#to be clear i'm not shipping them cos rpf puts me off personally

[borealopelta]

fic writer interview

tagged by @regseekings thank you sooo much <3

How many works do you have on AO3? 38

What’s your total AO3 word count? 129,960

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? i was something made for god to label fragile (now i'm stuck) (1,133) - Our Flag Means Death, stede/izzy/ed out of time, eternal heatstroke (631) - Our Flag Means Death, stede/izzy/ed sure as the sun come up from the south (371) - Our Flag Means Death, stede/izzy/ed steppin' around in a desert of joy (301) - Ted Lasso, isaac/colin I'm a stitch away from making it (and a scar away from falling apart) (279) - IT movies, richie/eddie

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? yes !! it takes some time usually but i want people to know i appreciate them taking the time to say nice things :)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? i'd sayyy uh a carnival bear set free, which is a sumner/drax dead dove fic and leads directly into the endgame of the book which is angsty as hell in itself

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? most of them have a happy ending!! i'm nice!! but my most recent one, eyes on the horizon (chuck/roger) has a cute ending that i really like :)

Do you write crossovers? nope, i don't like to read them, write even less. i have attempted a fusion/AU of existing media or two before but none of those have been published

Have you ever received hate on a fic? crabsolutely, some people will leave death threats in guest comments and that's just how it goes

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yeah!! less so lately because i'm just not vibing with it atm, but i looove writing smut. i think i cover the whole spectrum of vanilla to kinky

Have you ever had a fic stolen? no thank god. i love tiny fandom

Have you ever had a fic translated? nope!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? no, and i don't want to either

What’s your all-time favourite ship? sighhhh i don't know, they come and go. i'm perpetually fond of tom hartnell/ john irving of the terror fame and doc thorne/eddie carr from the lost world (the novel) but it comes and goes

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? my lost world longfic........girliepop you are NOT getting done 😭

What are your writing strengths? i think i'm okay at vivid descriptions and getting characters' personalities mostly right :)

What are your writing weaknesses? long plots, group scenes, dialogue/description balance if i'm not 100% clear on what i want to accomplish in the scene (either too much dialogue or too little. good lord)

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? with good reason it's okay. i've read very very bad things where the foreign dialogue was just jarringly out of place and it put me off it p much for good

What was the first fandom you wrote for? sigh. hollywood undead rpf 👍

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? i reallllly want to write hunt for red october fic.........stupid as hell but it's in my brain so much !! ramius/borodin intrigues me greatly (i think sean connery and sam neill should have kissed)

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written? hmmm.... i think it's let me under your skin, my small eastern european village armitozer au. i really really really love the vibe of it, it means a lot to me, and i'm still very happy with it almost 3 years after posting (jesus christ) which is very rare for me. read it :) or not. but i do like it so so much

[ingravinoveritas]

Why do people ship DT & MS? Please stop??! They are real people, and I bet they're uncomfortable with this. Also there's no evidence of DT being at least bi. Same with MS. Just because they're close friends doesn't mean they're sleeping together. I see their relationship as purely platonic. There are some dreamy moments from M's side, but I'd say it's just an admiration. There's nothing from DT's side. That makes me think they're not as close as we think they are.

I'm sure they love each other. As friends.

Hello, Anon! Are you new here? I think you might be new, as you seem a bit unfamiliar with all that is going on. But take heart! I get anons like you about once a month now, regular as clockwork, so you’re not serving me anything I haven’t gotten before. You seem to have rushed in headfirst to the Michael And David Shipping Lounge here, so how about you slow down, take your coat off, sit down, and enjoy a hot beverage.

I would first like to make two things clear, Anon, which I believe you’ve unfortunately missed out on by not perusing my blog prior to sending this message:

1) Everything that I post about in terms of shipping Michael and David is based on/in reaction to things they have put out there (quotes, pictures, interviews, etc.). None of the things that I mention in this post are things I have pulled out of thin air. 2) In the (many) posts I’ve made about shipping Michael and David, I have said time and again that I am not convinced that something has for sure happened between them...that nothing could’ve happened as easily as something could’ve happened. I have no compunction whatsoever with believing that they could be purely platonic...yet you appear to be unwilling or unable to think their relationship could be more than that (just because they’re close friends, it doesn’t mean they aren’t sleeping together, either). So that’s why I find it interesting that you seem to speak with such certainty about Michael and David’s relationship and their sexual orientations while accusing me of doing exactly that...when I haven’t. But I am a big believer in knowledge being power, Anon, and you started this message with a question, which was “Why do people ship DT & MS?” My goal, therefore, is to answer that question by providing you with information you may not already know, and with which you can then draw your own conclusions.

