandal or controversial case in her career. some of netizens get in a stew over with it, as “did she quit the idol? no? if not, she shouldn’t acting like the actress.” or “she is ruining the group’s image! someone just kick out her from seventeen already,” while other people, including carats defend her that it’s different than the photo of her smoking in the banned place was leaked or something, most of actors know how to smoke for the sake of the job, so as her, nothing dramatic, and these people are trying to make drama to drag down her reputation.

( 📁 ) : NAVI : MASTER LIST

( tag list ) : @smh-anon @jennwonwoo @angie-x3 @scarlet789

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amerricanartwork · 1 year ago

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I saw your lilypad art post, and I got curious: why do you enjoy lilypad? it's not a common RW ship, so I'd be interesting to hear what about it you enjoy!

Hear me out, guys... I must explain myself before I get onto the Lilypad essay.

I made that original comment because, at the time, I wanted to just get the aforementioned headcanons out as soon as possible. Understand, my reluctance wasn't because I didn't want to talk about Lilypad, but rather the exact opposite: I had so many feelings about it, yet had put so little effort into expressing them in a coherent, presentable format that I just knew it'd distract me for the next week or two if I let it rent too much space in my conscious thoughts. But now that little comment has left me with several people asking me to share those thoughts, and, both thankfully and unfortunately, I simply can't resist indulging in thoughts about the characters I love—!

Keep in mind, I haven’t finished Saint campaign yet, and even then I’ve found like less than half the broadcasts in Spearmaster campaign yet, so there’s likely some extra canon info I may be missing that could add to or change some of what I say here. I also apologize if some of what I write here seems really out-of-character. I try not to let my passion for my little headcanons and scenarios make me disregard the canon, but even so, I might slip and think up some weird things occasionally. Nonetheless, I feel like I’ve got enough of the picture to start confidently enjoying this ship, so I’ll talk about it anyway!

As always, feel free to add to these ideas if you can! Without further delay, enjoy this 3381-word essay, with a few initial headcanons sprinkled in, on why I adore Lilypad!

Oh, and just in case, if you couldn’t already tell, major Hunter campaign spoilers below.

Quetzalli on Loving Lilypad

I’m gonna start this out with a preface: I can generally find the appeal in a lot of different ships and the art other fans make for them, but for me to ship something enough to actively draw it and make my own headcanons about it and such (outside of, perhaps, gifts for other people), it usually has to contain a variety of “ship tropes” that I personally fancy. Many of my most-favorite ship tropes tend to be the ones that aren’t just cute, but that carry narrative significance and seem poetic in some way, usually because they can facilitate character arcs in the involved characters. The more of these a ship has, or the more ship tropes I can portray it with without it seeming too out-of-character, and the more I like those specific tropes, the better. This principle is a major reason why I’ve gravitated towards Artimand as my main slugcat ship, but for now, I’m going to focus on which of these I see in Lilypad — in canon content, other fan-portrayals, and my personal headcanons — that, as opposed to other iterator ships, has currently won me over.

I’m gonna describe the main general things I like seeing in this ship. Some of them are more due to fandom portrayals than what’s in the canon, but they all play a big role in my current love for Lilypad.

Synergy

I’ll begin with how I really appreciate just how much synergy Looks to the Moon and No Significant Harassment are shown to have, at least in fan content! I always like seeing pairings where the characters aren’t just romantic, but also work really well together as a team or even just as friends. After all, just because the characters may be romantically in love doesn’t mean they must only show it in explicitly romantic ways. To me, Lilypad strikes me as a relationship where Sig and Moon would make an amazing team in many aspects of their lives, whether it's collaborating on projects, sharing their interests, or trying to maintain order in the rest of their group. And their compliment is just really sweet to me, though I’ll get to that later.

