#these two have untapped ship potential

[tenkodyke]

The fact that there is almost no Sonia/Peko content on this website…. truly sad

[maxie-fallon]

I feel like Gwaine and Leon are a tragically overlooked ship.

Like I can just imagine them with this flirty troublemaker/mum-friend-who's-110%-done-with-their-shit dynamic while also pulling each other out of their comfort zones, making them question their previously held beliefs, and being fiercely protective of one another. It'd be so interesting to analyze their relationship and how it shifts over time.

For example, I can see Gwaine being weary of Leon at first. We know how he feels about nobles and the first time they meet Leon is arresting Gwaine after he defends Merlin from being attacked by "knights". It wouldn't be until after they take down Morgana and the Round Table knights are officially brought in that these two would get the chance to properly get an idea of each other and I can see Gwaine being hesitant to do so. Gwaine probably stuck close to the other common-born knights, fully expecting the noble-born knights to be stuck up, entitled, assholes who would look down on them, Leon included. And then Leon just...doesn't do that. Instead, Leon treats each of them with the same level of respect he does any other knight. Leon defends their place in the ranks from anyone who claims their not worthy. Leon spends extra time helping them practice moves they're unfamiliar with since they weren't traditionally trained and does so with zero complaint or judgment. At first, Gwaine thinks he's this stoic yesman who follows orders without question until he really gets to know Leon. Good, kind, loyal, honorable, noble Leon who is everything a knight should be. And Gwaine can't help but think "Maybe there's another noble worth dying for".

I can see after the initial bump in the road Gwaine constantly flirting with Leon to try and get out of trouble. At first, Leon's having none of it but over time his annoyance fades into amusement. His responses go from being an unimpressed flat refusal because he knows what Gwaine's doing, to a more playful response that says he still isn't letting Gwaine off the hook but he's willing to joke about it first. And then amusement develops into fondness. He starts looking forward to whatever stunt Gwaine will pull next and the resulting flirtatious attempt to avoid the consequences. He starts joining Gwaine at the tavern with the excuse that Gwaine can't make up excuses if Leon's a witness to the shenanigans that inevitably ensue. He starts being the one to tease Gwaine first just so he can hear whatever witty comeback Gwaine comes up with, just because he wants to hear him talk (not that Gwaine needs much encouragement). And by the time he realizes what's happening Leon's fallen head over heels for this absolute hot mess of a man who keeps accidentally starting fights in the tavern and passing out drunk in the stables.

I could honestly rant about these two for hours, there's so much untapped potential! I just needed to draw some more attention to them.

[amanitaphalloides]

what is the jopkey manifesto. if you can share it for those of us not in the gc 🥺

anon thank you for asking this question i have been trying and trying to bait someone into asking. here is it copy and pasted

Jopkey: A Manifesto

Jopkey in Brief

Jopkey refers to the romantic/erotic pairing of Thomas Jopson and Cornelius Hickey, a couple of guys who actually existed in real life and have been twisted into something beyond recognition by Dan Simmons, AMC, and now random people online such as us. Jopkey is commonly referred to as “the thinking person’s Terror ship” due to it kinda making you think.

Arguments For Jopkey

Let us review the nuanced and delicate appeal of Jopkey.

Potential Dynamics

Two tops fight to the death. In this formulation, Jopson and Hickey fight (mentally or physically) for dominance until one of them is (mentally or physically) dead. And they’re both tops. Credit Hannah @groundwater for being insistent about this final point.

Daddy’s candy babies. A popular (loose definition of the word) dynamic in which Jopson and Hickey are equally devoted to pursuing Francis Crozier’s attentions. But in doing so they find themselves irrevocably drawn to their freakass competitor…

Realizing potential. Jopson and Hickey recognize, in each other, great untapped potential—perhaps to be annoying and evil, but perhaps also to be intriguing, exciting, and to live life to the fullest. Whether intentionally or otherwise, they spur each other to explore all life has to offer them. Which given the circumstances isn’t that much.

Situations in Which Jopkey Could Happen

Hatefucking at any time.

Everyone else dies and they have to repopulate the ships.

Angry grief sex after Crozier dies. Perhaps over his casket?

Hickey happens upon Jopson’s half-dead form and attempts to eat him. Jopson simply responds, eat this.

Pertinent Jopkey Moments

“I’ll be there in a minute, Jopson.” Hickey refuses to call him lieutenant. Hot!

Jopson’s mouth twitches while watching Hickey be punished as a boy. Glee, eroticism, or simply an expression of sympathetic pain? Perhaps all three. 

When Hickey picks up Neptune's turd he says "Sorry sir the dog relieved himself before I could call Mr Jopson." This implies he has watched Jopson pick up dog shit before and would feel comfortable calling Jopson for help. Hickey doing a task that he thinks should be Jopson's = they have so much in common.

This is also an early indication of their dynamic wherein they see their respective relationships to Crozier overlap. See "Daddy's candy babies" under Potential Dynamics above.

Jopson guards Hickey while he’s on tent arrest. Hickey teases Jopson about his shooting abilities with his hand down his pants, Jopson brags about all the critters he used to kill and eat and says “My aim’s just fine Mr. Hickey” sexily. Implies Hickey is also a critter to be skinned and devoured! Okay!

During this scene Hickey is touching his own penis and Jopson puts his hand in his own mouth. Through the transference property this means that they have had oral sex.

They appear next to one another in the list of Terror crew members in a published book in the gift shop of the National Maritime Museum as pictured here (ie they are cuddling):

Arguments Against Jopkey

Despite the cold hard facts/group delusion depending on your perspective, some people are anti-Jopkey. Let’s take a look at the common reasons behind this unfortunate sentiment and resolve them one by one.

Anti-Jopkey Arguments and Resolutions

"Jopson simply does not think of Hickey."

Fortunately this is easily disputed. Jopson is constantly looking at Hickey like ARGH. Also we use our little imaginations. Sooooo.

The anti-Jopkey contingency argues "that’s just Liam Garrigan’s face" (re. point 2 in the above).

A typical argument and quite a simple one to dispel! We only need apply the “say yes to the text” ethos—by which we understand that everything present in the text is there to be explored and enjoyed, quite separate from the circumstances of its creation. Jopkey is not so weak as to be dependent upon the actors’ intentions. Regardless of whether or not AMC’s The Terror was filmed with the specific and singular intention of breathing life into Jopkey (which it was), all that truly matters is the effect. And ultimately the effect of Liam Garrigan’s face is eroticism, glee, intrigue, sympathy, and perhaps even romance.

The truth is there will never be consensus in the group chat or in the world, and Jopkey will never be true or untrue. It will remain Schrodinger’s Jopkey, and by offering insight into our psyches and groupthink dynamics, it is actually a vital and beautiful step towards world peace.

Jopkey Bangers

I Fucking Hate You - Godsmack

Since You’ve Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson

I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift

Jopkey Mood Board

Affirmations for Jopkeyers

I am so smart for shipping Jopkey.

My phone knows the word Jopkey. It knows that I am not typing about Jockey.

I understand British accents perfectly. Every word Jopkey says is comprehensible to me.

My words and actions honor Jopkey and my Jopkeyer compatriots.

I can think completely secret erotic Jopkey thoughts on this bus; my brain is closed to psychic attacks from the bus driver and other passengers.

I know who these characters are; I can tell them apart from other light-haired and dark-haired men who appear onscreen together. I can recognize their interactions as unequivocally Jopkey.

The Jopkey Anthem

O Jopkey Jopkey! Of thee I sing!

With Jopkey I can do anything!

Jopkey helps me laugh and play

So I ship Jopkey every day! 

Thomas Jopson — You always wow!

I know who you are by now

When first I watched I couldn't see

But you're not just Muttonchops #3

And Hickey lad with your sly grin

Reminiscent of delicious sin

Could you really be so wrong?

Not according to my Jopkey song!

[alternate hickey apologist verse] And Hickey — the perfect man!

Through thick and thin we’ll always stan

You’ve never done nothin’ wrong

And so to you we sing this song !

I pray this ship will never sink

Lest we approach the mental brink

May Jopkey sail forevermore

And far outlive Lieutenant Gore.

[orionsangel86]

I'm sorry but why do you ship them so hard? They just have 1 episode together.. I watched the sandman expecting destiel and it was literally almost nothing there. 1 episode. Idk how you guys got so much ship content out of that.

Ah nonny, I'm sorry but if you go into anything expecting Destiel you are gonna be dissappointed. Destiel is a behemouth of 12 years worth of gradually escalating gay subtext, queer coding, and romantic tropes. Destiel is the ship that people go into expecting that Tumblr exaggerated only to be blown away by how ridiculously gay it is even when it tries so hard not to be.

But remember, once upon a time people shipped Destiel after only a few moments of interaction. The first Destiel fic was written 30 minutes after Lazarus Rising aired...everything has its time.

When I joked that Dreamling was the "Destiel of Sandman fandom" I meant in terms of popularity compared to everything else about the show. The ships share some similar traits when compared on a grand scale - think ancient cosmic entity that has very strict rules slowly changes and starts to become more "human" thanks to their friendship with one dude who just so happens to be a hedonistic stubborn ass who refuses to die - but are otherwise very different.

But if you are wondering why people ship Dream and Hob so hard, well, this post goes some ways to explaining it.

But basically, look this may only be a half hour of television, but it doesn't equate in universe to half an hour of interaction. This half hour of television spans the course of 6 centuries for these two characters. There is a totally untapped potential hidden in the gaps between centuries to explore, and on top of that, the final meeting is left completely up to the imagination of the audience. Its a sandbox ship. Its a dozen fanfiction gaps laid on top of each other. It's at least 20 different prompts for fans to sink their teeth into. Its the potential. It's the what if.

Then on top of that, if you follow the comics, you know that the future Dream x Hob meetings also have a hell of a lot of potential to turn romantic. Dream going out of his way to hunt down a specific bottle of wine that doesn't exist on Earth anymore to gift it to Hob in his dreams, the very fact that he visits Hob in his dreams (hello common Destiel trope right there). They don't meet too many more times in the comics, but each time the tension is palpable. The meeting in the Kindly Ones is heartbreaking, because you can tell desperately how much they need each other at that moment, but they are both too distracted or consumed by grief and depression to truly reach out to one another. The comics never reveal why Dream sought Hob out at that point, but given everything happening to him at the time, its not hard to assume that Dream was seeking comfort from his friend - the only person he could really turn to for comfort at that point.

Then we have Hob's dream. One of the final stories in The Sandman original comic run. After everything else has happened, after the climax and all that takes place, after the smoke has cleared and you think everyone else has moved on and you are certain the ending is set in stone, you get to Hob's dream, and your mind is once again blown, and suddenly you have a thousand more questions. So many fans hopes and dreams rely on Hob's dream right now I can't even begin to express how important that particular comic issue is to me.

It's all about the potential. There is so much potential.

Plus the 30 minute scene we got was loaded full of subtext, romantic tropes, and queer coding. I dunno if you picked up on it, but I have an extremely long meta essay still in the works that goes through everything that 30 minute sequence gives us in terms of shipping fodder (I really need to finish that). Its not just the romantic tropes, the break up and make up, its the acting choices, the eye fucking, the freaking song choices in 1989 holy fuck could they be more on the nose.

