#not tagging the other ships in case i piss someone off

[deargodhelpmeaaa]

Deltarune (lightner) ships analyzed for how likely they are to be canon. (ship whatever u want this is just what I think, feel free to comment an argument for your ship, too, I'm happy to hear you out) spoilers if u missed playing this game for the SEVERAL YEARS ITS BEEN OUT

Krusie

I think they're just friends tbh. Susie doesn't show any signs of romantic interest in Kris at all, but Kris MIGHT like her romantically. Ralsei mentions feeling warm when he thinks about the way they care about her and her tea heals Kris the most out of all of them and how much it heals is based on how much the characters like each other (Susie's tea heals 400 of Noelle's health points) and when asked who they'll take to the festival, Kris is implied to sound confused when you make them say they want to go with Ralsei or Noelle.

Susie and Ralsei's dialogue when Kris drinks Susie's tea is a little sus, too.

But again, there's no specific interactions that REALLY indicate that they really do like each other like that. Susie isn't really shown to like Kris as more than a friend, and Kris likes her, but a lot of this stuff sounds like they just like her as a really close friend...

They really do strike me as best friends. They're excited to go to the dark world together in chapter 2, and Susie is excited to go there again at the end of chapter 1. How they want to keep it a secret because it's their thing... I think that trying to say it's a romance is just reading into it a bit too much. Susie's probably going to end up with Noelle and not Kris.

Also I think it's super interesting that Kris and Noelle both like Susie a lot as people who lack control over their own lives- Noelle being super submissive and Kris literally being possessed.

Suselle

The ferris wheel scene they have together, it's implied that they did stuff together in Snowgrave. Susie blushes when Noelle gives her the chalk and they have a lot of cute, awkward interactions. Susie does seem to like Noelle back but doesn't know it yet, and it is clear to me that they're going to get into a relationship.

Kralsei

A bit weird.... Ralsei looks like Kris's brother and kind of forces himself onto them a bit since we know they don't really like him as much as we do and he's appealing to the player who's controlling Kris and not necessarily Kris themself. He still blushes around them, and if you choose to hug him on the boat and fight Spamton, he forcefully hugs Kris to distract everyone from what's going on. Not as wholesome as it initially looks, is it? If it becomes canon it will be against Kris's consent.

Kriselle

Honestly? It's possible. Snowgrave is forced and fucked up but I think even in the normal route there might be tiny hints that Noelle likes Kris a little bit.

(WHY SHE DO THAT) I might be reading into it too much, though.

Ralsusie

Not really canon, either. Again, she doesn't show any romantic interest in him, he doesn't in her. There's not a lot of grounds to stand on to say it will be canon. It seems like Ralsei is too interested in Kris (or more accurately: the player) and Noelle is too interested in Susie, who is unaware that she likes her back. I think it's a cute pairing but I really do just see them as friends and nothing else.

Krerdly

I already did a post on this but I've updated my reasoning since. I will reitorate some of my previous evidence nonetheless. JUST BECAUSE I CAN!!!

Berdly lowers the fee on the library book for seemingly no reason in chapter 1, is shown to care about Kris and views them as a friend but is only pushing them away to maintain his status as the "smart kid." They play games together and it's clear that Kris likes Berdly, too, and one of my favorite instances of this is the narration when you stare at his stupid statue for too long (skip to the 3 minute mark on the video)

He's the only character to open the present you give them and has the most heartfelt reaction to it.

He loses interest in Susie at the end of chapter 2.

And indicates that he's not repulsed by the idea of being with Kris, only turning them down because he thinks he likes Susie and that Susie likes him back, and so therefore he tries to pursue her.

and is put under the impression that they like him when they show concern for him. It is possible that they do like him romantically. It is possible that he likes THEM romantically and is just too out of touch with his own feelings to recognize it. He's really nice to them a lot more than he needs to be even when he's trying to be condescending. Obviously he values them as a friend even if initially trying to deny it.

His character development isn't completed at the end of chapter 2 and it seems clear to me that he's going to be coming back somehow. He's only just a little less hesitant to study with Kris and Susie at the end of Chapter 2. He still has that weird relationship with romance since he thinks nobody can love him without some ulterior motive, like romance. He thinks romance is super important, this massive form of intimacy and he wants it desperately, and that will hopefully be explored further and developed more.

Chapter 2 is all about him and Noelle and he gets a lot of his own individual development that is pretty separate from Noelle's and not even aided by hers, which is different from Lancer (who he's oft compared to) whose development is connected directly to Susie's. There's no reason to just throw Berdly's ass away right after chapter 2 (unless you literally forced Noelle to do that to him lmao) I think he's gonna do more in the story somehow, in some way. He's gonna develop more, and I think we're going to see more of his relationship with romance. We might get to meet his family and see more of that. Like.... he's just too good of a character to throw away IMO. Not to mention how a lot of the computer world's denizens resemble him in some way, the butlers being literally birds, Queen's mech sharing some visual simularities to him,

Spamton being an almost direct parallel to his character.... lots of things about that seem pretty sus and make me think he might be important in some way just because of that.

We also have the route where he breaks his arm which will take his development in another direction as well.

Toby Fox mentioned that the game is taking so long because he and the team need to do all these new mechanics, the branching paths, and it's very complex.

So.

Basically.

What I think is going to happen.

Is that Krerdly could happen in one or more routes where Berdly is still alive. So it hurts even more that he's dead in snowgrave. Whoops. Killed our characters' future boyfriend. My bad! Lmao! And yeah I think it's Kris who will be interested and not necessarily the player because that's less weird and cuter to me hehe haha hahaha.

I.

I.

Listen.

I might be reading too much into it because I really like Berdly and relate to him like crazy. (big shocker: the crazy tumblr girl that writes long rambly analysis about videogames and youtube and shit and constantly draws Berdly and is obsessed with him relates to Berdly)

Oh yea one unrelated theory I think that he might be the only light world character you can force Noelle to kill. It'd be kind of dumb to repeat the snowgrave route like that IMO and make it more impactful that way but maybe I just want my boy to be special IDK.

Noelle x Berdly

Sunken ship. They don't like eachother romantically at all. Berdly thinks she likes him but doesn't like her back, and Noelle doesn't like Berdly romantically at all, and even may hold some mild, repressed contempt towards him, but she still cares about him. It's made clear as day in the game that they are just friends and not interested in making their friendship anything else, unless Noelle asked out Berdly, the pinnacle of masculinity himself, (which he'd agree to since he would worry about what would happen otherwise) but heh. Yea.... like that's going to happen...

Susie x Berdly

Susie doesn't like him romantically, he loses interest in her at the end of chapter 2.

Ralsei x Berdly

They never interact and we don't know if they will interact.

Noelle x Ralsei They never really interact yet either. Later on I can see them interacting more since Toby described Noelle as "one of the main characters" but it's not going to be romantic. I think that's obvious.

We don't know the other characters well enough to say anything about them. That being said...

Dessriel

Toby Fox commented that someone was making something really similar to Deltarune and it's speculated it was in reference to omori.

We only have one comment about Dess using Asriel's jacket to back this up, as well as the fact that Dess and Asriel are friends so Kris and Noelle were friends, and everything seems to have fallen apart after Dess's disappearance. I think about Hero and Mari here, and wonder if that's what he meant in this tweet. It's possible that Dess and Asriel liked eachother romantically or were dating (I don't think we've gotten any specifics on the nature of their relationship). We don't know yet, though but it's a theory. A GAME THEORY THANKS FOR READING!!!!

To reitorate before I go: Remember even though I said your ship is unlikely to become canon I'm not dissing it and you're not a bad person for liking it at all, like what you like, ship what you want (but know where to draw the line of course, be normal, JESUS). So yeah no shade on anyone this is just what I think, aight?

[whatever-you-can-give-me]

clarifying something in regards to my trigun meta, because i’m realizing finally why people get so tetchy with me about it.

tl;dr: can i please talk about canon events of consent violation as an entirely separate conversation from the fandom concept of a ship? i’m talking about what is, not what if.

cw: trigun spoilers, rape, incest. you know the drill.

also, because i made this mistake once before: if you use or interpret this post as some kind of tirade against kv shippers, or get morally righteous about icky fetishists in my notes: fuck off, you do not speak for me, i hate you, and this is exactly why we need to be able to separate analysis and shipping.

moving on.

okay but. people do understand. that rape is not necessarily about attraction or even about sex, right?

when i talk about the scenes i describe as sexual assault in trigun, i’m not saying that it means knives/vash is canon. i’m saying that there’s a deliberate construction to the narrative that makes knives’ violation of his siblings’ consent a driving force of the plot and what eventually screws him over.

i know this is a “yelling in the library and expecting not to be shushed” situation. you can’t take a piss in fandom without someone asking if you have a fetish.

but i really think we can stand to at least not keep putting square pegs in round holes, here.

yes, i know, you tag non-con with a slash too. but i’m not talking about shipping when i talk about knives violating the consent of vash and his sisters. those are two different modes of engaging with consent violation and relationships that involve it.

attraction and desire can be motives behind assault. but it’s not the only or even the most driving motivation. assault — violation of consent — is about power. having and exercising power over another. regardless of that’s to satisfy a personal desire or to force them to comply or just to hurt them.

(this is the same reason that using “pedophilia” as the catch-all it’s currently used as is rather than its actual definition is Fucking Stupid, but i digress)

when i discuss the metaphysical acts i refer to as analogous to rape, i am not saying that knives’ actions and his treatment of vash are driven by attraction (exclusively — that’s a conversation for another post) or that he fuses with his sisters to have an incestuous genocide orgy.

i’m saying that it’s extremely telling how knives treats his siblings, the acts of domination over them and the violation of their consent, their bodily autonomy, and their willpower, when his stated goal is to prevent humans from doing the same.

knives believes in power. that’s the only thing he believes in. and fundamentally, that’s why his attempts to “help” the dependent plants results in far more harm than good, and ultimately in failure.

he doesn’t understand freedom. he understands power. so for plants to be safe, in his eyes, there can be no humans that could hold power over them — the only one with the right to overpower them is him.

in vash’s case, the line blurs — vash is almost a whole, real person to him. he wants his cooperation, wants his company, he does desire him, in one way or another. but if vash won’t listen to him, won’t comply, won’t cede, won’t indulge in power for power’s sake [july incident, trimax] there’s no choice but to overpower him. consume him.

and the other reason i describe these events as assault, as rape — they are not just violations, not just acts of control. they have consequences. knives takes power from his siblings. keeps it, hoards it, so they have no way to challenge him. he literally consumes [trimax] and warps [stampede] his sisters’ bodies and destroys their homes. they cannot go back what they were before he raped them. and neither can vash — knives’ actions, nearly all of them, are designed to isolate vash. to make him terrified of his own body. to keep him from reaching out to humans. to give him nowhere to run but back to knives, knives who will stop hurting him, stop him from being hurt, if he’d just listen.

does knives love his siblings? yes. but when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. and when all you have are knives… well.

shipping is a what if. this is just what is.

[shockwavve]

Inspired by your recent tags…

How do you prefer to see Shockwave written, and why?

(I’m especially curious about IDW and TFP.)

Sorry I've had like 3 asks sitting in my askbox for forever now bc school has been kicking my ass 😭😭 but that post came up on my dash again and reminded me to answer this--

BUT UHHHH, so tbh I very strongly see Shockwave as either aroace or demiromantic & demisexual... like. Pretty much all iterations of him, ESPECIALLY IDW and TFP. TF:A is pretty much the only exception to this in which I could see him being closer to just allo... but still somewhere on the demi spectrum... and a loooot of ways I see him written in fanfic makes him very uhh... hmm how do I explain... doting?? Or very Affectionate or... well, all the things people like in a fluff fic.

And yanno that's fine, maybe that's some people's cup of tea but it's not mine. To me, Shocks is very very stoic and dry, even in relationships. I don't even like seeing him in the "stoic person who is soft with their s/o" trope because I just don't think Shockwave is a soft person, in any meaning of the word.

I could see him maybe, like... being slightly less stoic and more introspective and TALKATIVE with someone he likes... and LESS RUDE skdndks and more willing to spend time with them and LISTEN. That's how I prefer to see him written. Someone who is still very quiet and introverted and keeps to himself, even around the people he loves. Like, you know, sometimes he'll have days where he just... needs to be alone and needs you to leave him alone and if you want to be his partner you gotta be okay with that. But he'll also give you more time, speak softer, ramble about the things he's working on, have MORE PATIENCE with you, and... I think he would be more touchy in a very gentle way, like he's studying you.

But outside of that, any kind of gushy or lovey shockwave that says anything even somewhat adjacent to affectionate that isn't something ridiculously stiff like "I find you less miserable to be in company with" just rubs me the wrong way and gives me ick. I think the most affectionate thing I could see him saying is in whump. Like, a moment of desperation that could make him say "I need you", but I think "I love you" is not something he's ever going to be comfortable saying - he shows it, not says it.

