#otp: we were doomed from the start

[silver-and-stars]

Are they already doomed ?

HEADLAND: [...] Obviously, the end, that last shot, was very inspired by the end of Fight Club just standing there together, ready to watch the world burn. The tragedy is that we know that's not gonna happen because we've seen Plagueis, so we know this is not possible. It was actually the actors’ idea to hold hands, and it was a really, really good idea. [...]

The OTP to end all OTPs. I'm still emotionally scarred from The Rise of Skywalker where there was this weird backpedaling where they were like, “Oh, it was a kiss of gratitude. It was like completely platonic.” First of all, I don't kiss people on the mouth to say thank you for saving my life. Are we wrong to be reading that there’s some romance there? HEADLAND: No! Because that was the whole thing that happened after The Rise of Skywalker. They were like, “It was a kiss of gratitude,” and I was like, “And what if I walked into traffic?” So are we right to read romance into the hand-hold? HEADLAND: Oh, yeah! Again, they’re Sith. It's a different vibe. To me, it's gonna hit different because of their allegiance and who they are. So, yes, it is framed as romantic, but I do think, again, it's not gonna turn out great. I think if he's training her, “One to hold the power, one to crave it.” So they're starting off as equals, but what's gonna happen? Like in Romeo and Juliet, it's amazing because right at the beginning they're like, “Okay, these two die. Let's start the play.” As you're watching this incredible love story unfold, and it's one of the most beautifully iconic plays ever written, in the back of your mind, you're like, “This is not going to turn out well.” I want to clarify: They are not necessarily doomed or destined to fail as a team. But the Sith rule of two denotes a power imbalance. Which clearly, due to the final shot, is not their relationship. Also, Plagueis complicates their journey as Sith, because we know his apprentice is eventually Palpatine. They will not defeat him.

https://collider.com/the-acolyte-episode-8-explained-leslye-headland/

Oh no...

She has already plan for their doom.

She is so into the ship, from the interview you can see she is really invested and interested in their dynamic, in Osha (less in Mae imo, because Osha is the one breaking the father-daughter bound, not Mae who is more a motivator for Osha). But in her mind this is already ending in tragedy.

I just want them to run off into the sunset, to get to be evil without dying for it. It's not like irl evil gets punished, so just let them disappear to some corner of their vast galaxy.

And if they have to die, truly do it Romeo and Juliet style : still in love and devoted to each other, dying together because the world around them pushes them to it. Give us the true lasting Sith powercouple, the girl going Dark Side and sticking to it and the guy not betraying her.

Also "it was the actors' idea to hold hands". They get it. Probs to them for that.

Also that tackle at Wookipedia and the Reylo denial, bless.

[verdemoun]

Don't know if you've already talked about bill but how is he coping with modern times? I always imagined a modern bill becoming a car mechanic, or something adjacent, maybe even becoming a small influencer where he posts abt trucks and such (and also his dog. I just know that man gets a dog in any type of modern au)

i have not spoken about bill because bill as a character just makes me so sad fam like was he doomed to be the power hungry bastard of toxic masculinity we see in rdr1 or did the events of rdr2 actively make him that way why was everyone so mean to him like you can see the way people treats him chipping away at him it makes me want to scream but back to timewarp au

therapy. my otp is bill and therapy. man needs anger management and to unpack that emotional baggage. it would take a while but once bill made the connection sometimes when he feels angry and acts out he's actually feeling sad/upset he'd start to develop as a person really quickly.

he would be so conflicted about seeing the gang again. why does no one talk about what happened to bill in the gap between rdr1 and 2?? dutch fucking left him behind bill would've followed dutch to the ends of the earth and been the perfect obedient loyal son he always wanted and dutch just threw him away because hunting down arthur and john for betraying him was more important!!

the new main gang would've picked him up because they knew he was going to be timewarped but it would be so uncomfortable.

poor kieran would've been so terrified he had to stay with annabelle and grimshaw until bill left. he usually regresses a little whenever someone timewarps because he has obvious reason to be nervous about the gang but it would've been a full breakdown just knowing bill was coming back. bill would've felt bad about it too because he never made the connection between how the gang's teasing made him feel vs what his bullying was doing to kieran.

the rest of the gang would've gone straight back to teasing bill because that was the dynamic last time they were all together. he would've hated it and lashed out a lot. he became something after they died they better respect it but of course they just don't. bill would've barely understood modern era before he bounced.

happy stuff now i promise. he ended up hitchhiking for a bit and learning about the modern world from truckers. he would love going to bars and truck stops and dodgy mom and pop diners along the highway.

he ends up getting a job on a ranch (ironically the modern day MacFarlane which became a massive multimillion dollar operation) and still gets to ride horses almost every day. he picks up herding super quickly and gets all the validation and care he deserves. the owners love him and are really supportive and patient when it comes to dealing with his temper.

he gets a little power trip out of learning to drive the semi-truck and unlike most of the hands is always super excited and happy to go on cross-country road trips delivering things to processing facilities. his favorite thing though would be the combine harvester he will work 14 hour shifts without complaint harvesting grain.

bill loves dogs almost more than he loves his horses he cannot drive past a sign that says puppies for sale without at least stopping to look. this habit has resulted in him having five dogs and they are his new gang. his first dog was a stray he picked up on the side of the road it's a wire-haired gundog mutt just called Mutt. he also has two cattle dogs (Clem and Roanoke), a long hair shepherd called Mercer and finally a catahoula called Abel. they are all working dogs and he does not go anywhere without all of them. they all sleep on his bed and are just as happy to go on cross country road trips in the semi as he is.

he can control all of them with a whistle or non verbal commands and they are insanely well trained. Micah fucking hates him sure Baymax can bark and growl and look scary on command but the second one of Bill's dogs curls up its lips Baymax is hiding behind Micah terrified and Bill is so fucking smug about it.

through therapy and having his ideals challenged bill starts making an effort to be less racist and sexist and actually confronting some of the gang about the way they treated him in 1899 and mending those relationships because look yeah he went off the deep end after the VDLs but he does still care about them and wants to have good relationships with them he's just got to work through a lot of issues go bill i believe in you

and most importantly he finally got over the internalized homophobia and admitted to himself he's a bit/lot gay. he's not wearing beads at pride levels of comfortable with it yet but he is a classic bear who will protect the gaybies from violence with violence.

it's like a many, many years slow burn but him and alden get together because charlybird's art is one of the only reasons i gave bill a chance as a character and i am a better person for it

[linka-from-captain-planet]

you know i have to ask about minthara/florrick and if they've been asked already, my other old women jaheira/nine fingers keene maybe?

thank you as always for indulging my pet ship :) and ofc I love Jaheira/Keene too

Minthara/Florrick

What made you ship it? I had Minthara with me when I rescued Florrick from Wyrm's Rock once and the visual of them together, the two sexiest creatures in the entire game, made my pupils dilate so wide that I had to turn down the brightness on my monitor. Instant OTP, but then once I started back-calculating a canon-plausible dynamic, I realized that were literally my perfect ship.

What are your favorite things about the ship? We got elven MILFs, we got pride and prejudice, we got the sheer juiciness of applying mundane relationship issues to two freaks who don't think they're freaks. They have everything and nothing in common. They have shared trauma they'll never talk about, not that they're capable of communicating effectively. They're in love at a certain point, but it doesn't make a difference. They could probably work it out if Minthara were less insane or if Florrick were more insane, but they're both so set in their ways that changing is just out of the question. They're a soap opera starring the two most self-contained women in the universe.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? N/A as there's no such thing, but I think in general fandom leans toward happily-ever-after as a ship default so this kind of ship, doomed to fail and not even really anyone's fault, is super underrated. I like drama, but also I think a happy ending just doesn't suit a lot of ships. Maybe there's some universe where these two could overcome their issues, but it's definitely not canon.

