#trying to remember what the 'common' ship portmanteaus are...

[pipitwrites]

for @francophones / @boscpierres, rest in pieces sdkfjsdlkjflkjg may you be freed from horny jail soon 🙏🙏🙏

full / face-fucking (but i guess it can be also for full?? maybe) -- apprx 220 words of lewis + charles/pierre

“He takes it well,” Lewis says above Charles, thumbing at the spit pooling at the corner of his mouth. Charles shudders, spread out on his back with his head tipped back and half hanging off the edge of the bed, level with hard cut lines of Lewis’s pelvis and his cock pushing all the way down Charles’s throat. The praise is and isn’t for Charles—which makes it all the more embarrassing when he moans helplessly at it anyway, nose pressed up behind the soft skin of Lewis’s balls.

“You’re longer than I am,” says Pierre, a mix of hero worship and appreciation lined with envy that Charles can only tease out through his lightheaded daze out of years-long familiarity. It’s the kind of stupid thing Pierre would notice, but Charles can’t even call him out on it, jaw slack and open for Lewis’s use while Pierre settles in even deeper between his legs, three fingers scraping roughly up across Charles’s prostate. Charles’s whole body thrums with desire, like a plucked string pulled taut between the two. The feeling doesn’t lessen any when Pierre bites the inside of his thigh and tells Lewis, “He can take even more.”

When Lewis begins fucking Charles's mouth for real, warm hands cradling the sides of his face, the thread snaps.

virginity / voyeur (this was supposed to be some kind of virginity play but then i never got to the actual penetration. oops) -- apprx 190 words of pierre/charles

“Have you never?” Pierre asks, unable to look away from the fascinating bloom of color spreading across Charles’s cheeks and the tips of his ears and nose.

Charles clearly swallows his first reply. “No,” he says shortly and then, when Pierre raises his eyebrows, repeats it in a softer voice, more demure. “No, Pierrot.”

There is some trick to this game that Pierre still hasn’t quite unlocked, but he’s sure that he’ll figure it out sooner rather than later. “I can show you,” he says instead, channeling his confidence forward in a different way. Charles’s mouth falls open, tongue flickering out.

“Please,” Charles says. His eyelashes fan up and down in a slow sweep over his smooth, clean-shaven cheeks. When Pierre draws him in for a kiss, coaxing and sweet, Charles leans into the touch easily, opening up for Pierre’s tongue. Pierre has seen Charles with girls before—but he’s almost passive now, settling into Pierre's lap and letting Pierre take the lead. The only tell is when his fingers twitch in a half-aborted movement behind Pierre’s neck when the kiss finally ends.

“You’ve been aching for it, haven’t you?” Pierre asks. “Waiting for me.”

Charles lets out a sharp exhale of breath, hips jerking forward.

[tenrousei-kuroi]

I did read Angel Sanctuary! I never finished it, though. I remember that what got me to start was the author’s art style. Her characters are so pretty!

I’m not familiar with A Cruel God Reigns, but by your description, it’s right up my alley (also, with a brief search, I see it has a very traditional style from the 90s/00s mangas that I find very nostalgic). I’ll definitely take a look into it.

As for the Black brothers, I think I discovered the ship around 2017-18, so there was a fairly good amount of work by then, but Blackcest has definitely grown a lot in the past couple of years. I’ve not read many James/Regulus works, mostly because many have a 'cleansed', fanon version of both – which also applies to the Marauders as a whole – and I have very picky views of Regulus’ characterization (my boy canonically had his own fan board of Voldemort 😭 and as far as we know, he never fully – or at all – quit his bigotry, yet in many works, his Slytherin friends and himself diverge completely from this).

But I do think Sirius/Regulus will remain somewhat popular for a long time. The Black family seems to have an appeal within the fandom that I don’t see as much with other families, such as the Lestranges, for example. Also, the idea of two good-looking, rich boys in a complicated family is intriguing (or at least I hope so; if not, you’ll see me signing up to your mailing list). On that note, I'm still hoping for the day Rodolphus/Rabastan gets popular lol

Anyway, thank you for the link, and I'm looking forward fest postings (ngl, I'm pretty confident in my abilities to recognize your writing style in anon fests. Sometimes I read a title and I think "this looks like a title ten would use". Is it a little stalker-ish of me? Maybe 😅).

Yeah Moto Hagio’s a bit more old school, she was most prolific in the seventies and eighties, and her art shows it. I could be misremembering but I believe her work “Sunroom” is typically credited as the first boy/boy manga kiss. And she’s one of the pioneers of the modern boy’s love genre. Real “culture award winning” sort of author.

Jegulus fics are hilarious to me and there’s a reason I call my stuff James/Regulus when I tag it, because that portmanteau has become its own thing. Whenever I read a Jegulus fic in my brain I’m thinking, “you know you can just write Timotheé Chalamet RPF, right? He’s not gonna’ come for you” 😂 And honestly that fanon “style” is bleeding over hard into the Sirius/Regulus section.

No shade, I’m glad people are having fun. Makes it harder for me to find the kinds of fics I like but I’ll survive lol. There’s just a larger selection now. And popular as it all is, I do truly feel people will move on. Because it’s less an attachment to the characters and more to these seriously altered fantasy versions of them, which can be easily grafted onto the next popular thing.

If you had told fifteen year-old me my weird incest and incest-adjacent pairings where two of the three characters aren’t even alive in canon would one day be as common as they are now I’d’ve thought you were high 😂 yet here we are.

I’ve dabbled a bit in Rodolphus/Rabastan but they always end up coming out so similar to my Sirius and Regulus that I don’t like it. I’ve kind of tabled the pairing until I can force myself to be a bit more creative with them. People already put up with all my Sirius/Regulus nonsense being basically the same, I don’t need to be grafting their dynamic onto other pairings 🤣🤣

When I pick prompts for fests I always try to ignore the promoter names until after I’ve chosen, but it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference, roughly 80% end up being yours anyway. Talk about wavelengths.

And let’s blame 2009 LiveJournal for my pretentious and easily-spotted titles, shall we? Specifically a Sirius/Regulus fic from forever ago called “A Thousand Years Good Wine” which basically flipped something in my brain and I haven’t been able to title anything like a normal human since.

