#the polycule formed because of them and would fall apart without them

[academicgangster]

jonas quinn 🤝 jethro gibbs (load-bearing husband of their respective polycules)

[monkey-overalls]

Madoka Magica Headcanons!

I’m also posting a drawing of the Holy Quintet (which will go up immediately after this), but I wanted to write some headcanons for each of them to go with it! I was originally going to put them under “Read More” on the drawing, but I eventually settled on separating the two because of how long the document got hahah.

Sexualities: Madoka, Kyoko, and Homura are all lesbians, Sayaka is bisexual, and Mami is demiromantic-pansexual.

Gender Identities: Madoka is a trans girl (she/her), Sayaka is a demigirl (she/they), and Kyoko, Mami, and Homura are all cis girls.

Height Order (tallest to shortest): Mami (by far), Sayaka, Homura, Madoka, Kyoko

🩷 Madoka 🩷

Loves cheesy romance movies, especially if they’re also coming-of-age stories. As long as they have a happy ending, Madoka will sit through any crappy flick (or an entire marathon of them). Mami joins her most of the time.

As Madokami, she has shimmering star freckles.

Started incorporating more purple into her wardrobe after becoming friends with Homura. At first this was unintentional, but upon noticing it, Madoka leaned even further into the new color scheme, especially after the two got together.

💙 Sayaka 💙

Once tried to learn the violin to impress Kyosuke, but her highly self-critical nature prevented her from going far. She thought he’d find her lackluster performance embarrassing.

100% had a crush on Madoka at some point, and only fully realized it once she came to terms with her feelings for Kyosuke. In some timelines she continues to pine for Madoka, while in others she starts falling for Kyoko instead. Maybe they form a polycule in another timeline or two (they do, they definitely do).

Despite what she may say, Sayaka (taken by the Law of Cycles) can never truly bring herself to hate Homura. She can’t help but empathize with her struggles and her descent into despair, as Sayaka remembers each and every time she hurt herself and the people around her out of sadness and anger.

❤️ Kyoko ❤️

Has burns running down her arms from when she tried to save her family from the fire started by her father. As far as I know, it’s never explicitly stated how exactly he went about killing them, but taking into account all of of the fire symbolism surrounding Kyoko and the imagery of her father’s head turning into a shattering lantern, I’m going to go with arson.

Doesn’t actually like tea all that much, but for a while she drank it at Mami’s apartment to be polite—after all, food is how Kyoko shows she cares about others. Mami caught on pretty quickly, however, and now stocks hot chocolate with mini marshmallows specifically for her.

In timelines where Mami dies, Kyoko squats in her apartment until police eventually catch on to her disappearance. From there, Kyoko moves in with Sayaka… until, you know.

💛 Mami 💛

Sleeps with a massive pile of stuffed animals so she never feels lonely. She’s never gotten rid of a single one, and, knowing this, her friends’ go-to gift for her is another plushie to add to her collection.

The beauty mark on her cheek is fake; she paints it on every morning.

In timelines where she and Nagisa live (including Homura’s rewritten world) they live together in Mami’s apartment. Their favorite activity is playing board games. Mami always lets Nagisa choose, and they love going out to search for more.

💜 Homura 💜

Constant eye bags. This girl never sleeps. Even before the time loop she suffered from extreme insomnia, which only worsened as her mental state declined. Mami gives her tea to help her sleep better, which helps a little but not enough to give her a healthy schedule.

Never takes Madoka’s ribbon off, even when she sleeps. The only exception is when she washes her hair, because that would obviously ruin it.

Has a secret sweet tooth that only Kyoko knows about (she hooks her up with the best sweets). Homura likes to present herself as a “one black coffee” type of girl, when in reality she could never drink a cup without a substantial amount of sugar.

[rorywritesjunk]

Ok I'm curious. What's your explanation for how Buggy has three wives and everybody is ok with that? It's just kinda funny to think of Buggy having enough self-esteem to think he could even get away with it. Not that I wouldn't love a cozy little polycule of my own, but I'm not sure how this one even happened.

This makes me mad about the crashed Tumblr post because I wrote about their stuff in that. I'm rewriting it in a word document now so it won't happen again, but here's the brief rundown (since writing it out is getting long).