TF:A Shockwave is the only one I can make an exception for but it's just because that boy is fucked up. TFA Shockwave is not capable of a healthy relationship SKDSJJDBSKSNS. He's either going to be controlling and possessive in a snakeish and insidious kind of way, or absolute unquestioning devotion. I just don't think TF:A shockwave is... like... as a PERSON capable of being in a healthy relationship unless he went to fucking therapy or had some kind of redemption arc in which case I would place him back in demi territory that is similar to the other descriptions I was talking about earlier.

Writing in GENERAL, without shipping involved? IDW shockwave is fucking insane. He is so so manipulative. He has a million equations and plans going on in his head at all times and he can and will save everyone for better or for worse - and he doesn't care what it takes to get there. That man isn't capable of any emotion except for pursuance of a goal, and maybe anger. Or, if he does feel emotion, it's very very dull and diluted. If he had it restored I think it would destroy him. I read a fic once where Rung accidentally restored his emotions and that one is very very good, I like that shockwave quite a bit.

TF:P Shockwave I think experiences emotions very much, but has a tendency to hide them because he's a very internal person. I don't think he will ever verbally express it, though, unless you REALLY piss him off. For the most part he's very stoic and blunt, and doesn't sugarcoat things... so he will be rude sometimes, but won't go out of his way to be. Some people write him way too cruel and it also rubs me the wrong way... but I also don't like seeing him written too nice either. He's doing his own thing and could really care less about what's going on around him, except for maybe Soundwave who I think he could work well with because of the matching intellect, and Megatron who I think he honestly just works with for the reliable material and the praise (and to piss off Starscream, who annoys him.) I think he can be petty, but doesn't go out of his way to be. I think he values his experiments very much, though, and sabotaging him is a surefire way to get him to try and kill you.

Basically, overall: unless we're talking about TFA Shockwave (who is goofy and cruel), I like a shockwave who is aloof, dry, passionate about what he does to a fault, doesn't talk a lot, respects those of similar intellect, does what he does either for knowledge or to pursue some "greater good", and isn't needlessly cruel. He can show some emotion but not too much, and expresses himself mostly through body language and actions, not words.

[nateriverswife]

Salutations.

First off; I would like to thank you for humoring my questions, by far. Having been in the fandom (Death Note) for quite a while can be daunting at times considering how persistent everyone is on certain views that, more often than not, contradicts the canon itself, though I do not mind the originality. Some of the questions you might remember answering from me would be;

1. How unfair it is for everyone in this fandom to go full autobiography mode on Light Yagami but wrote a piss poor characterisation of other characters.

2. L would not enjoy fighting for Justice under Light's idea

There might be more, but these two are the ones that I remember writing and asking.

I rather enjoy reading your point of views. Being an avid Lawlight shipper myself (which you might found dissapointing, and for that, I apologise) I found it rather... boring that most, if not all, were very insistent that L would join Light's side if given the opportunity while writing him very, very poorly. I enjoy these two through the energy they emitted while actively going against each other. Not when they shook hands and went about it all the same like a carousel ride.

Second: What is your opinion on the whole Wammy's House organisation debacle? On A and B? The whole Successor Programme?

I don't like it. Having being nurtured the same as these children does, I absolutely resented it. Partly because of how harmful the product of the whole environment, largely because of how it reflects the morale ground Quillsh Wammy stood and what he believes in. I despise men in suits, even more so than people in orange jumpers or stripped, black and white outfit.

(Call me E.H. I would like for us to be friends. Mutuals.)

Please, E.H., I would be honoured to be mutuals, but how could you betray me like this? Mid-message? Dropping a bomb of that size on me and my blog?

Seriously, though, I would like that. I will overlook this little flaw of yours, because not everyone can be perfect, and I will accept you with open arms.

Okay. Really dropping the act this time. You don’t have to apologies for shipping them, even though I suppose it was more ironic than anything. I already have mutuals that are like you. I filtered out the various tags concerning L/Light – there are a lot of variations –, and I am fine.

I will survive if I add one more… Hopefully — but I think, in this case, it is more of a “probably”, because you do seem to share some of my views on the whole manga/anime and that means we have some common ground, even though I believe that is not that difficult.

I am really glad you like reading my long-ass posts, because I do enjoy writing it. I actually was waiting for some kind of feedback from you, because, truthfully, I wasn’t sure if your opinions were supposed to be just published without any input from me or if you actually wanted me to say something.

I was both confused (didn’t understand why you decided specifically my blog, since it’s not that well know) and delighted by them.

In any case, I am happy to see this message, especially the last part. You are the first person on here who explicitly stated the wish for my friendship. I didn’t expect that at all. I’ve been told that I seem intimidating, and I still don’t get why, so seeing that someone isn’t put off by this, it’s a nice feeling.

I will now get to your questions, and the post is going to be long, because it’s on a topic that I am actually working on and wanted to do a post of my own, but felt like, “why would people care?”, so I am glad that you do.

PREMISE

I need to do a premise before, because I feel like this is relevant to understanding my opinion.

I would love to kick myself in the face every time I happen to mention it (even though I do so to help my motivation), because it seems that I bring it up so many times and it’s making me annoyed, like, “can this bitch (me) just shut the fuck up already?”. However, it’s important in this context.

I am writing a fanfiction about the Wammy’s House, during L’s years there. And, since I am doing this, my idea of the Wammy’s House is crafted in a way that can make my story work, but I do realize this, so I will try to eliminate all my OCs’ stuff (I think I’ll mention them), even though I still believe that some roles or events I have created can be considered plausible (not canon, of course), because they help explain some things that I noticed about L while reading the manga.

Another thing is that this is a work in progress and while I have an outline for the plot, a lot of things about the Wammy’s are still not definitive. So, everything I say is not set in stone. [This question also made me realise that I made a huge error when it comes to the timeline of my fanfic, which screwed up half of the outline, but thank you.]

Other than this, Ohba left a wide-open door for any interpretation of Watari and the Wammy’s, because he didn’t think too much about them. He just wrote them in for plot purposes and never developed them properly, so anything goes, theoretically, so maybe I will be a bit more lenient on both. I don’t deny the possibility of them being pretty fucked up, because I cannot say that what I think is completely backed by canon. To each their own, but since you have experienced a similar environment, I had to preface this, because my view on it doesn’t adhere to the reality of some of these institutions, and I don’t want you to believe that I’m oblivious to the real-life problems that occur.

I think I took more liberty here, because I had few things to start from, and I’m really fond of the idea that the people (Roger and Watari too) at the Wammy’s were like a family, with its ups and downs (more downs than ups – even in my fic, so I realise that not everything is all peaches and cream). It’s just the wishful thinking of my younger self that so desperately wanted to be part of that world, and I have a hard time getting rid of it.

I must also say that most of my choices regarding the Wammy’s structure and organisation is based on “gut feeling”/intuition. More often than not, I feel if something is right or wrong, even though I can’t pinpoint exactly what’s the reason for that. I just have the impression that something must be in a certain way, and if I don’t comply to this, it just feels uncomfortable until I fix it.

WATARI & ROGER

I want to start from them to explain exactly what I think of these two, particularly their past and what led them to create the Wammy’s.

Reference to another post I wrote – headcanons about Roger – but you needn’t to read it, since I am going to repeat it here, and it talks more about their relationship than the Wammy’s.

In my mind, Watari was both a professor and an inventor. The professor job needed to provide for him before his inventions took off and gave him enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life, since it seems that he was quite rich, even before L gained something.

So, together with Roger, who was his assistant, he was in close contact with different types of students and noticed the disparity between those who can study and have the resources and those who don’t them but have the abilities to continue. Of course, they couldn’t intervene in the private business of these people. Instead, they discussed knowledge, intelligence, and the social economic situation of England (and later around the world) that didn’t allow young kids, especially orphans, to develop themselves and their abilities, since they didn’t have the means.

Not trusting the state institutions with their money, they decided to take matters into their own hands and had in mind to create an orphanage that had an internal school, so they can provide them resources and knowledge, without making them sacrifice any of those.

But then a dilemma appeared: “what if some kids can learn faster than others and we end up slowing them down?”

[learn faster than others – because “prodigy” doesn’t mean anything when it comes to orphans that don’t have resources or any help from adults.]

And from that dilemma, the Wammy’s House was born. It was a specific type of the institution they had in mind, which was meant for those who seemed more capable than others.

It’s said that Watari owns different orphanages, but they are not talked about like the Wammy’s, so it’s safe to assume the main difference is this one – what kind of kids are there and what they learn.

About Roger, I honestly think that the “he hates kids” was added to have some sort of comedic effect. However, if it was meant to be taken seriously, and I do consider it canon, there are two reasons to me:

He began to hate them, as he continued to work at the Wammy’s, because they pulled pranks on him. He’s not fierce – shown to us by how he responded to Mello grabbing him and how he stopped Mello from bothering another kid. He is quite passive and not confrontational, so I believe he was an easy target for the kids, and he grew to despise their behaviour and to be quite afraid of them in a way, because, while he tried to stop Mello, his attempt was shallow. I don’t think this is because he didn’t care, but because Mello was angry at him, and his explosive nature made him cautious.

Romantic reason: the kids, and especially L, took Watari from him Watari was too occupied with his work that he almost forgot what he and Roger had. That obviously pained Roger and he began to resent the situation and those who stole him and his attention. That would explain why their relationship grew cold, because we don’t see Roger communicate with Watari once, so it means that something happened that drove them apart, aka these kids got in between.

No matter what the reason is, Roger tries to be emotionally distant from them. I have this trope that I associate with him of the grumpy old man having to deal with a kid because of circumstances he cannot control, and he grows attached to them, wanting to protect them at best of his abilities. This is my wishful thinking, but I believe he has those moments in which he thinks, “maybe they are not that bad”, and they then do something that makes him annoyed, and he’s like, “never mind”.

Watari is emotionally not present too, not because he doesn’t want to be involved, but because he is still an inventor before becoming L’s right hand indefinitely and full-time, so he has to fulfil that role and be involved in that community to promote his stuff, to develop it, and etc. Also, the Wammy’s and the other orphanages are relatively new in my opinion, because he first established them when he’s around 40-45, so a few years before L was born, and he has to make sure they all work as he wants to, and he has to make connections so he can find these kids to bring to the Wammy’s. So, he has a lot on his plate. For this reason, if the kids need to talk to him, they have to go through Roger and get a date and an hour for when he is avaliable. Roger says that if it's urgent, they can talk to him, but they are like, "no, thanks", aka they would rather eat cold and raw food for the rest of their lives.

WAMMY’S HOUSE

Location

I have actually thought about this for a long time, and even wrote a post (after I finished this section, I noticed that I was repeating word for word what I had put here, so please, consider reading it for all the reasons).

Littleton, in the north-west part of Winchester.

I know I’m kind of going the extra mile by doing this, but I’ve always done it for every structure I had to write something about, so the Wammy’s gets a real-life location too.

The actual true reason for which I chose this location is because it’s near big fields, and I needed that for plot purposes, but even without considering that, it seems to fit what we know about L’s life there.

He played tennis – there’s a tennis court 20 minutes by foot from there. Relevant that it’s by foot, because I imagined that Watari couldn’t constantly leave the Wammy’s with L for long periods of time and multiple times a week. He had other affairs to attend to, aside from his responsibility at the Wammy’s.

A’s suicide – there’s a church where he can be buried. It can be reached by foot, so the kids could attend his funeral. I also have a morbid headcanon that B took his body from his grave. I also liked to tie the church to L hearing bells before he dies, so this closeness would make it possible for everyone inside the Wammy’s to hear them.

Big space – because the Wammy’s seems to be pretty big by the manga panels we have, and I have a specific idea of how it’s structured, both its exterior and interior, so it was necessary to have many hectares available.

Structure

I made floor plans. I started this a while ago and never actually completed it, because the site I was using was infuriating, but I found an app, and managed to copy what I had done in the other one. I forgot to change the names of the rooms, because I created this to help me visualise the setting of my fic, so ignore them for now (I will point out some names there, just to explain one thing). Don't mind that they are two different sizes, because the app didn't let me make some of the furniture smaller, so I had to enlarge the rooms, so that's why the first floor is bigger.

It’s not definitive, because I still don’t understand where I should put their stairs – or if to put them, ‘cause based on Mello and L’s egos, they already think so highly of themselves that I don’t think they need a staircase to reach the first floor.