Jaheira/Nine-Fingers

What made you ship it? "ASTELE" out of the blue had me like 👀👀👀. All of their interactions are just so homoerotic sorry. It's also funny to have this hater-hater relationship between grown ass women. An immensely "for ME" ship.

What are your favorite things about the ship? I think they'd be really well-suited for each other! They have chemistry, and the feeling I get is that they could be a sort of long-term somewhat-more-than-friends with benefits situation. I'm always interested in alternative relaionship dynamics, so I like to imagine they're both very comfortable with a pretty casual thing; they're both really busy women, and I feel like Jaheira doesn't really want a new one-and-only nor Nine-Fingers a ball-and-chain. No love lost for not being one another's first priorities, they fulfill each others' needs and make each other's lives better even if they aren't "together" in the way most people understand. The sweetest thing is that Nine-Fingers watches over Jaheira's children when she's gone, like that's so caring and she does it without being asked or taking credit.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? Not necessarily an unpopular opinion, but it always comes up so: no, Jaheira is not Nine-Finger's grandmother lol. She was just dogging her for being old, and it wouldn't make any sense based on the kids we know Jaheira has

[sasakisniko]

Dead Boy Detective for the Netflix Show Ask

1, 6, 17 and 21

Thanks for the ask, Lilas!!! And, everyone else, here's the ask list if you want to send in some questions!

fave character

Well, this is difficult right off the bat. Most of the time, my favorite is either Edwin or Niko. But today I'm in my Charles feels. And yesterday my feels were focused on Crystal. Basically, my favorite character is the core four teens (Edwin, Charles, Crystal, and Niko). They're my sweet baby angels and I would die for any one of them.

6. OTP

This one is much easier. Edwin x Charles. They are so completely and ridiculously devoted to each other and it destroys me. These are two boys who have experienced the worst in both humanity and in the afterlife. And they are literally each other's light in the darkness. They love each other more than anything and I cannot handle it.

(this gif is mine btw)

17. how did you get interested in DBD?

I was vaguely aware of it as a show based on a Neil Gaiman thing before it came out and I was vaguely aware that the characters were on Doom Patrol (in that version they were played by Ty Tennant and a kid from Heartstopper), but I think what first interested me were some gifsets @mcbride reblogged. I'm surprised I watched it as fast as I did (usually shows end up on my to-watch list and don't really leave it for months). I also very rarely get this into shows with teenage mains (the last time was probably VM and, before that, BtVS when I was a teen). But I'm so glad I gave it a chance. And I fell in love with it pretty quickly after I started watching.

21. something in the show that made you happy

Just one thing? How it's so queer and so kind. So many of my favorite shows have one or the other (or sometimes neither, but happen to give me a ship that fits my ship niche, which this one also does), but this is one of the rare exceptions that has both. First of all, pretty much everyone reads as queer. And we also get characters who are kind, characters who want to help other people, who want to do good and be the best versions of themselves.

Thank you again for the ask, Lilas!!!

[kyouka-supremacy]

Ryu for the ask game?

Omg thank you all for asking this character I totally didn't specifically ask to be asked about and who I love a perfectly normal amount giggles and twirls hair

Favorite thing about them: He really strives to be good. Good at something, anything, but just good. He constantly fights against his own narrative and I find it very admirable. He was doomed from the start to fail and I feel like he knows that, and I don't know how he finds the strength to keep trying anyway but he does and it's really neat. Maybe his skull really is too thick to listen to the words of a predetermined fate. Just the whole thing about being the tragic character of all time is very compelling to me. Also, his inherently meaningless seeking a validation to live he shares with Atsushi makes me like him for reasons similar to Atsushi.

Least favorite thing about them: MMMHHHH,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Like I really like his flaws, I'm happy he has them, I wouldn't like him the same if he didn't? But at least I can safely say it's someone I wouldn't like to deal with irl lol.

Favorite line:

<3

brOTP: GIN AND RYUUNOSUKE!!!!! They make me go insane. Holding hands while working in the darkness fr. Being lonely together. Someone who's seen you at your worst FOR REAL but still hasn't abandoned you for some unfathomable reason. I don't know what goes through your mind but I see your eyes and they're the same as mine. Also mmmmhhhh sskk. Chuuaku. Kyouka and Akutagawa though I'm not sure that can count as brotp. Lucy and Akutagawa.

OTP: Sskk is like, pretty cool if you ask me <3 Imagine a fully rotten individual who was never meant for anything but killing and making people suffer since they were born, loving someone. Imagine the “I will kill you” being replaced by “I will love you”. But also imagine being so deeply interlaced with another person, your existence just can't escape the other. Destined to be together and destined to fall apart at the same time. I'll never be able to move forward until I've denied your very being but if you die my existence will stop having a meaning. Don't tell me what to do. I will follow you to the end of the world. I will kill you. I will die for you. I just think them <333 Chuuaku too, have already spent countless words on them but. Finally a ship that's real and relatable. Finally something that doesn't feel ethereal and idealized and distant and untouchable, but real and stained and messy and human. What if I didn't understand you but I wanted to. What if we walked together home. They're neat <333 Other Akutagawa ships I vibe with would be Akutagawa × Beast Atsushi, Akutagawa × Tachihara, Akutagawa × Kajii, akuatsulucy...

nOTP: 🤨🤔🧐

Random headcanon: I think he's numb to pain. And I don't mean it in the “oh no he suffered so much he's used to it at this point :((( ” pitying way, I mean it in the “he's felt such very strong spikes of pain in multiple occasions, his pain detectors just gave out” way. The “he won't notice a wound because he just can't feel it” way.

Unpopular opinion: In the last period, it's been bugging me a little how Akutagawa and Dazai's relationship is portrayed in fancontent. It's just always so black and white, while actually I feel like there's so much nuisance to it that just gets lost in fandom. Yes, the way Dazai treated Akutagawa was horrible and inhuman. Yes, to an extent Dazai thought highly of Akutagawa's abilities and cared for him. Yes, Akutagawa was victim of Dazai's heavy abuse. No, Akutagawa isn't entirely subject to Dazai, he explicitly gave his consent to an hard training (which, I reiterate, doesn't justify it at all; but does give more nuisance to the whole situation) and did oppose him in multiple occasions. I just think sometimes Akutagawa is framed as this helpless damsel in distress and Dazai as this inhuman monster whereas their relationship is indeed unhealthy, but still so much more complex than that. And just, really, I feel like portraying Akutagawa so helpless in Dazai's hands makes him a disservice? Even though in canon he said to be willing to kill Dazai on multiple occasions, has punched him more than once, has told straight “no”s to his face. I just think... People tend to make Akutagawa a lot less aware than he actually is. Here, there it is, that's what really troubles me. Akutagawa does know Dazai hurt him. He does know Dazai's treatment of him was cruel, and unfair. He is aware of what Dazai did to him. That just can't stop him from seeking his approval, even against his will. But to think that Akutagawa is blind to everything Dazai did to him does him a disservice, because he really is not that stupid or with completely null self-awareness. The fact that he tends to run after Dazai despite knowing how much he's hurt him is just further proof of how complex and human-like Akutagawa's psyche is. Also, he does NOT like reading. All my homies hate booknerd Akutagawa.