That was a stellar fic, by the way. And if anyone ever ever ever finds it back for me I’ll…I don’t know…write them a 100k commission of their choice or engrave their name on my tombstone or something because that fic is LOST beyond belief and it causes me literal pain sometimes lol.

I’m feeling rather inspired today so I might spend my Saturday night plinking away at one of my fics. Odds are it probably won’t be the one that’s due in three weeks but we can always hope TT.TT

[drawnaghht]

more thoughts on ship names (leosagi, sliderbunny, yuileo etc) - more is not bad

So I'd like to suggest a thought - multiple ship tags and names are not actually bad - it's more like a way of detecting what flavor the ship and resulting fanworks will be. let me explain more below. if this sounds a bit dated, that's because I wrote this back in january-march but noticed I hadn't archived it properly and that it needed a bit more writing to finish some thoughts so I'm posting this now, lest I forget it lol. maybe i have also already posted it before but... i cannot find this old version, so i guess not ^^;;

If you like the Yuichi x Leo ship, are annoyed at Leosagi being used as an umbrella term or are just curious abt another fan's thoughts on ship names, here-a we go. Some thoughts on the leosagi and leochi/leoichi ship names in general ^^ 

Some things are a bit more outdated: namely, transfem!12yuinardo has now been steadfastly used as a ship tag for transfem Yuichi x 12Leo, so kudos to that person! Thank you for making this unique tag more common!

resources used:

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Pairing_Name https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiosyncraticShipNaming

Anyway, more under cut.

so, being in the rottmnt fandom for a bit longer this time (or being longer in a tmnt phase this time) and browsing the leosagi and leochi tags since august last year... has made me realize again that I really enjoy/prefer genfic most times? i like writing romance, but I enjoy writing action a lot more + exploring character writing in general, so that’s probably what my own crossover works will try to feature more too now.

being in tmnt fandom longer this time around, I thought that it was nice ppl still remembered leosagi, but I didn't expect a "new" version of it. Now, seeing thru the history of it (the RabNerd video on Leosagi felt like a nice refresher on TMNT fandom history in general and it’s nice to listen to) and going thru the tumblr tag (that and ao3 being sorta the only reliable archives on fanwork, with the exception of authors deleting their own work and tumblrtags not working as expected at times/finding hidden stuff), I think it's good we have multiple tags. Now about the tag I made up in september, "yuinardo" (I believe I already made two tagging-related posts thinking abt this tag/name way back in autumn 2022)

this YuiNardo ship name was mostly made as a portmanteau to make tagging and finding easier - for the ship Yuichi x Rise!Leo bc I wanted to differentiate it from Leochi/Leoichi but also the old Leosagi ship, because to me that was a bit different. at first I thought people would use the numbering system (03 leosagi etc per tmnt series airing year), but I started to notice that there was a lot more fanon with the ship this time than before. So when Netflix suggested the show to me one august evening after seeing the Rise movie, I started watching the series proper out of curiosity. as I’ve written before in a few places publicly (i think), the series was a bit slow and boring for me at first. But as I kept watching, I suddenly saw where the writing was going and what interesting things about its characters it was telling us. I got invested in the series for it’s strong family themes and how it handled its characters and story arcs, but also the music was something holding it all together for me emotionally. So I became a genuine fan and started reading more of the original Usagi Yojimbo comic too

one commonality I saw in many fanworks is that Yuichi is often changed a lot to fit a fan's own idea of who he should be as a character in relation to Leo or the fan's own setting/AU. This is fairly normal in fandom in general, esp for smth like TMNT. After all, why not play around in the sandbox given by canon? I also noticed fanworks often ignore the canon or worldbuilding set in his own show, and even the other prominent SRTUC characters get ignored/rewritten more than not. Or people make their own new versions with the same name. Which is fine, fanon!Yuichi and other fanversions are interesting. I usually like seeing redesigns in other fandoms and here they are interesting too, but I actually like the character as he is! He's funny to see fail but also fun/funny to watch/listen in general, especially interacting with other characters, whether main cast or one-off characters. He's a blorbo for me now who has taken up permanent root in my fandom/artist brain. I felt like he'd be fun to write in a shipfic or genfic with Rise!Leo bc their personalities are both so similar and so different. They feel like a strangely matching set, despite the shows never having a crossover (and despite Yuichi technically being a whole new original character for the show from the crew to avoid messing up the og Usagi cast too much). I want to write some genfic and Chizu and Kitsune centric fic one day too if I got the time.

Now after becoming a fan though, it’s honestly a bit sad to see people eschew his personality and writing completely - it feels fine that other fans are making AU and fandesign versions based on him, but this just means that when I open the Yuichi Usagi tags or search - I only find these fan interpretations but no versions where another fan is also a fan of the series. Which isn’t to say, that there aren’t other fans posting fanart, but that it’s just a lot less common that people tagging him as “TMNT usagi” or “Rise Usagi” etc. Some fans have said this is disrespectful to Sakai and the Samurai Rabbit crew - some even go on to hate the character (???) which like - it’s a cartoon. why are you angry at it. And these are often the older fans who are around my age (30+) or older, who are fed up with the younger parts of fandom - which I kinda get. I’ve even seen people make stuff up about the series, but I’m not really interested in pursuing that further because you know what. People have grievances about fandom stuff all the time. It’s pointless and a little mindless sometimes. There are so many bigger problems going on in the world. Fandom is something we are all supposed to enjoy. So to argue with another fan - I don’t have the energy to do that anymore. I might correct factual errors here and there, because that feels like it can be a courtesy sometimes. But I’m not interested in laying down blame or building some sort of longer discussion around things that should be fun, if they’re not fun anymore. Honestly, it would be nice if for once, the older and younger parts of TMNT fandoms could respect each other and get along. Like I’m not feeling hopeless about that but it’s just annoying to come back every 5-8 years and see people fighting and arguing about similar things. But that’s another topic entirely. 