In my fic, I didn’t explicitly state where they are supposed to be. I’m letting the readers figure that one out for me, while I just stick to say if they go down or up them. The main problem is not if they should face or not the entrance, because they have to, but where the hell are on the first floor? My gut feeling keeps making me image them next to Lex’s room, but that doesn’t make sense and would be pretty ugly on the ground floor – they would be too close to the entrance, and I hate it. So, I’m just going to ignore it, until it becomes a problem, which I doubt because I’m the one writing this, and nobody is going to police every single detail.

The two unnamed bedrooms on the ground floor are for people that work there (cooks, cleaning staff or the nurse) that can’t go home for reasons.

In my fic, one of the rooms is always vacant, because I imagine that the employees are near the Wammy’s, so they don’t need to stay there, and it is a storage closet, with all of things – costumes and decorations for all kinds.

It’s a pretty big institution. The size of the rooms might not give that away, but it’s big. It has high ceilings, and the classrooms and bedrooms are longer than wider, but they are still very spacious. When I write and imagine it, even it’s from the perspective of small children, I envision everything to be comfortable even for older kids.

I couldn’t add everything I think it has, so I’ll just list them:

A small football field on the left with two benches, so the kids can rest.

Some big trees next the corners of the garden and some bushes here and there.

A stone path from the main entrance to the gate.

A shed on the right, with all the gardening tools.

The interior might not coincide with the way it is portrayed in the manga panels, but I like to imagine that after A’s death and L’s parting, things got restructured and the internal organisation changed.

Internal organisation - from the year it was founded to 1993, so even during L’s years there

I placed L’s arrival in 1988, when he’s about to turn 9, because L is shown to us to be in relatively light clothing in the one-shot “L: The Wammy’s House”, so it can’t be after 31st October. Winchester usually has a high of 11° and a low of 4° in November, and 8° and 2° in December, so I don’t see why he would be dressed up like that.

And 1993, because he says to Light that he stayed in England for 5 years, which also means that he is not from there. I headcanon him to be born in Scotland, because it’s hilarious to think he has a Scottish accent that he hides – “Bang! if Ah was kira, yoo'd be deid.” | “Looks loch someain drapped thes ceel phain in th' crowd earlier.” and so on. It’s so funny. And also, it kind of makes sense why he wasn’t in England before and why he knows standard English. He could also be from Northern Ireland, but he gives me Scottish vibes.

1993 is also the year in which I place A’s death. I don’t follow the timeline from Another Note, because I cannot imagine A and B being younger than L. I’ll talk about this later.

ENTRY

The first requisite for the kids to be brought to the Wammy’s is to show that they are more able than other (as in “able to learn to a faster speed” or show some specific ability), and they usually are kids that were in another orphanage already. Watari has a wide social network and, to me, he’s called by the people in charge of those institutions (that could be his, like he just owns it and is contact with the ones who take care of it) when they realise a kid’s ability. For this reason, rarely there are kids who are very young, and I put that the second requisite is that they have to be at least 5 years old, because the school inside it goes only from elementary school to high school.

Only in exceptional circumstances, the Wammy’s House takes on younger kids, e.g., if they are in danger and the Wammy’s is the closest place where they can stay. However, after everything is settled (a matter of a few days), they are transferred to other orphanages administrated by Watari if they are that young. They still can come back, when they are older, but it’s a lot more work to look after toddlers or pre-schoolers.

After passing the entry exam, all the kids have their own personal folders with all their existing documents – birth certificate, medical records, etc. – that will be given back to them once they leave the Wammy’s House.

While the whole letter system becomes a thing when L appears, the kids still have to choose their alias, because some of them surely have a troubled past and choosing a new name is a fresh start, as if the bad things that happened to them can’t reach them anymore inside those walls. Since making only some choose it would make them stood out, it is implemented as a general rule, and even Watari does it so it isn't seen as a bad thing.

ENTRY EXAM

To enter the Wammy’s House, there is an exam. Since every one of the kids that are sent here is with the idea that they are more able, the admission rate is 100%.

The exam covers different abilities: raging from knowledge the orphan should possess for their age to difficult stuff (this knowledge is chosen based on the national curriculum for students up to 18 years old), and it includes other scopes (e.g., musical, artistic, etc. – to understand if they have an inclination to something or if they are interested in that).

There is also a social part. Since they live into a community, it’s good to understand how to live with others. If they don’t pass this part, it doesn’t mean they get automatically excluded, but it can lower their position a bit.

There is an obvious fallacy, because if they theoretically know how to behave towards others, it doesn’t mean they employ that behaviour. In fact, most of the kids “know” how to act in a community, but they have some behavioral issues, and the higher they are in the grade system, the worse they are. I like the irony I created, so I’m keeping it in.

This exam focuses more on the thought process than the result.

THE GRADE SYSTEM

I created a system made by 6 grades + 1, which is called “Apex”.

All of them have a basic requirement in knowledge.

The first three (1 is the lowest, 3 is the highest) are more socially oriented and coincide to elementary and middle school. They mostly teach kids social skills, so they can work all together to get to a common objective, aka pass the grade. They focus on play, conversation, emotional intelligence and problem-solving skills.

When developing this, Watari thought it would be quite easy to pass it, but he was wrong. He found out that letting the kids try the test – which is, like, a presentation, a competition and a debate – every year created more hatred between them, so he had to add another year, so they could defuse these feelings and make them understand that cooperation is the best option.

The result here is not that important. The most important part is how they got there and how they all behaved towards each other, which should be inclusive. And, while the kids can maybe work better together as a class or big groups and pass the first two with ease, grade 3 is tricky. Not because the curriculum is hard, but because they need to find a person and trust that they are on the same page as them, but not everyone is eager to get to the new grade.

It never happened for someone of the age 13 to still be in the grade 3, so it was never a problem to “what if they remain there until they become 18?”, because Wammy’s existence is short at this point in time, and usually they find someone, but, in case it happens, Watari has a plan B and it’s individual classes to teach them what they should know at their age. They are still in grade 3 and they still have to do the debate with someone else, but if they pass it, depending on how much they have learnt, they can also do the exam to get to grade 5 or skip the classes about the things they already know, because the other three grades (4 is the lowest, 6 is the highest) are more individualistic. They don’t have to work with the others to pass it, so here is more important the result.

The last “grade” is not a grade, but a category. These are those who fulfilled all the requirements and are “free” to do whatever they want. It’s like they finished high school. They are not required to go to class or take some exams, unless they ask to get a degree or a master, in which case, if they need it, a professor is called to assist them and then, an external qualified examinator to test them and their knowledge. But, other than that, they are completely free.

CLASSES AND TEACHERS

Classes are semi-mandatory, and everyone is greatly encouraged to take part to all of them. Watari may even talk to those who deems more needing to be present, which are usually those in the first grades, especially if they misbehave or show anti-social behaviour.

For the first grades, there is one teacher per grade for every subject, since the syllabus is not hard. They are of course specialized in those parts. This choice was made for consistency and to create a great bond with them, since having different teachers might throw off the dynamics that exist within the class.

For the other grades, since the topics are harder, there is a different teacher for subject.

School time is a bit different from the one for the public school:

Youth Month represents the start of summer break.

Classes are resumed in September.

They have all the other breaks like Easter, Christmas and so on.

The classes are from Monday to Friday, and every student has their own timetable that may or may not coincide with those who share their same grade – it depends on what they know already, determined by a test at the end of every quarter.

ACTIVIES

Youth Month

For this, I took inspiration from youth games in Italy, which is basically an event that promotes inclusivity, sport, healthy competition, and social relations.

It’s in May, and every Sunday there is a different activity in which pairs compete. There are two different competitions based on age: 7-12; 13-17.

In 1989, I put that:

May 7: three legs run.

May 14: relay race.

May 21: treasure hunt.

May 27: cops and robbers (the last game is divided into two big groups to give a chance to gain a lot of points for those who didn’t until then).

In 1990, the only change I made is that the third game is table tennis, since it was raining outside.

Holidays

Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas, and New Year's Eve are the main holidays that are celebrated inside the Wammy's, because even though I believe that Watari is Christian and the orphanage has an affiliation to Christianity, I don’t think he indoctrinate the kids. That would go against the core of the Wammy’s in my opinion, because kids are supposed to think critically and accepting the existence of God without questioning it is not. They can always turn to that religion if they feel close to it, but it’s not mandatory. They don’t go to Church (imagine two old gay men having to make sure 30+ kids don’t destroy it every Sunday) nor celebrate other very Christian holidays, like Easter. They might have a feast, but it’s not publicly associated to the resurrection of Jesus.

This is a choice I made based on the fact that nobody showcases any belief in any type of supernatural entities. Mello wears a rosary, and it seems more symbolic than him actually believing and practicing the religion. I associate it to his mother, who I like to headcanon as a devoted Christian, since Eastern Europe/Balkans are very, extremely, to a worrying extent religious, to the point that people would rather go to church or call a priest home and pray instead of visiting a doctor to cure any kind of injury.

[Tangent: and the church as an institution seems like the mafia. I happened to be home in Romania when the priest and his helpers had to bless our home and they made us kneel in the dark with torches in hand. We had to kiss his ring and give him money, and it’s not like a voluntary contribution. It’s pretty much blackmailing, because if you don’t “donate”, they have the right to give your place in the graveyard to someone else, and they write it down how much you paid to see if it’s enough when you die. If it is not, your kids or relatives have to pay. It’s wild. It’s not everywhere like this, but the church is quite shady, at least in Romania, and they brainwashed people, especially older ones, to devote everything to them. It's insane.]

Halloween:

I put that a few days before Halloween one of the older kids is appointed to go around the Wammy’s and take notes of what the kids would love to eat (candies) and what they want to dress up as. Everything is done in the realm of possibilities. Watari is going to buy the costumes he can find. Usually, they are passed down from one person to another, so during L’s years, there have been enough requests to have pretty much the ones that are more common, and the only change is to make them fit the new person wearing it. Kids like also to be crafty, like for a mummy costume, they are going to use toilet paper and so on. It’s more about the candies, because he needs to buy something they will like.

In the first part of the day, Watari calls some outsiders to help him decorate the Wammy’s and carve pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns. Some kids give a hand, but the others are more preoccupied with their costumes.

The party usually starts at 17:30, after they take a group photo under the “Hallowe’en XXXX” banner over their head. They then play games and just do their things, while eating candies and other sweets. At 19, there is a feast. After that, Watari or Roger tell the kids some age-appropriate scary stories, and at 21, Littleton has fireworks, but you really have to be lucky to see them, aka it doesn’t have to rain, and it usually does.

Since trick and treat wasn’t popular in UK until the late 80s-early 90s, I put that the kids at the Wammy’s experienced it for the first time in 1992. Watari didn’t understand it at first, because he was the one to buy candies for the kids, so why would they need to go to someone else? (Poor grandpa, feeling replaced).

Christmas:

I wanted to do something different. Watari doesn’t ask the kids what they might want, but tries to surprise them, showing that he knows them, so that he can make up for all the time he isn’t present, which is a lot. He buys the gifts and places them under the tree in the main hall. After the kids open them, they take again a group photo next to the tree and the kids have all their presents in their hand, showing them to the camera. It’s very cozy and calm holiday. They have a big feast, and the kids are let playing with their new toys. They even watch some Christmas movies.

New Years’s Eve:

Watari doesn’t prepare anything special, other than a feast. There are fireworks, and that's it.

Valentine’s day:

There are two types, for those older than 14 and those younger, because I think the Wammy’s is strict when it comes to romance (mostly about PDA), which is not that serious at that age. But it’s an important part of growing up and they cannot go around fearmongering that liking someone in a romantic sense is bad. That would defeat the purpose of the first 3 grades. If you can’t like someone in that way, then you can’t even get near them, as to avoid the possibility of that feeling to develop.

Generally, everyone gets chocolates and candies, but they are also required to write a nice card to someone else. This person is chosen by extraction – done by Watari, who can pretend that is random, but it’s actually not.

In my fic, they usually write stupid things, like “you are funny”, but some of them get someone they have petty rivalry with, and so they write backhanded compliments, because they can go to Watari and complain about the card, and the sender can just lie that they meant it, that it’s all in good faith.

Those that are older than 14 can ask Watari a gift to buy to someone, but of course, it’s fucking embarrassing to go and ask him that, so they usually just gift their sweets to that person and do a hand-made card for them, if they feel like it. Only those that are braver go to ask him to buy a rose, a special card or something.

Stargazing

I added this activity for the summer break, in which they all gather in a nearby field and look at the sky on some specific days.

There is also an astronomer called by Watari that can answer their question, but the reason for this was to let the kids feel a bit freer and not confined within the gates of the Wammy’s, especially the younger ones that can’t go to the recreational ground. They can play some games there, but usually they just lay on the ground and talk with each other. There is a telescope they can use.

Recreational ground

There’s a park near the Wammy’s – 20 minutes by foot, but they usually use bicycles to get there.