It's in bullet point form. It's long. I don't know how to write it without it being so damn long, sorry! But I've been wanting to write them out properly since the idea was first brought up.

Short summary: Each married years apart, not one big wedding. Sunny was the first, Cupcake the second, and Birdie the third. They get along really well, pretty much married to each other as much as they are to Buggy. If there's any issue in the marriage Id like to think it's Buggy who causes them (no filter, is an idiot).

Sunny and Buggy married first at age 21. He fell in love first with her and was an idiot about it. She eventually fell in love with him and the second she said "I love you" he asked to marry her.

Cupcake came next after being rescued from the arranged marriage. She and Sunny become best friends and Buggy's like "why am i starting to fall in love with this other woman what is wrong with me?!"

Drunk and Crying Buggy confesses to Sunny six months after Cupcake joins the crew that he has the same feelings for her that he has for Sunny and he thinks there's something wrong with him.

And Sunny's like "that's okay" because her aunt on her dad's side is married to someone who has a wife and husband, and Buggy's like, people actually do that?

Sunny tells him to talk to Cupcake, don't just confess feelings, because she wants him to do it right if he's going to court her. And Buggy's kind of dumb. He figures flowers and fancy words would woo Cupcake but it doesn't. She thinks he's an idiot.

And what Buggy doesn't know is that Cupcake got drunk one night and told Sunny she thinks her husband is stupidly hot, and does his nose honk? But she respects that Sunny is his wife and won't do anything to get between them because she loves Sunny so much as well.

So basically Sunny is going to play matchmaker between her husband and best friend because she loves them both and wants them both to be happy.

Buggy and Cupcake exchange rings. Cupcake had been married, it had been a living nightmare, but she doesn't sense that with these two. It's going to be different.

Is it perfect? No. There's disagreements, misunderstandings, things like that. Sometimes jealousy happens, but when Sunny decides to start Girls Night for her and Cupcake, it helps, even if Buggy is upset at being left out (though he doesn't tell them).

It works for a few years and Buggy wonders how the hell he managed to get two awesome wives who love him and each other. Shanks could never.

And Buggy feels good about it, everything is great, and when Sunny's birthday comes around and they stop at some island to celebrate, he swings by a bakery to get her a cake and... damn, the baker is really cute.

And he turns and leaves the bakery because he can't deal with with how cute the baker is. When he comes back to the ship without a cake, Sunny and Cupcake goes to investigate and Cupcake also goes "Aw shit she's cute".

Birdie and Sunny hit it off immediately. They are able to talk about baking, ingredients, recipes, things like that. And Cupcake tells her about some stories she has about the circus, about growing up as a fisherman, and Birdie is impressed Cupcake still has all of her limbs and things after hearing how she helps take care of a lion that likes to put her head in his mouth when he feels anxious.

Birdie is invited back for Sunny's birthday party. Buggy doesn't want to talk to her because damn, she seems great, and she talks to him, wonders what it's like being a pirate captain, and is it normal for them to have multiple spouses? And he can't really even talk because he's a bit of a failure when it comes to flirting. It didn't work with Cupcake so it wouldn't work again, right?

Well, he got lucky twice, it wouldn't happen a third time, right? The next day after the party, he goes to the bakery, and Buggy isn't always the most observant guy, so Birdie casually asks if he has an opening on his crew and yea, he does. Sunny does a lot of work for the crew and could use a hand with it. Birdie jumps at the chance because there's two shady guys in the bakery who she is trying to ignore, but her father had owed their boss money and he never paid, so they're coming after her and if she doesn't pay, well, accidents of all kinds can happen in a kitchen.

Buggy is conflicted again when these feelings start for Birdie next. He gets drunk and confesses it to all three of them one night that he's falling in love again. It's been only three months. Sunny and Cupcake are amused by this because they saw it coming. Birdie is a little more apprehensive because she thinks Sunny and Cupcake are wonderful, she couldn't compete.

Sunny and Cupcake bring Birdie along for Girls Night. This is how they really get to know each other and Birdie sees how Sunny and Cupcake get along, how they handle things during these get togethers, she decides to talk with Buggy.

Buggy and Birdie exchange rings within a year of her joining the crew.