Song i associate with them: Well, I associate with him songs I definitely shouldn't associate with him alcfjyalfiygaslfiya. One song I always listen to that infallibly makes me think of Akutagawa although it really DOES NOT fit Akutagawa is Patchwork Staccato by toa, with its delicious sewing symbolism and words of toxic codependent relationships and the line you, I'd really rather you just stop existing I just can't help but link to him. Or Vampire by DECO*27, which. self-explanatory. but really shouldn't be associated with Akutagawa. On the side of songs that do fit Akutagawa, Tokyo Teddy Bear (AKUTAGAWA SEWING SYMBOLISM MY ULTIMATE BELOVED) and Lost One's Weeping (“Who stained that heart black? Who was it? Who was it!?” “Can you untie the rope around his neck? Can we keep going like this? What're you gonna do? I don't care anymore!” “But why does this lump in our hearts // Say we want to disappear? Say we want to die?” “Can you remember the dreams of your childhood? Who threw those dreams in a ditch? Who was it!? You know who it was! When are you going to grow up!? What is a grown-up anyway? Who has the answers? What're you gonna do? I don't care anymore!”) and basically everything from Neru. And Rolling Girl by wowaka, obviously.

Favorite picture of them:

Favourite panel from the manga: The one above LMAO. I. Really like that scene and think it's the most beautiful climax Akutagawa's character arc could have ever had. Here's my second favourite though:

Favourite illustration: There's a lot of beautiful ones...

Favourite illustration in the anime art style:

BUT ALSO this please don't make me choose. And various anime screencaps. I feel like I'm cheating but maybe it's unethical to ask from me to pick a favourite Akutagawa picture in the first place.

Favourite Mayoi card:

Send me a character?

[thedrarrylibrarian]

When I think of the soft parts of autumn - crunching leaves and crisp breezes, chai and pumpkin spice - I think of one fic author in particular. I knew coming into fall (officially as of last weekend!) that she had to be a part of the recs! I'm so happy to have the autumn queen herself, @peachpety with us for this month's guest rec!

The Drarry Librarian asked me if I’d like to recommend a fic to kick off this autumn season—the best of all seasons—and of course, I agreed! If you know me, you know that I love autumn…and I love writing our beloved Drarry in any number of fall backdrops and scenarios.

And so here to champion my favorite time of year is a bittersweet, hopeful Halloween short.

Pumpkin Boy, by @stargazing-enby (6,406 words, rated T)

It’s Halloween night, and the line that separates Harry’s world from the one he truly belongs in dissipates when he meets a peculiar, white-blone boy.

Creativity abounds in this fandom, and I am in constant awe at the delightful offshoots and deviations, for many pairings, but especially for my OTP, Drarry. I love the idea of fate linking these two characters, and for me, any fic that explores the What If questions outside canon is fascinating and fun. 

What if…Harry Potter meets and befriends Draco Malfoy before he learns he’s a wizard?

Set during Halloween season, this Pre-Hogwarts fic fatefully throws our two 10-year-old boys together—neither knowing who the other is—to embark on an evening of trick-or-treating on Privet Drive. Doom’s pre-teen characterizations are sweet, funny and authentic. The canon traits that make these characters Draco and Harry remain true, and yet there’s a pureness there that can only exist because they’re untainted by future events and choices. You, dear reader, will be charmed by Draco! And your heart will ache for Harry. The hopeful ending—a Platform 9 ¾ meeting—opens up a slew of possibilities for the years ahead of them at Hogwarts. 

Which is another reason I love these kinds of fics, and this one in particular…imagine the possibilities!

What if…Harry and Draco begin their Hogwarts schooling as friends?

What if…? (And it gets better! There’s fantastic art for this delightful fic! Comic by Artdecielle)

Thank you so much for this sweet rec! I have read it before and you're so right - it's a perfect start to the fall season! I'm so glad you were able to join us and bring a bit of joy. We appreciate your time in bringing us this rec and the bonus art piece, @peachpety!

❤️ As always, if you find a fic you enjoy, please remember to leave the author a kudos or a comment! ❤️

Lots of Love and Happy Friday!

[lesbian-in-leather]

For the fandom ships ask; Merlin, and Once upon a time?

Oooh thank you!!

Merlin

OTP: This is not going to be the popular choice but honestly,,, Merlin/Morgana. I think they had such a facinating dynamic and I would have loved to see the writers follow through with it, especially in the later series. Doomed from the start and intrinsically linked, everyone telling him it's a bad idea for different reasons, everyone telling her she couldn't possibly be with him........ yeah, that's the good shit

Favourite canon pairing: Arthur and Gwen were SO cute and I'm happy for them (and their third, Merlin)

Worst pairing ever: Gwen/Lancelot, specifically when he got back because obviously. He wasn't him, she was spelled, and worst of all, there was never any resolution. Still haunted by the fact that everyone expect Merlin (including Gwen herself) really thinks she just. Cheated on Arthur. Heartbreaking

Guilty pleasure pairing: Morgana and Gwen <3 They're so cute and also the HEARTBREAK,,, when Morgana comes back and Gwen pretends to still be her friend and,,,,,,,,, THEM. The guilty part comes from the fact that I know a lot of this ship comes form the "get the women out of the way for mlm ship" mentality, but that's obviously not why I like it soooooo

A pairing you want to see more: Honestly both Morgana/Gwen and Merlin/Morgana. I know everyone loves Arthur/Merlin and they ARE fuckin valid and cute, but I really feel more people should multi-ship because Merlin has SUCH good dynamics with other people, and despite people *saying* they ship Morgana/Gwen there is a suspicious lack of content for them

That pairing everyone likes but you’re like “lol no”: Honestly I feel like I haven't spent enough time in the fandom for this?? I can't think of any, but that might just be because, again, I am a shameless multi-shipper and polyam enjoyer

Favourite non-romantic pair: Gwen and Merlin! I know they had a lil fling early on, but they became such a solid platonic duo and also I think it'd be really funny when they just casually mention that one time they kissed. Everyone would be scandalous (Arthur especially. "What do you mean you kissed Merlin before me??")

Once Upon a Time

OTP: Swanqueen!!!!! Obviously. They were in LOVE and I will DIE on this hill

Favourite canon pairing: Okay okay okay I know this is controversial BUT. For the reasons of "I enjoy fucked up people and their fucked up dynamics" ........Rumple/Evil Queen

Worst pairing ever: Robin/Regina. I liked that she was happy and that's about the only good thing I have to say about it like,,, come on. I just. Why

Guilty pleasure pairing: Okay okay hear me out. Captain Hook/Evil Queen. I just feel like, in the enchanted forest,,,,,,,, some shit happened. And I also think it makes their dynamic funnier when they meet again in Storybrook (see the non-romantic pair)

A pairing you want to see more: Ruby/Belle! Ruby was obviously fruity af and I always thought they'd be a cute couple but there is. not much support there lmao

That pairing everyone likes but you’re like “lol no”: Honestly? Belle/Rumple. She deserved better! Girlie was NOT down with the atrocities and they were wayyyy too much a part of him. Every time he tried to twist himself in knots to be a Good Person (especially when he was the Dark One?? Like, we saw with Emma, it was such a strong compulsion warping their minds, he very much tried to resist it but he also. Literally couldn't. The fuckin saviour couldn't like why are you blaming him) and failed, she'd get so mad and leave and then,,,, the writers would throw them back together again. Like lads. Let them go. Please

Favourite non-romantic pair: Regina/Killian. I think their interactions were SO fucking funny and she hated him so much. The bullying. The nicknames. Him sitting there like a wet cat. His best scenes were when he was alone with her and wish we'd lent into that instead of pushing his ~relationship~ with Emma

Send me a fandom and I'll answer these questions!