Only those age 13 or up can go there. They can’t go alone, but always with someone. If someone age 11 or up wants to go, they need to be accompanied by someone age 16 or up, because those of 13-14-15 might not pay attention to them that much, even if they say, “yes, of course”.

For extra measure, Watari has the numbers of those who live near the park, that can contact him in case something happens. Those under 11 can’t go there under no circumstances. I decided this because the roads that take to the park are not safe for riding bicycles, and there is an age limit for doing that on the road.

Other than the necessary stuff for riding the bicycles, they have a tag with the number of the Wammy’s and a bag with Wammy’s insignia on it, because I did create it. It was just a vision in my mind, but I did a draft using picsart and color, so here you go. It’s not well made, since the lines of the ribbon banner are not straight. The ribbon banner I took from Google had such a bad quality that I could see each pixels (like in the first picture), so I had to draw over the border to make it more full.

The picture on the left was the first version.

The first idea was to have a W with an H behind it, like this.

But I decided to change it, also because it has all the letters of Watari.

Everything that is propriety of the Wammy’s House has this on.

SUCCESSOR PROGRAMME

Premise

First and foremost, I don’t like the idea of Watari being the one to impose it on everyone, without any regard for what they want to do, because I think he’s experienced enough with kids to know that you can't just force them to do something. They won’t. You can coerce them by using violence and threats, but none of the kids that we know of showcase any sign of being physically abused.

It’s also important to note that not everyone in the Wammy’s is competitive. Mello is the only one who wants to be at the top. Matt and Linda don’t care, and neither does Near. He is just first because he is that smart. However, this is after.

Competitiveness is more prevalent in the system I had created, because being in the Apex means not having to follow classes or have to listen to teachers. That’s the prime reason for why people want to reach it. It’s not about prestige, because I don’t think the kids, especially younger ones, have that concept wired in their brain. And usually, as a self-preservation technique, people tend to consider negative something they cannot reach/have and that opinion is automatically applied to those who can enjoy it, which makes them want to stay away from it so nobody thinks that of them, but if they had the chance to join it, they would take it in a heartbeat.

E.g., imagine someone that wants to go to a water park, but they find out that the entrance costs a lot or it’s far away. They are more likely to think, “well, it wasn’t that good to being with” or that it’s only for rich bastards or something, rather than accept that it just happens. They will even talk badly about it to others. However, if they manage to get in, they will enjoy every second of it.

So, in this case, while advancement is okay, getting to the higher position is pretty much a curse, because if you act in a certain way that is redeemed rude, then the reason is considered to be your status.

In my fic, when A and B got in to the Apex, people started to have a negative opinion of them. They have always been on their own, but since they are now reserved AND in the Apex, then it’s because they think too highly of themselves and less of others, which makes people find them some times annoying, even when they are doing nothing wrong. They might still interact with them nicely, but that doesn’t mean they like them.

Secondly, the general theme of the Death Note is that people are responsible for their own downfall in a way, so I’m going to follow that when it comes to its establishment and organisation.

L's idea

Unlike others in the fandom, I consider A and B to be older than L (4 years apart), so the successor programme was first tasted out when L was living there. Decided this because I want him to see what he caused, and for the reasons in the post I hyperlinked.

I have a kind of specific yet not definitive idea of how L’s life before the Wammy’s was. I won’t write all down because I don’t think it’s that important. The only part that is, is the fact that he managed to stop a terroristic attack to get Watari’s attention, because “go big or go home”, and he was the one who decided to establish the successor programme.

Establishment

When he arrived at the Wammy’s, he wanted immediately to get down to business, and asked Watari to talk to the smartest people there: A and B, together.

L introduced the idea for “when I’m away”, as in “when I am taking a break” – because I imagine him to ramble about his career to Watari in the days they stayed together before going back to the Wammy’s and on the 8-10 hours long trip, and Watari pointed out to him that he needed to have time to play/free time, and L said that he was right, that he’d put someone in his place for that time, he’d teach them what he knew, because he was very good at it, he was basically justice itself for how many things he knew – but A and B took that as in “when he dies”.

It was in that moment that L took everything more seriously. They talked for hours. A and B asked him lots of questions about that project, the possibility of that to happen, and how to make sure that it can last for a long time.

And while the conversation started as more of an abstract idea, after L showed them what he managed to do, they were both impressed and eager to learn to be able to do the same. They too had an interest in solving riddles, and… C’mon, it’s cool to be a detective, especially one that was supposed to be the greatest.

They discussed the technicalities and decided not to limit themselves only to two members, so that’s how the successor programme was actually created. It was also A and B to decide their own names, because they said that, since he’s called L, they too should have they own letters, and, while talking, they said, “I would be an alternative” and “if you are that, then I’ll be your backup”, so that’s how they got them.

Basically, it started with L, but A and B became co-owners of this programme in a way, and L didn’t mind it, because they were older than him, seemed wiser, and he looked up to them in a way.

For the others, the letters were chosen in two different ways: the first five smartest people there would be the first letters of the alphabet, while the others would have their own letter based on their real name, because five people were enough.

And I say, “smartest people”, but A and B advised L to look for other qualities other than that, because you can have someone that is extremely intelligent, but if they are extremely reckless too, then that detective persona is doomed to fail.

All three of them talked to kids in grades 4-5-6 and the Apex (in my fic, there are other two people here) about this project, but they weren’t obliged to accept. They let L speak, who explained what they were planning to do, showed them what he did, and gave them the choice to accept or not. If they didn’t accept, they would ask them to not divulge the information they discussed. In my fic, no one actually says no, because they think it’s awesome.

In case they accepted, he granted them a wish, something that he would fulfil, so that, if they wouldn’t get chosen, at least they wouldn’t think they wasted time. It’s a quality I noticed in L, while reading the manga. I explained it in my long post about the characters: he compensates his actions, which I think it’s something he picked up as he started to be interested in solving cases (before he arrived at the Wammy’s), because he saw what criminals had to do after they got caught doing something bad, and wasting people’s time is bad.

So, everyone had a choice and L, initially, worked mostly with the first five people in the successor programme, but not immediately.

In my fic, there is the MC that tries to destroy him and his project, but even without her, it makes sense that he would take time, years even, to make sure this project can operate without any vulnerabilities. He’s far-sighted and took things more seriously, thanks to A and B’s inputs, so he wanted to create a solid foundation for this detective persona and the project.

However, he didn’t spend all his time thinking about that, because he is also a child, so he experienced a bit of his childhood: he participated in Wammy’s activities, played with the other kids, spent his time picking and giving up interests, etc. He even had tennis practices and tournaments, so it’s not like he just solved cases. He still did – smaller ones – but not all the goddamn time. He was also into stocks, and he had to pay attention to that too.

To me, he started when he was 12-13 to solve them periodically, but not publicly, just to have some credibility in the eyes of England’s law enforcement, that could then recommend him to other national law enforcement, slowly building up his empire.

There wasn’t this urgency or this pressure to be like him. It was like a long-period plan that still had to show its fruits. L wouldn’t even tell all the members everything he solved – just the first five, because he would give them the case files to practice their skills.

ALTERNATIVE / A

So, he was older than L and participated to the establishment of the successor programme.

For the first years, he didn’t actually think too much about it, but as he was slowly approaching being 18, he started to have doubts about his abilities, because, as said before, L gave him case files to solve and he wasn’t able to get any of them entirely right. He still didn’t want to admit defeat and be a disappointment in the other eyes’, so he tried times and times again. This had an impact on his mental health, of course.

L noticed this change in attitude and told him that he can switch places with B. He had no problem with it, but A, instead of admitting that he wasn’t fit for the position, preferred to argue with him, damaging their relation.

The situation was really heavy for him, and since telling the truth was worse than anything else, his first attempt to leave it was by running away from the Wammy’s. That didn’t go well, because B, with a group of people there, managed to find him. A invented some kind of excuse, that he was being followed and didn’t want to bring them to the orphanage. B didn’t buy it, and they too started to argue.

So, in that case, telling the truth was worse than death and he couldn’t bear the idea of being a complete failure, and killed himself.

That’s how I see how things went, more or less. And L was blamed for it. The successor programme was interrupted, and some of them decided not to participate anymore, even though they could always return, once and if it would be resumed.

L left the Wammy’s the same year, before turning 14, which is important, because B kills a 13-years old girl by bashing her head, and that what I think he wanted to do to L (in my fic, it’s him and the MC, but whatever) at that time, but couldn’t.

In my fic, A’s name at the Wammy’s is Natal, because it means birth/birthday. And B’s name is Elioenai, which means “towards him are my eyes”. Now, this can have different interpretations: the “eyes” could mean the Shinigami eyes and “him” could be Natal, or L. I am not sure how much I consider him having the Shinigami eyes to be canon. It’s an interesting concept, but I don’t understand how that would be possible, like what led to that and what else does it mean for B? Is he part Shinigami? Or his mother had wild sex with a Shinigami, that then got some type of punishment by the King, because it’s against the rules?

I don’t know, so I don’t count them as canon, to be honest. Cool, but I don’t get it.

For me, Beyond Birthday means also “After Natal”.

BEYOND BIRTHDAY / B

I don’t believe he went completely insane after A’s death. In my mind, he was always kind of shady, ruthless, based on survival instinct and self-preservation. He had an attachment to A, but he had no problem to consider him also a tool that he could use and then discard, if he needed to. He loved him, but he always prioritized himself, at the end of the day.

I associate to them the betrayal trope - Was It All a Lie?

If things went differently and A became L, that would not last long, because B would kill him so that he could succeed him, and nobody would question it, because they wouldn’t know what truly happened.

A’s death screwed up his plan and blamed L for it. He wanted to take his place, but he first needed his detective persona to be well established. He let L do the hard work to create it. A mostly gave some inputs to help him, while B supervised it, to make sure that everything was going according to his plan.

Since A was chosen as first successor, he couldn’t convince him to switch places, because he didn’t want him and L to have the impression that he really wanted that.

He honestly believed that L would be the first one to crack, because he was younger, but when A died and the project stalled for an indefinite period of time, he couldn’t take it. He planned his life to go in a certain way, but now L wouldn’t work as L anymore for an indefinite time, making no progress, and the project was a big question mark, without any information on when or if it would be resumed? That made him see red.

If he couldn’t become L, then nobody deserved it, and he decided to impersonate L and ruin his career. If he had managed to kill himself in Another Note, while Misora still believed him to be L, then that would’ve had irreparable damages to L’s credibility (Misora would tell Raye, who would tell to the FBI, and etc.), and L would’ve needed a lot of time to get that trust back.

That’s one of my interpretations of the LABB case, because I can’t really explain why B decided to that. We take for granted that the Another Note is canon, given also the praise by Ohba, but… It’s not. I have a hard time to consider things about L published after the manga conclusion canon, because they usually follow the fandom’s reaction. I consider the two one shots about Near canon, because Near has never had the same kind of fanbase L did and does, so it’s easy to not be influenced by what other people think.

In Another Note’s case, it’s also written by someone else and, even though it might be weird to say it, it’s a fanfiction in my eyes, that Ohba considers canon because he is lazy, and couldn’t come up with any type of case L solved. He said that himself.

I pick and choose, basically. I could also throw Another Note out the window, with A and B, and pretend they don’t even exist, and I wouldn’t be “wrong” in doing so, but I like them, even though some parts of the novel leave me confused, because it contradicts the canon.

AFTER A'S DEATH

I haven’t thought about this too much. I have just a general idea of the fact that the orphanage got restructured in some way, but don’t know what exactly changed. It’s just my gut feeling telling me that, as well as saying that the grade system got replaced by a simple graduation list, who ranked the kids based on points they gathered during the year by doing tests, and etc. Can’t go in-depth, because there is nothing here that I actually explored. It isn’t important in my fic, so I haven’t paid too much attention to that. I might start to think about it in the future, but I still want to submit my answer.

It gets tricky when it comes to who decided that Mello and Near are meant to be his successors. It makes sense that it would be something imposed to them, but they seem to want it. Near takes on the title of his successor and even tells Light that he is that, meaning that he does not despise it. Mello clearly wants to be the best, and the best in his eyes is L, and I think this is due to the fact that L, during their time, is an established figure in the world and they want to be like him. He came from the Wammy’s, which tells them that they can reach that level of grandiosity.

In the 2013 “It’s not about justice" one-shot, it said that some of the kids lose respect for L and keep their distance, so it is not mandatory for everyone to be part of the successor programme. Maybe even here, it’s mainly for the best in the institution, so that position was offered to Near, Mello and Matt (third in line).

Mello accepted for obvious reasons. Near because he likes to solve puzzles. Matt because, “yeah, why not”, but never believed that he would ever end up actually taking on that role, because Mello was in front of him.