A Shoulder to Lean On/The Lady

One of my favorite ship tropes is “character with a lot of weight on their shoulder who finally gets to lift it off and be ‘normal’ for once when around the other”. I’ve always found it sweet when characters like this, especially ones who are normally very selfless, finally get a chance to indulge and enjoy themselves for once! And once again, this is another thing I imagine in Artimand too, and you could project this onto Trafficlights given Suns’s implied high status, but I think it works especially with Lilypad, given Moon’s role as group senior means she objectively has a lot to manage all the time with no permanent escape from it. Even beyond the whole Five Pebbles rot drama, Moon probably had a lot on her plate just in terms of maintaining order between the rest of the group and setting a good example to the younger generations, especially as the group expanded over time, not to mention trying to find the solution herself. Combine this with how I picture her to be the kind of person who cares a lot about her image as a “proper” and “dignified” leader, and someone who often sacrifices her own desires to promote the group’s welfare, I just find it really soft for her to have someone to lean on, metaphorically (and in a worm-off-the-string scenario, literally), and who better to go to than her best teammate, who knows the power of a good laugh and will stop at nothing to have fun with those he loves? Not to mention, since I headcanon Sig as slightly younger than Moon (2nd gen, specifically), I just find it rather cute in an ironic sense that the older, more serious Moon is soft around the younger, far more chaotic Sig, especially as Moon would go through the realization that she actually kinda likes this little troublemaker!

This also comes back to something I mentioned in the tags of that beepsnort post, which is that one of my other favorite ship tropes is “guy who loves/is good at making people laugh x girl who has a REALLY weird/embarrassing laugh”, and that just works so well with Lilypad! It’s admittedly a very headcanon-based thing for me, but given how I’ve already explained my perception of Moon as very proper and serious, I imagine one of the best ways Sig takes the weight off her shoulders is by being the only person who can consistently make her laugh so hard! And with the beepsnort headcanon it’s even cuter, because of course Moon would be super embarrassed every time she even so much as gives a half-chuckle at one of his jokes, because Sig is relentless when it comes to getting the giggles out of her, and he won’t stop until she’s rolling and shaking on the floor of her chamber, her beepy-snorts filling the room! My GODDD I love this trope so much, and for beings who are inherently such workaholics, I think getting to genuinely relax and have fun for a bit, once she gets over the initial shock and embarrassment, would be something Moon would really come to value.

Inverses Attract/The Tramp

I’ve mentioned it in my last Artimand headcanons post, but one of my absolute all-time favorite ship tropes is the classic “opposites attract”, although I prefer the name “inverses attract”. As I like to portray it, the trope not only involves characters who are opposites personality-wise, but those being opposites of the same core aspect, and ultimately helping balance each other out by offering the other half of the equation to each other (hence the name “inverses”). The trope I just wrote about above is how Sig helps Moon to relax and have fun, but as I try to do with all ships, how does it work the other way too? Well, I really like to imagine Sig learning to be more openly serious and dedicated! Don’t get me wrong, Sig is a hard worker (it’s pretty much the nature of all iterators), but given he seems to pretty strongly reject the quest for the Triple Affirmative, I imagine the next problem would be in him finding a new purpose to strive for. And what better new purpose than in standing by and protecting the group senior he thinks he just might wanna be more than friends with?

It already works because Moon, of course, would work to keep Sig in check and make sure he doesn’t go too overboard with his shenanigans. But just imagine how inspired he’d grow over time seeing Moon work so hard to keep the group together and keep them striving for their purpose, even if he doesn’t agree with it. I imagine it’s why Sig’s methods are still rather controlled rather than purely chaotic, and there’s a reason to his rebellion. Thanks to Moon, rather than slaving away at a seemingly impossible solution until his mind collapses with his structure, he’ll use his talents to, at the very least, keep the local group together as long as possible, because even if they’ll all be gone one day, that doesn’t mean they have to go alone!

It’s why I’m also labeling these two tropes together as “the Lady and the Tramp”, yet another ship dynamic that gets me every time! It’s a specific instance of “inverses attract” where the noble, proper lady finds a taste of freedom and courage from the dangerously charming tramp, who from her finds a new sense of purpose and honor! And in my opinion, Lilypad is most definitely the best opportunity for this dynamic among Rain World ships!

The Fated Couple

Slow-burn couples seem to be pretty popular in many fandoms, but what about a really slow-burn? There’s something just so romantic to me about the idea that Moon and Sig, from the moment they met, have always just clicked so perfectly, and have been by each other’s side so constantly ever since, to the point it seems practically inevitable to everyone (except them of course) that they’ll eventually get together romantically. Of course, there are two main roadblocks to their romance being 1.) their whole objective and purpose for being created is kind-of fundamentally opposed to strong attachments like love (I mean, if Karma 3 is Companionship, wouldn’t romantic love be considered the worst example of that?), and 2.) even if they did reject this purpose, being massive immovable structures with the only humanoid part stuck deep inside a box, a budding romance seemingly couldn’t really go anywhere anyway. In fact, because of these roadblocks much of my Lilypad imaginings take place in the ever-popular “worm-off-the-string” scenario, especially since the next couple of reasons for why I like the ship play a lot into the themes I like to incorporate in this story concept.