[koolkat9]

Ok. No joke. Never heard or seen A N Y England x Germany ship ever in my life up until now. The way my jaw dropped when I saw your page. (Not in a Bad way tho🤤) BUT PLEASE ELABORATE CUZ I NEED TO KNOW. SO WHY ENGLAND X GERMANY?

We're definitely one of the smaller ships here, but we at least have 200+ fics which is more than some of my other ships have. But anyway...

So I guess I'll start with what first got ME into GerEng. I've shared it before, but I love telling this story! So the year is I think 2018? Yeah 2018. Dreamtalia has just been fully released and the creator and her friend are doing a lp of it. Now this is the first hetagame I got into, and although I've seen the whole story at this point as the whole game had been shared on the creator's channel though part of it was like barebones, only sketched screenshots if even, but I loved the game and this creator and her adlibs were always entertaining. Keep the entertaining adlibs in mind.

So I'm watching the lp and there is a part of the game where your party of characters split up. Ludwig and Arthur, who at this point have been butting heads are paired together and shenanigans ensue. Now, canonically to the game, if I recall correctly, they bond a bit, a foundation for a friendship that is shown a bit in the beta of the sequel. But, the creator and her friend started adlibbing because at one point Ludwig offers his hand to Arthur when they're overcoming some obstacle and them holding h became a running subplot all completely adlibbed. At this point I was a hard Ger//Ita shipper and usually the game would have Ger//Ita undertones, but I started to get invested in the GerEng plot line and I was coming back to the lp every time they post to find out what happened next for the "handholding buddies."

Gosh this is already long and I'm not fully done my story and I still need to talk about my fav parts of the ship...shit...Okay 2019 an alternate small scale sequel releases for Dreamtalia based on the the bad end of the game and the GerEng subplot. This is where I really got into the ship and led me to searching for fics and fanart. Because after Dreamtalia I didn't think of GerEng again. Didn't think I would. But then this sequel came out and it got be hooked. And then I started writing for them and soon replaced Ger//Ita as my OTP.

Okay putting the second half of my favourite things about GerEng under the cut because this is already long.

Okay, first things first. I just find it so appealing that these two stubborn lonely men find each other. They're similar which does cause them to butt heads sometimes, but it also means they understand each other. They've been through similar things, have similar poor coping mechanisms, but through their relationship and trying to prevent the other from isolating and wallowing in guilt, they've started to stop themselves from doing it too.

And it's a mutual thing. Arthur is there for Ludwig following the World Wars as Lud is faced with his anxiety, PTSD, guilt and he's facing this all alone because either his loved ones have been forcibly ripped from him or he pushed them away. Taking a page out of another GerEng creator's book who I'll talk about in the next paragraph, Arthur comes along is like "Here. Music. Also human interaction."

Then once Ludwig gets in a better place, Arthur starts to spiral, faced with his crumbling empire and losing his status as a world super power. He feels he has no purpose now and being an empire made him feel untouchable, without it, he feels vulnerable. But Ludwig is there, basically uses Arthur's own advice against him with some of Lud's own experience.

Now of course there was so much more that went into both of their healing journeys beyond just each other, but their relationship both when it was platonic and romantic was an important stepping stone. And it just makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Going back to their similarities, it's not all hurt/comfort, doom and gloom. They love to bake. I think they share some similar music interest since their was a period of music exchange between the two countries following ww2. Teethhoarder, an amazing artist and fic writer knows a bit more about this and covers it in their fic Are Friends Electric and also give a good run down on their ask blog. Their stubbornness actually can be beneficial because Ludwig doesn't take Arthur's shit and pushes back. And their bluntness has it's perks too because both of them, especially Ludwig need things told to them straight. And they're both not big into PDA, completely content with just simple handholding.

Then there is the history. Christmas Truce 1914 where German and British troops declared a truce in honour of Christmas and celebrated the holiday together. I as well as many other shippers see this as a jump start to their relationship, the time where they got to know each other as Arthur and Ludwig instead of the British Empire and the German Empire. Then there is the whole music exchange. There is also another historical period that I think contributes to their relationship, but I don't like touching that era when Lud is involved...

Also canon...though not necessaryily with overt romantic undertones like early Ger//Ita or Su//Fin or Fr//Uk or nowadays Ger//Fra, they have their sweet moments in canon like them having tea together. Or sharing rations. Or the Christmas Truce. Or how that one episode where they're all sharing their horror movies and one of the fun fact pop ups say Germany and England work on horror movies together or something. Then there is that one time Arthur is helping Ludwig with his work persumeably. Or the time Art was fretting about Ludwig working in his games. Oh here's that strip:

Also just this is just funny to me, Lud not knowing how to compliment his bf:

Anyway...I think that covers everything...I mean I have so many headcanons, but these are the main things. You ask "why GerEng" you get a whole fucking essay...

[dangermousie]

Do you want your heart wrecked? God, do I have a drama for you - The Outsiders (2004) pusher post.

Prepare to be shocked because The Outsiders doesn't have a single cliche so beloved by many older dramas: there is no over-the-top silliness (the story is pretty grim), nobody is in college or has terminal illness, and...*gasp* love is important and even the lynchpin of the main characters' lives, but the drama is not starry-eyed about it, and in fact wants you to seriously question whether it was better for protagonists to have never met, or were the highs worth all the appalling lows.

The story of The Outsiders centers around 4 characters: three lower-class boys, thug delinquents and best friends since childhood. And Yu Yen, a sheltered, unworldly upper-class pianist who ends up falling in love with Ah Hao, one of the three guys. The boys join the Triads and 'move up in the world' even as they are losing their souls, and Yu Yen also copes with the fall-out. I think The Outsiders is even more Yu Yen's story than it is Ah Hao's or anyone else's. It's her destruction, her growth that becomes the key.

I love, love, love, LOVE the impossible, incredibly messed-up and oh-so-doomed central OTP of Ah Hao and Yu Yen. I want to tell them to run and get away from each other, even as I cannot resist wishing they could work it out, even if I know they never can. The drama does something I have rarely see a drama do: it presents the viewer with this grand operatic love and then asks whether that is really worth it, whether it is really enough. Yu Yen and Ah Hao would indubitably have been better off if they had never met. Ah Hao joins the Triads to protect her, but Yu Yen gets irrevocably damaged as the result. And the secrets they keep from each other: out of guilt, out of love, out of protectiveness, out of dysfunction, or a myriad other reasons end up building a wall between them and for most of the second half we are watching people who cannot live without each other but cannot live with each other either. They keep hurting each other but they cannot, nor do they want to, break away.

While The Outsiders has an amazing love story, it is not a romance drama: it really is the story of the main characters' descent into hell, some self-made and some forced on them. Some of them emerge out of it and some do not. It is almost Greek tragedy like in making the characters' downfall based on their flaws (and sometimes what conventionally could be perceived as their strengths).