I don't honestly quite get the dislike of the character either, but I guess when I was younger, I would have been annoyed by a character like this too. (Foster’s Home comes to mind...where I hated Bloo because of his personality sdfsdfs but I was a very picky child with cartoons in generally)  Personally, to me it seems ppl ignore the show and its writing bc of various aspects: besides simple dislike, it's easy to look at a newer cartoon show in a surface-level way; many still have this stance on cartoons that a "dumb kids show" can't be interesting or have substance; the show falls into many concessions to fit what netflix ordered of the crew. + audience tastes have changed over time - and no, not even talking abt just spiderverse, tho thankfully that has changed what more "general" audiences expect of both an 3D, animated film and a superhero/action flick. (cinemas here even listed it as a 2D animated film a while ago lol. it's a complex bag of factors but audiences + specifically distributors/studios are becoming slowly more receptive to 2D animation again. slightly.)  

What may have been fun to see 10+ years ago for a 3D tv cartoon then, would not fly for viewers now. Even if we ignore internet-posting fans who do like it (who seem to be primarily teens and young adults up to age 24), and how popular the show was at it's premiere (3rd in the UK among kids?), there might be those in the target audience itself as well who do not like it for various reasons. Additionally, viewers are fickle about cartoons in general.  So there are probably many more reasons people have to dislike the character and show that are related to other things. Again, this is just how fandom sometimes works. I’ve been in a lot of other fandoms before where I’m the only one who likes canon or likes writing canon-adjacent, exploring theories in canon etc and this to me started to feel like a similar situation. So I understand when people say the SRTUC fandom is kind of non-existant, if so much of the “fan content” relies on a ship. But saying as someone whose seen sort of “worse” at least there are other people at all and the tags mostly have fanart/fic and not other kinds of stuff, like spam or worse.

Whatever us fans' view might be however, he is still a valid character in the Usagi-verse, AU or not. I've read and listened to interviews with both Stan Sakai and the show crew, and seen artist portfolios with work from the show. The overall experience on the creators' side seems to have been positive. That, and I primarily view the show as a sort of transmedia storytelling venue... almost. It never takes away from the og comic and it adds an interesting alternative future to it, similar to Space Usagi, but as a fun cartoon. It becomes a sort of "gateway tent" for Usagi media and kids who watch this might be inclined to open up the comics, rifle through their parents old books and discover the world of Usagi Yojimbo proper. Like the comic, it also becomes a vehicle for learning for those willing to look things up later after the show, i.e. the yokai lore, customs in modern japan etc. So to me, the show is a net positive and Yuichi Usagi an interesting take on a Usagi descendant. The show is also interesting for me for it's casting (all asian-american cast. hello???) and staff choices as it seemed that everyone was on board with anything Stan Sakai wanted +they tried to put Miyamoto Usagi into the series as much as they could despite Netflix giving them a full limit (or almost a no?) at first - but the series writers and artists included him in an interesting way. So to me the series is good and as a fan, I can see it have interesting crossovers (a lot of the crew also seemed to be big TMNT fans and big UY fans at the same time)

Yuichi is headstrong, openly friendly and impulsive, but also the only one who notices things "outside of the box" more often than the rest of his team. He relies almost entirely on his trained sword skills and complete chance to get out of almost any situations. Leo is sorta painted as a "team clown" and "team faceman", (s1) always trying to make things more lighthearted in stressful situations, which starts to contrast his more strategic nature as we go on in the series. He wonders why he's not trusted (s2) but the thing is, most times he does not tell them his plans, even if they work, so he's seen as impulsive. Together in any shipping or genfic scenarios, I feel like they would feed off each other's lighthearted natures and impulsive instincts, but also work well together bc of how many things they notice, but also, rabbit brain empty, and Leo would be more cautious. That was what I initially kind of imagined for them when I first watched through Samurai Rabbit.

I had a big "mega-crossover" fic idea back in august which would also feature the 03 ship Leosagi, where I could both have a tmnt crossover, write fun action-adventure with the TMNT + Usagi kids and write some sort of neat continuation to what 03 Leo and Usagi might have been going through in a 13-year timeskip. But for that, I thought the tagging would be easier with og tags vs just trying to number leosagi again. Since Rise started in 2018, we often tag it as TMNT 2018, but Usagi Chronicles aired in 2022, (even if production started in 2020) so any attempt to tag it as "2020s leosagi" has just left me more confused. So a unique tag was needed for my own tagging use. I’ve helped make some smoosh names before and this just seemed like a fun thing to do in a fandom I was sort of new to (the ship and SRTUC fandom)

Oh also, I read thru the fanlore article linked above on pairing name conventions and I had totally forgotten some of the ways to make ship names bc I've become so accustomed to portmanteaus and "_shipping" rather than x (used both in general ship names as well as slash pairings) + (preslash or platonic) or even / (slashfic) just bc those sort of conventional ways to tag are harder to find on tumblr bc of its tagging system (special characters make tagging unorganizable or harder to use)

+ I've been more active in modern fandom spaces for only 13+ years, while stuff like ff.net was maybe confusing to use as a young teen. So again, some pairing naming conventions have sorta escaped me over time lol. So it would be interesting to see what else people start to use for this newer ship of Yuichi x Rise!Leo 

Different kinds of names for one pairing are fairly common in any kind of fandom. Pokemon and YGO fandoms have put these on vote for example (thinking of doing this out of curiosity) but that would have to mean a more unified fandom I suppose? Having both a smoosh name (leosagi) and _shipping name (katanashipping) have stuck with the old ship and imo that should be respected because the ship conventions were there way before this newer ship or these newer series came about. I’ve seen many posts now where ppl complain about the tagging, especially the character tagging and the leosagi tag itself, because technically again, totally new ship. So to be a bit upset at that imo is totally understandable. imagine your favourite old ship you’ve been tagging the same is suddenly overtaken by a new, only vaguely related one? I also like the online shipping-related analogy: if you’re looking for a specific game in the store, why would a pair of shoes be tagged? or a different game? you’re only at the store for that one game, but now other stuff is being suggested to you because of other users’ tagging.

Considering those slash-ship naming conventions, I suppose I made the ship name to be more Yuichi-centric a bit - starts with his name, tho again, this was just one way to "flavor" the ship for me - but also specifically for the Yuichi we have on the show, because I enjoy the show and understand why Usagi is written the way he is on it. Mainly that he is given "annoying teen" traits to contrast the changes he goes through in the short time of the 2 seasons + he seems be written with intentional ADHD-coding. + I wanted something more lighthearted and funnier-sounding, so Nardo was added bc that is Leo's nickname on the Rise show that his family uses teasingly, mainly by Donnie. I thought that would make it unique. (And, this is more subtle, but I also thought it was more funny that Nardo sorta sounded like "Naruto" and that Usagi Chronicles has a few Naruto influences in its art and design, so, slightly matching in coincidence.) 