However, these issues towards such a romance are also what make it so sweet in the end! Just think of Moon, alone in her chamber, beginning to worry about how she’s actually kinda sorta, maybe, hypothetically, possibly, just a little bit starting to like the carefree and charismatic Gen 2 in the local group as even more than just a work partner and a dear friend, but oh no, that’s indulging in a Karmic Sin, and as group senior she can’t just throw away their purpose like that and set such a bad example to the rest! What’s she gonna do?? And then on the other side, Sig puzzling in his chamber, pining so hard for the group senior yet seemingly unable to confess, because, even disregarding Karma 3 and the fact that giant immobile calculators aren’t about to be snuggling any time soon, why would someone as perfect and powerful as her want someone like him, so dismissive of their core purpose and unorthodox in his methods? Is there even a point in having these feelings at all, when they might very well end up simply fading to dust along with the rest of his structure?

Maybe, they both think, it’d be better to just keep these feelings to themselves and quietly love from a distance. That is, until…

Moon’s Collapse and the Slag Reset Keys

The fourth reason is, of course, the most steeped in canon. It goes back a bit to the “shoulder to lean on” concept, but even aside from that, there is something just so romantic about this on both sides.

Firstly, from Moon’s perspective. There’s no doubt that the collapse must have been very traumatic for Looks to the Moon physically, but I like to think about just how much it’d affect her emotionally, too. I mean, being so painfully destroyed by your own brother, with seemingly nothing that can be done to stop it and no one to help you? And then consider how lonely it must have been in her final moments. The only comfort she does get is from Spearmaster’s visit, and even then she sends him off to go deliver her final words, which has still got to be really depressing. And finally, think about how betrayed she must have felt, trying so hard throughout her operation to help her citizens and the local group and be kind to everyone, only to have it be repaid like this, forced to collapse in on herself, being buried under her own body, unfathomable pain all around, and with not a soul to help her.

So then, think about just how shocking and heartwarming (literally, if you think about it) it must be when that lovable Gen 2, always so playful and carefree normally, is the one to give her a second chance and being her back when all hope seems lost, and using such a unique delivery method no less! I mean COME ON, Sig literally brought her back to life, how could one NOT fall in love with someone who did that for them? It links back to the “shoulder to lean on” idea, in that, for once, someone finally looked out for Moon and gave back to her for all the kindness she gave to the world. Think about this as the moment she truly realizes she’s in love with No Significant Harassment, and how tragic it’d be knowing now, it’s too late to say it. But, even so, if he’s willing to go this far to make sure she’s okay, then maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance her love at least wasn’t alone.

Now, my thoughts about this from No Significant Harassment’s side (which also kinda turned into a mini NSH appreciation paragraph that links back to the earlier Inverses Attract and Lady and the Tramp segment), I think it’s very poetic to see him going out of his way to take his messenger concept, originally used for no more than a trivial prank and at most a very experimental and unfinished alternative communication method, and turning it into a noble last-ditch effort to rescue the one he loves. It doesn’t just clearly show how much he cares for Moon that he worked to save her when no one else did (and if that’s because the odds of being able to do anything seemed very low to the rest of them, that makes it even more sweet) I think it shows off a lot of Sig’s character beyond just being a jokester. Like, I’d seen this kind of personality for Sig in the fandom content before, but this action and the other broadcasts are what first made me truly realize not just that it is based in canon, but that, more importantly he’s not just stupid or unfocused, he’s rebellious. He doesn’t joke around because he just doesn’t care, it’s because he’s independent, he’s got other places he wants to go and plans that don’t fit into what most of his peers are used to. He makes light of the world because he sees what others don’t, and it’s honestly pretty frickin’ funny how blind others can be most of the time (case-in-point: him making a slugcat from a messenger, which no one else thought to do because those creatures seemed too “dull” and “primitive” to ever be capable of such a thing). So think about how significant it must be when he’s openly taking something seriously. This is where that dynamic of the Tramp, and how Sig would benefit from this relationship is really highlighted. I just adore it when the easygoing, carefree character finally finds purpose in their lover, and springs into serious action like they never were before! And it makes sense too given what I said about them not getting together before: seeing Moon collapse would show him directly that even beings as durable as iterators don’t last forever, so if he’s got these feelings for Moon, he’s got to make a move while there’s still a chance! And what better way to show his love than to bring her back when all hope seems lost? Which brings me to the final aspects I’ll talk about here, first of which is…

True Love’s Kiss

Yes, you read that right. The real reason I love the slag reset keys as a plot element so much is not just because it shows Sig’s secret strength of character, not just because it finally gives reward to Moon’s kindness, but because it is a real fairytale come true!