Also, consider this thought experiment: Crowley and Aziraphale in Good Omens are a hugely popular ship, where their creator Neil Gaiman has confirmed that theirs is a love story. Whatever else you may believe about Crowley and Aziraphale, their story is a love story. Creator confirmed love story.

Now, Crowley and Aziraphale are the leads of Good Omens and interact throughout the entire 6 episode show. But consider the first half of episode 3. Imagine a version of Good Omens where Crowley and Aziraphale don't really interact outside of that 30 minute opening sequence. That the story was much more focused on the Them, the Horsemen, and the other characters. Imagine then seeing that 30 minute sequence which shows Crowley and Aziraphale slowly warming to each other and becoming friends over the centuries, shows them getting to know each other, do each other favours, come to each others defence, get into fights and break up with each other, only to make up later...

Would you still ship them? Even if that 30 minute sequence was all you got? I guarantee if I asked any Ineffable Husbands fan that question they would say yes. Because THAT 30 minute sequence is what solidifies the importance of their relationship and its what MAKES IT a love story.

Guess where Neil Gaiman got the idea for that 30 minute sequence in Good Omens from? Ah Neil, plagiarising his own work all these years later!

If Neil Gaiman thought that Men of Good Fortune would work well for a canonical love story in Good Omens, I wonder what he was thinking when he then adapted Men of Good Fortune for television?

THE POTENTIAL.

I ship Dreamling that hard because it has more potential than any other ship I have come across. It has 6 centuries and all the future of the Sandman show for me to explore, to tweak, to play with. Besides they just suit each other ya know? Like Dream is notoriously bad at relationships, but Hob is literally perfect for him. The more my mind dwells on how perfect Hob is for Dream the more I want to scream about it. Give the sad wet cat man a boyfriend who is literally his opposite in every way. Dream is a character looking for a reason to keep living, and Hob is a character who refuses to die. Dream is a pessimist, Hob is an optimist. Dream is afraid of change, Hob literally changes constantly with the times. Dream is desperate for love and someone to stay by his side, Hob just wants to love someone he doesn't have to eventually leave.

Let them meet in the middle.

[hiorintruther]

An Updated ‘Reasons Why I Ship Hiorin’ — Because It’s Been Ages Since I Made The First One And I’ve Had More Thoughts (and we got more moments!)

Aka: can you tell this ship makes me mentally unwell?

Hi again! It’s been a while. I did make one of these long posts a while back outlining why I choose to ship hiorin even though they’ve barely interacted and on the surface don’t look like they’d make sense at all. Since then, hiorin has gained quite a few shippers in the fandom and I keep thinking about my boys, especially with the Bastard Munchen vs PXG game FINALLY giving us some new moments. Unsurprisingly, ever since making the first post I’ve also had a lot more ideas about the dynamic, it’s potential, some more connections between them that I never touched on before, etc… and rather than editing the other post I thought it would be easier to just make a new one.

Some stuff I go over here might be familiar from the first post. I want this to be a kind of hub for any and all of my hiorin interpretations, analysis, trivia, headcanons, ‘theories’ (which I don’t think will be canon but the narrative potential for them is through the roof) and anything else I think is relevant to the ship. Feel free to jump around and read whatever is most interesting for you. Hiorin is a ship that, for me, is built on mountains of untapped potential. I just want to bring that potential to light all in one place.

Note: for this post I’ll only use information that has been written by Kaneshiro, drawn by Nomura or Sanomiya, or has otherwise been green-lit by Kaneshiro as canon. Merch collabs, voice actor QnAs, the PWC game etc… for me do not count as canon and I won’t use them. Also, the 10-image limit is biting my ass so my formatting for certain bits might be a bit all over the place. Apologies.

So without further ado. Let’s start! Enjoy the yap sesh!

Part 1 — The Manga Canon

Hiorin get their (very sparse and brief) interactions mostly from the Third Selection Arc (chapters 87-108) and the U20 arc (chapters 109-151). We recently got some new moments in the BM vs PXG match (chapters 250-present).

First off, the tryouts. It’s implied here that Hiori and Rin have never met, as Hiori notices Isagi’s response to Rin and asks if Isagi knows who Rin is. Rin also doesn’t acknowledge Hiori in any way here, so we can presume they’re strangers (although some shippers like to headcanon that they met during the first selection).

That being said during the match, after Isagi has been thoroughly shut down by Karasu, Rin turns his attention to Hiori as a teammate to help him get the ball up the field. Rin has never seen Hiori play before (as far as we know). They’ve never even talked. They’re barely getting familiar with each other’s play styles. And yet, they immediately link up to form a clean, deadly back and forth that optimises Rin’s play style. In fact, this duo helped Rin score 1 goal, and it would have helped Rin score 2 had Shidou not rudely interrupted the second.

It was so deadly that Otoya had to intervene specifically to break them up, so that they could no longer continue their one-two passes up the field and threaten to go for another goal. (Also notice in this page below how as soon as the kickoff happened, Hiori was already running into position in the background. He understands what Rin wants to do).

Not only did Hiori and Rin naturally form a link-up, but Hiori was also fully capable of keeping up with Rin, something Nanase admitted he struggled with during this match and even Isagi was struggling with as well, since later on we see Isagi fail to intercept one of Hiori’s passes due to not being able to reach it in time (which presumably Rin would have been able to were he in Isagi’s position). So, from what we see of Hiori and Rin in this match, they’re on a similar wavelength in terms of skills, field vision and gameplay, and are naturally able to link up even as strangers. I’ll note here that neither of them were playing at full power — Hiori was playing on 0 motivation, and Rin was still utilising his Puppeteer play style instead of his Destroyer. More on this later in the ‘Headcanons’ section.

After the Tryouts, we next see them interact in the U20 match. We start with a brief callback to their tryouts link up in chapter 132, where Rin passes to Hiori. Hiori is acting as a relay between Isagi and Rin, which in my opinion would be a good way to utilise him in the current manga after the NEL. Whether or not that’s how Kaneshiro chooses to use him in the future is anyone’s guess though.

The next big moment comes in chapter 140, after Shidou has kicked Rin in the face and the game has briefly paused. I think this is by far the most ‘iconic’ hiorin moment. While Isagi is analysing the previous gameplay and Karasu is arguing with the ref, it’s Hiori who is the only one to actually go and check on Rin. Even Bachira and Reo were right next to Rin and neither of them were the ones going up to him. Hiori was further down the field but he was the one who moved to help Rin first. Not only is he gentle with and worried for Rin, but by some miracle Rin actually accepts his help! It feels almost out of character given how angry Rin is for the rest of the match, but for this very brief moment he lets Hiori help him up and reassures him that he’s ‘totally fine’ (yeah sure buddy…).

For many this is the main ‘ooooooh’ moment with hiorin. But what if I told you it actually happens a second time this match? After Aiku goes rogue in chapter 142 and tries to score a goal, Rin ends up slide-tackling him to prevent it. And once again, if you look in the background of the panels following the interception in chapter 143, who is it helping Rin stand? It’s Hiori. And this time they actually hold hands!

The final hiorin moment in the U20 match come soon after this in chapter 144, when Rin is about to enter his Destroyer mode. When Rin enters Destroyer mode, Hiori is in possession of the ball and so Rin steals it from him in a completely unpredictable move that had everyone stunned.

The U20 match moments, for many of us hiorin shippers, felt like the last time we’d ever see them properly interact. I at least had zero hopes for PXG. But oh boy was I wrong! Kaneshiro might not realise the dynamic he’s setting up with this duo but I’m gonna milk every interaction for what it’s worth! And so with that, I’ll bring you to the BM vs PXG match (note: currently still ongoing, so I might have to update this section soon). Since the U20 match, we’ve had some changes. The biggest one is Hiori’s personality. After going through his arc in Ubers, Hiori has become more outspoken and confident, playing into his ‘Ultra-Sadist’ style and being more than happy to speak his mind. He’s more argumentative and can whip up a good piece of trash talk (my gamer boy fr!). We see this on full display in chapter 251 when he completely shuts down Rin’s goal opportunity because Rin was too focussed on Isagi to see the bigger picture of the match. He turns around, points at Rin, and tells him “if ya want a goal… come at me with an unpredictable script!”

Notice here how he isn’t simply putting Rin down for not being able to score. Hiori may be taunting Rin, but he does still technically give Rin helpful advice. In a previous panel he explains how he was able to read Rin because Rin was too focussed on Isagi, and in combination with Hiori’s ‘unpredictable script’ line it forms some rather blunt and rude but nevertheless useful advice. Hiori is telling Rin exactly how to get past him and what Rin needs to do to improve. Notice the focus on unpredictability. This is veering into headcanon territory, but I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to think that perhaps Hiori is thinking about Rin’s unpredictable Destroyer mode. He experienced it first hand when Rin stole the ball from him in the U20 match. He knows what Rin is truly capable of. To Hiori, that version of Rin is a reasonable expectation (and I’ll get to their relationship with ‘expectations’ later) that would be the perfect key to getting through BM’s defence. But Rin isn’t showing that off because his obsession with defeating Isagi over scoring goals is hurting his performance. Hiori’s advice is reasonable and maybe Rin should listen to it.

As of right now, the final moment we have of them together is from chapter 259, where Hiori is aided by Raichi to block Rin in a 2-person press, causing Rin to lose the ball. From a purely indulgent shipping perspective, notice how Hiori and Rin’s legs are touching, their hands are on each other’s chests and they’re looking at each other. Raichi is just there lol.

This may be it for their canon interactions, however it’s far from all the canon information we have about them that’s interesting for the dynamic. A big part of the hiorin ship is about looking at their individual information and drawing together similarities and/or parallels. While on the surface they seem very different, almost opposites, digging a little deeper reveals a lot of small coincidences about them that build up to make you realise that they’re a lot more similar than you might initially think.

Part 2 — Where Hiori and Rin Align

Analytical players. Both of them have a deeply analytical play style that utilises field vision and high levels of technical skills. They don’t rely on brute strength or pure intimidation to get through the opponents’ defence, rather they analyse, play with and overcome their opponents with strategy and out-play their opponents with sheer levels of skill. This similarity is likely what led to them to be able to so easily link up when they first met.

Sadism. Both are known sadists. Rin’s Destroyer mode is particularly sadistic but in general he revels in being at the top with others under him. He’s open with his insults and destroys chaotically, looking for breaks in his opponents’ defence and completely tearing them down until there’s no hope of his opponents winning. Hiori is a self-proclaimed “ultra-sadist” (personally I think he’s more a sado-masochist but we’re sticking to canon only here). After his arc, he enjoys watching his opponents scramble to try and keep up with him only to be destroyed by his top-tier plays, especially in a ‘best play’ scenario with his chosen striker of the moment. He’s also not loyal to any one striker and will leave them behind if they’re not playing up to his standards or goal vision. Hiori’s sadism also manifests as him teasing his friends, as we see in chapter 241 when he jokingly teases Isagi for getting shipped with Kaiser by BLTV fans.