But also Yuinardo just sounds fun and easy to pronounce + I cannot find any other tags that it overlaps with. Main use for tags after all - easy to find and unique - which I think is why the og Leosagi tag prevailed among the other names that popped up back then when the Leosagi 2003 ship first became popular online. I have no idea however if there was a ship for this before this, since I never went looking really (and there weren't much leosagi fic on ff.net then to get any impression of previous fandom activity)

If you want to continue to use Leochi or Leoichi as a tag, that's still fine bc its a big tag and more popular for this ship. But if you also like the Samurai Rabbit show, feel free to use the Yuinardo tag as well, depending on the the use ^^

Going through the fanlore article, I also realized that hey, actually having multiple tags/names is normal in fandoms! It's to make searching/naming for different flavours of pairings easier. I forgor. Let me explain.

the Leosagi as well as the Leochi/Leoichi tags sorta blew up in august after the ROTTMNT movie bc of new or returning fans rediscovering an old ship that's been a constant since the 03 fandom. and ppl posted fanart of the two versions in the tags before this too, but there was a notable uptick in those new fans after august 2022. I think when Samurai Rabbit aired, ppl posted fanart then too. 

The SliderBunny tag existed already for people's own teen!Miyamoto Usagi x Rise!Leo versions and honestly, this could continue as an umbrella tag for any Rise!Leo x Usagi ships going forward, as "Rise Leosagi" has built up more as a tag. or "2018 Leosagi" whichever do you prefer

For 2003 Leosagi, Katanashipping exists bc it's unique to them (the katana-gifting scene in the 03 show) + it is a more specific name and tag, which helps to find it easier or make it more specific. + it just adds the extra flavor of knowing what went on between the two in the show. That was their last canon interaction as far as we know. 

I want to also add here that the 03 version of Miyamoto Usagi is specifically very different. I remember reading an article somewhere which mentioned that Stan Sakai had been a bit upset w the 03 team that they made Usagi so young and different from his comics. I'll repost/add the link another time, but the main point is that the 03 pairing/friendship is quite different from both the existing canon comics and the 12!tmnt iteration of their friendship.

someone pointed out that the yuinardo tag could be for the ship Yuichi Usagi x 12!Leonardo but I do not see it that way for the above reasons. But what could be the name for that then? That's for the shippers of that ship to decide. I've heard some variations of smashing the names together for this like Luichi and YuiLeo (I kinda like that 2nd one myself), but they both sound a bit too much like real names to be tags/ship names.

I do not know the Yuichi x 12Leo name, but I suppose it could follow common convention of adding 12 in front, since that has been done before for people's own versions of 12leosagi as well, so thir's world and see what happens! so it'll be interesting takes off more. There is potential for both angst and comedy in this one. 🤔 what people will start tagging this onnce coed be 12leochi or 12yuinardo maybe even. I do not see it honestly, but I also did not continue watching much of tmnt12 after season 3 bc it was hard to see Leo go through Stuff(tm) again and I did not like how the show approached writing its female characters. So I don't quite get the appeal, but I think if fans see opportunities to write it in interesting/fun ways, why not. I headcanon 12!Leo as a  transfem lesbian, and Yuichi reads slightly transmasc for me, so maybe that's why I don't quite see it bc my fanon ideas are a bit different for them ^^; + it feels like they are from different times from a "when it was made" perspective, the shows' vibes are different (12 is more horror-genre scifi a lot of times while SRTUC does not lean into its horror thematics as much as it could be the name for that then? That's for the shippers of that ship to decide. 

the transfem sapphic version I know one person calls Blue Sapphics, which is cute, but idk if there's a common name that every shipper uses? let me know in the reblogs or comments. 

anyway, larger point also; it's not so bad to have multiple tags (as long as you use them according to what's in the post) and multiple names - so that one tag (leosagi) doesn't have to do all the heavy-lifting and that fans who only want one flavor, can have that. tagging is more like a courtesy but it helps to make finding fanart/other fans of the same thing easier, but they often also follow what becomes commonly discussed and used among a fandom.

Sorry if this is super-duper long, I haven't been able to write normally since discovering the internet and that I could post on it and things just happen to get this long when I finally finish a writing ^^; 

crunches my brain a lil as I make this post bc i have other stuff cooking in my brain

[yunoteru4ever]

The most common ship tags/names from the Japanese Mirai Nikki fandom

So today, I accidentally started discovering the ship names often used by the Japanese fandom for various character pairings. I just sort of stumbled into a tag that turned out to be the single most common tag for the Yuno/Yuki ship, and that wound up inspiring me to find what ship names they’re frequently tagging on various other character pairings over there.

Yukiteru Amano/Yuno Gasai = ゆのっき, aka Yunoki/Yunokki. Much like the English “Yunoteru,” it’s another way of fusing their given names together. Easy, breezy, beautiful.

Uryuu Minene/Masumi Nishjima =  西みね, aka Minenishi. I’ve seen “Minejima” and “Nishimine” used in English for them, but I don’t feel like either one has ever managed to stick as the “most common” on our side. I’ve always been disappointed that we never managed to nail something down for those two.

Yukiteru Amano/Aru Akise = 秋雪, aka Akiyuki. Except, um, that’s Chinese. That’s not Japanese. And yet, even the Japanese artists on Pixiv are using that Chinese character tag for these two! I have to assume this is partly because  those two Chinese characters (秋雪) can also be translated as “Autumn Snow,” and you know how much shippers love it when they can combine two characters’ names to make a recognizable word/expression.

Marco Ikusaba/Ai Mikami = マル愛, aka Marcoai. Do these two even need a “ship name”? They’ve been paired off for most of their lives, and they already come packaged as a unit! 

Aru Akise/Tsubaki Kasugano = アキツバ or Akitsuba. I remember that I first heard about this one from @syrpai a while back. And at that same time, @sermeno14 informed me that the most common ship name used in English for them is “Akibaki.” Which is pretty adorable.