I know this sounds crazy and probably totally unrelated to Rain World, but think about it! You guys have probably seen Snow White and Sleeping Beauty before, or at least one of the two? Isn’t the whole trope that the beautiful princess, fairest maiden in the land, gets cursed through some means or another to die (or in Aurora’s case, fall into an indefinite sleep), which is only undone when the strong and brave prince, riding upon his noble steed, awakens the princess by giving her true love’s kiss? I already love both those movies on their own for various other reasons, but after my description, is this starting to sound familiar in another way?

I mean, with everything I’ve said about Moon in this post so far, there’s no doubt you could perceive her as the “fair princess”, who through unfortunate circumstances is put to a premature and indefinite death. And there’s no doubt Sig fills the role of the brave prince by working to save her with the slag reset keys, which in this metaphor are undoubtedly the “true love’s kiss” that ultimately conquers all, always longed for, and finally delivered! And hey, given Hunter is the one to carry the keys to Moon, a small yet courageous beast who stops at nothing to meet his goals, Sig even has his own “noble steed”! And even if Hunter is technically the one to actually deliver the green neuron, and the death the “princess” succumbs to wasn’t out of genuine malice towards her, I think the sentiment is still there and the parallel is close enough!

But yes, as strange as it may sound, the fairytale parallel is the main reason Lilypad resonates with me so much! Those classic fairytale-esque romance tropes and that poetic storytelling found in Disney’s first feature-length animated films has always been dear to my heart, and is even more so now that I’m older and can truly appreciate the beauty of them. So now, even in my fandom experiences, ships that win my appreciation over all others are often those that manage to embody those classic romance tropes and themes as best as possible, and frankly, even Artimand loses ever-so-slightly to Lilypad in this regard! Or, as I also enjoy calling them, “Lifeline”, for reasons that are probably obvious now.

And it’s even better when you consider…

Some Things Never Change

Another trope I’ve recently begun to love is the idea that some phenomena in the world never truly disappear, but simply manifest in different ways, sometimes unexpected ones. And given the whole Triple Affirmative quest and the Ancients’ mass ascension philosophy, this idea is something I especially love seeing in Rain World content. Even the canon events show this idea, but think about how wonderfully it would work with Lilypad beyond just the slag reset keys, especially taking up that “worm off the string” iterator AU concept some have explored in this fandom already.

Just think about how sweet it would be when Moon and Sig, operating primarily through their puppets now, get to finally hug and kiss and be with each other so directly now! Think of the way Sig would speak to Moon about how, even after her collapse, she's still somehow beautiful as ever, and Moon returning with how even all the trouble the group has faced hasn't put a dent in his charm! And it's even sweeter when you consider it’s against everything their creators stood for! Think of Moon, after everything she’s been through and how much she’s probably changed at this point, now willing to give some of these “worldly attachments” a chance, because you can never truly get rid of them, but she knows better than anyone that you won’t be around to experience them forever, so why not enjoy it while you’ve got the chance? And it’d make sense too, not just for her own benefit, but for Pebbles and the rest of the group’s sake too! She’s always strove to set a good example for them, and since their original quest has left them with nothing but pain and trauma, why not show them that maybe all these attachments aren’t so bad after all?

I just think it’d be really interesting to see Moon joining Sig in that rejection of the Triple Affirmative, and what better way to do that than by finally embracing that love they’ve felt for each other for so long? Because love never truly dies, it just appears in new people. And maybe they don’t have to spend their whole lives as grand iterators, the vast infinitely-advanced mechanical deities who embody perfection in almost every way. Maybe, even just for a bit, they can just be people, falling in love just as their creators did all over again!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

And with that, I think I’m FINALLY done here. HOLY COW, this is easily my longest post yet, and I hope it doesn’t disappoint! Part of the reason it took so long was because I was trying to find the perfect way to express all these ideas without it just spilling out onto the page in some weird half-coherent mess. But eventually I just said “ah screw it, let’s just ramble about this ship and see where it goes!” and my god, did it go far! And I still managed to somewhat organize it, so yay!

