#Can I tag this as Espilver too?

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Vector would be the type of dad that teases Espio about dating Silver and tries to be supportive. And then when Silver picks up his date Vector goes all “hurt my son and I’ll be your worst nightmare” schtick. He takes his role as dsd seriously

Oh. My. God.😂❤️

[reploidbuddy]

I was about to post that doodle of Silver from the story I didn't start yet (gonna focus on Where the Water Narrows) since I was able to snap him in proper lighting but I realized as I was writing the tags that I have no name for the story and so nothing for my in-blog tagging to appease my everything-must-be-organised self, that is quite the oops moment

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

I'm aroacespec (and honestly confused about where I fall on that spectrum, but I do know I'm sex/romance favorable) and tbh my relationship with shipping is weird.

There are some ships I look at and I'm like "how can you see this as anything but romantic" and there are other ships where I'm like "okay but why do we have to ship them, can't they just be friends?" and it's almost always the total opposite of what the fandom majority's view is. For example, my Sonic "how can you see this as anything but romantic" ship is Espilver, and my "okay but why do we have to ship them, can't they just be friends?" ship is Silvaze.

I will say that something I've noticed is there tends to be a double-standard with allo people (specifically cishet people) when it comes to ships. You get a ton of "why can't they just be friends" with slash and femslash ships, but then those same people will ship a het pairing that look at each other in a single frame. I don't know if it's something that's more obvious to me because I'm gay myself (or even if it's more obvious because I'm aroacespec specifically), but it's weird to me. I choose to look at it this way: if this was a het ship with the same character dynamic, would people still say "why can't they just be friends?"

That's not to say aroace people are in the wrong for looking at a pairing and saying "can't they just be friends? Why do we have to ship them?" but with a lot of cishet people specifically, it feels like there's a lot of people perpetuating a borderline homophobic double-standard. I get it when it's something like Scott and Jay from Ninjago, but so many masc characters' dynamics are canonically given homoerotic or even just romantic undertones (a good example of this being, in my opinion, Sonadow; there's not an almost 3 and a half hour long Sonadow iceberg video on YouTube for no reason. As far as I'm aware it's the longest Sonic-related iceberg video on YouTube that covers exclusively official content) which is why people tend to gravitate towards those ships. I could do an entire analysis on why gay ships tend to have bigger followings than het ships but if I did this would get too long lmao. I will once again point to the Sonadow iceberg video though.

I generally use shipping to explore my own relationship with my aroace-ness, and usually I do that using characters I either headcanon as aroace in some way or who are canonically aroace, because I can relate to those experiences. It's kinda weird to me to see other aroace people acting like doing that is bad or wrong, because usually that's what people are doing, and even if that's not what's going on, fanfiction doesn't affect canon.

There is no right or wrong way to participate in fandom (unless you're harassing people and/or actively putting people in danger), no matter what you identify as.

Basically: People should be allowed to do what they want, if something bothers you that bad there's nothing wrong with blocking a person or tag.

(I might've gotten off subject a few times, sorry lol)

Okay, that thing about blocking tags inspired me to look through my blocked tags to see what ships I've blocked and here's my petty aroace thoughts on all of them without naming names lmao

Fanon het ship. They've never given any indication that they know of each other's existence. Her girlfriend is right there.

Canon het ship. Had the chemistry of two wet paper bags. Literally just shoehorned in there because god forbid any story exist without a romance subplot.

Semi-canon het ship. I'm mostly neutral about them. Just unnecessary.

Fanon mlm ship. Literally brothers?? I don't care that one of them is adopted, they grew up together?? As brothers??

Fanon het ship. I don't care what you call their relationship. You can call it professional, platonic, familial, just please don't call it romantic.

Semi-canon het ship. Again, completely unnecessary. God forbid a man convince a woman to become a villain without there being ~attraction~

Fanon het ship. She is 14?? And he is like 30??

Semi-semi-canon het ship. He did have a crush on her when he was, like, 14 but he's a grown adult now and she's the most lesbian-looking woman to ever exist and they're the most found family siblings to ever find a family

Fanon het ship. LET MEN AND WOMEN BE FRIENDS. LET MEN AND WOMEN BE PLATONICALLY MARRIED.

Fanon mlm ship. I personally see them more as brothers. But whatever floats your boat.