Yuno Gasai/Aru Akise =  秋由乃 or Yunoaki. If you didn’t already know that there’s a contingent of the fandom that ships these two, I’m sorry to be the one breaking the news to you? Unless you’re interested Ofc…

Hinata Hino/Mao Nonosaka = Nothing. I had to include these two, because they’re actually more commonly shipped than the three pairings I listed before this! But alas, they just don’t seem to have a common Japanese ship name. I found a couple of attempts to make ひなまお (aka Hinamao) work, but that portmanteau is already associated with a pairing from “Ensemble Stars,” so it never gained much traction. Most of the ship art just labels itself as “Mirai Nikki Yuri.” Which I mean... okay? How about this: Let’s try “Nonohino.” What do you think?

Finally, I want to give a shout-out to the one brave fandom artist that’s trying to make ジョンかま or Johnkama (y’know, the ship between 11th and 8th) happen. Good luck and godspeed, you eccentric outlier.

[omnicat]

A Brief Summary of More Seasons of “Timeless” (Inevitably Leading Up to Gladiator!Flynn)

Hey @ununpredictableme, here’s that thing I promised to show you! :D (Again with a delay, but better late than never, right? /o\ )

The thing about time travel was, it was just too damn tempting for its own good. The whole “doubling back over your own lifetime will kill you” thing was an effective deterrent to whims like “that date was a disaster, let’s go give my past self some tips to improve the experience” and “we’re going to try this specific evil plan over and over until it succeeds, dammit!”, but as it turned out, that still left plenty of bigger ambitions.

First, of course, there was Rittenhouse and its covert world domination schemes: the very reason time travel managed to be invented in the first place. Briefly interrupted by Garcia Flynn’s roaring rampage of burning Rittenhouse to the ground and/or saving the wife and daughter they’d murdered. (Preferably both at the same time, but when push came to shove he would’ve settled for going down in a blaze of martyrdom, survivor’s guilt soothed by the knowledge that he’d at least tried.)

/S1; Flynn

Then back to Rittenhouse, their plans by that point out of the development phase and being implemented by a visionary with more flair and philosophy than common sense, but plenty of dangerous ideas either way. Though it didn’t take long for Rittenhouse’s deplorable recruitment practices to come back and bite them in the ass, resulting in a coup by one of its lowest-esteemed members.

/S2; Rittenhouse

Emma Whitmore, driven by nothing but a bitter desire to thrive over the backs of anyone who had ever harmed or held her back with even so much as their mere existence, but no longer knowing what thriving meant after the decades of pressure and manipulation and isolation Rittenhouse had subjected her to, turned the time machine into her personal pirate ship. She looted and pillaged her way through history, taking treasures and torching everything that pissed her off. And there wasn’t much that didn’t piss her off. If Flynn’s strategy had been to blow up especially fishy-smelling rocks and see what Rittenhouse filth came scurrying out from underneath, and Nicholas Keynes’ had been to repaint history in his own image in intricate and meticulously crafted brush strokes, Emma’s was to punish those in history who disadvantaged her and twist the arms of those who could elevate her in the cruelest ways she could think of. It was no wonder Jessica Logan had turned on her, in the end. It had only been a matter of time before Emma would have turned on her – and her baby.

/S3; Emma

For a short while, they thought Jessica’s change of heart was the end of it; Rittenhouse was in ruins, Emma dead, and Flynn mostly well-behaved as part of the Lifeboat crew. The antagonist bench was empty, the heroes no longer constantly preoccupied with defending themselves. The team finally had the time and opportunity to piece their timetravel-mangled lives and families back together. Lucy un-erased Amy, and their parents along with her; Flynn found a way to save Iris and Lorena without erasing all the victories their deaths had led to. Wyatt and Jessica took the Lifeboat to the 1400’s to raise their little family and clear their heads for a while. That while turned into forever. In the end, instead of disposing of the Lifeboat somewhere no modern villain would ever find it, as the initial plan had been, their grandson returned the ship to the 21st century, to a date mere weeks from the day they’d departed from. Sherwin was a bright, eager young man with Jessica’s eyes, Wyatt’s smile, an insatiable desire to see everything the past and future had to show him – and his best friend, Willard, in tow... who proved startlingly quick to be corrupted by the power of time travel.

Willard stole the ApocaLifeboat (thanks, Lucy Croft and Bearded Wyatt, that autopilot was just what they’d needed to make time travel even more of a crapshoot) and jumped from time period to time period, looking for a place and moment where he could install himself as the next best coming since Jesus, and revealing future technology and knowledge everywhere he went. He altered history with reckless abandon and relocated dozens upon dozens of bamboozled followers to eras they had no business being in.

While the team struggled to deal with Willard, Sherwin got attached to the 21th century, Lucy figured out how to deal with her restored family now that she’d uncovered the sordid truth of their ancestry, and Flynn wrestled with the self-hatred and guilt that threatened to tear his own newly-reunited family apart. And after the team returned from a jump with a damaged ship to a timeline where Connor was dead of a disease that didn’t exist before they left, taking his vital expertise and resources to the grave with him, Jiya and Rufus had to A: figure out how to undo his death, and B: develop a way to keep anybody else they cared about but who couldn’t come on a jump from being lost or critically changed by random divergences to their personal history, poofing out of existence because of family tree disruptions like Amy, or being hijacked by the enemy like Jessica. Objective A was accomplished with another jump, and objective B with what Rufus, who had the crucial eureka moment, got to dub the Wellsaday Cage (a portmanteau of Faraday Cage and H.G. Wells, the author of the first ever time machine story). The Cage ensured that everybody inside it shared in the temporal bubble that made it so the team didn’t get swept up by the effects of their actions while they were on a jump and always came back to the altered present as their old selves. BOOM. So many problems and four-dimensional puzzle induced-headaches solved.

/S4; Willard from the 14th Century

No sooner did the team stop Willard and start bickering among themselves about how – if at all – to fix the mess he’d made of history, than the remnants of Rittenhouse (their cult annoyingly unscathed by what Willard’s had wrought) reared its ugly head again. The remaining followers, a motley bunch who had rearranged the once unassailable hierarchy with blood and backstabbing in the wake of the purge of all Rittenhouse’s biggest and most actually influential figures, fought with a zeal only found in true believers who had seen their cult’s long-awaited judgement day pass by without so much as a lightning strike and doubled down on their faith regardless. Nothing the Time Team did could stop them – until finally, after an inexplicable delay of four seasons, they returned to David Rittenhouse and smothered the entire organization in the bud by killing him before he could start spreading his ideology in the first place.