But aside from that, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who asked for my thoughts on Lilypad, and everyone who made it to the bottom of this essay! I’ve never really gotten a chance to openly ramble about one of my favorite ships to the rest of the fandom like this, so seeing that some fans, even if it’s ultimately not a huge amount, actually wanted me to do it was such a welcome surprise!

I hope you all enjoyed the drawings and the art! I’ll be around in case someone wants me to write another ship essay or something! And who knows, it’s likely I’ll find more reasons I like Lilypad as time goes on and I see more fan-content and find the rest of those broadcasts! But at least this was a starting point!

Expect more LIlypad content to come in the future, but until now, thanks again for the opportunity!

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amber-laughs · 7 months ago

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Thank you so much for your answer! I'd love to hear your thoughts on their relationship before the series begins. We know that the scene they shared in agot was not reflective of their actual dynamic even if most people loooove to forget that part. How did they interact? Did they ever? How was their relationship especially when Jon was a toddler or around 7-8? Thank you for your time!

oh fun question! well let's start from the beginning, we know that Catelyn was upset to find Jon in Winterfell before her

When the wars were over at last, and Catelyn rode to Winterfell, Jon and his wet nurse had already taken up residence. That cut deep. A Game of Throne- Catelyn II

but keep in mind Catelyn didn't know Ned yet. they'd obviously met and married but she doesn't really know anything about his temperament yet and even with that she's just arrived in a new place that will be her home forever, there's no way out, so the idea of her immediately showing her displeasure with Jon or Ned feels unlikely to me because in Family, Duty, Honor fashion she would first and foremost try to make her new family work to fulfill her father's alliance and be forced to put her wounded honor to the side. we know she did eventually work up the courage to ask Ned about Ashara Dayne

The Lady Ashara Dayne, tall and fair, with haunting violet eyes. It had taken her a fortnight to marshal her courage, but finally, in bed one night, Catelyn had asked her husband the truth of it, asked him to his face. That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. "Never ask me about Jon," he said, cold as ice. A Game of Thrones- Catelyn II

Ned scared her so bad she never asked again and neither did the servants. Now the fandom has a pretty simplistic, whitewashed view of Ned that isn't supported in canon but I would still call this out of character for him and Catelyn does too but remember, she barely knew him at this point, so it makes sense why she completely dropped the topic of not just Ashara but probably Jon as whole for a few years. but of course we know it does come up again.

Now I personally think the real trouble would start to come in as Jon was weened and was still in Winterfell. If he no longer needed a wet-nurse there's no reason not to foster him off in classic bastard fashion and Catelyn clearly thinks so too

Whoever Jon's mother had been, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away. It was the one thing she could never forgive him. A Game of Thrones- Catelyn II

Catelyn, of her own admission, was often trying to get Ned to kick Jon out of Winterfell. now this is where I need to remind people that I LOVE Catelyn Tully Stark. I'm on her team, I'm on her side, I'd buy her Mother's Day gifts if I could. most people in this fandom are actually pretty chill about the Catelyn Jon dynamic but there are two sides that think catelyn was an evil abusive wicked witch of the west specifically out to get an infant because she just feels like being evil and another side that thinks she never did anything to him and he's a spoiled brat who should be grateful she didn't make him sleep outside and eat only dog food. both are extremely annoying.

the truth is Catelyn was cruel to Jon and yes by George RR Martin's own words she never laid hands on him and she wasn't directly berating him throughout the years because like I said Catelyn isn't evil and she doesn't enjoy cruelty but when a child says he feels guilty eating in front of you there's a problem.

Jon wondered how Lady Catelyn's sister would feel about feeding Ned Stark's bastard. As a boy, he often felt as if the lady grudged him every bite. A Dance With Dragons- Jon IV

now it's possible Jon is projecting his own insecurities on to Catelyn here except:

Catelyn had nothing against this girl, but suddenly she could not help but think of Ned's bastard on the Wall, and the thought made her angry and guilty, both at once. She struggled to find words for a reply. A Game of Thrones- Catelyn VI