Sae connections. Rin is Sae’s younger brother and was abandoned by Sae after Sae returned home from Spain. He says he hates his brother after the U20 match, when Sae noticed Isagi over Rin, and now Rin is playing for the sake of crushing Sae (more on this later). Hiori also has connections to Sae though. He’s been compared to Sae twice in-universe, once by Sendou in chapter 129 who said his passes had the same level of skill as Sae’s, and once by Yukimiya in chapter 241 who thinks Hiori’s ultra-sadist mindset is similar to Sae’s.

They’re both gamers. Obviously we know Hiori is one. That’s been a big part of his character ever since we first met him. However, Rin also plays video games, specifically horror games. We get this info from both the Egoist Bible and his prequel light novel, where it explains that he plays horror games to de-stress at night: (chapter 2) “… even games, should be chilling and scary. Playing horror games alone at night is quite thrilling”.

Horror, gore and zombies. As well as playing horror games to de-stress, it’s explained in the Egoist Bible and Rin’s light novel that he watches horror movies for the same reason: (chapter 2) “When he’s done, he watches a horror movie and then goes to bed. This is his daily routine. For some reason, since Sae has been gone, he only watches horror movies. Movies, videos …”. The light novel slightly expands on this to specify he enjoys splatter films, as well as showing an illustration of him watching rather a gory zombie movie: (chapter 4) “Lately, he's been into splatter films. The one where a killer comes out with an electric saw and a big-ass ax, then blood splatters all over the place. The one where a killer chases you no matter how hard you try to escape, and if you get caught, you end up being dismembered. His heart is pounding, but he’s not the type to show on his face, so Rin watching the slaughter scene without any expression on his face is much more horrifying”. Likewise, Hiori is shown in chapter 206 playing a zombie shooter in which he imagines the zombies being his parents and he violently kills them. We see his inner monologue of this in his prequel light novel, showing the depths of how much he wants them to suffer: (chapter 6) “Before he knew it, in his imagination, his parents became zombies. His father and mother are coming towards him, laughing. He shoots without hesitation. Bang! Headshot. The bullet that entered the father's jaw blew off the back of his head. Bang! Bang! His mother's eyeballs pop out and there's a hole in her chest. He aims for vital spots with rapid fire, but they don't fall easily because they're zombies”.

Solitude. They’re both introverts according to their MBTIs. Rin is ranked as the most anti-social member of Blue Lock in the Egoist Bible. He says he “doesn’t have time for lukewarm conversations” (although I do think on some level he longs for approval and love from someone, given how much he craves his brother’s attention). He is also one of the only characters who genuinely has no friends in Blue Lock. He tolerated Bachira for a time and trained Nanase begrudgingly, but no one is very close with him at all. Now, at a glance Hiori might seem far more social. He has a lot of friends and seems to enjoy hanging out with them. However, in a Twitter qna (which tend to have questions compiled for the Egoist Bible but alas Hiori doesn’t have a page) it was revealed that his ideal type in a romantic partner is “someone who can leave me alone”. The wording he used — 放置し合えるん — seems to imply a reciprocal nature of this ‘leaving alone’, ie ‘you leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone’. Now tell me that arrangement wouldn’t work perfectly for Rin. Hiori is also shown in chapter 172 (pre-character arc) spending time alone in the BM dorms while others are out training. While Hiori can enjoy socialising, he also needs plenty of time to himself to the point where it becomes a deal-breaker in a relationship for him.

Ochazuke (tea on rice). Rin’s favourite food according to the Egoist Bible is ochazuke, specifically taichazuke. In the new Episode Rin extra chapter we also see him going to enjoy some taichazuke at a traditional restaurant because he was hungry for ochazuke. When Hiori was asked in another Twitter qna what his favourite accompaniment for rice is, he replied that it was the ochazuke brand Nagatanien.

Stripes. Rin’s casual outfits for both the Shibuya collab (designed by Nomura) and Episode Rin feature a striped/ribbed pattern. Likewise, Hiori’s casual pyjamas, childhood design and one of Nomura’s coaster designs all feature him wearing striped clothing.

Eyelashes. Both of them have long under lashes. That’s kinda it for this one lol.

Name kanji (yes, I’m in this deep). In Rin’s surname, the kanji 糸 means ‘thread/yarn’. In Hiori’s surname, the kanji 織 means ‘weaver’. Both of them have kanji relating to weaving, likely in relation to both Rin’s Puppeteer play style (and Sae’s insane control of the midfield), and Hiori’s way of ‘weaving’ together a best play through his skills (and his parents ‘weaving’ his life for him rather than letting him control it himself). To get poetic about it, you could say Hiori is the weaver who knows how best to utilise Rin’s threads and can guarantee their shared goal vision will be woven into place. To get even more conspiracy theorist-y, when Charles meets Hiori he calls Hiori “水色お兄さん” — literally ‘water-coloured big brother’, likely in relation to his hair colour because 水色 can also mean ‘cyan’. To keep it on the topic of water though, whose aura is made of water? That’s right. Rin’s! (yes I know this is really grasping at straws but I did say this post was for EVERYTHING hiorin soooo).

Part 3 — Family Relationships: Love, Expectations and Abandonment

Rin and Hiori both have relationships with particular members of their family that are similar and also unique among the rest of the cast. For Rin, it’s his relationship with Sae. For Hiori, it’s his relationship with his parents.

To begin with Hiori, his parents only wanted a child who could fulfil their dream of being number 1. They held this expectation of him throughout his whole life, pretending to genuinely care about and love him when in reality all they wanted was for him to be the best. If he tried to step out of line, they’d become monstrous, as seen in Hiori’s light novel: (chapter 2) “Can I take a day off from soccer tomorrow and go play with my friends?” As soon as he said this, the smiles disappeared from his parents’ faces. His mother looked very surprised, and then she made the scariest face he's ever seen. “......!” He doesn’t remember what she said. He just remembers that he was scolded terribly. After that, he was hugged tightly. “Hiori, you are born to be the best at soccer.” “You can play with other kids anytime you want.” “But if you don’t do soccer properly from now on, you will never be the best.” His mother was desperate. His father was behind her, looking sadly at Hiori. “Please, Hiori, trust us and play soccer.” Hiori felt that he had done something very wrong. … What should I do? I said something bad. I'm sorry. The air was stifling, as if he had been locked in a room full of needles. He felt like he would get hurt if he moved, so all Hiori could do was nod.” We also see the extent of this in chapter 206, when Hiori overhears his parents threatening to get a divorce if he isn’t the best. This makes him realise that if he doesn’t fulfil their expectations, he’ll be abandoned by them.

With Rin, it’s a bit more complicated. His relationship with his older brother Sae is still pretty up in the air as to what really happened from Sae’s perspective. We need to distinguish between what actually happened (which is difficult to determine as of right now) and what Rin interpreted as happening. From his perspective, Sae pretended to love him while they were growing up, only using him as a stepping stone to get to the world stage. After that had been achieved, Rin was abandoned (as seen in his inner monologue in chapter 125). While it’s difficult to discern, on a broad scale we could argue that instead of this, Sae has a particular expectation of Rin that currently Rin is failing to meet, and as a result Sae sees this abandonment as somehow ‘necessary’ to get Rin to evolve… or he really has abandoned Rin and is just an asshole, but I hope towards the former. This is where I cry on deaf ears for a Sae light novel or spin-off chapter, anything to get his side of the story. My current interpretation of canon is that Sae still loves Rin, however he knows that Rin’s desire to be the world’s best as a duo is impossible, and his way of trying to ween Rin off such a dream was to sever their relationship. No matter what really happened though, I’m more interested in what Rin interpreted and took away from being abandoned, which is an interesting mix of hatred and confusion but also still a desire for recognition.

This to me reads as very similar to what Hiori’s relationship with his parents used to be. He hated them. He wished death upon them. And yet he kept fighting for what they wanted, fulfilling their expectations because he was so afraid that if he didn’t, all the blame would be placed on him for their family falling apart and his parents abandoning him. Rin’s situation is sort of a dark mirror to Hiori’s where instead of just fearing that abandonment, Rin was abandoned, with all the blame being placed on him by Sae. And yet, deep down, he’s still fighting for Sae’s approval and love again, trying to find any way he can to fulfil Sae’s expectations. We see this in the way Rin has chosen Isagi to be his rival, not because of anything in particular that Isagi has done, but because Sae acknowledged Isagi over him. We see his desire for love in the way he travelled to Tokyo in the Episode Rin extra chapter to possibly watch Sae’s match, even though they’d already fallen out by that point. Rin and Hiori both strove for love from their families, it’s just that Hiori has now managed to break free from this mindset and fight only for himself, meanwhile Rin is still clinging to the memory of Sae no matter how much he wants to crush Sae for abandoning him.

This complicated relationship the two of them have with love, expectations and abandonment in relation to family members is what draws me to a lot of hiorin headcanon material. Rin is cold, antisocial and ruthless, and yet Hiori potentially has the capacity to understand his pain more than anyone else. This is especially true now that Hiori has broken free of his parents’ expectations. It gives him the freedom to look at these situations more objectively while retaining an understanding of their emotional core. He knows how difficult it is to both hate your family but strive for their approval, perhaps fruitlessly. And likewise, Rin might be able to actually learn something from how Hiori overcame his situation by going all-in with the egoist mindset, playing only for himself, completely discarding his family members’ expectations.

Part 4 — Headcanons Part 1: The Hiorin Potential For A Joint Arc (which yes I know won’t happen. Let me dream)

Anything from this point on is pure headcanon, taking into account all the canon information listed in the previous sections. This is NOT ‘speculation’. I genuinely don’t think any of this will be canon or else Kaneshiro would have started calling attention to it by now in the main manga. However by the end of this I’m sure some of you will join me in wishing it could be canon, because even if Kaneshiro hasn’t consciously laid the groundwork for Rin and Hiori to have a joint arc together, he has done so by accident and all the pieces are in place.

The bulk of this section revolves around Rin’s Destroyer mode and Hiori’s ultra-sadism, as well as the ‘best-play’ scenario theorised by Isagi and Hiori in the recent PXG chapters. Basically, I think that a ‘best-play’ chemical reaction between ultra-sadist Hiori and Destroyer Rin would be both broken as fuck and would be a great way to showcase Rin’s character development as he learns to break away from wanting to crush Isagi and Sae.

In Rin’s light novel, we learn that as a child playing alongside Sae as a duo, Rin didn’t have the Puppeteer play style he’s known for in the main series. Instead, he was fully zoned in on himself and the game, moving on instinct, looking for the perfect spot to break through the enemy’s defence, trusting fully that he’d receive Sae’s pass (chapter 1): ‘“Rin, what are you thinking about when you play soccer?” Rin scored two goals in today’s match. Meanwhile, Sae scored three points with a hat trick. His Nii-chan is great after all. “Hm? Nothing. I guess it's just about goals. I just run to the bad area and then Nii-chan passes to me.” “What do you mean by bad area?” Sae asks, while playing with the stick in his mouth. “Hm. The area where the enemy panics and falls through.” The area the enemy falls through. Sae let his younger brother's words quietly seep into his mind. “You rely too much on your intuition, you know.” “But Nii-chan always passes to me, so why not? Nobody else is good enough for me.” That’s why it’s okay to move on impulse without thinking. “......What will you do when I’m not around?” “I don’t know but, I guess I’ll look for a replacement.” Rin says nonchalantly.’