He really doesn't know how he got lucky and landed three wonderful wives even if they'll collectively roast him and pick on him. He could never say something mean to them on purpose but sometimes he's stupid and says dumb things (he once compared Birdie's baking to Sunny's cooking and it was Not Nice and ended with Birdie in tears. Cupcake and Sunny turned on Buggy pretty quickly and that was the first time he was kicked out of the main bed and forced to sleep alone).

Yea. It's... it's gonna be long. I found no way to shorten it.

[sunderedazem]

Hello! I'm back haha, hoping you guys haven't gotten tired of me yet. Just reread alone amongst the wreck again (sorry I keep talking about that series, I adore your unsundered au too but I have too great a soft spot for the old men) and that one line where emet selch says he wasn't quite sure if he was loved at the end hit me like a brick to the face. You guys have many lovely bricks but oooooh this one. I know his fallout with Helios was covered in the first fic, but I was kind of wondering what Helios would think of Emet Selch now, after all these centuries exhausted and alone? Would Emet Selch have said/agreed to any of those things untempered? This old man definitely needs hugs and I'm so glad he lets G'raha give them (for now).

Speaking of G'raha, can I confirm that he's not a shard of Hythlodaeus? I know some other authors have done that and despite liking that trope I've always found it slightly tragic. It feels like in your story G'raha's Ancient form never met the polycule? I'm curious if Emet Selch had met him before, would they have become involved? Or would it be a 'right person, wrong time' kind of situation?

Thank you so much to you and your co-author for writing these fics and continuing to write them in the future, they always make me happy-squeal and kick my feet when I read them XD. I hope you guys are having fun with dawntrail despite the wonky writing I've heard it's had, and thank you for taking time out of your days to answer my asks! Take care of yourselves :D

we are NEVER tired of you! I am giving you the biggest wettest cat eyes of held-back tears - thank YOU for sending us such sweet asks! Literally highlight of the week, lol!

So, with regard to that first paragraph of questions - we actually have an AU or two where Helios passes out on leaving the Convocation like that and gets taken home to sleep it off, and the *first* thing he realizes when he wakes up is that none of the Convocation are themselves - they're all tempered, though he doesn't have that word for it yet. The only reason he doesn't realize it on that first meeting is- because he is exhausted and sick, and he's barely on his feet. This is also why he's horribly irritable and snaps at Emet-Selch so cruelly.

So, in short - if he'd even waited just a little longer, let alone after the centuries and millennia that Emet-selch has endured - he would be clinging to this man, and trying to find a cure, and essentially just. a very tearful koala, because he would feel responsible for what Emet-selch became, since he wasn't there to stop it, or see the descent of the Convocation.

And on that note- we think that Emet-selch would have agreed, mostly, to the plans proposed by Elidibus as Zodiark, and when we (lol unsurprisingly) unfridge him, we do have him still agree with most of what he's done. But the biggest part of it, the planning to resurrect their fallen brethren through mass sacrifice - this is what he wouldn't agree to, untempered, and without that the rest of the plan kind of falls apart. We think he'd see this as a perversion of the Lifestream it's his job to monitor and watch over the souls of the dead/those using aetherytes, and- as Younger!Emet-selch says in Elpis, it would be an insult to their memory to do something like recreate Amaurot. Which, of course, appropriately fucks him UP when he realizes that he *was* tempered and therefore so was the rest of the Convocation and etc. G'raha really DOES need to give him hugs, lmao.

(There will also be a line, probably, from Corrain or G'raha or both, about how he built the empire that gave them the technology to cure tempering. In a way, he made his own cure)

And then, G'raha- he is not a shard of Hythlodaeus. We actually do have a shard of Hythlodaeus OC for use in some AUs- an all-lavender Viera named Liokki. But anyway, in my own headcanons, G'raha doesn't actually have an ancient counterpart- he was one of those souls formed by the Lifestream after the Sundering, and as such he's a little *less* well defined, and more able to be layered back into his own younger body and soul as he is at the end of Shadowbringers patches. I have this HC mostly because I think it's very crunchy for Emet-selch to fall in love with someone who literally has never existed Unsundered, hehe

thank you for the questions! I'll tag lee in in case xey want to add anything? @azems-familiar pspspspspspsps

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Nothing against Vampire Romance, but I really want to see more Vampire Found Family.