Semi-canon het ship. Just really shoehorned. I don't like the woman very much. I liked her more when she was allowed to be a badass without being a ~flirty badass~

Fanon mlm ship. Again. Adopted brothers. Gross.

Canon het ship. I've seen many things from this director. He's a creative man. He couldn't think of a way to move the plot forward without a smooch?? He couldn't create a series that didn't have an unnecessary love triangle??

Semi-canon het ship. The man isn't coming back for S2 and boy folly gee am I glad

Fanon het ship. Not my cup of tea. Just let them be friends

good lord I have a lot more ship tags blocked than I thought

anyway, this is your daily reminder to just block stuff you don't want to see and move on

[icycream24]

Silver and Espio for the ask meme? :>

hehehe my favs hehee🤤🤤🤤

SILVER:

I think most ppl don't know, but I used to really dislike Silver when I was first introduced to this character online. Not a game, no no, but YouTube AMV vids of this dude with cutesy shippy art of Silvaze. His portrayal was so degraded to me (I was 11 at that time?) that I believed he was a self-insert character for some popular artists to ship themselves with Blaze, in the girl-boss dynamic. Ofc, I looked for more info online and realised Silver was an actual character.

At that time I was playing Sonic Riders Zero Gravity and only unlocked Shadow/Rouge/Cream. After knowing what characters were avaliable, I tried my best to unlock the rest, including Silver. I also did not like his voice in English at that time, so much that I decided to switch the voice-overs to Japanese. And I also did not like it 😂 Not because it was grading! But more like, I was shocked by the drastic difference between the two. Kid me had to decide which portrayal I prefer more (ofc not aware of narrative difference of the scripts, I just chose based on my preference) and ended up with Japanese bc I vibe with the calm seriousness in the voice more. Eventually I did get used to both voices after more exposure of this character, watching playthrough videos online.

Talking about watching 06, I was not expecting him to be so different from my first impression of this "whiny/incapable/loser" kid. Silver actually was serious about fighting for his future, like a dedicated soldier. Blaze was *not* the girl-boss, she was on equal grounds with Silver. (Really... I was like 11/12, now that I think about it, how come ppl's comprehension skills so drastically apart that we can get totally different character interpretations?) I started to find charming traits on Silver, and that was when I started looking up for this character's info more & more.

And then I discovered the Rivals series. I watched the whole thing, 1&2, and this Espio character... Wait they're kinda nice tgt. (it was year 2012?? AAAAA I can't believe I'm still insane about Espilver/Silvespio, they're my sons now at this point 😭✨) I remember using Skype and talked about the ✨chemistry✨ between Silver & Espio, and my friend said I was tripping 😭

Anyway here's Espio:

At that time I didn't have that much knowledge on Espio, I just thought their Eng voice in Heroes sounded like he's dying in a few years with how gruff & grandpa it sounded LOL. Mostly I only draw him with Silver bc I realised no one shipped these two back then. (there was ppl but there was no tags for them) So I felt like, no, impossible. I need to COOK for them! So I started shipping them like FedEx with my limited skills 🥴

My Espio appriciation was mainly started by shipping him with Silver. As I reflect on why I enjoy this ship so much, I dug up traits that I like about Espio. He was helpful, supportive, and overall has a rather peaceful way of communicating with others (aka SILVER hhh). Compared to other characters, especially in Rivals, he was really chill and kept his head clear, and unconditionally aided Silver simply bc he knew he was helping someone with a good cause. Such admirable traits that I'd say are pretty rare even irl.

Still, Espio did not have that much screen time. His portrayal in my mind I do admit was half canon, half fanon. Silly ninja with goofy teammates that values teamwork & is capable of aiding others, plus saint-like patience & wisdom. (Haha...really, a lot of his traits are get from Rivals 2, his ways of interacting with individuals was way more informative than games & anime shows combined 🤧)

But yeah, with time I like these 2 characters even more, started to make all kinds of headcanons that I won't be able to elaborate here. The texts are already getting too long here 😂 I've imagined them, either tgt or separately, in fluff/angst/spice/AU/wholesome/dead dove/anything really bc I just enjoy these two so much 💕

It's kinda selfish to say, but with how little Espilver there was during that time, it was almost like they got a clean slate & I was not swayed by any other ppl's interpretation of these two for a few years. And ofc by time these two surely became my favorite characters. LOL I realised in my busy years of not drawing often, Silver & Espio were the only characters I drew 😂