Here, they are not given letters in an alphabetical order, so there isn’t a first or a second for L’s position (it exists only inside the Wammy’s), and it ties well with what I said before about A and B. A felt like he needed to become L and couldn’t back down or ask for help because he was "A", but now, who feels fit will take on L’s role and can also work with the other, without feeling like they need to do things alone.

I doubt L would make the same mistake twice and impose such job on only one person. Besides, I don’t think L believed to die that young, so while they taught them some important skills to be a detective, the idea was that they will become L later in life – in their 40/50s. Unfortunately, L died young and so even the successors were young.

Maybe it’s just naivety on my part, and the interpretation of the majority in this fandom of the Wammy’s House, Watari and the Successor Programme is more accurate than mine.

Of course, characters’ individual experience of the Wammy’s can be absolutely horrendous and they are not fond of the institution, but I don’t think Wammy’s House was born or became as something meant to create copies of L, especially because Near and Mello’s, as well as Matt and Linda’s, personalities and thought processes aren’t a carbon copy of his. They are their own people, in some way.

That’s all I had to say. I think I wrote enough to get a grasp of my idea of everything, even though there are some parts that I did not disclose or aren’t definitive. So, keep that in mind – I might as well wake up one day and decide to consider Wammy’s a factory of Ls, that resembles the common depiction of Hell in cartoons, but I highly doubt it.

Hope you like it. Let me know. And thank you for the ask, as always.

I kept thinking who you might be, based on when you sent the asks and my notifications around that time – maybe to find a correlation (e.g., you read something I wrote and thought of talking about that) – and I identified some accounts. Some of them are mutuals, that I can now exclude. The other non-mutuals that ship L/Light but have views that are different from yours. So, when I said that maybe I know who you might be, I think I was wrong, so I am quite curious to find out the truth.

Take care, E.H.

[thebiscuiteternal]

got tagged by both @mostlikelytofangirl and @jaimebluesq, so i guess i'm not getting out of it.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

107, unless you were to count the chapters of the big archive separately, in which case 234 (oof).

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 706,507

3. What fandoms do you write for?

On my own wherewithal, I'm pretty entrenched in MDZS. But by request, I'll still write for MLP, Madoka Magica, (with some reluctance) Voltron, and others.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Including the archive feels like cheating to me, so just on standalone stories:

Cracked and Scratched, Not Broken - Super Danganronpa 2 - 581

Another Cute Animal Video - Tiger and Bunny - 536

The Puppetmaster Moves The War - Star Wars - 401

And One In the Cage - Mo Dao Zu Shi - 392

Finding Balance - Tiger and Bunny - 379

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

I didn't used to when I first started on Ao3 (I did all the time on Livejournal), but I'm starting to be more open, especially if someone has a question about the characterization or worldbuilding.

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

(scratches head) Good question. Probably... either All Your Sins on Display (Instead of Nie Mingjue, it's Nie Huaisang's death Jin Guangshan demands, and though Jin Guangyao goes through with it, he immediately regrets it, especially when Huaisang's unwitting ghost appears) or Broken-Down Fairytale (Tarvek and Anevka Sturmvoraus dealing with her impending death as a result of their father's obsession with The Other).

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

Mmmmh.... I dunno what the objectively happiest ending is, but the one that made me the happiest for the characters was Medical. Allura has her mom back, Coran's managed to reconnect with some old friends and is in a comfortable relationship with Shiro, and Zarkon's dead and the Empire is on the back foot.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've had a few run-ins with the weird Huaisang hater that pops up every now and then, but nah, not really. I used to get more in my LJ days.

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

Not anymore. I was never particularly good at it and I mostly was just writing it for easy attention anyway. Best I leave it to those who actually have some skill.

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

I do occasionally if an idea nests long enough, but not nearly as often as I used to. Probably my oldest and weirdest one was in high school, when a friend and I did one of those "cram every role this person has played into a space station" plots and for some inexplicable reason we chose anime characters who'd been dubbed by Scott McNeil???

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, ages and ages ago in Sonic the Hedgehog fandom. It didn't take me long to quit caring, the story was crap anyway.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

A few times. Spanish and Russian.

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

Ohohoho have I. So many back in my Marvel and Fullmetal Alchemist days.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Nuh-uh, I'm not falling into that trap.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Ha. Hahaha. Hahahahahahahahaha.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Worldbuilding, inter-character feelings.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Mostly over-planning an idea until it feels too big and complicated to finish. And fight scenes. My god I hate writing fight scenes, and it pisses me off that I usually end up having to do at least one in every long fic.

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

Hah. No. I do that bracketed or italicized shit instead because I know I will butcher any attempt and I'd rather not embarrass myself.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Sonic the Hedgehog was baby's first real internet fandom.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Whichever ones I've actually finished.

Uuuuhhhhh, I have no idea who's done this and who hasn't, so I'm gonna throw it at @tavina-writes, @gffa, @banahbanah, and @fountainstranger.

[romaine2424]

20 questions for fic writers!

Thanks for the retro-tag @phdmama and because I'm friends with @sassy-cissa!

It's all under the cut! Note: Assume all fics are Drarry unless otherwise noted.

How many works do you have on AO3? 60 including 1 under Anon.

What's your total AO3 Word Count? ~1.6M (552K of that is one fic. LOL)

What fandoms do you write for? Harry Potter and only Harry Potter

What are your top 5 fics by Kudos? Survival of the Species (47K) Jolene (21.5K) Double Edged Sword (552K) This Ain't the Garden of Eden (131K) Jolene Deux (5K)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes, though I missed quite a few when I was on hiatus. I love engaging with readers and seeing what in my stories struck their fancy. I've made some great friends over the years through comments on my fic.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? There are No Innocent Vampires (31K). This is a Scarry fic (both are adults). I do have a few others.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Uh, most of them. But if forced to choose, Silver and Gold (70.6K) with Wolf!Draco!

Do you get hate on fics? OMG Yes. My first fic, Double Edged Sword in its earliest chapters was sporked on Deleterius. It’s a wonder I ever wrote again, but I was so pissed off at the Drarry writer who did it, I carried on. Thankfully the site went bye bye. And I also learned from that fic never ever have either Harry or Draco have an affair with Charlie Weasley. LOL. More currently, I just had to lock my current WIP this week because of a troll. ☹

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I write both slash and het but it's not my fav thing to do. I only put it in when it fits a scene and it can take me days and days to write that scene.

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? No

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yes, twice. Doubled Edged Sword was brought over to FFN and Survival of the Species brought over to adultfanfiction. The latter was quite funny because someone opened an account using my name to post it.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes but now I'm sad. Almost all of my translated fics are gone. *sobs* The sites they were posted on no longer exist. However, my fav translations were done by Pescadora and her team at Intruders Slashzine. They translated the following in Spanish. And they're beautiful. *happy sigh* Jolene Jolene Deux Silver and Gold

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, me and 9 of my friends…I think we’re still friends. *just kidding* We each wrote a chapter for this story. If you like Case Fic and haven’t read it, give it a shot. Level Two: Series One

What’s your all-time favourite ship? Drarry but I do write for other ships both slash and het and also Gen. I mainly read Drarry but also the others mentioned. I just really enjoy good plotty HP stories.

What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? After I finish my current WIP, The Azkaban Letters, (Drarry and Haphne) that I started in 2007, and finish another one I also started in 2007 at Christmas, I’ll be done with all WIPs I’ve posted on AO3.  I do have a few in my personal files. One, which I have 30K written for and it’s Scarry. It's the Scarry one I have my doubts about.

What are your writing strengths? Plot and world building. Some folks like my dialogue.  I try. 

What are your writing weaknesses? Well besides the smut already mentioned, character analysis and slow burn. Definitely more of action/adventure writer.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? No no no.  Did it once for Double Edged Sword. It was in Russian for which I had a translator or 3 write out the text for me and give me final approval. To this day I still get Russian readers disagreeing with the text.

First fandom you wrote for? Harry Potter and still here.

Favourite fic you’ve written? This is hard, but for personal reasons, I’d have to say This Ain’t the Garden of Eden. It was the first story I wrote after an almost ten-year break. I had to shut down my muse back then almost overnight, and I wasn’t sure it could be revived. I'm tagging any other writer who wants to join the fun! Free Tag!

[literaryspinster]

What is your issue with Melvika? Not trying to be rude, just curious.

I honestly didn’t think my feelings about that ship were out there like that. I made one somewhat negative post about them without tagging it, and I might have said some other stuff in replies to other threads, but nothing that I believed would cement me in the public opinion as a M*lvika anti. But I’ll try to answer this the best I can without pissing people off, because I know there are folks in the fandom who ship them as well as Meljay.

For the record, my policy is usually to ship and let ship, unless there is some weird pedo stuff going on, but M*lvika feels like a different scenario as SO many of the shippers really really hate Jayce (or pretend to hate him while wanting him to be with their favorite character), and I really don’t. So after a while it feels less about genuinely liking a ship and more about shipping it out of spite. “Jayce doesn’t deserve Mel, where is S*vika?” Is such a common sentiment that it just feels disingenuous at times. Of course I am not accusing all M*lvika shippers of being this way, I don’t think that’s the case at all. But I have noticed a pattern.

Also, and I know this might make some hackles raise, but I don’t particularly like S*vika. Her character design is a banger of course, but that’s really the most positive opinion I have about her. I’ve heard it said that her loyalty to Silco is part of why she’s so beloved, but that just isn’t a plus for me, as I also don’t really like S*lco (sorry). Sevika jumping in front of a bullet for him just didn’t endear me to her character, nor did any of her actions after that.

And lastly, I don’t see a relationship with S*vika benefitting Mel in any significant way. It might be considered hot for two very visually striking women to get it on, but what does that do for Mel’s story?

If the idea is for Mel to interact with someone from Zaun, I’m all for that, but I don’t think those interactions need to be romantic. I’m more interested in seeing her have a platonic relationship with Ekko or Vi, and possibly forming a deeper friendship with Viktor.

S*vika is currently at odds with nearly every character on the show, so Mel being with her only stands to isolate her further. At the end of the day, I see S*vika as a villain, and I don’t see Mel as one, possibly a controversial opinion as they both have their reasons for being the way they are, and S*vika most likely did not have the same opportunities as Mel (but then again, neither did Ekko) but that’s where I stand.

I know parts of the fandom see Mel as being villainous and therefore see her getting along swimmingly with the villains, I’ve also seen them ship her with S*lco and/or wish for her to make up with her mother and fight alongside her. All of these hypothetical scenarios just feel like terrible deals for Mel.

This is of course, just my opinion, I know that shipping is meant to be fun and not everyone who ships them needs it to actually happen on the show. I understand that others may see things in S*vika and her potential relationship with Mel that I just don’t see, but that’s my answer to why I personally am not onboard with the ship.

[bosskie]

Molluck Doodle ‘n’ Some Thoughts from Oddworld: DiscoddChat - Episode 4

I started doodling this while listening to the latest Oddworld: DiscoddChat episode. Yeah, I wanted to try out some perspective stuff and practice drawing Molluck in general since I didn’t use any reference because I’m trying to get more shapes and stylized stuff to my style. I draw mostly realistic or semi-realistic stuff since I’m bad at drawing anything stylized... Or at least I mostly dislike my stylized style even others have seemed to like it back in the days.

But the popcast gave some interesting and important information!

Molluck’s valet Slig and chauffeur Slig are the same Slig! I thought that his valet died since the way his collapse was animated suggested that, especially in New ‘n’ Tasty, but Molluck doesn’t seem like dying at all. And it’s really interesting that Molluck got actually stronger shock than his Slig since it seems like opposite to me even he got his clothing burned off... ‘Thanks to that’, they have a certain bonding now but Molluck is still his boss but the Slig feels like he can be now more honest to his boss since they share this experience.

I gotta say that this explains a lot how they seem to be have such a good relationship and why Molluck seems to be friendly toward him, like the way he speaks to him, except when he is pissed off at him... Also, when you have a close relationship with someone, you tend to show more emotions in general too, even negative ones like anger, so Molluck’s aggression toward the Slig makes sense in this case too. Though, it seems that Molluck shows his aggression quite openly anyway according to the worst ending newspapers but he still is described as cool, so this is a little conflict.

Man, I gotta say that I have never been into fictional couples or shipping fictional characters together but these two... I just love them so much!

Oh, and I also invented an art tag for me if it would make my blog less like a mess...

[moonsdancer]

This is a good question @fleursdusang. I've done a lot of thinking about this with the other eight or so MelJay shippers I communicate with on Discord 😭 , and we'd long ago agreed that MelJay is an ironic rare-pair. But more on that below.