Vampires who were torn from their old lives when they were bitten. Who watched their families grieve from the shadows, and then watched them wither and die and grieved for them themselves.

Vampires who have loved and lost so completely and yet still, despite it all, decide to try again. Who find other people in the same situation and choose to call each other sibling/parent/child/etc. despite knowing how terribly it could all go wrong.

Vampires who start off presenting themselves as a family purely for convenience, because you need some explanation to give to the humans as to how this bunch of people are all linked to you and why you all look and act so similar.

("Red eyes run in the family. It's a genetic thing— it's a bit rude to point it out, actually." "Doesn't everybody's family sleep in coffins? Maybe you're the weird ones!")

Vampires who wake up one night and realise that it's not a lie anymore. That somewhere along the line they just started to forget that their 'sister', or their 'cousin' or weird Uncle Vlad wasn't actually a blood relation (at least not in that sense) and now they just think of them as family.

Vampires who don't bother to apply specific labels to their relationships, but enjoy watching the humans struggle to guess exactly how all these people are all connected to each other (blood relatives? Polycule? Foster family? Roommates?).

Vampires who keep up with the local gossip and deliberately toss out contradictory hints and give oblique answers to any questions just to fuel the fire.

Vampires who are the only immortal member of their found family, who fit in so effortlessly and yet sometimes leave their friends wondering exactly how many iterations of this they've already been through. How many times have they found a new group of people to call home? How many times have they sat in a bar watching everyone drink and making those exact same terrible jokes?

(How many times have they watched it all fall apart, watched their loved ones wither and die, and then grieved, mourned, got back up started the cycle all over again?)

Vampires who brush aside these kind of questions when asked, but who keep a collection of old photos, sketches, letters and trinkets in a box in their room that they won't let anybody else touch.

Alternatively, vampires who are so old and so lost to immortality that they end up attaching themselves to family groups more than individuals.

Vampires who will pop in for a few months to help with the new baby, vanish for nearly two decades and then come back to attend her graduation without really noticing the gap.

Vampires who have a habit of addressing everybody by their ancestor's names indiscriminately, and are often genuinely caught off guard to realise that the person in front of them is the great-great grandchild of the person they thought they were talking to. Whose family members are used to being asked "do you remember?" about events that happened decades before they were born, or having to finish conversations that were started with their grandparents.

Vampires who have complicated extended families based on who they were bitten by, who else was bitten by that person, who they then went on to bite, etc… that if traced back far enough can basically encompass every other vampire in existence.

Vampires who would have to consult several complicated family trees to explain to their human friends exactly how they're related to this person, "but basically he's my cousin Bill and he's sleeping on my sofa for a few days while he's in town."

Vampires whose relationships change over the course of their long lifespans. Who form family groups with other vampires that last maybe the length of a human lifespan, and then drift apart as everyone moves on to other groups with other people. Who can be as close as siblings one century and then merely close acquaintances the next.

Vampires consider this a natural part of immortality, and have words to describe ex-family members and the relationships between them.

Just… more Vampire Found Family, y'know?

[starburstgalexies]

For the ship bingo meme, I am humbly submitting Kazuha and Aether for your consideration (or any other Genshin ship of your choice really)

Coming in strong with my genshin otp. Smoochable actions, Jay.

No bingo, unfortunately :( They could be married for 30 years but they've only met a single-digit number of years ago so.

More details under read more.

i'd read a fic i mean yeah. gladly. i just wish 90% of them played the same game as me. didn't just slap the canon names onto personalities that are better off being ocs. but yeah. (sneaking a fic rec here even though it's pre-relationship because amazing characterization.)

otp x 1000 IT'S THE SHIP THAT UNLOCKED MY ABILITY TO LOVE THIS GAME LIKE I WAS ENLIGHTENED BY THE GOD ITSELF but then again this is a hellgame so maybe the god is not very benevolent here. I literally think about them every day.

t4t?? i'm not sure. they are both genderqueer as fuck. but also slightly on the masculine side of the scale and i hc they both have dicks. so depends on how binary you think the t's are in t4t.