This method of running ‘to the area where the enemy panics and falls through’ seems to be alluding to Rin’s Destroyer mode — the version of Rin we see in the final moments of the U20 match after he loses control and goes on a destructive rampage. Indeed, in chapter 152 we also see Rin wondering what this side of him is truly capable of and how he wants to try harnessing it more, but he still only wants to use it to destroy Isagi and Sae rather than playing for himself. His Puppeteer is not his original play style, instead it’s one he developed after Sae left in order to appease his teammates and be a able to carry his team to victory by himself (chapter 3); ‘Even in a high-level club team, no one could handle Rin’s moves’, (chapter 4): ‘Without Sae's passes, he can't play the way he wants to play’, (chapter 5): ‘Rin erases his best image and then captures the whole picture. In his head, he sees the movements of all the players, as if filmed from a drone’, (chapter 5): ‘No one understands Rin's frustration. But they can win, so that's fine. It's as if there are marionette strings attached to his teammates, controlling and moving the team…… That is Rin's new weapon. It is a play that can only be made with Rin's combination of technical, physical, and tactical skills. It has also led him to bring out the best in his teammates’. It was only in the U20 match that the Destroyer was able to come out again after it had been sealed away for so long. It was a completely different way of playing that was more primal and natural for Rin but less controlled and more clumsy due to his lack of practice using it. Still, its pure destructive power was insane enough to almost score.

In the current chapters of the manga, we know that Rin has gotten a certain better grasp of the Destroyer since the start of the NEL. In chapter 239 (immediately after Hiori says he’ll happily drop Isagi for someone else should they come along, mind you) we see Rin utilising a seemingly toned down version of the Destroyer against Nagi in the PXG vs MC match. Clearly he has been trying to improve it since first letting it loose again during the U20 match. However, so far in PXG vs BM we haven’t seen it at all. Given Hiori’s comment about focussing on Isagi and predictability, as well as Isagi and Hiori’s theory of ‘ego types’ and a ‘best play’ scenario, it appears as though Rin’s biggest problem is that he’s using a world-type ego to show off his skills to Isagi (and therefore, by extension, to Sae as well). This is the ego type suited for the Puppeteer, one that utilises teammates and was created for the sake of appeasing others. The Destroyer on the other hand seems far better suited to a ‘self-type’ ego because Rin accesses it when in a state of mind that ignores Isagi, ignores Sae and hyper-zones in on himself and his own ability to score a goal. This would mean that Rin’s ‘true’ ego is a ‘self-type’ but he is hindering himself by using a ‘world-type’ to try and prove something to Isagi and Sae.

Now, undoubtably we’ll see the Destroyer at some point in this match, and I really hope when it comes out we see it decimate Hiori. Since Hiori flat out told Rin to come at him with ‘an unpredictable script’, the Destroyer can be the ‘unpredictable script’ that blows Hiori away. And I think that would catch Hiori’s attention. Remember, his resolve in chapter 239 is to create the greatest striker, and his ultra-sadism means he’s more than happy to drop Isagi for someone he thinks is better. So, no matter what the outcome of the match is, I think Rin’s Destroyer should pique Hiori’s interest as a potential best striker candidate. This is especially so when you remember that Hiori has technically already experienced Rin’s Destroyer first hand in the U20 match, when Rin stole the ball from Hiori (interesting side note here: Hiori’s immediate thoughts before the ball was stolen from him were him struggling to figure out who he should pass to, Barou or Nagi. He thought ‘which one of you?’ but didn’t pass, in my eyes because he couldn’t envision the play working with either of them, and then immediately Rin stole the ball. Rin unknowingly answered the question Hiori was asking in those crucial seconds).

In the next arc (a U20 World Cup training mini-arc I’d presume), I’d have Hiori and Rin slowly start to come to an understanding. I think Hiori’s ultra-sadism would be incredibly useful in helping draw the Destroyer out of Rin because Hiori only passes to the best spot on the field. He doesn’t alter his level of play for the sake of his striker. So, if Rin is in a mindset where he’s too focussed on proving Sae wrong, crushing Sae and defeating Isagi, then his plays become affected and Hiori simply won’t pass to him, likely passing to Isagi instead. This creates a bottle-neck where Rin has to evolve his mindset, discarding the ‘world-type’ ego of the Puppeteer (which is still useful in some cases, but not here) and instead fully embrace the Destroyer. If he can get into that mindset, only focussing on himself and not Isagi, Sae or even the other players around him, zoning in on just the goal ahead, he is guaranteed to be rewarded by receiving Hiori’s perfect pass to the ideal spot where the enemy ‘breaks’. It mirrors how Sae used to pass to him in their childhood (remembering Hiori has been compared to Sae in terms of both skill and mindset), except now Rin isn’t thinking that he’s part of a permanent duo, rather he alone is the star and he can trust his midfielder to aid him and match goal-visions without the need for the Puppeteer.

The key word here is trust. Rin and Hiori would have to develop a level of trust. Hiori has to trust that Rin will embody the Destroyer, and Rin has to trust that Hiori will side with him. It’s why Hiori has currently been able to work so well with Isagi. Their goal visions aligned and they placed the utmost trust in each other to perform at their individual bests, thus leading to Isagi scoring successful goals. For me, if Rin could also reach this state, it would be a showcase of the culmination of his development as he breaks free of Sae and learns how to play fully for himself. It would simultaneously be a return to his childhood, where he was able to freely utilise the Destroyer without worrying about the rest of the team, while also showing his evolution because he no longer places that trust onto just Sae ‘because it’s Nii-chan’. When Rin trusts in Hiori, it wouldn’t be because ‘it’s Hiori’, rather it would be Rin fully focussing purely on himself and his own plays, forgetting about everything and everyone else, and simply allowing the ball to land in the ideal spot at his feet. It’s a completely sadistic, self-serving mindset, just like Hiori’s is from a midfielder’s perspective. Hiori’s ultra-sadism means he likely can’t be controlled by Rin’s Puppeteer style, since he plays for himself fully. Therefore in order to successfully earn Hiori’s passes, Rin would need to fully embrace the Destroyer, abandon Isagi and Sae clouding his judgement, and throw himself fully into goal-scoring. Hiori can’t be controlled but he’s reliable and can be trusted. I do think the road to building this trust should have its ups and downs. Let Rin get frustrated at Hiori not being controllable. Let Hiori want to see Rin improve while also not bending to Rin’s will. Let Hiori refuse to work with Rin sometimes. All of it would be part of a gradual, arc-spanning development for Rin that doesn’t take place in a single chapter.

In my personal opinion, having Hiori specifically be the midfielder who helps Rin most would be more narratively satisfying someone like Nanase (no hate to Nanase or nanarin tho. Love them 🫶). While Nanase works as a nice support for Rin especially at the moment in PXG, plus his sunshine personality might help to make Rin relax and open up more over time, his skill level isn’t quite up to scratch for Rin’s highest level plays. Nanase’s passes are useful with his ambidexterity but they aren’t clean. They aren’t as reliable. Rin still has to pay attention to Nanase in order to guarantee a successful play. He can’t block out literally everything else to hyper-focus on goal-scoring in this state. Hiori on the other hand provides that high level of play which means that Rin can afford to essentially forget Hiori even exists — the ball will still find its way to him. They wouldn’t even have to look at each other (much like the Isagi x Hiori best play we saw in Ubers that was recently recreated in PXG). There’s also the thematic element that Hiori has been compared to Sae before, setting him up as a Sae parallel which I think could be utilised in Rin’s evolution. Placing trust in Hiori would show that Rin is finally able to detach his reason to play from Sae and he can stop striving so strongly for Sae to notice him. Then there’s the shared relationship Hiori and Rin both have with expectations, love and abandonment, which could arguably help them get on each others wavelength to understand exactly what they want from a play and how best to execute a strategy they haven’t even discussed beforehand, as well as have Hiori be the one to help ‘create’ Rin since Hiori has already gone through the mental baggage of his arc and would understand Rin’s mental blocks.

Still, I do think canonically Rin and Nanase will be the duo that continues forwards into the next arc. Rin’s development will likely come from a combination of Nanase’s kindness, Isagi’s yap sessions and a lot of internal monologues. Meanwhile, Hiori will continue to improve alongside Isagi as a plot device who can be pulled out at convenient moments, while occasionally passing to other strikers for dramatic flair (I don’t really like this after Hiori’s resolve so strongly telegraphed that he’d very happily drop Isagi without a second thought, but oh well, what can you do?). I doubt Hiori will canonically play into Rin’s development at all.

Still, from the moment Rin and Hiori met in the third selection tryouts, they were able to flawlessly link up without the need for planning or communication. Hiori understood what Rin needed and moved to the perfect spot to work with him. If both of them were in Flow, creating a ‘best-play’ scenario with the Destroyer and the Ultra-Sadist, it would both be a show of incredible skill and high-level play while also showcasing Rin’s personal development and evolution, as well as utilising Hiori as a narrative support in a way that doesn’t impose him too strongly on the main plot but keeps him relevant and active in the story.

Part 5 — Headcanons Part 2: Some Fun Ideas

This section is all about some fun ideas I’ve had about hiorin, mostly trying to use canon as a strong basis so that they make sense. They aren’t things I think will ever be explored in canon but they’re fun to think about nonetheless. These can range from canon-adjacent to domestic AU material, it’s a whole mix really. I’ll probably come back to this bit every now and again to update it with new ideas I have, so keep an eye out for that.

A shared understanding. Since they’re both familiar with what they perceive to be feelings of false love from family members, it creates a situation where they can understand why they act the way they do better than anyone else. I hc that this would help them to more naturally form link-ups on the field, since they’d be in tune with each other’s mental states as well as general play styles, and off-field in being able to recognise when something has ticked off the other and resurfaced some unpleasant memories. I don’t think they’d really be ones to talk about their family traumas to each other openly, but they’d have an understanding of the things they do find out and wouldn’t think the other is overreacting, especially Hiori understanding Rin. While I think it’s good that Rin has friends like Nanase who he can be more chilled out with, I personally prefer the idea that his partner be someone who can actually understand the depths of his issues and sit with him in the eye of the storm rather than trying to just ‘fix’ him or drag him out of it.

Touch-starved and both slow to physical affection. Since they’re both introverted and Rin is emotionally constipated as fuck, they aren’t really a couple that would be very into PDA. Not even hand-holding. But it doesn’t really matter for them. They’re both not very used to that sort of physical comfort especially in the presence of others. However, while I think in general Rin might be a bit more reluctant to initiate intimacy than Hiori, I do think he’d still be more inclined to initiate hugs. Why Rin of all people? Because he grew up with a sibling. And he was a younger sibling at that. On some level he would have received attention from Sae while their relationship was still good, even if only a little bit. Hiori on the other hand grew up an only child in a household where hugs and doting were used as a tool to manipulate him. He’d likely not be used to the idea of hugs as a genuine show of affection. But Rin’s hugs are always genuine and often given out sparingly and bashfully, after a lot of hesitation. They’re both slow to physical affection but they’d find a way to navigate their wants and needs together, taking their time.