All the main characters are fleshed out: the difficult, impulsive Ah Hao whose world is dangerously black-and-white, who is oh-so-flawed but also irresistible (you can see why Yu Yen fell for his passion and his total absorption into whatever he is or does, but also see why this brings them tragedy). Yu Yen, who starts the story deceptively fragile and sheltered but develops into the strongest character of all: an internally locked-away, contained woman who is a trauma victim on the inside but will keep going despite that or despite anything else. Danzi, probably the most likeable of them all, the narrator of the story: introspective and intelligent, there to pick up the pieces. Ah Qi, the easy-going joker of the group, perhaps the least messed-up or affected by their life and his tough-as-nails street-smart girlfriend Hong Do.

The drama made me feverishly obsessed, made me bawl (yes, I got weepy for contract killer mobsters), made me swoon. It's incredibly good.

Also, I found darkeyedwolf's legendary pusher post for The Outsiders, aka my second fave twdrama beside Mars and one that will FUCK YOU UP!

A little taste from her review:

I really can't convey the twisted messed-up glory of the OTP. She can't leave him no matter what he does, because he does it all for her, and he can't blame her for any of the secrets and lies and scars, because it's his fault she's involved. They're madly in love (the kind of intense, everlasting, die-for-you love, which is not at all an exaggeration when you're dealing with the mob) but their lives would've been so much better if they'd never met. It almost hurts to ship them, because you know they should be apart for their own sakes, but you can't stop and neither can they. They don't know how to do anything but love each other.

[sinecosinewheel]

@galaxirin @bornetoblood

😭 i rly am the amelia guy huh (nm about it!)

- How I feel about this character

to start, she is my funny guy. in-game i think she's an awesome depiction of the healing church's state, the last vicar is powerless to do anything but pray, alone, clutching the medallion of her predecessor who all but set her up to fail. she's both a tragic figure, and the highest remaining member of the organization who doomed the town. in my hcs she is all of that, and she regularly mulches and beheads people, and she likes bugs. she is my funny guy!

- All the people I ship romantically with this character

hmmm. melia x early retirement. jshdj fr I don't have any specific characters? maybeeee henriett? ok wait i like to think she's henryk's great grand niece or smth and theyre really on the nose w/ the names. ok divergence, my henriette hc is that she was rejected from the church hunters and inherited her old mans Old Hunter style duds nd started vigilante mushing beasts w/ her kirkhammer pro bono. so tool of the institution x bitter rogueish vigilante. plus u summon henriett for melias fight so putting down an old flame .... i have successfully talked myself around to this ship let's get it 🎉

- My non-romantic OTP for this character

she really could've used some guidance other than laurence in her life, so i like to think she would've found a mentor in maria, had maria lived long enough to meet her. rlly tho most people were scared shitless of her and/or intimidated by her status so she had no non-killing, non-laurence social outlets. i haven't arbitrarily picked and made up a backstory wholecloth for an npc hunter to be her dead friend yet but also them lmao 😭

- My unpopular opinion about this character

slamming my fists on the ground beating my head on the wall SHE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE, I QUOTE, 'THE SEXY DOG FROM OLIVER AND COMPANY'!!!!!!

ok that's a personal grievance but i stand by it. umm i wish she showed up again? not sure if that's unpopular but i don't think many people think of it. like maybe she could've showed up in the hunters nightmare...even as a gorpse.....or had more item descriptions ab her!! i want the bell ringing woman set!!!

- One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

hrmm i wish we could have gotten to see more of her in general!! the fight intro cutscene is fucking iconic but maybe she could've been an npc u can talk to... and then u have to fight her when u progress the night farther... n u could start her fight early like the dancer in ds3 by attacking her and get an alt intro cutscene....basically just any content of how the church worked, or what her role was before everything exploded i think

- My OTP

apparently amelia x henriett! news to me. real enemiesish to lovers opposing forces attract type shit here

- My crossover ship

ourgh. hmm maybe millicent elden ring or emerald herald ds2? maybe the ds2 miracles lady lmao melia would in her head b like my dads a much better grifter than her...shes silly i like her :) n the miracles lady is into muscles maybe. idk lmao it could be unhealthy, it could lead to melia unlearning some toxic shit bc the miracles lady is like a cartoonishly over exaggerated version of the people she was raised with, i don't even remember her name though x.x

- A headcanon fact

i stg this entire post has been a headcanon fact lol 💀 uhm uh oh lol we are ending on a sad one heehee. so u know how vicar amelia boss form is covered in bandages? after the school of mensis began kidnapping blood saints the healing blood of the healing church began to run dry, leading yharnam citizens to seek it from other sources, like certain prostitutes with special blood. seeing no other course and to uphold the legitimacy of the church's special blood, the vicar underwent the mysterious process of becoming a blood saint herself and all but bled herself dry to make up for the demand

[ezralva]

I've been following you for a coupla years now ever since your xicheng era. It's interesting to see whenever you get into new fixations, it introduces me to lesser animes or BLs or new ships that otherwise I would never think of and more often than not I got hooked to them thanks to you 😁 I'm very shy and awkward so mostly in fandoms I'm in im just a silent enjoyer and follower. I'm so happy when you started posting and reblogging jjk because it's a fandom I've been silently lurking for years and moreover because you like stsg and also chousou because they are one of my favorites too. I pretty much enjoy reading your posts and your reblog tags, they are funny! May you share how you got into that? Because you mention one time that you regret those who drew you into jjk 😅 is it something to do with big fandom?

Ps. I like your fic so much, it's like a healing session after chapter 236, I thought i'd let you know here because i'm too shy to comment directly on the fic

Omg this is so sweet of you, anon, thank you! I hope y'know your kind words just made my whole day <3. Wow if you've been following me that long then you shud go off anon so I wud know who you are ^^ but I get it! I enjoy being silent lurker and follower too from times to times.

Also wow I'm amazed you've put up with my everchanging fixations that long lol I know I'm annoying that whenever I'm into new fixation then I wudn't shut up abt it for a while and too lazy to ever make sideblogs. Anw, I don't really remember when I said that ahaha I'd most likely just joked or be sarcastic when I wrote that. I did feel so much pain knowing my otp is a doomed ship but it's nothing I didn't know before I even started jjk. Moreover it ended in a good note for me what with the latest chapters of them so it's all good now. The abundant loveable characters of jjk making it easy to explore other dynamics and ships too. Even dynamics I'd usually nvr entertain so it's been an eye opener experience! I don't regret a thing. Glad to know we share similar tastes :)

but yea I'm really not good with big fandoms overall and am usually content with the tiny corner of my own. My last experience with big fandoms, before I switched completely to obscure fandoms, were too unpleasant that I didn't wish to ever repeat it. But I'm more adept with curating what I wanna see now so I won't get put-off or get bored quickly. Tiny fandoms are nice and comfy but they were oftentimes unsustainable for me due to the lack of interactions. Still, I'm so happy to hear my shitposts could actually introduce you to new fixations!

Abt how I get into jjk. Well, unlike any other animes mangas I'm into, I actually have irl friends and coworkers that are fans of jjk. 3 of them are close to me (one of them is my spouse lol) and had literally pestered me to try it for long so they'd have someone to talk with. So I'd known about it since around 2 years ago when the movie came out. I was curious bcs it was such a hype around me even though they were all adults who usually didn't even watch anime so there must be sth different abt it. Yet I kept putting it off cz I was just not into supernatural fantasy shounen. I decided this year would be a good time to start since with season 2 the hype around me was too high that I just got swept in it, naturally. I cudn't tamp down my curiosity any longer plus I got time now during this break so why not, right? The thing is my irl friends arent into simping let alone shipping (at least not that I know in public, who knows what they might be doing in private) so I keep that side here ofc!