/S5; Rittenhouse Redux

Preventing the birth of the Rittenhouse cult altered the history of the USA beyond recognition and, since it was Rittenhouse’s relentless urging and unlimited funds that made time travel possible, erased everything that had occurred because of it in the previous seasons. The team made a number of jumps to win some lotteries and make some jackpot investments to help themselves and the loved ones they’d saved with the Wellsaday Cage start over, and everybody set themselves to the task of adjusting to their new reality and dealing with the scars left by erased timelines only they now remembered.

Then time-travelers from centuries into the future started showed up. The team hadn’t had to wonder who the good guys and the bad guys were or what side they should be on since they cottoned on to the truth of what Flynn kept saying in S1. Now they were left questioning everything again. Who were these people from the future? What did they want, and could they be trusted to tell the truth about that? When they started contradicting each other and the cracks in their initially united front started to show, who could the team believe? And what would happen when the team fractured along long-dormant fault lines of trust (among themselves, and toward the future travelers) and philosophical disagreements over what time travel should or shouldn’t be used for and allowed to cause??

Much tension, very suspense. Wow. They figured it out eventually, though. And hey, guess what? Flynn’s inexplicable inability to come up with a sensible Plan B to kill David Rittenhouse all the way back in S1 wasn’t so inexplicable after all! Turns out it was a remote intervention by a distant-future scumbag – let’s call him Gabmucs – who read about the dude’s many different deaths in a history book about the Time War Era and the development of the tech that would come to shield The Future He Comes From from being affected by all that temporal chaos from the past. (Based on Jiya & Rufus’s Wellsaday Cage, but applied to the whole solar system past a certain point in time.)

Gabmucs thought all those ideas about oppression and suppression and world domination sounded right up his alley, and set up some kind of outcome enforcer tech (derivative from the Temporal Shield just like the Temporal Shield was a derivative of the Wellsaday Cage) around David R’s life to ensure only one specific fate from the many timelines centered around him would come to pass, and so his ideas would come to fruition no matter what. When the team first discovered David’s existence, Gabmucs’s technology had detected Flynn’s intentions and befuddled his senses until he just couldn’t think straight enough to kill the guy anymore. The eventual failure of this tech was what prompted Gabmucs to manipulate a team from his own time to go back and help him intervene in person. And while he was there, he might as well take some crucial steps toward disabling the Temporal Shield, so he could go home afterwards to a world steeped in glorious Rittenhouse-flavored evil tailor-made to his tastes.

He just wasn’t very honest to most of his team about the motives or objectives of their mission, and they didn’t take kindly to finding out the truth. Especially when one of them (let’s call her... uh... Niwrehs? /o\ I hate character names almost as much as fic titles) had fallen in love with Sherwin. (In the end, Niwhrehs stayed in the 21st century. And my wish of having both a distant past and a far future member on the team was fulfilled! Also, this season definitely has the modern team visiting the future AT LEAST once!!)

/S6; The Future

And just when they thought that was finally the end of it, Stanley Fisher arose from his ever-worsening stupor of visions and turned out to have become a temporal eldritch demi-god. A bored temporal eldritch demigod. Having seen literally everything there ever was to see, in every timeline that had ever been, he started changing things with the biggest impact possible, purely so he could experience something truly new again. And he didn’t need a time machine to transport himself to the past.

Which is what finally brings us to antiquity, and the massive, unimaginable changes he could cause by knocking history off course that far back... AND GLADIATOR FLYNN! :D The special effects budget goes through the roof! Old Rome! Ancient Egypt! The Aztecs! Atilla the Hun! Cavemen and Medieval knights and pirates and samurai and and and... WOOLY MAMMOTHS!! Good thing the far future guys left universal translator tech behind!

Wait, wait, back up, whaaaat?? WELL, you see, because of the accident that gave him his visions, Stanley was never affected by the timeline changing the way the rest of reality around him was. Even though it seemed like he was at first. But actually, every time the timeline changed, he instead absorbed the quantum imprint of the new version of himself and all the memories, visions, viability, and temporal capability that came with it. This slowly drove him crazier and crazier with every edit to the timeline, the human brain utterly unequipped to handle so many realities crammed into one mind – until the last jump of S6. That one tipped him over a critical mass of timelines into near-omniscience, and rearranged his physical and psychic being to finally accommodate it all.

(Look, no time-travel story can be called a real time-travel story unless everything goes batshit insane at some point, okay?)

Jiya had been experiencing the same thing, just on a much, much smaller scale, since she was shielded from most of the timeline changes by either being part of the jump team or being safely ensconced inside a Wellsaday Cage. But when it became clear that the team didn’t stand a chance against Stanley, she made a desperate gamble and told her past self what happened to Stanley... and how she could replicate it in herself. Jiya expected to die when she returned from this jump, but instead of being absorbed by the new timeline’s eldritch Jiya, that Jiya made sure they remained two separate entities. Girl Jiya rejoined her team, Eldritch Jiya transcended into Demi-Goddess Jiya, and between two time machines and a walking force of quantum nature, they kicked Stanley’s ass. Demi-Goddess Jiya absorbed his temporal whatever and became full-blown Time Goddess Jiya, who then merged with the timestream itself and ensured that all the time travel fuckery was finally, FINALLY, fucking over, and this season finale would be the definitive show finale. And everybody lived happily ever after.

EVERYBODY.

Yes, even if they were erased three hundred timelines ago. Yes, even if nobody was supposed to remember them anymore; she’s god now, she can fix that. That and so much more. And she does! Because she’s nice like that. Fuck ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’, the Goddess Jiya’s in charge now, and she makes sure time travel will not continue to or ever newly hurt her friends and family again.

/S7; Temporal Eldritch Demi-God Stanley Fisher

THE END

(Sorry Paulina, your scribbles will never come to anything. Or maybe they will, but your results will be relentlessly trolled by time!Jiya.)