All-nighter horror dates. Be it playing co-op horror games or binging horror movies in the dark, I think they’d both prefer that as a date night over going out to a restaurant. It’s an activity they can both have fun with as a shared interest, just the two of them, alone at home with no need to even leave the house. They can let themselves get more passionate and competitive (and sadistic) while playing horror games too.

Yoga together. While we only have canonical confirmation that Rin both regularly does yoga and is good at it, I hc that Hiori would also be quite good at it due to his parents likely drilling him with intense schedules and being helicopter parents about his health. Yoga would likely fall into it somewhere as a cool-down and a good way to exercise on rainy days. While Hiori initially wouldn’t find yoga fun to do with Rin due to his negative associations with it, I feel like over time it could be a nice bonding activity for the two of them. It requires minimal talking of they’re doing their own things, and as long as Hiori isn’t messing up the moves I think Rin would tolerate the two of them existing in the same space. At the very least, Hiori wouldn’t try to one-up Rin with moves he can’t do and topple into Rin as a result (looking at you, Isagi…). They wouldn’t do couples yoga though, just their own thing in the same space.

Sharing food. In the Twitter QnAs, it states that Hiori’s favourite food is salt-grilled saury (saury shiyoyaki) “including the bitter bits”. His least favourite food is cotton candy because “it’s just sugar”. Therefore, I hc that he tends to enjoy bitter food while disliking sweet food. In contrast, we know that Rin quite likes sweet food because he used to eat ice cream with Sae on the way home from practice, plus in the Episode Rin extra chapter he goes to buy dessert at a special desserts cafe after eating ochazuke (a traditionally salty dish). Because of this difference in tastes, I like to hc Hiori giving any sweet food Blue Lock offers in their meals to Rin. Likewise, if the main meal Rin is given is ever burnt or charred too much for his liking, he gives the charred bits to Hiori since he knows Hiori will eat them so the food won’t be wasted.

Tea and coffee. As an addendum to the previous hc, I think Hiori would be a coffee drinker and Rin would be a tea drinker. This is because coffee tends to be more bitter, especially ones without sugar like espressos, so I can see Hiori preferring it to tea. There’s also the idea that ochazuke is made with tea, which is a bonus for Rin liking tea over coffee.

Cooking. Last food-related one I promise! While Hiori likely has a ton of technical knowledge about nutrition, dieting, calorie counting etc… due to his mother’s frenzied control of his diet growing up, I headcanon that he doesn’t actually have a clue how to cook. Once again, this is because of his parents being overprotective and worrying that he’d injure himself with a kitchen knife or on the stove. So he has zero clue where to start in the kitchen. On the flip-side, while Rin isn’t the best cook in the world I reckon he’d have somewhat an idea of how to cook the basics, plus he likely also has knowledge of dieting and nutrition for the sake of his own health. So while they’d both have things to learn in the kitchen, it would be Rin doing more of the actual cooking and Hiori deciding what meals to eat to optimise their health and training.

A joint-aura that’s a blizzard — in the event that they ever were to team up on the field, I think that the aura they’d give off together should be a blizzard. It makes sense to me for them to have this because Hiori has ice associations with the kanji 氷 in his surname, which means ‘ice’, and in chapter 239 when he gives his monologue about finding a reason to play, a metaphorical key appears with a snowflake on it to symbolise his newfound resolve. Rin’s connections to snow are less positive though, since it was snowing the day that Sae abandoned him. I think making their joint aura a blizzard could symbolise both Hiori’s ultra-sadist resolve to play, and Rin finally being able to move on from Sae to associate the snow with his sadistic determination. The fact that it’s a snowstorm emphasises the pair of them having a sadistic, destructive take-down of their opponents.

Hiori has a type. His canon type is already ‘someone who will leave me alone’ as I previously discussed in section 2. However, I do like to semi-jokingly say that his type is also ‘dark-haired, analytical guys with an attitude who are really good at football’. Obviously this is meant to refer mostly to Isagi and Karasu (we’ve all seen the heart-eyes you give them, Hiori!), but it is amusing to me that the description also fits Rin perfectly.

Part 6 — Transformative Works I Recommend For New Shippers

These are just some of my favourite fanfics all linked together in one place. I’ll start with a shameless plug of my own fic:

14 Days To NOT Fall In Love (but guess who did anyway)

Summary: This annoyingly mandated break of Ego's was only fourteen days long. That would never be enough time for Rin to fall for this aggravatingly sweet, understanding, level-headed, cyan-haired gamer boy... Okay, maybe he'd need to exercise SOME restraint. Aka: how Rin and Hiori become mutually pining idiots after the U-20 match through a combination of video games, late night discord calls and learning that perhaps they're not all that different after all.

(Chapters: 10 , Word Count: 67088 , Rating: T)

And now for my personal favourites I think new shippers will enjoy, in no particular order (if any of the authors see this and have tumblrs you want me to tag, lmk!):

catch us in the morning by transrightssokka (kellallyourfriends)

Summary: Hiori looks down and brings his hand up to his mouth, hiding a faint smile. “You don’t wanna go home, do you?” “No shit, I don’t,” Rin says. He’d rather sleep on the sidewalk than spend the next two weeks with Sae. Hiori is silent for a minute. His pretty eyes flick to his feet. Up to the back of the seat in front of them. Over to Rin. “So.” “So?” Rin says. Hiori lowers his voice. “So, what if we didn’t?”

(Chapters: 3 , Word Count: 27206 , Rated: M)

Even When It’s Starless by saturnshots

Summary: Everyone’s had an imaginary friend or two — it’s not often they change the course of your life, but who says being imaginary could stop them from bringing your dreams come true?

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 2838 , Rating: G)

sine wave by starstruckdove

Summary: Rin discovers Bachira’s “super secret surprise” sooner than he’d thought. There’s a new boy standing next to Ego at practice, and Rin knows he’s new because each of his unfortunate teammates have made their presence (loudly and raucously) known in his life. The boy has a nice face–wide eyes and soft mouth, all rounded corners instead of sharp edges. His hair is a shocking shade of blue and Rin finds it almost familiar. “This is your new manager,” Ego says with about as much energy as a dead battery.

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 8990 , Rated: T)

Daydreaming by em_hiorin

Summary: Hiori can’t seem to concentrate during practice, as a certain Itoshi has been plaguing his mind.

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 1560 , Rating: G)

My family thinks we’re dating. by akiangelsolos

Summary: “Oh, I see.” His mother hummed, placing her silver fork down on the table. “You must be upset, Hiori hasn’t come over in a while. You have to be lonely without your boyfriend around.” “I’m not lonely-” Rin shot his eyes at his mom, “What did you just say?”

(Chapters: 2 , Word Count: 5486 , Rating: G)

Part 7 — Wow, You Made It This Far? Congratulations And Thank You!

If you’ve made it this far, then I am both immensely thankful and I applaud you. Seriously, thank you for putting up with my insane, delusional brainrot over this silly rarepair that has barely any canon backing to speak of. Hopefully if anything, you now understand why people are starting to take interest in the ship (or at least why I enjoy it). And if you’re a shipper now, welcome to the club! You will now have to watch Hiori and Rin never affect each other’s development, never interact in any meaningful capacity and you’ll be eternally bitter about it 👍. For any aspiring fic writers, I hope this can be a nice hub of info for all of you if you want to consult the hiorin ‘dynamic’ (i say in quotations because let’s face it, I made up like 95% of the dynamic based on analysis and a canon dynamic doesn’t actually exist). Also, bear in mind that in the off chance we do get some more moments, I plan to update this post. So you may end up being subject to even more brainrot in the future.

Until that day comes though, I can only thank you once again. Hiorin is my otp and no matter how much Kaneshiro doesn’t make it come to fruition, he will have to try incredibly hard to make me stop shipping them. The dynamic can change. They can become more and more ‘incompatible’. I don’t care. If hiorin has no shippers, I have passed on from this world.

[gilbirda]

for the ask game: Danny Arkham Security Guard?

I've been curious where you're at with that for a while (I assumed the muse has fled and/or you're too busy with other fics), so had to pick that one when I saw it on the list 👀

From this WIP ask game

Haha! I knew someone would ask about it!

Honestly I have struggled a lot with picking this bad boy up... When I finally did a few months ago, the last edit was July 2022 😭

Long story short, summer 2022 was the time I really went down the spiral with Hardcover ship and literally every idea I had was for those two. I think what happened was that I realized there was an untapped potential and market for romance and all the classic romance tropes in DP fandom (I understood why that was the case, but still I was frustrated because I hadn't seen a single fic that made me crazy about any ship in DP) and it left me wanting.

Then I wrote Arkham Guard Danny and I did the bit where Jazz almost shoots Jason, and then I liked the dynamics between him and the siblings and I literally said in the AN if I ended up shipping him, I was debating between Jazz and Danny. *laughs in irony*

So basically I went "what if I write every romance story trope but Jazz/Jason?" and the rest is history.

And every damn time I went back to Arkham Guard Danny, I re read it and realized.... Is just so bad. I saw flaws everywhere. I saw bad characterization. I saw "angry robin Jason" and a bunch of things I don't stand by anymore and I felt like there was no way I could continue that fic and the difference wouldn't be felt. Was I too harsh with myself? Absolutely, but we are our worst critic.

Also? I felt the project running away from me. I started developing worldbuilding and ideas and I got mad because Arkham Guard is supposed to be simple. It used to be the "simple fic" I did while I focused on my magnum opus for DP fandom (Eldritch Ghost King Danny AU - "You and me and our best friend makes three"). If it got complicated I didn't want to write it anymore. And then it did and I dropped it.

Recently I went through a really bad situation and it kind of killed any want to write for dpxdc. I thought - why not go back to the basics? Revisit what really made me start in the fandom, what made me get a bunch of comments like "i got into dpxdc because of this fic". Took me back to when I started, how simple it felt to just write a fic and drop it to the ether and not worry about the things that made me want to stop forever.

So I did. Feels good to pick this up again!

I could go on forever but I won't continue rambling about this project (✿◡‿◡)

If you read up to this point, here's a little bit of what I have so far!

---

“Children,” Alfred stood from his seat, positioning himself between the brothers and their guest. “Let her breathe.”

“It’s okay, Mr. — uh…” She blushed as she realized she never asked for his name.

“Alfred,” the butler smiled, “Alfred Pennyworth.”

“Mr. Pennyworth,” she nodded politely. “I’m fine. I am aware that after that… theatrical spectacle, explanations are needed.”

“Indeed.” Batman cut in the conversation. “Proper explanations are in order. After I deliver the Joker to Arkham.”

“You can’t be serious!” Did the old man go crazy? Back to that wretched place?

Jazz frowned, seemingly sharing his thoughts. She leaned closer to the microphone and spoke in a controlled voice. “Where are you delivering him? In the hospital.”

Bruce took way too long to answer, so Tim did it for him. “Through the front door?”

Jazz didn’t find it funny. “Wait for me.”

“What?”

“I said, wait for me.” Jazz reached for her discarded jacket, eyeing the door to the elevator back to the manor. “Joker is my patient and I need to be there.”

“What for?”

She turned to look at Jason. “He doesn’t deserve to be left at the mercy of some of the people in the Asylum. They could—”

“He can rot for all I care.”