@arcane-rarepair-week has done a great write-up of what "constitutes" a rare pair in fandom, and they've broken it down here: (they do include MelJay on their list). Fandom Wiktionary describes it as:

A ship that generally receives little attention from fans and has few associated fanworks.

Ultimately, a ship is a rare pair based on output / engagement and not whether it's canon or not. Generally, the most "fair" metric to use is ao3 (although in some cases, it becomes apparent looking at fanart, or fan discourse, and other creative outputs what's what). MelJay has the unique 'distinction' of being one of the least supported / celebrated / whatever canon ships in maybe the history of any fandom. I ran the numbers, and it's pretty dire, just a quick summary from Sunday when I did this exercise to ask:

Is MelJay a "rare pair"?

based on ao3, only -

There were 8568 fanworks dedicated to Arcane on ao3. Of those fanworks, in terms of popularty by tag (including explicitly romantic and ships defined by '&' which are sometimes still romantic but not always), MelJay doesn't even appear in the top ten or fifteen.

Filtering out some of the "&" pairings allowed MelJay to edge its way in at about no. 9 or 10 with 213 stories.

Of those 213 stories: 116 were JayVik stories that weren't about MelJay. A good majority were often about breaking MelJay up or killing off Mel or whatever other narrative device in order to tell a story about JayVik. 74 of those are Violyn stories that tag MelJay despite it not being a factor in said story (I assume they do so because it's a canon ship, so folks just toss it in there). 51 of those were MelJayVik stories.

Once you filter those out, we come to 56 overall stories tagged MelJay. Of those 56, roughly 17 were actually about viktor with someone i.e. viktor / you or viktor / reader or viktor / original character. we can, if we're generous, pretend that about a third of those are as much about meljay as they are about viktor and whoever else, but even that would be a bit of a lie.

Once you filter those out, we were left with about 46 stories. And even in those, a quick review of the content showed some of them weren't even about MelJay.

A weird and non-self-aggrandizing fact that was pointed out to me today - just stating it to show the reality of things - I've written 15 of those stories, so that's about a third of stories, that are explicitly and materially in terms of the content about Mel Medarda and Jayce Talis in a relationship of some kind, were written by one person. That's weird, for the only confirmed, together, onscreen, canon romantic ship - but that's the reality.

ANYWAY.

The above rambling answer to your comment from this post is really my way of just reflecting on all this for my own reasons and opening the discussion which we'll all probably only have in an honest way in a few years across fandom about this and not to rant at you in anyway. Because the treatment of / reception / backlash (in many ways especially in the first few months) to MelJay is a bit weird. That's the word I'll use so I don't use different words that piss folks off.

This was a bit of a Ted Talk, sorry! 😂✨

ETA: Because someone did mention this, I know the '&' tag is generally used for platonic or familial relationships. But I notice people in a lot of cases in this fandom use it interchangeably with the bigger ships. May not always be the case. But either way, the situation for MelJay is dire. And those '&' ships don't really detract from that conclusion.

[eva-of-the-sea]

I posted 1,434 times in 2022

That's 815 more posts than 2021!

18 posts created (1%)

1,416 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@dying-suffering-french-stalkers

@theevilemster

@greywindys

@jigensass

@detectivehole

I tagged 1,424 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#lmao - 11 posts

#lupin iii - 11 posts

#lupin the third - 9 posts

#my art - 8 posts

#prev tags - 7 posts

#i love him - 7 posts

#jigen - 6 posts

#important - 6 posts

#this - 6 posts

#yeah - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#but let me tell you pisces never let you forget theyre pisces and it makes me laugh and awakens something violent in me at the same time 😂

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Had a very productive drawing day today. Here's a quick Jigen/Joe doodle since I want to continue stoking that fire. Expect more from me <3

46 notes - Posted July 23, 2022

#4

See the full post

49 notes - Posted November 6, 2022

#3

@stupot I dedicate this unholy crossover to you since you were one of my first friends in the gorillaz fandom and the reason I got into Lupin. I hope you get a sensible chuckle out of this if nothing else💗

53 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

#2

Creating the content that I want to see. Dynamite Joe is such a fun Jigen ex, I want to see him come back and cause trouble, flirting with Jigen and pissing off Lupin.

71 notes - Posted July 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Since I've been in this fandom for about *checks calendar* 7 months??? damn time flies, I think I should start making some discussion posts. Long time ago, I made a post for my thoughts on ships in the Gorillaz fandom, so why not do that again but with Lupin? I think I'll have an easier time since the main characters are all consenting adults that aren't related to eachother, so I have no disgusting ships to contend with.

I'll put the small disclaimer that all of this is opinion only and should only be taken as such. I don't have anything against any of the ships mentioned (since nothing crosses the line) or any of the people that ship them, so this is down to personal preference only. All righty, let's begin.

Polygang:

Right out the starting gate, we may get a bit controversial lol. Personally, I don't ship them all together, whether it be the OT4 or OT5. This is due to the fact that I don't think all of them are compatible with each other or even able to be in a relationship with multiple people. It's a cute idea though, and I love to see people's different interpretations of it.

LoopZoop:

This one is cute and kind of works canonically, even if it's only ever acknowledged as a joke. The way I see it, they may never have a traditional relationship (in this case, being lovers/maybe getting married), but there is definitely an undeniable chemistry between them. There is a clear dependency on eachother to fulfill a role in eachother's lives (a common theme you'll notice with Lupin's relationships here). Lupin needs Zenigata to give him the thrill of the chase, and Zenigata needs Lupin to give him a purpose in life. I personally think Zenigata is fantastic at his job and needs Lupin to give him a challenge and keep him from being bored. Plus, their dynamic is just so much fun!

FujiLup:

I love this ship for all the wrong reasons. Fujiko and Lupin are straight up bad for eachother, and yet only the two of them can make a relationship like that work beautifully. I often describe their relationship as a game or a dance. Fujiko askes Lupin to steal something for her, Lupin steals the thing hoping to get *something* out of it, Fujiko betrays him and leaves him with nothing. The benefits seem one-sided, but we've seen time and time again that Lupin expects (and sometimes down-right encourages) Fujiko to stab him in the back. To deviate from that would be breaking the rules of the game or ruining the rhythm of the dance. I think there's a similarity to LoopZoop where both parties are playing a role for eachother. For Fujiko, Lupin is someone she knows she can always come back to, no matter how treacherous her betrayal. He gives her a place she can call home. For Lupin, it's the thrill of a challenge. She rarely let's him get anything from her, so when she does give him a peck on the cheek or lips, it's that much grander of an award. That's my speculation on the subject anyway. I also want to add that, for how great they work together, it can all fall apart from something as simple as a change of pace. We saw the fallout of this happening in part 5, after they had gotten married and tried to being domestic. It's details like that that make this ship so interesting to me, I just love it!

LupGoe:

An interesting dynamic if nothing else. These two have chemistry but I don't think it's necessarily romantic. I think I view them more as rivals on friendly terms, more or less. They clearly do care about one another and go to great lengths to protect one another, but there is something else there. Lupin probably doesn't have any particularly strong feelings about their youngest member, but Goemon does seem to want to pick fights with him the most. The inner workings of Goemon Ishikawa XIII's mind deserves a post all of it's own for how complex a character he is, but I'll try to give an abridged version. I think he struggles a LOT with being "the best", and working under Lupin has maybe bruised his ego a bit. It's something he can lock away for only so long before the feeling flares up again and boils over (part 5 once more shows this happening and it is masterfully done!). In other words, I think there's a passion there, but these two have a lot to work out before they could even consider romantic feelings.

JiGoe:

Ok here's where people are really going to hate me lol. I don't really ship them. Like, at all. I don't know what it is but they just don't really have all that much chemistry to me. The closest they get to being compatible is part 2, with how much they play off of eachother. Sadly, we don't really see this relationship in any other part of the franchise (or if we do, I haven't seen it). If anything, I think their relationship is more brotherly, Jigen being the older brother of the gang and Goemon being the younger brother. I think he does look up to Jigen a lot and likes having him around, and I think Jigen has a lot of respect for Goemon and appreciates what he brings to the team, but I don't think there's much past that. Sorry y'all.

FujiGoe:

I LOVE this ship! I think these two are super cute together. TWCFM is what originally sold me on the idea, one of the writers REALLY liked the idea of Goemon having a big ol crush on Fujiko and it was fucking adorable (even if she was like "mmkay😐" in the series lol). There actually isn't many canon moments to support the ship, at least not outright, but there's a lot to speculate on from what we know about the characters. We know that they are fairly good friends and, should it come down who he prefers to work with, he's going to pick Fujiko at least over Lupin lol. We also know that Goemon is not interested in having sex. Whether that's due to his training or personal preference is up to speculation. But automatically that is a huge difference for Fujiko with any other man she's been with. (This also deserves it's own post but abridged version once more) Fujiko is often placed into the role of sexy femme fatale, to the point where she just kind of expects to be treated like that. Hell, whether he means to or not, Lupin also pushes her into that category. So it has to be refreshing to have someone like Goemon, who she knows likes her, to treat her with respect and spend time with her without expecting (or wanting) anything in return. I think it's a relationship that could work out long term if we ever got a chance to explore it further.

ZeniGoe:

I'm mostly adding this for completion's sake. They don't really interact much to determine if they even have chemistry. I think they probably have a begrudging respect for one another, but that's about it...next!

FujiZeni:

(I'm guessing at these ship names, which should speak to their popularity lmao) Meh. The only time we really saw these two interact was in TWCFM and that whole thing was yikes. Zenigata barely qualifies as Zenigata in the series in my humble opinion (and idc about the manga 💅). And anytime these two do interact in the original series, it's mostly out of necessity so...next!

JigZeni:

Here we go! This one may only live in the realm of speculation, since again these two don't interact all that much (Zenigata is really laser-focused on Lupin huh?), but we can get something from what we know about the characters. I don't know if Zenigata would be all that into Jigen, but I reckon Zenigata fits Jigen's type to a T (if all those exes we've seen are to be believed). If things were different and Zenigata wasn't a cop hellbent on throwing them all in jail, he would probably try his luck. I've also read a fic or two where they get together out of mutual pining for Lupin, and b o y that's fun to unpack.

FujiJig:

It's really hard to place how exactly I feel about this ship tbh. On one hand, the dynamic they have is usually one of my favorite type of ships (anyone that knows me from Gorillaz knows that I'm a huge Russdoc shipper). On the other hand, I have never seen two characters more repelled by eachother lmao. Like even when they're being nice to eachother, I think the idea of being romantic disgusts them on a deep visceral level. And honestly? Good for them! I actually like that they can get along and not be into eachother. I think that's a trope that has been done to death and it's nice to just see them be (sort of) friends. I also believe that Jigen is 100% gay. I know that's something that is open to interpretation in the canon (whether he's gay or bi I mean, because he sure as fuck ain't straight), but I see a lot of myself in him and how he handles relationships, and I'm gay so yeah :) Basically, these two have sibling vibes more than anything, can't stand eachother but really do care about the other deep down. Tell ya what though, I do like the idea of them fighting over Lupin. I prefer it to be a friendly competition between them though, rather than anything with actual visceral.

JigLup:

Gee take a guess lmao. Honestly though, these two are my OTP. They have so much chemistry and compatibility, it's kind of shocking! Obviously, nothing has ever been outright stated, and I highly doubt anything ever will be stated, but there's a lot between them that is hard to read as just platonic. The cigarette lighting, the fierce loyalty and faith they have in eachother, the palatable JEALOUSY Jigen has anytime Lupin so much as looks at a woman. Like, how exactly are we supposed to take this? There's also the fact that Lupin admitted Jigen is "the most stable thing in his life" and holy shit if that isn't a significant role to assign to someone, especially for someone like Lupin. Honestly, I can talk all day about these two, but I wouldn't be saying anything that hasn't already been said a million times. It's a great ship and these idiots clearly are in love with eachother.

All righty there we have it! As you can see, I mostly wanted to focus on the main five. I like Yata, but he hasn't been around long enough for me to nail down his personality or his chemistry with the gang. Feel free to discuss with me if you'd like. I really love this franchise and y'all have been lovely so far.

75 notes - Posted February 5, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[arttrampbelle]

Cw:vent

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Could i plz have some shang tsung kontent that doesn't involve him shipped with random characters (i mean really random. 99.99% of the roster genuinely hates him so him fucking them makes no sense. They would kill him in a heartbeat and would rather die. So wtaf). Because y'all so deprived in life?

(Also nobody in mortal kombats lore likes shang tsung. He is the biggest bastard. As we love him for it. So no. Him being with any canon characters makes no fucking sense at all. Period)

Could i have some x readers that doesn't involve other characters in how you meet? Like it feels like an oc at that point. The only characters that could introduce you. Would be if they are working for shang tsung. And no its not the storm bros. No its not any of the "good" guys. It would be a shadow priest,a shokan,a black dragon merc,shit like that.