best in a certain part of canon listen. the traveler reigniting kazuha's ability to love someone again, being the factor that made him realize his dead boyfriend's will can only live through him, and that trigger being yet another someone he loves (almost) dying at the shogun's hands again so kazuha acted without even thinking... that scene is what made me go from 0 to 100 about liking the game. that scene is the reason i am hyperfixated on this game and on this ship. they have been living in my head rent-free since that moment. those 90 seconds are saved in a private youtube playlist for me to rewatch time to time. i am very sane about it. so, yeah, best part of canon. easily.

free space: they unironically get lost in each other's eyes and all that gooey disgusting shit they are so gross. even their mutual boyfriends can't stand them. lumibei are watching them from the bathroom, mocking every word of stupid poetry they use to profess their love. they need to be shoved into a locker except they would 7 minutes in heaven that shit up in 7 seconds.

rotating in my brain like a microwave i think that has been shown very clearly even through this post alone.

i have so many headcanons i can probably write essays about intricacies of their relationship. the relationship starting with the impossible duality of "can't be together can't be apart". the development into "well we are glued together now". anyway. yeah. microwave. sanity.

awwee i love them :) by default

part of a bigger polycule yeah, 90% of genshin characters are, though this pair is each other's Very Special Someone tm. hell, they could even be monogamous if they wanted. they started off monogamous (kind of.) but also they both have like an entire army of boyfriends (and some girlfriends). most of them shared. i think, while not fast in any shape or form, kazuha is capable of falling for most of aether's other lovers. a much bigger polycule, eventually.

fandom doesn't know them like i do this is a true statement on its own but also i can say this for literally every character, even the ones i don't care about, because i don't think this fandom has very good reading comprehension. 99% of the time they just use pretty faces as models for tropes, so.

[solocyclepolyamory]

Runner Up

"Would you like me to drop you off down the street?"

This offer was my genuine attempt at minimizing the potential for heated conflict upon my company's arrival back home. We had spent the evening simply enjoying one another perched on a rock face over the ocean, eating a picnic dinner and discussing scary movies. When we got back into the car, the heaviness of what might come next joined us and rudely buckled in for the ride. I have to admit, this was the first time I had ever had to navigate the wrath of a metamour, but not my first experience with this type of situation. In the past, I have been that metamour.

I have always felt a sense of entitlement to my feel my feelings. Knowing that they are not a reflection of who I am has helped me to minimize my fear of what they might mean, and allowed me to explore them with a willingness to learn from them. I am grateful to have experienced safe spaces created by loving partners where we have dug in together to find the roots and pull them out. Every time I got to do this I felt loved, supported, and seen, and in the times where there was no immediate resolution there was always space to return to safety and remember why we loved one another. When I let those memories in, I feel the return to that secure space in every nook of my vessel. Within this structure I am experienced; existing in safety with a person I love, knowing that what we share with one another goes into our vault and is not held in judgement, but seen rather as an opportunity to learn and grow together.

I know how those conversations would have looked to someone existing outside of our private space. Without the years of pre-existing context to lend understanding to my experiences, I can imagine how unsafe I would have felt to a person coming into a secondary-type position in our polycule. It can be so challenging to know what is safe to share and what is not when you are exploring the excitement of a new connection. You want the new person to know you, to see all the wonderful things you bring to the table. You want them to know what makes you who you are, how you practice poly, the struggles you have had and how you overcame them. Show me your resilience, and I'll show you mine.

Four years ago my marriage ended; I felt lost. I was adrift in the nothingness that used to be my life plan, surrounded by confusion and rage, the rug pulled right out from under me. While I was deconstructing the life I had built with my spouse, I was also falling in white, hot love with another person. It was conflicting to hold something so sad and tragic in one hand while also holding something so beautiful and loving in the other. My world was a yin yang, and I was frantic in the emotional upheaval of it all.

I look back at that experience and I know that I failed to maintain separation between the two sides of that situation. I would often have intense conflict with my spouse and lean on my new partner for support and validation. It felt good to have someone see what was happening from the inside and confirm that my fury was righteous. However, what I did not anticipate was the return of my spouse into my life later down the road.