The vigilante walked up to her, getting in her way and using his height and build to scare her into submission. Jazz held his gaze, defiant, muscles tense and ready to throw down if needed.

“You don’t know that place like I do.”

Jason huffed. “Whatever the inmates want to do to him, he deserves it.”

“I wasn’t talking about the inmates.” Her teal eyes steeled with fury. “Arkham has a history of staff abusing their authority.”

[moonswolfie]

Hold on!

Timeskip!Atsumu x fem!reader (no spoilers tho)

The reader's clothes are described but that's the only thing as far as appearance goes

Also the reader is 23 years old in this, I wish I didn't have to include an age for the reader but it has to be done for the purpouses of the story😭

So I've been watching a lot of "romantic disco pang pang" clips recently (the untapped k-drama potential is real) so I thought of writing this 🤭

(also pretend these are commonplace in japan too)

"Do I really have to go on this thing?" you begged your friend as you two were stading in line to go on Disco Pang Pang. You didn't want to go, really. Considering the reputation that Disco Pang Pang has, the ride was a bit much for you.

"Duh. No backing out." your friend dragged you further as the line moved. "Looks like it's our turn." your friend grinned at you after seeing the group that was on the ride before you get off. You winced a little.

You tried your best to psyche yourself up as you two entered the dreaded machine and sat down next to eachother. "It's fine, you're gonna be fine. It'll be over soon. You just have to hold on and you'll be fine."

You gripped the bar as hard as you possibly can, not even bothering to hide the fear and discomfort on your face. Your friend hit your shoulder lightly, telling you to loosen up.

"I would be able to if you didn't force me to go on this..." you grit through your teeth. You were more scared than mad at your friend at this point.

"Welcome, everyone!" you heard a voice announce through the speakers. So this is the DJ, the guy who controls the ride and picks on the people at random.

Your friend got excited at the sound of his voice while you just gripped on the bars tighter. The machine moved up a little.

"You, the girl in a light pink sweater! How old are you?" the DJ asked.

You looked around at the other people on the ride, quickly realising the DJ is talking to you. You were the only one wearing a light pink sweater.

Oh no, this is the worst... You're gonna kill your friend once you get off.

You reluctantly showed "23" with your hands and nodded when the DJ asked if 23 is correct. You anticipated an insult to be thrown your way, but the DJ said "You, the guy with blonde hair next to her! How old are you?"

You looked to your right to see a muscular guy with dyed blonde hair. He didn't seem scared at all, showed by his lazy grin. He showed "24" with his fingers and nodded when the DJ asked him to confirm.

You were confused. What benefit would the DJ have from knowing your ages?

"Are the both of you single?" the DJ asked in a way where you could easily imagine his eyebrows wiggling behind the speaker.

What the hell is going on?! You gave the DJ a confused nod, the mystery man doing the same thing.

"That's perfect because I think you two would look cute together!" before you could even process what the DJ just said the machine suddenly jerked.

Your grip on the bars wasn't tight since you got a little distracted by the DJ's weird questions and you got launched to your right and onto the guy.

"Ah- I'm sorry-" You apologized, reaching behind you to try and move back into your previous position.

The DJ's words finally registered and you felt yourself blush a little bit.

Are you kidding?! The DJ does that too?!

You're really gonna kill your friend for not telling you the DJ also ships random people together!

But then again... this guy didn't look half bad. Half bad is an understatement, the guy was really hot. But you had no idea what he thought of the whole ordeal. Did he know right away? Was he just as shocked as you are?

You heard him laugh a little " 'S okay." he said, the smile still on his face. He seemed to be enjoying this. He must have known as soon as the DJ asked your ages.

You somehow managed to move back into your original spot, taking a short sigh of relief. Being singled out by the DJ isn't fun at all!

"Hey, where are you running off to? You're gonna make your boyfriend sad!" the DJ yelled, clearly enjoying this and jerking the machine so you fell to his side again.

Just great, now he was calling him your boyfriend.

You yelped when you fell to the floor of the machine after another sudden jerk and you tried getting back up but the DJ wasn't giving you a break with the sporradic jerking.

Suddenly, you felt your arm being grabbed and a strong arm pulled you back up on the seats. It's the guy!

You clutched onto his shirt, holding on for dear life and he wrapped an arm around you to keep you from falling over again.

"You good?" he asked, looking down at you. You nodded in response, a bit too overwhelmed to give him a verbal response at the moment.

"There we go! That's what I like to see!" the DJ commented and you swore you're gonna punch whoever the dude is after killing your friend once you get off.

But then again, maybe being protected in the arms of a attractive guy isn't all that bad. Even if you felt like throwing up right now.

"Are you okay? Does your arm hurt?" you somehow managed to collect your thoughts enough to express your worry for his arm which was still holding onto the bar.

He smiled down at you, although his smile seemed a little strained. "Don't ya worry about lil' old me. I'm really strong, ya know?" he pulled a stupid flirty face and you couldn't help but laugh a little.

"What?! Why are ya laUG-" his sentence was cut off by a big jerk which sent your friend flying to the other side. Oh, right, your friend. You haven't really been checking how she's doing but she seems to be laughing and having fun depsite being thrown around like a ragdoll.

"Oh yeah! You better hold her tight, cuz I'm not holding back!" the DJ laughed through the speakers and somehow the jerking increased even more.

You yelped and full-on hugged him, closing your eyes shut. The rest of the ride felt like a fever dream, the smell of his cologne and his arm tightly wrapped around you being the only things keeping you from emptying your stomach.

After who knows how long, the jerking stopped. You took deep breaths.

"The ride's over, you can open those pretty eyes, ya know." You felt your face flush suddenly. You didn't even notice the ride was over, how embarrasing!!

You quickly let go of Atsumu, mumbling a quick apologybefore getting up to get off the ride. Your friend nudged you with her elbow and wiggled her eyebrows at you. "See, it wasn't that bad. You even scored a hot guy."

"Yeah, and almost threw up on his chest." you retorted.

As you were finally on safe, solid ground again, you caught your breath. That was an insane experience.

"Hey." you heard a familiar voice behind you, and you turned around to see the guy again. Now that you weren't nautious and being spun around and jerked constantly, you could get a much better look at his face.

He really is good-looking and you've done nothing but embarrass yourself in front of him right from the beginning.

"O-Oh, hi." you greeted him back, although a bit awkwardly.

"Yer real cute, so I'm givin' ya this." he handed you a piece of paper which read "Miya Atsumu" followed by his phone number.

"Consider yerself lucky, I don't do this with just any girl." he smirked and walked away, leaving you there staring at the note in shock.

Maybe you should treat your friend to a five star meal instead of killing her.

HELP WHY WAS I CRINGING SO MUCH WHEN WRITING THIS😭😭😭

[ollieflopkins]

Top 5 ships?👀

😇 in no particular order, my (Liverpool exclusive) top 5 ships with pictures hehe. to make it more of a challenge I’m not putting gerlonso lol it’s my og ship but it’s more a nostalgic fave than a current fave

1. dom/trent, this one is easy. my favorite ship to read and write atm. potential to be a new gerlonso level ship over time. sooo many good fics and content for them, although we’re a bit low on content right now

2. virgil/andy, one that more people are slowly converting to love which makes me happy. love the dynamic between the two of them, they’re so different but fit together so well. and of course they seem to always be touching when they’re together and thankfully hugging bc there are so many pictures of big Virgil hugging lil Andy 🥲

3. virgil/trent, captains idk what else you want me to say! also 6’4” v 5’9” I’m exposing myself

4. dom/ibou, now I am enjoying their chemistry so much but this is mostly an untapped ship atm I feel like! so much potential here. have you seen how much they touch each other and how hilarious they find each other!

5. andy/ibou, I love this one too. this picture completed me. yeah Meb I know you asked me my top 5 ships but now I feel like it’s my top 5 size difference fuel ????

[brzatto]

i don’t ship them but there’s so much untapped potential in sydney and carmy’s unspoken rivalry like it’s the most interesting part of their dynamic for me personally. there’s lots of people who interpret their relationship as mentor/mentee and while i do get that and enjoy that narrative as well sydney is more than competent and proves herself to be carmy’s equal in multiple instances: her typing up a comprehensive breakdown of the beef’s expenses and how they could be handled better, her initiative to create a brick oven when the power goes out at the beef, her instantly knowing the missing component to the plum dish was veal fat. i think carmy and sydney are more like precarious equals because carmy is obviously a more experienced chef than her and he’s gifted and very driven but so is sydney and though he initially relishes in having someone with the experience to understand him and operate on his level, his ego is bruised when sydney lands a stellar review for the beef on a recipe he told her wasn’t good enough yet and he lashes out at her for it so clearly his feelings towards her aren’t always entirely selfless. this on top of the fact jaw said himself there was a subtle unspoken air of competitiveness between him and ayo while they were undergoing culinary training i think that definitely bleeds into their onscreen dynamic with carmy and sydney; the end of e8 sees carmy ��making amends” with sydney by discussing the future of the restaurant with her but personally i think the stability of their relationship is tentative at best. they might agree with each other and appear to be on the same page now but how long is that going to last realistically? the more i think about it the more i can see them butting heads over similar issues again in s2 just because they’re both such equally strong willed characters and that’s genuinely exciting and interesting! sydney admires carmy but she isn’t afraid to stand up to him and i think a part of carmy still holds onto that competitive mindset he developed while working his way up to the top and it’s going to take a loooottt for him to unlearn that and it’s not something that can be accomplished just within one season or even two. i think lots of people think of carmy and sydney as being partners/the only people who can “understand” one another in regards to their histories in fine dining and while they do relate to one another in some regards i personally see them as opposing forces with their own respective goals and visions which is great actually and i can’t wait to see what direction each of their characters go in individually and what the storyline has in store for them

[fridayincarnate]

it is genuinely a CRIME how little Cardinal/Hux content there is, like

??????????

HOW are there not even 20 fics on ao3?! Don't get me wrong, I am a kylux guy at heart, but there is so much untapped potential here. The robe scene ALONE! Not to mention the twisted psychological depths to explore around Cardinal's devotion to Hux... and to Brendol. And as @jaynesilver cleverly pointed out, the way that Brendol sets Hux and Cardinal against each other mirrors how Snoke later sets Hux and Kylo against each other.

I will build this ship with my own two hands if I have to

[bragganhyl]

so how about 43. have you ever thought about how much worse our lives would be without each other? 👉👈

Thaaanks, here is some fluffiness in which Gaura gets a new violin, courtesy of Edér and Aloth.

Word count: around 2k words.

The softly played sounds of a violin filled the Watcher’s cabin. Aloth woke up with a start, then a moment passed and the soothing melody eased him into resting with a smile on his face. Gaura’s scent was lingering on the pillow next to him, and Edér was in a deep sleep on the other side of the bed, sprawled out, his broad back bathed in moonlight. He was breathing to the rhythm of the song. Or maybe he followed the waves lightly rocking the ship. Everything seemed to have moved together in a comforting tandem. The wizard risked a glance at the Watcher. She was sitting by the window, with her eyes closed, and her body gently swaying to her own tune. The instrument looked like it came alive at her touch and the music was a product of the dance between it and the musician playing it.