(If you are doing an oc. Plz tag and label that properly. I dont mind shang if he's with an oc. Or hell id rather take a non mk character. Weird. But ok. But anyone and everyone in the mk roster hates him so no)

Could i have some actually decent fucking kontent?

Other characters get more respect and decent kontent.

Why do you do that to shang tsung if you guys "supposedly" like him? Or like mortal kombat.

Do y'all play the games? Do y'all care about the lore?

Or are you casual? Its fine if you are. Just state so. I dont wanna assume you are a huge fan and then go off. And then you say you dont know something. Then it feels embarrassing that i just info dumped on you and i feel like a weirdo.

Like i dont wanna waste my time with people that dont genuinely wanna get into something that i love. And i wanna actually engage with people without having to jump around hoops. And jump thru hurdles trying to explain shit.

And waste my time with people who don't respect him. And mr. Cary hiroyuki tagawa as well. (Because i swear you guys really don't.)

But also respect shangs character as a whole,outside of mr tagawas performances over the years. Because he exists outside of him. Tho he is most known and all fans agree HE IS SHANG TSUNG. But still other actors and interpretations exist. Like his character is grossly misinterpreted.

Like he's either too soft when he doesn't need to be. Too rough where it shouldn't be.

No balance.

Like imho the yandere fic writers know how to write him.

The villain/antagonist fuckers know how to write him.

Hell some monster fuckers know how to write him.

If the roster didn't hate this sneky mofo so much sure. I wouldn't be mad at the dumb shipping. Because its just that.

But its the fact they do. And that it makes no sense. Even in best case scenarios.

Shang hates them,they hate shang. It wouldn't work. Like people don't get it thru their skulls. That SHANG TSUNG IS A BASTARD VILLAIN THAT IS ONE BADASS DANGEROUS MOFO! (Again we love him for his atrocities. We dont demonize him,we even cheer when he gets karma. We also love him BECAUSE HE IS AN EVIL SORCERER BINCH) ok?! Like god damn.

You can make shang tsung sweet without uwufying him. You can make him an asshole without taking away his integrity.

This wont stop people unfortunately. And people think with their dicks,literal and metaphorical. And genuinely dont care about a character as long as they get their jimmys wet.

But whatever.

I guess im asking too much from people to give genuine respect to a character. Let alone a series that is happy part of my childhood and a series that i love deeply for 18 fucking yrs.

Sorry for this rant but im so sick of genuinely bastard villains in the hands of people who don't like them. Or genuinely understand them.

Im sick of people who say they love shang tsung as a character but only care if he's with their "safe" blorbo.

They wanna defang the fucking snake and it pisses me off.

Im done venting. You don't have to like me. But plz try to listen where im coming from as a fan. As someone who has seen the death and decay of fandoms in real time.

Try to listen to where im coming from plz. It sucks when you love a character and others dont really care about it like you do.

It sucks when you feel so damn alone when talking about problems with fans.

And it sucks loving a character and series that people genuinely don't really care about and is so superficial and surface level.

It bothers me. I know it shouldn't but it does.

[the-storyteller-and-her-soldiers]

Personal Pride Stuff!

Since it's pride month I'd figure I'd share some headcanons and scenarios regarding my ships!

All my s/is are bi/panromantic and asexual since that is what I am in real life!

I can see all my f/os as AT LEAST bi since they don't get definitive canon sexualities

No matter what the AU or verse, my s/i is lucky enough to meet the equivalent of my IRL girlfriend some point. (This is cause my girlfriend is always sweet enough to let me talk her ear off about my f/os sources and stuff and if you chat with me for a bit I always bring up my girlfriend in someway 'cause she's awesome sooo of course the two would overlap in other verses)

With that said, there's always an instance of "This is my wife Rebecca, and she also has a girlfriend!" No matter the verse

My s/is were more nervous about coming out as ace to her f/os than she was saying she's bi/pan. But, of course, all parties are cool and accepting of this.

With that being said, the f/o who learned the most of my s/i coming out was Kaito. He wasn't ignorant, but he was older, and in Japan, such things weren't really discussed in adulthood.

The conversation they shared was rather sweet 'cause Kaito heard me venting to my friend after getting unsolicited pics... So he wanted a better understanding. (Also he was pissed that some loser was harassing his girl so when he then learned that doing so was crossing my boundaries more......... he was PISSED to say the least)

My s/i explained the general term of asexuality and then explained that in her case, she has experienced feelings of attraction like that but due to her past experiences and her conditions even the thought of doing something with someone she loves, trusts, and knows would never hurt her gives her too much fear and anxiety to ever really want to. So since she doesn't desire anything sexual that's why she identifies as ace.

All my f/os completely accepted and supported this decision since they love me and my well-being is what matters!

Cue a line of questioning like: "Really, no 'just try it with me?' 'I'm different 'I'll wait till you're ready??" When my f/os just shook their head, affirming it was my choice and they respect that, wide-eyed relief and a dramatic sigh of happiness escapes the lips of my s/is

My s/is will still openly discuss 'saucy topics' as if it's nothing and totally make the occasional 'out-of-the-closet' joke when the time and mood is right.

Not to mention they'll dress in a way that's considered 'sexy' because they want to, and even pull out 'alluring' aspects of her personality should the moment need it but it's all nothing but an act to her and she likes to perform!

When I came out as ace to Gladio, 2 things happened: I told him I could appreciate the aesthetics of his ass instead of thirsting over it, this earned her a bewildered look before she heard a hearty laugh. The second part of the convo was Gladio feeling an unknown sense of relief since he's had a lot of women just want him sexually and while he may have liked hook-ups in the past, he's happy that the woman he loves, loves him for more than just that.

ALL MY F/OS AND MY S/IS RESPECT TRANS RIGHTS, ARO/ACE RIGHTS, NONBINARY RIGHTS, AND WOULD DO EVERYTHING THEY COULD TO UPHOLD THOSE VALUES!

That's all I have on my brain right now but I'm sure there's more! I'mma tag some people 'cause I wanna interact more but I'm always tired and let you know it's okay to reblog if you want! If you wanna be removed just let me know!

@lonelyselfship @vogueships @singingdeepinme @jellyfish-ships@ignited-lovers @goldenworldsabound @call--me--home @disneymarina

[levi-supreme]

May I ask, do you have any unpopular aot opinions?

Hi anon!!! Aww thank you for sending me this ask haha I am very surprised but touched!! People don't usually send me asks like this so I am very happy to answer hehe.

Also, no hate, but all these are my own personal opinions and thoughts, so don't flame me!! Everyone interprets the characters, manga, and anime differently so please don't be offended by what I say.

Answering below the cut in case anyone wants to avoid seeing this and any potential manga spoilers!! Also tagging this with my ranting tags just in case because knowing me, I talk too much XD

Eren's decision on The Rumbling

I've talked about this before (somewhere in a reply to an ask) and I know we all don't agree with Eren's choice of committing massacre with The Rumbling, but honestly, this was what Eren decided, and it was what he deemed was the 'best choice'.

If this was how Isayama wanted Eren to act and this was what he thought was the decision Eren would decide on, then we should all just respect Isayama's choice. There's no way he can satisfy every single reader out there. Sending him hate because of this isn't acceptable.

Thoughts on Gabi and the Marleyans

Ah, yes, everyone's favourite discourse. I believe everyone has something to say about this, so I don't want to talk too much about it. Yes, I don't like Gabi, and yes, I don't think I'll like her ever. But do I hate her as a character and for killing Sasha? No.

Gabi was raised as a child soldier and with what was widely accepted as 'correct' in Marley was that everyone across the ocean is a 'devil'. What she did was out of survival instinct and it was just unfortunate that Sasha was at the receiving end of the blow. Marley was under attack by what she knew were the 'devils'. As a soldier, there's no 'home' without your country, and of course she would go all out to defend her homeland. It could have been anyone that was dead; Connie, Jean, literally anyone else up on the airship.

I love Sasha and I'm obviously pissed about Sasha dying, but as what I mentioned above, if Isayama wanted the plot to go this way, then who are we to say otherwise 🤷🏽‍♀️she got her character arc and development, and I'm satisfied with how things turned out.

Idk if I'm going to get flamed for this lol, but I really can't relate to the Marleyans too, and I don't like them, maybe except Pieck, Colt, and Niccolo (and maybe Porco). I don't agree with their ideology and I don't agree with many of the things they do. So yeah, I'm with the Eldians, and don't try to convince me otherwise haha.

Thoughts on character ships

Okay LOL I know I AM probably going to get hate mail or flamed or whatever for saying this, but I dislike almost every character ship out there except for Eremika and Niccolo x Sasha. Yes, character x Levi ships included. I have two popular Levi x character ships blocked because I dislike it so much lmao (have fun guessing which two).

Yes, I do ship Levi with someone, but I'm not saying who (those who know will know. Those who don't... please stay that way) because I don't want to start a discourse here. It's up to your own interpretation on who you want to ship whichever character together, but bear in mind that nothing is actually canon and confirmed by Isayama.

You can ship whoever you want, but don't force your ship on others and shoot them down saying that your ship is the 'best'.

Thoughts on the manga

People have sent hate mail and death threats to Isayama over the manga, and seriously people, DON'T DO THAT WHAT THE HELL????????????? It's all work of fiction, and honestly this is such a disrespectful and low move. If you don't like what you read, then don't read it?? Does sending hate mail to the mangaka make you feel better, or you think something you dislike about the manga will change?

I love the manga and all its spin-offs (No Regrets, Lost Girls, Before the Fall included) and yes there are certain things I dislike and things I don't agree with, but this is a work of fiction and people should just chill and enjoy the manga as it is.

This also applies to people sending hate to fanfic writers for writing certain topics that they don't feel comfortable with. If you don't like what you see, then don't read it??? Writers tag their work with the appropriate tags, so filter those tags away?? Don't send hate to people for things like this.

Thoughts on the anime

I know there's this whole WIT Studios vs MAPPA whatever and I love both animation studios, and both have their pros and cons. In my humble opinion, both animated the action sequences and fight scenes really good, but WIT Studios did a fantastic job with colouring and animation of the character's irises (which I love) and I like the way they animated the titans a little more. I like how MAPPA beefed Levi up (*slurps*), but I prefer the way WIT Studios animated Levi (Season 3 hello??????)

The only thing about the anime that I'm unhappy about was how little we got to see of No Regrets. The manga had soooooo much backstory of Levi, Isabel and Farlan, and there's so much more story about the Veterans as well. It's sad that they reduced eight amazing chapters in the manga to two OVA episodes and they cut out so much story telling as well. And this is why,,, I am always a manga over anime person.

One last thing that I may get flamed for (which I don't really care lol), is that I literally don't care about the English dub. Yes we all have preferences, some prefer Japanese, some prefer English. But similar to what I mentioned previously, don't go telling people how much you like one version and shoot down the other.

Also, I don't care about Matt Mercer and how sexy he sounds as Levi. Kamiya Hiroshi is my one and only Levi and his voice is the one I hear in my head every time I write Levi's dialogues and voice in my fics. Therefore, my choice of words when writing Levi's dialogues, his speech patterns, and my description of Levi's 'voice' is very much based on Kamiya Hiroshi's interpretation of Levi and the Japanese language. Which brings to my last general thought and point:

Thoughts on Levi

WELL I am a Levi blog after all, so obviously I have to talk about my husband and save the best for the last hehe. Also, another reminder that these are just my thoughts and feelings, so please don't tell me how much you disagree with me and how I'm wrong ;~;

I know many people say Levi is a cat person, but I beg to differ. In my head, he loves dogs. And I don't want to elaborate more because I know people are going to debate and tell me how I'm wrong lol.

Also. If Levi had descendants, he would NEVER name them after Kuchel, Isabel, and Farlan. I don't think this is how he would honour them and his memory of them, especially with Isabel and Farlan. I feel that Levi's biggest regret was detouring from Farlan and Isabel and going on his own, which indirectly caused Levi to not be there when the abnormal titan attacked them during No Regrets.

I don't want to talk too much about No Regrets since some of you may not have read it, but in gist, Levi was supposed to do *something* alone, but Farlan told Levi to trust him and Isabel to let them help him. On their expedition outside of the walls, once more Levi told Farlan and Isabel that he was going to do *something* alone and the two of them should stay with the group, but Farlan wanted to follow Levi. Levi told Farlan to trust him and stay, and he will do *something* alone. But when he didn't do *something*, he came back and saw Farlan and Isabel already dead. It was raining heavily on that day, and I also feel that Levi hates rainy days because of this. I feel that he blamed himself for causing Farlan and Isabel's deaths, and he would be guilty about this forever, no matter how many years passed.