I think a good place to start would be with some background, since you did mention there being “no evidence” of David or Michael being bi. But there is a distinct difference between there not being “evidence” and not being convinced by the evidence that does exist. (Disclaimer: I will freely admit that I am less versed in all things David, so my dear friend @faggghaggg​ and also the lovely @fckedupnerd​ are two far superior sources of DT information than I am.)

In terms of David, there is actually a long history of rumors and intimations about his being bisexual, from as far back as the Doctor Who days. This link and this link are good places to look for older David gossip. A few more examples (which could be seen as circumstantial, but that are certainly more than suggestive) are David kissing John Barrowman, David grabbing a man’s crotch on Ask Rhod Gilbert for no reason, and my personal favorite: An interview of David’s on Graham Norton from 2007. As for Michael, the “evidence” of him being bi is more overt (which seems to be the case with basically everything when it comes to Michael). Just a few examples: Michael has said that his first crush ever was on John Taylor of Duran Duran. During an episode of Carpool Karaoke, he described Tom Jones as being “sexy” in his 1960s heyday. Most recently, he has spoken about being sexually attracted to several members of the Manic Street Preachers back in the day.

But absolutely none of the above even begins to touch on the way Michael and David behave around and with each other. The thing to keep in mind as well, Anon, is that sexuality is a fluid thing, and so there is no one “way” to express one’s bisexuality. For example, while I do think Michael tends to prefer women and anything female with a pulse will turn his head, it takes a certain kind of man to do the same. And David is one such kind of man, who came into Michael’s life and heart when he least seemed to expect it, such that his attraction to David seems to have even taken him by surprise.

So why do people ship Michael and David? Well, I’m not going to list every single instance of the flirting, loving looks, mouth staring (Michael shamelessly  staring at David’s lips and mouth during interviews), and suggestive quotes (such as Michael saying that David is very easy to fall in love with) that have happened since the GO press tour started in 2018. But I think I do have to mention the two that pretty much started it all: When David said ‘Maybe I should’ve married Michael Sheen,’ and when Michael called David his ‘lover.’

I will grant you that the comment from David definitely had a “playing to the crowd” feel to it, and was him working an audience as he is so wont to do. It still doesn’t change the fact that he did say it, seemingly unprompted. Also, I don’t know about you, Anon, but I can’t recall a single instance where I have described any one of my platonic friends as my “lover.” And while that interview did take place during the GO press tour, there was nothing--and I mean nothing--that precipitated that comment from Michael. The subject of discussion had nothing to do with Good Omens, there was no mention of the Ineffable Husbands, and yet...”He’s my lover.” Out of nowhere.

(Incidentally, there was a sort of “sequel” to this quote earlier this year when Michael described David’s hips as ‘slinky.’ If you are uncomfortable with or don’t want to be shipped with your co-star, you don’t generally refer to him as your “lover” or wax rhapsodic about his hips while staring dreamily into the distance. Point blank, period. But over and over again, they keep feeding the fires. Also, while David is more subtle than Michael, there are plenty of instances (more since I wrote that post, even) of him displaying his love and affection.)

I could go on, Anon. And on, and on, but your best bet from here on out is to read my #good omens rpf and #discourse tags for more. The takeaway from all this, though, is that there isn’t any one giant unifying moment that makes people ship Michael and David, but rather the gradual accumulation of all of these little moments over time. It’s seeing so clearly that there is something special between them, that David makes Michael happy in a way no one else does, and the joy of knowing that out of the 7 billion of us wandering around the planet, Michael and David somehow found each other. And after a year like 2020, love of any kind--platonic or romantic--is something worth celebrating.

So I hope this answers your question. I hope you’ve enjoyed your hot beverage, taken in some of the sights, and come away with a little food for thought, and perhaps a willingness to understand things a bit better before coming after people. Good night, and good luck...