Awwwh thank you so much for letting me know you like my fic! Ch 236 was indeed devastating for a while tho it was still a HE in some aspects (for me). It's an outlet for me to pour my HCs for the characters that stuck with me. I hope you know that even if it's just excited emojis, a comment in the fic worths a lot for authors cz it let them know not just abt whether their fics are being read and liked, but how their works actually affect the readers, it's a potent drive for authors and feedbacks are helping authors so you don't need to be shy 😉

[ship-mista]

Hey Howdy Mista-Lovers! It's finally time! I present to you...

🔫🔫🔫

MISTA HAREM WEEK!

Running from November 27th until our best boy's birthday on December 3rd!

This post will cover info, rules, prompts... and more? Check it out!

Also find me on Twitter:

https://www.twitter.com/ship_mista

Question One: What is Mista Harem Week?

Short answer: A week dedicated to any and all relationships featuring Mista!

Long answer: A seven-day creation spree featuring everyone's favorite gunslinger in all types of relationships!

We welcome:

➼ All pairings (But rarepairs are encouraged!)

➼ All types of love (Platonic, romantic, chaotic -- you name it!)

➼ And all types of fanworks!

Question Two: Well, are there any rules?

Short answer: There are!

Long answer:

Rule 1. The Prompts and Schedule are Optional!

Prompts are for inspiration, not restriction! Feel free to use the prompts, mix-and-match, post out of order, or throw everything out altogether. The world is your oyster!

Rule 2. Tag your ships!

People want to find their OTPs and avoid their NOTPs. Tagging ships is essential.

Rule 3. Use warnings for NSFW content!

I will only reblog sensitive/explicit material if it is censored or cropped. But that doesn't mean "don't make it"! It just means I am limited by platform restrictions.

Rule 5. The Most Important Rule!

Be kind to one another!

Please follow the three laws of fandom:

➼ Don't Like; Don't Read

➼ Your Kink is Not My Kink (And that's okay!)

➼ Ship and Let Ship

(And use tags!)

-----

Now, here's what you've all been waiting for. (Or maybe that's just me!)

The Prompt List!

November 27

❤️ "Meet & Greet"

How did Mista meet the object of his affection? How did he woo his current flame? (Or was he wooed instead?) Who made the first move?

Meet & Greet is about first meetings, first dates, first kisses. What is the start of something beautiful?

⭐ Mista x Allies

We all know Mista likes his friends. But does he LIKE-like his friends?

What if something canon-compliant where Mista dates his team. Or an AU where Mista's part of a different squad. Maybe an AU where a canon ally is now an enemy?

So many options!

November 28

❤️ "Run & Gun"

How do Mista and his partner run missions? How do they run for groceries?

Run & Gun could be about day-to-day life. Does Mista like to jog? How would he teach someone to shoot?

(Or maybe it's about fighting and shooting each other! Up to you!)

⭐ Mista x Enemies

We all might love Mista... but not everyone does (a shock! I know).

Would Mista befriend his enemies in true JoJo's fashion? Would Mista fall into a star-crossed romance, doomed for tragedy from the start? Would he forgive someone who betrayed him?

November 29

❤️ "Streets & Sheets"

Mista in the streets, still Mista in the sheets.

Streets & Sheets is about the difference between public life and private life.

Does Mista like public displays of affection? Could he keep a relationship a secret?

⭐ Mista x Anyone in Golden Wind

Anyone in Golden Wind canon is fair game, here. Anime, manga, novels, you name it.

(Also, listen... I think Mista could land Giorno's mom. And Giorno's dad. And also Giorno's mysterious gangster hero.)

November 30

❤️ "Wake up & Make-up"

Morning routines! Coffee, cuddling, curtain-fic. Who's the morning person? Who would rather DIE than wake up before noon?

Wake up & Make-up is about domesticity. Or maybe it's about Mista in drag! You know he'd rock a winged eyeliner.

⭐ Mista x Anyone in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Could you imagine if Mista, Hol Horse, and Foo Fighters met? What a wild adventure those three gun-toting hotties would have.

What if Mista were in a different Part? What if he met Joseph in his prime? Chaos.

December 1

❤️ "Short Skirts & T-Shirts"

Pining from afar, jealousy, falling in love with your neighbor... Could Mista keep his love to himself or does he wear his heart on his sleeve?

Or maybe this is the fashion episode. (Does he have a whole zoo of animal-print pants?)

⭐ Mista x Anyone outside of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

I'm thinking... Sherlock Holmes... SpongeBob Squarepants... Lassie. Literally anyone or anything is fair game here. Go wild!!!

December 2

❤️ "Showers & Flowers"

After it rains, life grows.

Showers & Flowers could be about recovering from adversity and trauma. We know Mista's had his fair share of both.

Or maybe it's about who hogs the shower, who brings flowers in apology, who likes the rain?

⭐ Mista x Your OC

This is your chance to ship Mista with your OC. Any OC. I mean it!

A JoJo's OC? Absolutely. Another anime OC? Yes PLEASE! Your D&D character? Live your best life! Your cringy middle-school cat boy OC? I would LITERALLY die for him.

December 3

❤️ "Happy Birthday"

A free day!

I'd honestly love it if everyone shared their favorite piece of someone else's work. Spread the love! Give the gift of Mista to the masses.

⭐ Mista x Your favorite character

Literally any character from anything, as long as they're your favorite. Gush about your favorite character, gush about Mista. Gush about Gushers. Gimme all those gooey feelings.

-----

And that's it! That's all the info I have. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions, any comments, any concerns. Above all, I want this account and this ship week to just express all the love in the world for one Guido Mista.

Have fun! Be positive!

How do you @ship-mista?

[negative-speedforce]

Headcanon/relationships meme thing for Sivonne?

Oh hell yeah!

1: sexuality headcanon

They're a lesbian, 100%. There's no doubt about it. She's the biggest walking gay disaster on the face of Earth-2002 (except maybe Eobard himself).

2: otp

Siv/Hailey. Despite how much I live Siv's dynamic with Gina, her first love was always doomed to fail (thanks for that, Eo), and I love the way Gina haunts the narrative following her murder.

Siv and Hailey though???? I could rant about them for hours. They're Orpheus and Eurydice, rehashed. They're fire and water, lightning and ice, passion and patience. In the words of Eobard Thawne, they're "Equals, opposites, reverses of one another". They have so much sexual tension and they're so gay for each other and I love that for them.

3: brotp

Siv and Jay are 100% the besties of all time. After all, who else but your best friend would support you as you slowly fall deeper into your own rage and grief, betraying everything you once were as you're completely consumed by your own need for revenge? (And then help pull you back up from rock bottom, of course)

4: notp

Siv/Jay. I'm sorry, I just don't like the idea of them dating. They'd honestly make a pretty horrible couple, since they're such fundamentally different people. I don't see their friendship surviving that. Plus, there's the matter of Siv's sexuality, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

Siv steals food from various restaurants to get her calorie fix for the day. Since they're constantly broke due to being legally dead, she has to resort to theft in order to survive, and one thing that she often does is run through a random local restaurant and stuff a bunch of food in a Tupperware container, then run off before anyone can blink.