When I leaned on my new partner to support me in my break up, I did not set them up to feel comfort when my spouse and I did not entirely part ways. I paved the way for my new partner's attachment to the removal of my spouse from my life, and when that didn't happen it left a tear in their ability to feel safe in our connection. It also ended in my new partner giving me an ultimatum which knee-capped my freedom to form a new connection with my spouse moving forward.

If I had moved through my separation with my spouse free from that new connection there would have been more space for me to burn through my feelings, learn from them, and proceed in a much more respectful fashion. I was with my spouse for six years. He and I were together through losing a friend to a mystery illness, our child growing and starting school, moving to a different city together, starting new jobs and losing them, living apart in separate cities. . . the list goes on. That relationship deserved just as much of my time and attention in its deconstruction as it did in its creation and duration. Falling in love while coming apart enabled me to disengage from my separation, and pacified me with reassurances that in the end did me a disservice to my personal growth. It also sent the message that our marriage didn't deserve my respect because "it didn't work out."

Relationships end. Badly. Either someone dies, or we break up (Multiamory, 2019). These are things I know. Being the "new partner" gave me front row seats to the turmoil my presence was causing in the pre-existing partnership. Despite my best efforts to remain neutral, I could feel myself becoming attached to the outcome and fearing the possibility that a conclusion may not ever entify. I remember feeling unsafe and punished for existing. It was clear that there was no allowance being made for my presence in the life of the person I was building with, despite their best efforts otherwise. My metamour was actively attempting to remove me. Although there was never an actual ultimatum it felt an awful lot like an attempt at veto.

Being the secondary person was an important experience for me to have. It gave a depth and dimension to my understanding of polyamory that I did not know I was lacking. It is easy to speculate about how someone else might be feeling when you are situationally oppositional; however, it is often much different to actually live that experience yourself. I can say that this one felt especially gruesome leaving me feeling both grateful and wounded.

I am still growing from those lessons. I want to know about other partners; tell me who they are and why you love them. Tell me about what they love to do and what makes them unique. But there is a difference between telling me about a person and telling me the details of a fight your had with them. Perhaps we should keep the inner details of our other relationships out of our conversations. Those things have no place in our connection. They can lead to misrepresentation, misunderstanding, fear, resentment, and can create a feeling of opposition and danger for a new person attempting to take up space. When it comes right down to it, who said what when emotions were running high is none of my business anyway. Instead, let's focus on what I can learn about you.

Tell me about the hardships you have survived and the arguments that you revisit and have regrets about. Tell me about the most difficult choices you have ever had to make and the lessons you have learned from the stories others have shared with you. But leave names out of it.

Tell me the things that show me who you are, because that is what I am most interested in anyway.

[snowflake-of-destruction]

For the ship ask game:

Reki/Langa

NamiKaiXi

Risem

Sephiroth/Cloud

Reki/Langa

Ship it!

What made you ship it?

The heart eyes and obvious adoration. Sometimes, I'm just a sucker for a sweet ship where both adore each other and are not shy on the compliments in the slightest, existing to hype each other up.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

That, alongside the adoration and support, that they have differing opinions/philosophies sometimes, and reconciling those includes compromises and acknowledging where both of them are a bit wrong when they fight.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I don't know the popular and unpopular opinions about Renga, because, while I love them, I haven't felt the urge to seek out other people's headcanons and fic all that much.

 If I had to wager on a less popular reading that I have though...Our sweet boys may live happily ever after, but it's going to be a bumpy road first. Reki has a lot of emotions and is not afraid to show them all, and he's very sensitive, which isn't a bad thing. Our unflappable Langa may seem like a good complement to him--and he is in my opinion--but he's also the type that, even though he has his list of Reki's best qualities handy, doesn't realize that he may need to say them more than once and doesn't read cues enough to know right away when hearing "the obvious" might help reassure Reki. 

Langa is also the type to just agree to things and then quietly do whatever he wants. We see it in canon and we see Reki take it badly, and yet I still think saying they will go through many different versions of the same fight without any change in behavior happening will be an unpopular opinion. Also, while Reki will always be able to make Langa's heart beat faster for his own reasons, Langa has more than a bit of a thing for danger and challenge, and having fun to infinity with Reki, may be what he'd always choose if he had to, but he's going to constantly seek out more challenges, whether it be increasingly dangerous stunts or places and people to race, seeking out the pulse pound until Reki's nerves fray apart. There will be dramatic fights and multiple break ups. They'll work it out though.