[agnesgoesadventuring-blog]

Would it be okay to ask you a question about tagging and stuff? I just started watching critical role with the new campaign and I want to start a tumblr to write fic and maybe try some art but I don't know how I should tag things. I've seen a lot of people complaining in the critical role tag about seeing stuff they don't like and I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right.

It's probably a pretty good time to make a post about tagging and labeling posts for the Critical Role fandom, since there are likely a lot of new people coming in with the new campaign who aren't aware of the etiquette within the fandom.

For the most part, in the Critical Role fandom, people tag anything having to do with the show with "Critical Role", for better or worse. Some people feel it's more respectful to not tag ship and anti ship posts in the main tag, but the general practice within the fandom is that anything can go in the main tag as long as it's about the show. Which option you choose to go with is entirely up to you.

But it is respectful to be very thorough with you tags both so that people can more easily see content that they want to see, and so that people can blacklist content they DON'T want to see. If your post is about a particular ship, use the ship's tag on that post. Most ships are going to have specific ship names (usually a portmanteau of the characters' names), and in the case that they don't, the usual way to tag ships is to put an "x" between the characters' names (so, for example, if someone made a post about, let's say, Orna and Molly, you would tag it "Orna x Molly"). If you're not sure if a ship has a portmanteau, you generally just make a post int he Critical Role tag to ask and someone will give you an answer. These sorts of tags are generally used for romantic pairings, but a few people will tag any post about the characters with the ship tags.

There are two reasons to make sure that you properly tag ships. The first is that it makes it easier for people who ship that pairing to find those posts without having to wade through the main Critical Role tag. They can go straight to the ship's tag and see all that content without having to scroll through a million other posts about the show. The second is that there are going to be people who don't want to see stuff about that ship, whether it's because they just aren't into it and the amount of stuff about it in the main Critical Role tag is overwhelming, or because there's something about the pairing that upsets them or that they find triggering, or any other number of things. Using the ship's tags for your posts allows these people to add that tag to their blacklist on xkit and tumblr savior, which will block those posts from their view.

When making a post that is negative about a ship or character, it's respectful to tag it with anti tags, especially if you're posting it in the main Critical Role tag. A lot of people don't do this, but it really would be nice if it became a more common practice. To make sure your post is appropriately tagged with "anti" tags, just add "anti" before the ship name. So if you're making a post that's negative about Molly and Nott's relationship, you would tag it "anti Molly x Nott", or if you're making a post that's negative about Beau and Yasha's relationship, you would tag it as "anti beauyasha" (I think that's the ship's portmanteau. If I'm wrong, just swap it out for the right ship name. You get the point). This will let people add those anti tags to their blacklist on xkit and tumblr savior so that they don't have to see negative posts about the ships that they love or that are important to them.

If you think that the content of a post might be triggering to some people in any way, it's usually best to just be safe and tag it with trigger warnings. I'm not sure what the best way to tag for trigger warnings is, but I've seen a lot of people adding "tw" after the term. So things like "blood tw" or "drug use tw" or "self harm tw". Again, this will help people who find these things triggering or upsetting from having to see them, allowing them to add those tags to their blacklists.

If you're posting art or fic, or really anything that's either not safe for work or for young eyes, you really should post it under a "read more" cut. I don't think this has been a topic of discussion in the fandom at all, not since I've been in the fandom at least, but it's something that's really important to remember. There are a lot of young fans in this fandom that shouldn't be forced to see inappropriate behave just by scrolling through the tags. There are also people who use their time during work breaks or their commutes to go through the tags. And there are also just people who aren't comfortable with such content who shouldn't be forced to see it just because they're going through the tags. So put that stuff under a cut and make sure you label it very clearly so that people know what they're going to get if they click on the read more. The recent filters that tumblr has added don't catch a lot of stuff (and they catch a lot of stuff that's not objectionable at all), so be respectful of everyone and put that stuff under a cut. Also, pop a "nsfw" tag on there. A lot of people have that tag blacklisted for that specific reason.

Here's some advice about posting fic that I just recently received when I asked about how best to label things. You should absolutely add ship and character tags to every fic for the reasons I gave earlier. But also remember that if someone doesn't have a term blacklisted, or if they're not in the ship's specific tag, they're not going to see those tags until they get to the bottom of the posts. So some people might read a fic or some of a fic without knowing what they're getting. That's why it's a good idea to label these things at the top of the fic. Whether you do it in the post's subject line or you put a little paragraph at the very start of the post before getting to the story, make sure you're letting people know what characters and ships the post is about, what the rating of the fic is, and warnings for any potentially triggering content. You'll probably get more readers if you make sure your fics are well labeled, and you'll definitely have happier readers.

Alright, that's all I can think of! If I missed anything or if anyone has anything to add, go ahead!

[sly2o]

Incomplete Metas: Season 2 Episode Names

I never finished my rewatch and therefore never got around to finishing this post. Releasing it as-is now because I know I'm never going to finish it, but I did "do the work" so might as well let others see it.

What’s in a(n episode) name? Season 2

"The 48"

Named for the number of delinquents in Mount Weather.

May also be a reference to “the 48 Continental united states” - as Mount Weather is positioned as the “memory” of the pre-apocalypse United States, including flags and a “president” who runs the bunker where they live.  In later episodes it even shows a “US department of homeland security” on one of the doors of Mount Weather leading to a decontamination area.

"Inclement Weather"

The word “Inclement” from vocabulary.com

Inclement usually refers to severe or harsh weather that is cold and wet.  ...  This adjective can also refer to a person or action that is harsh and unmerciful. 

This is obviously a pun on Mount Weather, and the ultimate reveal that Mount Weather is (unmercifully) caging grounders to harvest their blood. 

A few other “harsh” and “unmerciful” things that happen in this episode:

Raven’s surgery with no anesthetic

Octavia’s methods to get Lincoln back from Trikru

The reapers capture of Lincoln

Clarke’s methods to get herself sent back to medical to investigate if Mount Weather is lying to her about the bullet wound she saw

Kane’s ruling on who can use guns

It’s a bit of a stretch - but Jaha also has to guard himself against “inclement weather” (or lack thereof) as he makes his way to the rocket and then to the ground.

"Reapercussions"

A portmanteau of Reapers and repercussions. 

“Reapers” feature prominently in this episode, as Octavia tries to free Lincoln from the reapers and Clarke/Anya try to escape them.