6: favorite line from this character

I'm still in love with their last line before she's erased from the timeline the first time. After shooting her own ancestor in the head, effectively committing temporal suicide in order to get rid of their girlfriend's killer, aka her father, they stare Eobard straight in the eye and say "I'm not ready to die, but if I have to, I'm dragging you down to hell with me."

7: one way in which I relate to this character

Siv started out as a way for me to vent my own frustration with my relationship with my mother. Like Siv, my parent doesn't really see me as a person, rather as a concept, or an opportunity for her to use. We are both the unwanted child, the golden child who became the scapegoat, etc.

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

In a moment of panic, when asked their name for the first time while going out as their heroic alter ego, Siv gives herself the name "Dark Streak". It kinda sucks, but it's definitely realistic for a frantic teenager trying not to reveal their real identity.

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

Definitely problematic fave. She kills people, steals, lives illegally in an abandoned building, occasionally tortures people, etc, but I still love them so much. She's such a disaster of a person and I just want them to be happy.

[danpuff-ao3]

New Goals!

While writing my dear friend Bethy this morning, I sort of made the decision to scale back and rethink all of my grand plans.

Now, I am a lady who can do a lot. That ADHD + OCD combo can be good for some things, I suppose, especially when properly medicated! Accomplishing a lot makes me feel good and happy and gets me all riled up to do more! What I at times fail to remember is that this energy and focus isn't endless. And my sense of responsibility and perfectionism will mean my doom when I inevitably slow down.

My therapist and I have been working on me recognizing and celebrating what I do accomplish, even when they're not on my "list." I have a bad habit of feeling useless when I did 10 things in a day but none of them were on my "list" or in my "plans" and so I chalk the day up as a failure. It helps me to stop and look and say "Hey! I did that! That is a thing that I did and that's very cool and good of me." And that helps.

But it also helps to recognize when my Brain (also named Brian, per my friend Nina, based on a misreading of a Tweet some months ago, haha!) is getting overexcited and dancing around and adding more and more grand plans to our plate. It also helps to verbalize because, for me, and my dang Leo Moon, I need to share and to be seen and understood.

So while there is plenty I'd like to do, I've narrowed down my goals for the year to 3 pretty solid goals:

Snarry-a-Thon

Snarry Bang

Project: Three of Hearts

While the plan is to complete and submit fics for the above fests, my Project is just what I plan to work on in between times. My goal is progress there.

So regarding the above goals, this is where I'm at:

Snarry-a-Thon: Rough Draft & Edit 1 done. Off for beta reading now.

Snarry Bang: teammate chosen and as of yesterday a plan nailed down!

Project: Three of Hearts: Very loose outline. And chapter 1 done! I figured my struggle with the outline might be helped by starting it, to help give me more of a feel for characterization and dynamics. I think it helped because my "vague outline" is starting to feel a bit more solid!

WIPs I would like to make progress on this year, but am refusing to to stress about:

Dralbus fic

Scarry fic

Lavmione fic

Contempt-verse fic (Kinktober?)

Contempt-verse fic (Christmas?)

The Christmas Prince 2

Goals I've cut: mostly Year of the OTP. I wrote Again (and Again) and Lovestruck to fill YOTP prompts, but while it seems fun, it's just too much. I have been panicking in the back of my mind about what to do for a March prompt and it's just not worth it. I don't want to feel obligations to finish things out. So I'm going to remove the Year of the OTP tags from those fics and try to forget I ever heard about it. The part of me that must finish everything it starts is deeply unhappy, but I need to scrub away all sense of needing to finish it, so I don't beat myself up when I fail.

The downside is that, with the idea of doing Year of the OTP and posting a new fic every month, I would definitely have reached 100 HP fics this year! I'm ever closer to that goal, but...if not this year, then certainly next year. There's no rush, really. Also: even though the OCD part of my brain rails at this a bit, I should at least celebrate that I do have 100 works on AO3! If we could my astro meta and my old Marvel fics, I'm actually at 103!!!! (Still trying to talk Brian into accepting that win.)

The thing is, I still do a lot, even if I don't get everything I hoped or planned to do done. Other plans for the year include:

More rec lists! (And I've already done rec lists for this year so everything here on out is gravy!)

More general meta (have I done this yet? Who knows. I'm sure I'll feel inspired sometime.)

More HP Astro posts (already done! All else will be bonus!)

2 fests to run! HP Chan will wrap up next Monday, and that same day HP Fruit Fest starts!

Reading and commenting! I've already done that! And I hope to do more!

Learn bookbinding! I still have supplies to gather, but I started doing test prints of short fics to play with programs and typesetting and printing and such. That's a start!

Mostly I just want to be involved in fandom. I want to interact with my community and chat with my friends and meet new friends. I want to give as much to the fandom as I can, in whatever form I can, be it recs or meta or fics or what have you. Or even just fangirling hard on Discord servers! It would be fun to do more podcasts this year (hint hint @careofmagicalshippers and @fanficmaverickpodcast LOL.) Or...idk, what else can I do? Idk, but no stress to me! I'm here to have fun and spread love.

And I need to keep that in mind. And give myself the love of self-care. And focus more on what's fun and what inspires me over how productive I am, or being self-critical.

Do I take fandom too seriously? Mayhaps. But only because I love it so much!

Anyway, 10 points to your House if you made it this far. Leo Moon = need to share. So thank you for letting me share with you!

[sapphire-weapon]

Favorite ships in RE verse (Remake included)? Ik you like Ashley/Leon so feel free to scream about them. I'm also curious to know if you have any ships among the side characters.

oof. aight. so.

Leon/Ashley is the only "real" RE ship that I have, in the sense that it's the only one that I actively create and seek out content for. I'll go into the whys and hows of that a little later, but. In case anyone was curious why I go so hard for Leon/Ashley --

Actually. When I reblogged this post initially, I almost tagged it as #WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME WHY I SHIP LEON/ASHLEY #THIS IS WHY

I restrained myself because I don't like doing that to other ppl's posts, but. It's a pretty accurate representation of what drew me to the ship initially 18 years ago. Queen/Knight ships are my absolute favorite dynamic for a ship ever ever ever ever. Hands down. No contest. And what are these two -- especially in OG -- if not that?

My second favorite kind of ship? Doomed ones. Missed opportunity ones. "If only things were different" ones. "Our roles in each other's lives will never allow this to happen" ones.

And that's also them.

Real talk? I would actually like the ship way less if I thought for a second that there was a chance that Leon and Ashley could/would actually get together in canon. I'd still like it, but not nearly as much. (which is why it's really funny when people try to be like "it'll never be canon" YEAH NO SHIT I HOPE IT NEVER IS)

So I was cursed to fall super hard for this ship from day one. Like, there wasn't even a chance in hell I wasn't going to ship these two. No other two characters in this series have a dynamic that's even kind of similar to this.

And then the remake happened and it poured even more of the shit I already liked about it on top of what was already there and I was like "mmm yes it's delicious thank u capcom"

So that's my whole thing with those two.

And outside of those two? Well.

Back in the days of early RE fandom, we were so small and so starved for fan content that it was commonplace for people to read fics for ships that they didn't care about or even like lmao. I once read like 80,000 words of a Wesker/Leon fic because that was all I could fucking find that I hadn't read yet (and also wasn't weird monster dog porn -- late 90s/early 00s RE fandom was fucking weird ok).