Catelyn does feel guilty for the way she's treated Jon. yes making Jon feel uncomfortable in Winterfell served a purpose, making sure he knows its not his. he has no right to it. Robb does. Robb will inherit. If not Robb then Bran, if not Bran then Rickon and so on and so forth. but none the less it was fucking mean. but here's the thing, Catelyn can't change society, she's navigating the rules she's given and Ned isn't, I imagine that would send her up a wall sometimes. because as she said Ned can have all the bastards he wants and she wouldn't care but Jon has no business being there and no business being treated like a true born next to her actual true born sons

"This is Valyrian steel, my lord," he said wonderingly. His father had let him handle Ice often enough; he knew the look, the feel. A Game of Thrones- Jon VIII

why the hell is Jon being allowed to handle the Stark ancestral sword? this is so widely out of the norm for Westeros it almost feels illegal. I can completely understand why Catelyn started trying to drill into Robb's head that Jon was different from him

That morning he called it first. "I'm Lord of Winterfell!" he cried, as he had a hundred times before. Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, "You can't be Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born. My lady mother says you can't ever be the Lord of Winterfell." A Storm of Swords- Jon XII

and it's also known throughout the Winterfell that there are hostilities between Jon and Catelyn. when Robb see's Jon is upset he immediately wonders if his mother is the reason

His voice was flat and tired. The visit had taken all the strength from him. Robb knew something was wrong. "My mother …" "She was … very kind," Jon told him. A Game of Thrones- Jon II

Jon also famously has the line where he admits Catelyn has never so much as called him by his name before so on Catelyn's side the relationship is somewhere on a spectrum from non existent to hostile. on Jon's side? well we know that Jon very consciously craved a mother

He knew nothing of his mother; Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed of her at times, so often that he could almost see her face. A Game of Thrones- Jon III

often felt like he had to prove himself to his father

Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. Once Jon had meant to prove them wrong, to show his lord father that he could be as good and true a son as Robb. I made a botch of that. A Storm of Swords- Jon X

and I want to be clear, I know it wasn't Catelyn's job to make Jon feel welcome in his home, Ned really dropped the ball. It's Ned's fault that Jon just assumed he'd be destitute with no prospects by the time he turned 16 and it shows in the way Jon craves father figures in his life after he leaves Winterfell. Jeor Mormont, Benjen Stark, Mance Rayder, Maester Aemon, Stannis Baratheon I mean the list goes on. The thing is though there are no older women in Jon's life. Not at the Wall and not really in Winterfell either. He and Robb don't seem to take lessons from Septa Mordane and while Old Nan certainly taught him some important stories she doesn't seem to have set a maternal presence in his life.

I'm not saying Catelyn was or should have been Jon's mother because she wasn't and it surely wasn't her job but I do think she subconsciously fills that second parental placeholder in his head next to Ned because he clearly craves one but has no other woman to fill it.

Lord of Winterfell. I could be the Lord of Winterfell. My father's heir. It was not Lord Eddard's face he saw floating before him, though; it was Lady Catelyn's. A Storm of Swords- Jon XII

while this isn't Jon's deciding factor the idea of upsetting her or once again being rejected by her really bothers him, so much so that he can't even go on training with his friends, he has to leave and take a walk all alone. She's also one of the deciding factors when he's deciding whether to take his lifelong vows for the Night's Watch.

By the time the moon was full again, he would be back in Winterfell with his brothers. Your half brothers, a voice inside reminded him. And Lady Stark, who will not welcome you. A Game of Thrones- Jon V

but let's be clear Jon isn't just sitting around waiting for her to hug him. he doesn't like her either.

"Lady Stark is not my mother," Jon reminded him sharply. Tyrion Lannister had been a friend to him. If Lord Eddard was killed, she would be as much to blame as the queen. A Game of Thrones- Jon VII

he blames her for Ned's death just as much as he blames Cersei which is unfair and a bit delusional but childhood resentment will do that to a 15 year old.

So what was Jon and Catelyn's relationship like? Bad. Catelyn and Jon never had a chance. they were failed by the system. women and bastards seem to have a lot in common in Westeros in the sense that their agency is greatly limited. their safety rests on the graces of whatever man has placed their claim on them and this woman and this bastard were vying for the graces of the same man and felt one couldn't have it if the other did too. which is a shame in and of itself because I think they're both better at this game than Ned was.

***Less about their pre-series relationship but Jon and Catelyn have so much in common thematically and politically speaking. I did a parallel of them if you'd like to check it out

#asks #that one girl who really doesn't play about jon and catelyn #Catelyn Tully #Jon Snow #AsoiafMeta #valyrian scrolls #valyrianscrolls

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