Earlier that day, Aloth and Edér were finally ready to present a gift they’ve been secretly trying to obtain for what seemed like an eternity: a blackwood violin, just like the one Gaura used to play years ago. Back then, Aloth used to linger by the window and listen to the night wind carrying the tune of improvisations being played in the hedge maze. Back then, Edér used to play pranks with her on the others – she was good at mimicking birdsong which had some untapped comedic potential. If nothing else, it put a smile on Gaura's face. Years passed, and the wizard still missed those nights, and the farmer was very curious if harmless pranks could still lift the Watcher’s spirits. However, blackwood was rather rare and it was mostly used to build ships rather than instruments. Still, when Gaura found enough of the material to outfit the Defiant with a new hull, it seemed like everything was falling into place for Aloth and Edér to hatch a plan. To take whatever was left of the wood and find someone willing to make a violin out of it. After a few weeks of searching, some promised favors to Serafen that Aloth was sure they would regret in time, and some consultations with Tekehu - that he miraculously managed to keep to himself - the instrument was made, ready to be picked up from Dunnage and presented to the Watcher.

For the first few moments, Aloth was convinced they made some kind of mistake. Gaura opened the case resting on her lap and merely stared at the violin, with a hollowness in her eyes that the wizard couldn’t quite place. Uncomfortable silence filled the captain’s cabin. The window behind the Watcher reflected strange flutters in her hair. Aloth glanced at Edér standing beside him, but he didn’t seem to worry.

‘Do you like it?’ He simply asked. The question pulled the Watcher out of her daze, and prompted her to actually touch the violin. Her fingers brushed against some runes etched into the wood.

‘I figured I’d place some enchantments on it,’ Aloth explained, ‘to make it more resistant to your hair. I’m not quite sure if that would affect the sound but I was told-’

‘Aloth,’ Edér lightly elbowed him in the arm. A knowing smile was lurking in the corner of his lips. As he turned to the Watcher, the smile faded and an understanding look took its place.

Gaura’s mind seem to have been elsewhere. She lifted the violin to her shoulder and began tuning the instrument. After a minute or two she seemed to have been ready to play. The melody of the Farmer and the Fox leapt off the strings. As the song went on a mirthless smile appeared on the Watcher’s face that grew wider and more joyful the longer she played. A few mistakes slipped into the tune, but Aloth couldn’t bring himself to care. He was mesmerized by the euphoria on Gaura’s face. Edér clapped along beside him and he didn’t notice he started clapping too. Gaura was now laughing and playing faster, her foot tapped a steady rhythm and she followed its tempo. Her eyes closed and she allowed herself to be guided by her ears alone. Aloth let out a relieved sigh that he didn’t realize he was holding. It was met by a light pat on his shoulder. Edér was grinning at him, proud at their success and happy for their beloved. Then the song ended. It took the Watcher a few moments to open her eyes.

‘I’m a little rusty,’ she let out an awkward, apologetic chuckle. She looked to her lovers with tears of joy twinkling in her eyes.

‘You’ll get back into it in no time,’ Edér sat down beside her and ran a hand down her arm. Gaura beamed at him and he couldn’t resist the urge to give her a forehead kiss.

The Watcher then turned her attention to Aloth. She reached a hand out to him only to realize she was still holding the bow. She reluctantly put the violin back in its case and put it aside. She stood up then, reaching out with both hands, with a strange desperation in the movement, as if, if she couldn’t hold the wizard her love would overflow with nowhere to put it. Aloth obliged her wordless request. Her hand came to the back of his head. Her caress was gentle but insistent and Aloth couldn’t help but sink into her embrace.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered as she pulled away. ‘Thank you,’ she repeated as she left a searing kiss on the wizard’s lips. ‘Thank you,’ she said once more as she turned to Edér to show him the same gratitude. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you two.’

A few hours later the Watcher was playing a song that Aloth never heard before but it was almost hypnotic. Once he convinced himself to move again, he closed the distance to Edér and lightly shook him, careful not to draw Gaura’s attention to themselves. The farmer groaned as he stirred, prompting the wizard to quiet him with a finger on his lips. Edér’s eyes widened in surprise and Aloth answered by lifting the finger to his own lips, urging him to keep quiet still. Edér’s surprise was replaced with confusion but he listened. And as he listened, his expression changed once again to delight. He sat up, only to be dragged back down by the wizard.

‘Why are we hiding?’ The farmer asked in a whisper.

‘I don’t want to disturb her.’

‘Don’t think she’d mind,’ he rolled on his back but he otherwise lied still. A few moments passed and the only sound in the cabin was the soft music and the waves crashing outside. Edér’s eyes were fixed on the empty air above him. He smiled at something and suddenly Aloth wished he could read his thoughts. But something told him that whatever was on his mind, it must have been beautiful. It was impossible to think of anything else embraced by that tune. The farmer turned to him, his hand found the wizard’s and gave it a quick squeeze. ‘I’m glad we did this.’

‘So am I.’

Edér’s smile widened. He got out of bed, too quickly for Aloth to stop him. He gestured to follow him as he approached the Watcher by the window. Gaura looked up at him as he came closer but she didn’t stop playing until he was already sitting beside her.

‘Don’t stop on my account,’ the farmer said. ‘That sounded real pretty.’

‘It’s a song from back home,’ Gaura answered. Aloth couldn’t tell if she meant the Dyrwood or the Living Lands at first, but the Watcher continued. ‘It’s about dancing through time,’ she chuckled as she reminisced, ‘sometimes roaming the Valleys feels like a year passes in a day, and… a lot of songs try to capture that feeling,’ she sounded almost homesick as she sighed. ‘It was one of the first songs I was truly determined to learn way back when.’

‘Sounded like you still knew it,’ Edér placed a hand on her waist and lightly caressed her with a thumb.

Gaura didn’t answer. She flashed a weary smile at him then looked at the violin in her hand for a moment. ‘I suppose I still do,’ she sounded strangely wistful. ‘It just sounds a little different to my ears now.’

‘Is something wrong with the violin?’ Aloth asked as he got out of bed as well. The Watcher smiled at him reassuringly.

‘No, I… there is nothing wrong with it.’ She grew quiet for a moment. The wizard claimed the empty spot by her side. ‘Which one of you thought of getting this for me?’ She asked after a while.

Edér immediately pointed at Aloth. The wizard wanted to disagree, but he couldn’t actually tell which one of them had the idea first.

‘He figured most things out,’ the farmer explained. ‘I just did the talking.’

‘That is an understatement,’ Aloth shook his head disapprovingly. ‘Those negotiation skills that you claimed you didn’t have were invaluable. Whatever plans I made were nothing without your help.’

‘Come on, don’t sell yourself short,’ Edér narrowed his eyes at him, ‘you would have gathered the courage eventually. I didn’t even know where to begin.’

‘Now who is selling himself short?’

‘Both of you,’ Gaura fondly chuckled. ‘You,’ she gestured at Aloth with the bow, ‘are bright and brave. I haven’t met a lot of people who could take on their fears head-on. Scared, but you still do it. And if I started waxing poetic about your mind, we’ll be here all year,’ she laughed. ‘And you,’ she now pointed at Edér, ‘inspire courage and comfort. You just make things feel a little less daunting, no matter what it is. And I don’t know what I’d do without you two.’ She sighed as she looked to the violin in her lap. A wistful smile tugged at the corners of her lips. ‘Have you ever wondered how much worse our lives would be without each other?’

‘Trying not to,’ Edér gave her a meaningful look. One that the Watcher could only answer with resting her forehead against his for a moment.

‘The thought has crossed my mind a few times,’ Aloth admitted, ‘I’d prefer to think that we’d be alright, certainly worse off and perhaps hurting but… alright, still,’ uncertainty rang in his voice and the Watcher picked right up on that. She knew him too well.

‘But?’

The wizard chuckled. ‘But… I never thought I’d have anything like… us. I am not sure I have it in me to give it up for anything.’

‘Good thing, you won’t have to,’ Edér answered.

‘For better or for worse,’ Gaura added with a shrug. ‘Dependence can be pretty scary,’ her gaze fell onto the violin again. She seemed lost in thought for a moment, then she gingerly ran her fingers against the wood, stopping by the runes carved into it to give them some special attention. A strange but fond smile spread on her face. ‘And yet it doesn’t scare me right now,’ she laughed, ‘I got a violin out of it. And… the songs I play on it won’t sound like they used to but… somehow I don’t mind it too much. I can’t be mad at myself for something I would have seen as a weakness in the past when it gives me so much strength right now.’

Gaura hugged the instrument to her chest for a moment, then she neatly put it away. When she stood up and reached her hands to her lovers, it almost looked like she was inviting them for a dance. Aloth placed his hand in hers without hesitation and his eagerness surprised even him. Edér chuckled at him and clasped his shoulder before he stood up and took the Watcher’s hand as well. She guided them back to the bed, quietly humming a song still that lulled Aloth to sleep before he even realized how sleepy he was. He dreamed about dancing that night.

[decepti-thots]

Roddy x Megatron 🔥

Sorry if you meant this strictly in terms of shipping anon but I'm going to talk more generally about just their dynamic, oop.

Fandom often treats Rodimus' distaste for Megatron at the start as a principled, moral one. I disagree. One thing I do actually really like about their canon interactions, especially early on, is that I genuinely feel like Rodimus is not in fact primarily opposed to Megatron and his position on the ship because he simply thinks that Megatron does not deserve a second chance or anything for moral reasons; I talked about this like two years or so ago here, I think Rodimus fundamentally does not have an issue with that in principle the way a lot of the crew on the LL do. I think the thing which drives their dynamic at first is that Rodimus has a clearly personal dislike of Megatron, much more than he has any existential moral crisis about whether or not Megatron is irredeemable or whatever.

To me, this is much more interesting than questions about moral judgement. Prior to the introduction of Megatron to the cast, MTMTE isn't driven by moral conflict, IMO. Even when characters do things a moral judgement can be made on, that's not what the story is most interested in getting conflict out of. Take Rodimus' fuckup with Overlord, for example. It's very easy for an audience to frame this in moral terms, to look at why Rodimus doing All That is morally wrong, and it's not like it isn't. But the primary conflict that comes out of it for the story going forward is simply less interested in that than it is narrowing it down to one of personal failings, and what it means for the character. The fallout is around his captaincy and his insecurities and how these impact his relationship with the people around him, and what opportunities for personal growth that then presents, rather than a mediation on like, the morality of his actions. And that's not a misstep on the part of the comic! The comic is just using these heightened situations as a way to present larger-than-life canvases to blow those things up to a scale where they can be explored more broadly. The narrative engine of MTMTE at that point is one driven by heightened interpersonal conflicts, not questions of Right and Wrong, and the fallout follows that arc with buy-in from the audience. It's a matter of framing, more than anything.