Those early fandom days were also kind of magical, though, because so much of the canon was wide open to so many different ships and interpretations and scenarios. Like, as time has gone on and RE has grown larger and larger, the world of RE has started to feel smaller and smaller. It's way way WAY harder to write a canon-compliant fic these days, because there's so many moving parts to the story now, and a lot of details have been cemented in place that never used to be there.

Like, it's rad that the canon has so much to consume in it. But it sucks because it feels restrictive as a result.

So, like.

I have actually written fics for so many different, random ships over my 25 years in this fandom, because this fandom used to be more of like a... swap meet, sort of? Where we'd all just take requests from each other and write fics for each other and share them around -- because the fandom was so, so goddamn small back in the day.

I have actually written fics for:

Leon/Ashley (of course)

Leon/Claire

Leon/Luis

Chris/Jill

Chris/Rebecca (seriously)

Chris/Leon

Steve/Claire

Billy/Rebecca

Wesker/Ada (this one was fun, actually. I'd fuck with this one again)

Of course, there were people who were ride-or-die OTP folks (though this actually didn't get really bad or become any sort of real majority in the fandom until after RE4's release, and that's only because RE4 just dumped so much gasoline on the Aeon vs Cleon war holy fuck. RE fandom became a fuckin minefield after RE4), but a lot of us really just dabbled in a bit of everything. So I never really got like... super attached to any one ship, if that makes sense?

There is actually something very nostalgic about Leon/Claire for me, if you can believe it, because the ship was only viable until about the time of Degeneration, so we're going way back. That movie made it very clear that these two were not at all going to stay as active parts of each other's lives, so the ship basically died upon its release.

But prior to that? That was one of THE BIG SHIPS in the fandom. So, the vast majority of fics that I wrote back in the swap meet days were Leon/Claire, because the majority of my fandom friends fell more on the Cleon side of things.

Today, I don't like where their dynamic has gone in later canon. There's nothing there anymore, and I've lost all interest in it.

But... at the same time... when RE2make happened, it was something I thought about revisiting just for old time's sake. I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet, but I do still think about it from time to time. Maybe I'll actually go ahead and do the thing one of these days, now that I'm back in the habit of writing RE fic again.

But anyway.

The point is. Any side ships I have, I really just enjoy in passing. Like, if I see nice art of Chris/Jill or Billy/Rebecca I'll definitely reblog it because I do enjoy it, but I have never even one time gone out of my way to find it or any fics of them. Most of my contributions to side ships are thinkpieces and meta analysis.

Leon/Chris is one of the ships that I've done deep dive meta analysis for -- and half of that was just to piss off fanboys who were already mad about RE6 to begin with, because those fuckers made the fandom UNBEARABLE in the early 2010s -- but I still don't go super hard for them.

Same thing with Remake-verse Leon/Luis. I've done meta for them because people have asked me for it, and I do find their new dynamic absolutely fascinating from a literary/storytelling standpoint. They're another ship I do enjoy, but... again, mostly in passing.

So. idk if this actually answered your question. RE ships are just kind of a weird topic for me in general most of the time, because I went so, so, so long just looking at characters' individual arcs as opposed to engaging in actual ship content.

I've talked about this a little before, but I did go through that period (around 10 years) where I tried to pass it off that I had no ships in order to seem like an "objective" source for canon information (which, in hindsight, is so fucking stupid because I could've just done what I'm doing now and kept objective facts about the series/canon differentiated from my ship shit, but w/e), so in those 10 years, I didn't really engage with RE ships, like, at all.

So now I'm just kind of at the point of "dude whatever idc as long as we're all having fun."

[citrusreadstoa]

Reading The Hidden Oracle: Chapter 38 (SPOILERS)

"The plague spread." These are not promising starting words.

"Strangely enough, Damien White got sick right after he learned that Chiara was sick. The two had cots next to each other in the infirmary . . . even though they kept sniping at each other whenever they knew they were being watched." OTP OTP OTP

"recruiting whales and hippocampi to help him haul away the Colossus." How're they gonna get rid of the oil? Would the seashells and sand dollars that Percy used that the Triple G Ranch and in the Manhattan rivers work in this scenario?

"his own weathered, bearded mien." MIEN (n.): a person's look or manner, especially one of a particular kind indicating their character or mood

"The canoe dock could be rebuilt." And guess who's gonna be rushing to be the first to use it? None other than our best worst Canoe Duo!

"The Colossus's footstep craters could be repurposed as convenient foxholes or koi ponds." I really like the koi pond idea.

"The only major damage was to the Demeter cabin . . . the Colossus had managed to step on it before turning around" I'll bet that was on purpose. What if Nero goes after Miranda and Billie and any of Meg's other half-siblings as a warning to her?

Oh wait, is Apollo going to get slapped in the face by the Styx for using the plague arrow on the Colossus? Ah, the Styx's slaps are relatively gentle, anyway.

"At the moment, I did not want to be Apollo. All the destruction I saw below me... it was my fault." You know, this is one of the few times when the protagonist wallows over a disaster or conflict being their fault and I actually agree somewhat. The villain being his distant descendant, he's responsible for them to a degree and his neglect of his duties as a god allowed them to grow their power. Most of the Oracles being lost is his fault, but I am hesitant to blame the loss of Delphi on him considering the lockdown state of Olympus and split personality going on when Python took it over. Lots of this is his fault, though.

"What I needed to do was to find her. I wondered if Meg had phrased her order that way on purpose, or if that was just wishful thinking on my part." 100% wishful thinking. There was too much going on at that time for Meg to think that much about her phrasing and even if she did, if she wanted to be found, she wouldn't have run away to begin with.

"I should leave Camp Half-Blood immediately, before the campers woke." Don't do that. That is unwise. Athena would never recommend that. Don't pull a Nico and suddenly disappear when no one is looking.

"I wanted to flirt with Chiara and steal her away from Damien... or perhaps steal Damien away from Chiara, I wasn't sure yet." Please do not.

"Because I was a coward, I waited too long." Same.

"Lord Apollo." I love how Rachel still calls him Lord Apollo when he clearly looks like Lester Papadopoulos.

"The Arrow of Dodona just gives random advice." Yeah, where did that arrow come from? I'm willing to bet it's just something that exists in Greek mythology with no further explanation. It talks and gives sage advice simply because it does. No further context.

"'I appreciate the offer of assistance, but--' 'Whoa.' Percy held up his hands." He's drawing a CLEAR line. No taking chances that he might end up going unwillingly on a quest again. "'I'll go,' Rachel said. I shook my head." Aw, I wanted to see The Wacky Misadventures of Rachel the Prophecyless Oracle and Apollo the Powerless Sun God. It'd be so interesting to see a mortal go on a quest normally intended for demigods!

"I've lost too many people to bad influence . . . We almost lost Nico, too..." Bullshit. Nico never once blinked in the general direction of Kronos's army.

"I didn't want to speak the words." No, not the limerick! "A limerick?" "I know! . . . I'm doomed!" No, not the limerick!

"Percy slapped his knee. 'There you go. Happiness approaches. Happy is a name'" I get that Percy knows Festus, but how does he know that he's a three-seater? He's only seen Festus in his dragon form when he picked up Gaea. I guess it's unreasonable to assume the Lost Trio never bragged about their own quest.

Where did Leo get all that Celestial bronze to rebuild Festus's body? They had a hard enough time getting enough bronze to repair the ship that one time with Echo and Narcissus.

Anyway, HAPPINESS APPROACHES. I never thought to link that to Festus!