UGGGHHHAA I love these two sm 😭✨ thanks for asking hahah I wanna talk about them all day 🤧✨

[true-blue-sonic]

For the ask game: 17, 18, 19 & 20

17. How do you overcome writers block or imposter’s syndrome?

I think having a good idea about what I want to write is nice. It helps to just ramble with friends about things I like to talk about (such as Espilver haha), to see if anything inspiring comes out of it that I'd like to write, in my opinion! As for imposter syndrome, I'm not sure🤔 I guess accepting that it's better to write for yourself than for an not-guaranteed audience is important, because then you feel rewarded by writing and not by the comments and attention that you're not at all certain to get. But, do try to get a friend who is just as deep into the blorbo rabbit hole as you are. The best, most touching and cutest stories I have written for only me and a friend who I rp with, focusing on our own world and the characters we both adore. That is guaranteed attention and adoration for the writing! :>

18. Would you ever consider rewriting your older fics? Which fics would you like to revisit and why?

Maybe Belong? I tried to read it once and I couldn't get through it, I can't stand my writing style from back then XD But it did introduce Venice, and he's a sweetheart <3 I would change quite a few things though: I'd completely cut out the Restoration and I'd definitely have to look into Eggman and the Chaos Emeralds, I remember I found myself completely stuck there. But it's a short little fic to start with!

And considering my stance on New Beginnings... maybe, maybe that one. If I ever find myself with endless time, lmao. I am sure I can make it be more than 195k words if I do XD

19. Do you reread your fics after you publish them? Why or why not?

I'm quite poor at rereading my fics, so... I guess all of them, haha! I rarely get comments on old fics that I completely forgot even existed. But that is fun, then I read it again to see what it's about ^-^

20. Share some writing advice!

WRITE THINGS DOWN. If you get an idea, write it down. It has happened far too often to me that I have a nice piece of dialogue or action tags in my mind when I'm in bed, and I'm like "Meh, I'll remember that tomorrow! :D" and then I go to sleep.

I never, ever, ever remember. Write it down!!

[true-blue-sonic]

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening Blue! Are you better?

🎨📚💛

Good afternoon! ^-^ I am indeed, I could go back to campus today with no issue. Thank you for your concern and the ask!🍀

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

I love myself some fluffy cuteness, so any scene from New Beginnings where it's just Espio and Silver being adorable together is something that makes me go "💕💕💕💕". For Genesis I think drawing might be more difficult, since I already struggle enough myself with imagining what Onyx City and the Science Center looks like, haha! But also there the fluff rule is in full display, so maybe Silver and Gold meeting for the first time and Silv offering to help her is a cute scene? I'd draw things myself were it not for the fact I struggle with it and get disheartened too easily😅

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

I know that on Ao3 ChatskySyndrome and Etadyl both write for Espilver, so if you like that ship I would recommend those. I also don't read fics about the Sonic movie (or that much fic in general, lol, I can barely even read my own when published) but @stillafanofsonic got a big universe about that, I believe specifically with Wade, Shadow and Silver! And SkyTheHedgehog on Ao3 also said they were going to be writing about Gold and her world in a fic, I am curious about that ^-^

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

I think I have a few!

When unsure about tagging the content rating, go for the higher rating.

You cannot predict at all how popular a fic will be when you upload it: New Beginnings exploded with more interest than I could ever have imagined for it and the two Movie!Sonic fics I wrote did too, for example. On the other hand, some Espilver fics I put out there have much fewer reads than others. It's best to not focus on that at all and just write what your heart tells you, instead of letting the interest other people have in your work dictate what you write about. That's a difficult lesson because we all want to have our work be acknowledged and liked, and I struggle with it too at times still, but I think it's for the better to tackle it this way ^-^

The tense the fic is in is quite a big influencer in how a fic 'flows' and sounds. The first Flufftober story for 2022 I made was first in the past tense and I didn't like it at all, but I changed the whole thing to the present tense and it just sounded much better to me! Generally I try to keep my multi-chapter fics in past tense, but for smaller oneshots I prefer present tense.

Taking enough time for brainstorming before having written the full story is really important: even now I am coming up with things in Genesis I wish I had thought about earlier and which cannot be added that smoothly. But there's also many things, like the wind and the Angel's Halo, that became pivotal to the story and which I thought of before I'd begun publishing. So make sure to take your time writing and just plain have fun with it, basically! ^-^