Megatron's arc is not that; Megatron's arc is about moral existential crises and such, and my opinion on how well the comic can support that in the end aside I think the conflict accidentally created there is where the interest lies for these two. I think the unfortunately kind of untapped potential of the Megatron-Rodimus dynamic mostly lies in that dissonance, and I think it's way more interesting than the more common fandom approach of framing Rodimus' eventual approval of Megatron as some kind of redemptive salve that somehow validates him. Their dynamic is best IMO when it exists in a way where those two distinct approaches are clashing in a way that's made deliberate, and where Rodimus' perspective as someone more in tune with the comic's original perspective is one which disrupts the attempt to shift the needle over to questions about morality instead of the more focused look at 'well maybe you ARE an asshole who sucks, but can you maybe make some friends anyway, without you needing to not actually be an asshole who sucks?' The best Megatron-Rodimus dynamic, for me, is the one where Rodimus is kind of interrupting that attempt to do a quote-unquote 'redemption arc' and bringing it back to the level the comic originally functions at, and I think the dynamic is so much more interesting when that's happening, instead of Rodimus as a kind of facilitator of the whole redemption arc thing, idk. I don't think the comic ever really manages to do that tbh, but I think you can play with that in a fandom space because it gives you enough to work with, and it's what I always want out of fanworks about them tbh, in any context. Just more compelling to me than the more common 'Rodimus is a vehicle for confirming Megatron as Morally OK Now TM' stuff I tend to see.

[sam-loves-seb]

gallavich questions

thanks for the tag (and the questions) @callivich !!

What’s a fic you’ve read more than once? intro to quantum dating by @spoonfulstar, i think i've read it 3 or 4 times now, it's one of my all time favorites

What’s a gifset you always have to reblog? anytime i see a gifset from that one s5 deleted scene, yeah that one, i have to reblog

What’s a headcanon you can’t stop thinking about? i have a very specific headcanon for a tattoo ian gets post-canon for mickey, and i hesitate to even explain it now bc i think one day i do wanna write a fic about him getting it, but whatever--my headcanon is that he gets an M tattooed on his left ring finger and it's a subtle yet sweet nod to his husband. (i could talk about this for 9 hours but i will limit myself and stop here)

What’s a fanart you love looking at? i've spent an obscene amount of time staring at this fanart by @doodlevich it just checks all my boxes (domestic, husbands, fluff, etc.) and it's so well done, i'm obsessed with this pieces

What’s an idea you’d love to create if you had the time/inspiration? listen, i have this idea for a rock band au that lives rent fucking free in my head, and if i can find the time and the inspiration to actually turn these vibes and unorganized plot points into actual words and a coherent story in the new year, then maybe it'll see the light of day in 2024 but no promises. for now, i leave you with this: four milkovich siblings are in a rock band that is rising to success with the launch of their second studio album and subsequent tour, and ian gallagher is lead singer mandy's (fake) boyfriend--at least in the eyes of the public--and he spends some time that summer touring with the band and hooking up with their lead guitarist in secret until the band's manager/father catches wind of what's going on behind closed doors

What’s something you’ve discovered since entering this fandom? A new trope you love? A different analysis of the show? Something else? i've always been a post-canon enthusiast for almost all of my ships, but i think before gallavich i always envisioned them with a very cookie cutter standard american dream family with the house and the careers and the 2.5 kids, which usually fits a lot of my ships, but with gallavich i... don't have that same vision ?? i think they're actually my first ship that i hc more often than not without kids in their post canon life, which is a new vibe for me entirely but i kinda love reading/writing it. idk if that answers the question you asked, but it definitely answered a question

What’s an underrated trope or concept you’d like to see more of? honestly i want more s9/10 prison era gallavich fics (and/or fanart). i think it's a gold mine era with so much untapped potential, and there are very few fics/series/whatever that really get deep with it and get to the good stuff of these two boys who haven't spent any significant time together in years but still love each other like they did way back when

What’s your favourite season? And has this changed after multiple rewatches of the show? it flip-flops for me between s4 and s5, like right now i think it's s5 but idk if i could actually pick one or the other as my absolute favorite

What’s a plot hole you wish had been answered or resolved? i would give my left arm to know how the fuck (and why the fuck) mickey started rolling with his dad again in post-prison s10 era, like in 10x08 he's going to terry for advice on how to protect ian, just for terry to try to kill him again 3 episodes later ??? make it make sense john wells i'm under your bed

What scene or moment do you feel isn’t discussed enough? personally i think the promise ring scene in 10x09 is criminally underrated and not talked about nearly enough, like you don't understand how happy that scene made me (stay with me here) seeing mickey stand up and fight for the future he really wants with ian and not settling for anything less

What line/dialogue/description from something else (a poem, a book, a tv show, a movie, or something else) do you feel describes Ian and Mickey’s relationship? can i do song lyrics? i'm gonna do song lyrics--i've always thought the song godlight by noah kahan was very gallavich, especially the chorus, and especially during s4/5/6 era and it may or may not be a piece of inspiration for my big bang canon divergent fic

What do you think is next for Ian and Mickey post-finale? i think they take a while to really settle into their new place and and make it their own, and it's a bit of an adjustment (for both of them) to fit in with this new crowd and this new environment, but they're learning how to grow and evolve together and at the end of the day that's all that really matters to the both of them

tagging: literally anyone who wants to play bc my brain is tired and i am too tired to try and remember everyone i probably should tag

[maniacwatchestheworld]

You know... For being one of the mainstays of Batman's rogues gallery and for how much he shows up in various pieces of Batman media and how much he effects the world of the Batman universe, it is surprising just how not popular Two-Face is. Like, there is so much about him that screams to me that he should be a problematic fave for more people. And even though you have the perfect setup for the most angsty, tragic, friends to enemies to lovers story set out for you, Bruce Wayne/Harvey Dent isn't even close to being in the top 10 most popular ships with Bruce Wayne. And I can't help but to wonder why that is...

My current theory is that he's just... Too ugly for people. Unlike the Joker, his disfiguration isn't easy to ignore or write out, and isn't quirky enough for people to find charming or attractive. His mental health issues aren't going to be relatable to most people and aren't fun or funny or (once again) quirky enough for people to want to romanticize like people do with the various incarnations of the Riddler. He is a character as brutal and ugly as he looks. It's something that you can't ignore and people just aren't really willing to accept it either.

It's a shame if true, because I think that there is a lot of untapped potential with Two-Face as a character and I wish there was more fan content for me to engage with him out there.

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 19

Chapter 19 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!

Once again I really like the theme of working for your abilities. Zhu Bajie wasn’t a chosen one, he had to work hard to become an Immortal, though his meeting with the true Immortal was lucky of course.

It’s quite curious how often Sun Wukong has a hard time getting inside caves, either outright by being barred or due to some other thing. Something to keep an eye on.

I believe he didn’t just head back to check in on his Shifu, but also to clarify some things with old Mr. Gao.

In the J. F. Jenner translation after Tang Sanzang asks where Sun Wukong was all night, Wukong says “[h]e's no common or garden ghost” referring to Zhu Bajie, which made me think of the HTTYD books and the common or garden dragon, which is how I managed to figure the meaning. Afterwards I actually looked up the specific meaning of calling something common or garden, which is used to describe something you think is ordinary and not special in any way.

Ah it’s always the problem of appearance. A tale as old as time I feel.

“[A] man who breaks someone's door and enters without permission may be guilty of trespassing” I think that’s not just trespassing, that’s breaking and entering.

‘Ice iron’ sounds like such a JRPG term, I wonder if it’s ever been used as such. It might, but if it hasn’t that’s potential untapped if you ask me.

So it’s been years since Guanyin came by, huh. She must have been quite thorough at surveying the path then if it took this long!

Nice to see they manage to talk it out like that this time. Progress compared to the dragon instance.

Why does Sun Wukong insist on arson? There is a disproportionate amount of arson in relation to him, I wonder if this will persist into later chapters or not. Another thing to keep an eye on!

Okay, so Monkey is Metal and Zhu Bajie is associated with Wood, good let’s keep track of that.

Oh yeah, I can see why people may entertain a ship between those two. This poem just lends itself to that interpretation. Like overtly so.

Tang Sanzang just doesn’t get to actually name anyone. Only ever nicknames, it’s kind of funny.

Also interestingly enough in the J. F. Jenner translation it is Sun Wukong who remarks on their religious names matching.

Sun Wukong admitting to being a lightweight, we love to see a king knowing his limits.

Also very nice that Tang Sanzang allows them to have wine but draws the line at them getting drunk. Reminds me a bit of our lovely Paladin from DnD Honour Among Thieves. He’s got his code, but he is willing to adjust it to work with the world around him.

Hold on a moment, the Eight Rules forbid dancing and music?! I need to look into that a bit more, because if it is how it appears at face value I don’t know how to feel about this.

Very sweet of Sun Wukong to give Gao Cai some of the money!

Verdant returns! Zhu Bajie’s new outfit is actually verdant.

Blue and pink phoenixes you say? Trans pride phoenixes perhaps? That’s what I’m imagining anyway.

Deer check time! In the Chinese original it is a [麋鹿 Mílù] in English known as Père David's deer!

Wait, the guy literally hangs out in a crow’s nest? That’s pretty neat.

Oooh Sha Wujing foreshadowing! No mention of our Bailong Ma this chapter though, sad.

[dragonologist-phd]

Xoti for the character breakdown?

thank you!! oh it's been so long since i've played Deadfire, but i'll do my best:

How I feel about this character

i really like Xoti!! I think Deadfire in general suffers from weaker character writing than the original Pillars, but i still really enjoy her as a companion. i like that she's chipper and reckless and friendly and weird. i was instantly charmed by her the first time i played the game, and she's still one of my favorite characters introduced in Deadfire

All the people I ship romantically with this character

i've actually never triggered the Maia/Xoti romance in Deadfire; none of my playthroughs happened to line up that way! but i've gotten their first couple of flirting banters, and from what i've seen, they're cute

my Watcher Miervaldis/Xoti will always be so good to me- again, i love how weird she is, and i love how these two understand and wholeheartedly support each other's weirdness! they're one of my rare 'love at first sight' ships; it's usually not my thing, but as soon as Miervaldis met this talkative, enthusiastic woman who saw creepy ghosts in her dreams, he was a goner

(Calendula/Xoti is also one of my fav ships! again, i love any ship where Xoti gets to unabashedly be herself and be loved for it)

i also think there's some untapped enemies-to-lover potential with Pallegina/Xoti. not gonna elaborate on that for now, i need to play the game again

My non-romantic OTP for this character

i do actually like her friendship with Eder. i like that they're foils to each other, that she reminds him a little of a younger, idealistic version of himself. i like that she has this awkward crush that never stood a chance, and that in spite of that they can end up in a really close friendship.

gosh i'm trying to remembers some of her good banters. i think she and Serafen had some cute conversations, too, where he's amused by her wild side and she likes hearing all his adventure stories. it's an unexpected friendship but it makes a lot of sense once they talk to each other, and they're a fun pair!

My unpopular opinion about this character

ha, does liking her count? it's still surprising to me that she's not more popular, even now there's still only twelve fics for Watcher/Xoti on AO3! i just think people could be appreciating her more

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

i think it would have been really cool if the 'Gaun as an aspect of Eothas' was explored more. we know Berath has different forms for the Pallid Knight and the Usher- does Eothas have a different form for Gaun? it would have been interesting, i think, if that part of him came forward when he interacted with oti, and i think it would have added some cool lore to her quest

give me a character