Now we read more the rest because of length

NamiKaiXi

An intriguing concept, and they would be cute together, and probably work well as a unit because they would all care for each other's needs and be in tune to each other's emotions, but I'm going to say I lean toward don't ship it. But imagine it said with a question mark. Don't ship it?

You know what, why not? Why should I not ship it? I wrote a long, moralizing thing about not subjecting the girls to a double standard when I've already been clear that I just can't get past/reassess my twins/family type reading on Roxas and Sora. It's hard to work up a deeper feeling than "it could be nice" when there isn't much interaction--and none as a trio--but "I ship it" definitely does not need to be a deep or "forever" declaration (and I am the last person to ask others to justify/moralize what they like) , so just the fact that you said "namikaixi" and my mind can list a series of scenarios I would definitely find cute enough to excitedly chatter about....we say ship, for today at least.

What made you ship it?

This ask. Idk. It’s cute. I like the characters. You saw, I said “why not?” and there it is

What are your favorite things about the ship?

All three have dealt with being left behind, dismissed, and used then discarded. Two out of three have had their personhood questioned. They are not alone in these issues, but I just imagine these three, each finding the other two such an inspiration that it's criminal they could ever be made to feel insecure, going on validating and lavishing praise on each other, and healing together. I also see it as a very even polycule if that makes sense. I tend to dislike fictional polycules that are just "A should be able to date both B and C" in origin--which is personal taste and obviously in real life relationships come in all forms-- and prefer ones where all parties love each other just as much and I could see any 2 within the 3 functioning well as couple as well as the 3 working as a unit without falling into any more pitfalls than any other relationship (The "as well as" being important because, let's take Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer from FF8. Squall/Rinoa? Good. Squall/Seifer? Fantastic! Seifer/Rinoa? Underrated! But the three together, I can only see DISASTER and jealousy longterm. But I digress. This ain't about them).

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I feel that this is too rare to have popular or unpopular opinions, but my uncommon opinion about Namine in relationships in general is once she's comfortable she becomes vocal and dominant and just takes the lead in everything.

Risem

Eh, I'll probably always be ambivalent/just kind of playing along, but, no, no, you got a point when you talk about this one. Ship it.

What made you ship it?

Friends don't let friends ship alone.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Slow corruption. Voices whispering in ears. Ansem's whole *waves vaguely* deal from voice to wardrobe. Riku's willfulness and the fact that if he ever does give in to something it's because he wants to/that's there's no way for anyone else but Riku to win in any battle [insert "despite game mechanics" joke here]. It's a set up for a good "guilty pleasure" ship

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I don't know. Let me muse on them enough to write something for Risem week and I'm sure I'll come up with something others  disagree with lol.

Sephiroth/Cloud

Ship it. Is there a Cloud ship I wouldn't ship?  Probably, but this particular ship I fell off the slippery slope awhile back

What made you ship it?

The compilation and their appearances elsewhere. Specifically, the directions that it started to move in portraying Cloud and Sephiroth's link, Sephiroth's respect and growing obsession/fascination that Cloud just keeps besting him and has proven to be so much more than he thought at first, and, yes, the fanservice-y "you didn't need to animate it that way, or have them say that line, but you did and now it's everyone's problem" type stuff . Such a short answer for the ship I have thought the most about and shipped the longest, but it's as simple as that---and, of course, moving to the "sometimes the ships that are the most problematic are fun"

What are your favorite things about the ship?

How joyfully Sephiroth approaches it versus how Cloud must loathe himself still being attracted to Sephiroth (Which he is. Don't make me break out gifs from the Remake) and bound to him, or even remembering that this was once his hero and maybe his first crush other than Tifa, in light of how Sephiroth killed his mother and set his hometown on fire and then decided that was only the beginning. Did I just say my favorite part is causing Cloud pain? Yeah, that's problematic too. I'll ring the shame bell now.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Such is the nature of the FF7 fandom, that there is no unpopular opinions. Every conceivable opinion has a large subsect of people about to go rabid defending it.