By naming his descendants after the closest two friends he ever had seems to be rubbing salt on his wounds, and it would be an insult to his memory of them.

I also don't think Levi has a huge dick please, like my man isn't that long and thick everyone thinks he is. Levi's probably four to five inches max and his dick is slender and pretty. Who cares about how huge his dick is anyway, right? It's the sperm that fertilises the egg so you know, I care more about his balls and sperm count than how huge his dick is because his dick can't give me a baby but his sperm can XD also. His dick can do wonders okay he knows how to make you feel good in other ways so, who needs a huge dick anyway?????

Levi faced severe malnutrition and starvation since he was a kid, and in the environment he grew up in, Levi's physical health wouldn't be at the best. Of course through military training and living above the Underground did him good, but I feel that Levi's immune system wouldn't be the best. He probably would also have a pretty sensitive digestive system and can't take things like dairy, spicy food, or too much meat.

Levi probably sleeps with a candle lit, his bed is near to the window, and he never sleeps with his back facing the door. I feel that he's hypervigilant even when asleep, and he probably has a small knife or blade (the one he used in No Regrets maybe hehe) hiding underneath his pillow in the event that he feels threatened or under attack. His bed is near the window so that he can escape fast if he was under attack. He also probably sleeps with a candle lit because total darkness brings back bad memories of his time in the Underground, and the warm candlelight helps him feel safe.

Okay I think I've talked too much that this is becoming too long XD I hope you like my answers, anon! And once more, these are all my own thoughts and interpretation, so please don't start a discussion/discourse over here even if anyone disagrees with what I said okay ;AAA;

Feel free to send me any other thoughts and asks if you want as well! My ask is always open for Levi and SNK thoughts hehe. If you've read all the way here, thank you for reading through my rambling <3

[futuregws]

They might be still lurking so if you don’t answer this on your blog I understand BUT wanna hear something interesting about the person she quote tweeted with that picture?

First of all, I knew at some point she’ll post a pic of them 2 as some kind of validation for shippers and “gotcha” to antis. It’s funny af that it’s a bts pic where I’m not even sure if that’s Joseph or not and they’re not even near each other LMFAO

Secondly, that person is also here on tumblr. I won’t write there name if you do decide to post BUT. This person often draws a lot of fanart of ExC ship. This is the same person who posted that art of them two flexing together AND in the tags said “I’m gonna draw nsfw art out of spite”. This is the same post that Grace reblogged (then deleted) saying “the tags made me 😈”.

Also like last week or so they DID draw a nsfw art of eddie eating Chr*ssy out… which got reported and flagged for adult content (obviously). And they ranted about “American Puritanism” and blamed disgusting/jealous/childish st*ddies for taking down their art. Meanwhile some blogs sub posted about what they said, saying that they sounded homophobic af to blame st*ddies for tumblr taking down their NSFW art as if tumblr doesn’t have policies against it

You know what, fuck it I'm gonna post this bc I wanna answer and it would be complicated to do it on a separate post, but before I say anything if someone could send me that persons @ on here so I can block please, and now onto what the ask is actually about and where to even begin, I'm not surprised that the person posting that acts the way they do bc apparently they are also a Joe and Grace shipper so I think that says a lot about how far they go and how obsessed they are, and this whole vibe from Grace's posts where it looks like she's trying to annoy or like you said having that "gotcha" energy with it, it's embarrassing, post whatever but don't act as if you're posting something out of this world that will make some people in this case "antis" be furious bc that's in her head and her fans heads and if they care that much to try and make us mad idk what to tell them, and about that last part I don't even have words to express how grossed out I am, first of all them coming out and complaining about "American puritanism" uhm girly you are literally posting explicit sexual content on an app that has numerous times tried to make those type of stuff go away, so I don't know what they were expecting from this, and second that's fucking gross, what's the point of drawing stuff like that, bc if it's still to "piss antis off" then geez get another hobby bc it's starting to look like a very unhealthy obsession, and the fact that they're making drawings like that when one of the characters is a minor, it's ten times worse, they need to get their heads out of their ass bc I really don't understand in what world making a drawing like that it's totally okay, more specifically with the characters in question, and the main problem is not even the type of drawing even though I do have my problems with this one in specific, If you wanna draw stuff like that go for it, but you have to accept that when you're posting that on the internet some people might get uncomfortable and rightfully so, not everyone likes looking at explicit sexual acts if you wanna post stuff like that with no problems go to the appropriate website, and the audacity they have to blame steddie shippers, I've noticed that it has become some type of trend to blame steddie shippers for everything even when they didn't do anything, it's like edissy shippers see themselves as superior and any other opinion or ship is below them and the fact that the ship in question is a gay ship certainly makes you think a little deeper as to where that's coming from bc it's not normal to target a group of people when they haven't done anything and on top of that for it to be a group supporting mlm relationships feels definitely homophobic

[hardestgrove]

feel free to ignore this is a vent so yeah

this fandom makes me feel so freaking guilty about being a Billy stan and shipping mungrove. I can literally make an entire book about all the tiktoks and posts I've seen about people bashing Billy stans because billy is racist and what not. (I am black myself) and honestly, I don't see anything wrong with billy yet people make me feel so guilty for liking his character. Don't even get me started on mungrove I really like the ship but people have called me disgusting for shipping it because billy wouldn't like eddie. i dont even know what to say anymore

i shant ignore bc i wanna send you love and support. cause you deserve it.

i've got a long ass post or two about how ppl talk about this shit and how their whole dogpiling on billy stans is just wildly ignorant to how these kinds of things like ??? work??? like if you're walking in with the assumption he's racist that's not??? fucking baked in???? to his dna???? and their behavior is the kind of thing that makes people double down on their shitty beliefs if they have them so like, they're REALLY not helping ANYONE. it's just performative bullshit at the expense of real people's well being.

in my book mungrove is THE ship of the show any they never got screentime in the same fucking season LOL and no screaming dipshits are gonna change that. same with my liking billy. dacre put a beautiful job into breathing life and depth into what was going to be the most embarrassingly basic henry bowers rip off and if they lack the fucking brainpower to respect that then i don't got time for em.

there's a huge amount of eddie stans that are truly vile to everyone who's not a rabid steddie stan i mean they're fucking coming after chrissy and grace too and literally trying to incriminate her with doctored screencaps to make her look racist. these people are just disgusting as people and they think they can get away with it bc they're a big group and they're in the "moral right" when really they're just 00s yaoi fans by another name who violently hate women who "get in the way of their ship" and can't stand anything with more depth than what their stereotyped shit allows and don't like competition.

personally, as someone who's been seeing this shit online since i was like, 12 in the 00s anime geosites era i just block, delete and ignore. either they grow the fuck up or they don't and in that case i hope they get so toxic their accounts get deleted bc they earned that.

i hate that you feel like this bc fandom and shipping and shit is supposed to be FUN we are all sitting on the carpet of someone's bedroom making our barbies kiss and planning out their silly little adventures and giggling about it. some people just fucking can't stand the idea of other people liking different shit then they like it's wild.

my next mungrove content is gonna be dedicated to you (assuming it's not something like vermillion bc that's yikesy and i don't wanna put ur metaphorical name on that bestie lol) cause you're cute and you have GOOD TASTE and you DESERVE IT

but ur gonna have to literally type in /tagged/mungrove into the url bar to find it when i do bc my blog is glitched out of the tags atm lol kill me 💀 unless you wanna make a request in which case i will happily take it and make you a nice thing!!!!

also i'm working on a mungrove story where billy is friends w/ benefits w/ a girl named jodi who's mixed race and then he gets with eddie bc they were ~falling in love~ for like months lol and remains besties with her. (and plot twist! she's eddie's half sister! they didn't know that before lol) and like i didn't set out to win at "piss the psycho antis off" bingo but lol i'm now even more determined to finish that story!!!!

[letstrywritingmaybe]

This is getting too long and wordy so I’m gonna hide my thoughts under the cut but I’m talking about the most recently uploaded CoAi fic on ao3

The most recently uploaded CoAi fic on ao3 is making me feel a type of way and idk if it’s good or bad… like cool that the author is really a canon shipper? And was able to write for a ship that isn’t one they normally ship (in this case it’s almost the opposite considering we still have ship wars even though it’s 2023 people!)

I was very wary when I decided to take the plunge and read it cause I’ve been burned before and it pissed me off, but I did it to myself so I didn’t leave hateful comments cause again we are in charge of our own fandom experiences. No one forced me to read anything.

Anyways, it wasn’t awful? Like I really expected a lot of bashing towards my queen, but there wasn’t really… it was tagged correctly too like yeah definitely felt the ooc, but like it wasn’t terrible… idk I just don’t know what to make of it. Do I comment??? See this is why I like to keep my fangirling and writing separate, cause it was so much easier just being a reader and not have to deal with also being a fellow writer.

Ugh, idk man, I’m just confused. Cause on the one hand I did not like it enough to comment and I don’t force myself to when I didn’t vibe with it, but on the other I am just so fascinated! Like who are you? And why are you low key in my head?

Cause listen, I have debated with myself back and forth over whether or not to write the canon ship break up album fic (aka red cause that is a breakup album to the max which is why I don’t associate it with CoAi), and obviously I would tag the canon ship and make it clear that I am a CoAi shipper and yeah I would also post it anonymously but solely because I don’t want anything to do with the canon ship to show up on my writing profile. I’m not a multishipper and even if I was it certainly would never include the canon ship, the longer it drags on the more annoyed I get with them. So now that I see someone actually doing basically what I would’ve done but flipped, I’m like… idk man.

It feels weird, but I’m pro self indulgent writing and I know sometimes there are stories you want to tell even if it doesn’t fit your normal narrative. Like you guys will not believe how much I’ve had to push away all the scenes in the red album fic cause I can see it so vividly in my mind and I have it all plotted out in chronological order, literally it would be so easy to write for me. But I don’t do it and this is exactly why!

Like is this overstepping a boundary? I mean it’s weird right? But also who am I to stop someone from writing their story that they felt they had to get out? So then is it really okay for me to do so too… but this is one single fic. Mine would be a collection of 29 (31 if I include eyes open and safe and sound but the original plan did not have those, cause I think hunger games when I hear them) song fics. If I’m feeling weird over one fic from a canon shipper, I can only imagine how weirded out they would feel about me posting a 29 (31?) chaptered fic with the big disclaimer that hey, I’m a CoAi shipper who’s just here again and again.

Look I preach basic fandom etiquette, ship and let ship, stay in your lane. The two most important rules, besides the whole not being a dick rule that everyone should just follow as a general guide in life. Would I be staying in my lane if I did write the red album fic the way I envisioned? Is this why I’m feeling conflicted over this anonymous canon shipper posting their fic? Idk, and there really isn’t a right answer. But it does make me want to reach out and pick their brain, like what courage must you have to do this and to care enough about this story that you had to put out. I applaud you for that, and I’m glad you did it. Cause again I’m all about self indulgent writing, but didn’t it feel awful to write this too?

Cause the big difference between this fic and the one I want to write is that this canon shipper gave CoAi a happy ending. I am not so gracious, red is the ultimate breakup album to me so it will not end well for the canon ship, the last song is literally All Too Well ten minutes version, come on. There’s no way this ends well if this is the song for the last chapter.

But it’s not like I can tag it CoAi when it literally would have almost nothing to do with them. It’s a very Ran centric fic and all about her woes with her doomed romance with her childhood sweetheart. I hate when people tag multiple ships, like yeah I get it cause they’re mentioned and it does talk about them, but I’m not a multi shipper and I strictly read fics for my ship. Specifically ones that end well for them, so I really don’t like clicking onto a fic only to find that my ship doesn’t end up together or worse, the canon ship stays canon.

Again though, it’s my own preference and I don’t go around making it the author’s problem cause it’s their fic. I could’ve clicked out at any point, there’s no need to leave nasty comments or talk shit. Clearly it wasn’t written for me, I can’t appreciate it, I’m not the target audience.

Okay yeah I think I’m leaning towards staying put and not writing my fic. I’ve no doubt I could write it just fine, but who is this for? Me? Cause I don’t even want it since I get so triggered by the canon ship now a days. Case in point look at how long this rant got. Really who would even want to read this fic? One person if I’m lucky, so it’s not worth it. Granted I’ve never cared and still don’t care about who reads my fics. I write primarily for myself, and if just the thought of possibly writing it is stressing me out this much then I should just keep it buried. But it’s always in the back of my mind, just pestering me. Ugh.

Phew okay that was so much projecting, and I don’t even feel any better. This was just a lot of rambling and for basically nothing cause I’ve resolved nothing. Anyways, whoever you are canon shipper author, I’m happy for you. It really is dope that you decided to tell this story even though it’s not your ship. Okay time for sleep now