Repercussions also feature in this episode - to the numerous decisions/actions from the prior episodes:

Abby is shock-lashed for helping the kids escape camp and giving them guns

Anya does not cooperate with and ends up taking Clarke captive because of what happened at the drop ship in Season 1

Lastly, Finn acts as the Grim Reaper when he executes the grounder who he thinks has taken Clarke.

"Many Happy Returns"

A common phrase said on someone’s birthday. 

A tongue in cheek reference to the many people/groups who have either returned home or to work in this episode and discovered that things aren’t going the way they thought they would. 

Raven returns to work - and faces her new life with her injury

Clarke returns to Arkadia - and loses the ally she made to fight Mount Weather along the way right at the front door

Octavia returns to the sky people - because Lincoln is gone

Zoran’s dad returns home - and it is revealed he left because he was making a deal to get a horse in exchange for Theloneous Jaha

"Human Trials"

A medical term. 

First trials on Lincoln to make him into a reaper.

Maya is exposed to prompt human trials on The 48

More abstractly - Finn effectively puts a village of trikru residents on “trial” for the capture of Clarke. 

(I think I used to have more written here but it’s gone and I am not rewatching this episode again)

"Fog of War"

“Fog of war” comes from a quote about the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations.

In this episode:

Acid fog is used on a search party that is approaching mount weather

There is a decision to NOT take down the Mount Weather radio tower because it is a key intelligence asset for Arkadia. 

Kane and Jaha are told they have to make a decision about who should be killed to answer for the crime Finn slaughtering the Trikru village. Jaha and Kane are in a “fog” around this because they have not heard of the slaughter.

Jaha holds a knife to a young girl as the solution for the “one of you must die” problem, but it doesn’t work because he did not have the situational awareness to know that girl is the commander.

"Long Into an Abyss"

Come from the quote “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

Which roughly means - don’t become the evil you mean to fight, and as you come to know your enemy be careful that you don’t become like your enemy. 

"Spacewalker"

Named for Finn Collins who has been nicknamed Spacewalker since the start of the episode.

"Remember Me"

"Survival of the Fittest"

"Coup de Grâce"

From the 100 wikia: Coup de grâce can be translated from French as stroke of grace or blow of mercy. A coup de grâce is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal. It may be a mercy killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the sufferer's consent 

"Rubicon"

https://www.thoughtco.com/meaning-cross-the-rubicon-117548

"Resurrection"

"Bodyguard of Lies"

From The 100 wikia: The title of this episode is part of a famous World War II quote by Winston Churchill: "In wartime, truth is so precious that she must often be attended by a bodyguard of lies." The quote can be interpreted as: In times of war, people must lie to protect/conceal the truth.

"Bodyguard of Lies" is also a book written by Anthony Cave Brown that is based on the quote.

"Blood Must Have Blood (Part 1) and (Part 2)”

Self referencing. 

[gta-5-cheats]

Fitbit Versa Review

New Post has been published on http://secondcovers.com/fitbit-versa-review/

Fitbit Versa Review

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Less than half a year since its foray into smartwatches, Fitbit is back with its second offering: the Versa. The acquisitions of Kickstarter-famous Pebble and payment start-up Coin have been central to Fitbit’s progress in this product segment, and now the company is building out its portfolio.

There are two differences between the Versa and the Ionic in western markets – the former lacks in-built GPS and a NFC chip for payments – but that’s not the case elsewhere. Interestingly, the Versa does support Fitbit Pay in India, but that’s sort of pointless for now since no banks are currently on board. Hence, the only difference between that matters is the lack of GPS.

Much of the rest stays the same, with full waterproofing up to 50m, an impressive battery life (over four days) for a smartwatch with a colour screen, and continuous heart-rate tracking. There’s also a problem: while the Versa and Ionic sit at $200 and $300 respectively in the US, they are priced a lot closer to each other in India than Fitbit intended them to be, thanks to tax adjustments between the two launches.

The newer Versa costs Rs. 20,000, and while the Ionic is now up to Rs. 25,000 officially, retailers still have units at its older price of Rs. 23,000. Of course, this might not last long. Either way, the Versa is still more affordable than its direct competitors, the Apple Watch Series 1 (which also doesn’t have GPS) or the Samsung Gear Sport (which does have GPS), and is at around the same price level as the current best non-Apple effort.

  Fitbit Ionic design and navigation

It’s obvious at first sight that the Versa looks a lot like the Apple Watch. During the review process, a lot of people who saw the Versa remarked about exactly that. In reality though, the Versa is more square-ish than Apple’s offering, or rather a ‘squarcle’ – a portmanteau of square and circle – as Fitbit designers call it.

Unlike the Apple Watch and its pricier cousin, the Ionic, the Versa has a square display – a 1.34-inch LCD screen with a pixel density of 317ppi. It’s smaller than both, but as a result of that, the Versa rivals the Ionic in terms of battery life, and handily beats the Apple Watch. In our experience, it consistently delivered over four days of life, as Fitbit promises.

Also unlike the Ionic and much like the Apple Watch, the Versa’s design allows for a simpler strap. You can use most 22mm watchstraps, and are not restricted to what Fitbit sells. Speaking of that, Fitbit is promising several options when it comes to materials, including leather, mesh and metal.

The Versa ships with a standard silicone strap, and the mesh strap can be availed as part of the Versa Special Edition, which costs Rs. 2,000 more and comes with additional silicone straps. Unfortunately, neither the Special Edition and the other first-party straps – leather and metal – are readily available at Versa’s exclusive online partner, Amazon, at the time of writing.

The Versa is also lighter than the Ionic and Apple Watch. At just 38g, it’s the lightest amongst its prime competition: 41g or 50g for the Apple Watch, depending on which variant you pick up, and 47g for the Ionic.

  Moving on to the user interface, the Versa has three buttons just as on the Ionic: one on the left and two on the right. All three can be used to wake up the screen, but only the left button puts it to sleep. You can also tap on the display or tilt the watch towards you to wake it. On the main screen, aka the watch face, the two right buttons act as shortcuts to the first two apps (top-left and bottom-left) on your first app screen.

Swiping up from the bottom on the watch face brings up the Today app, which gives you a quick glance at important stuff, such as battery life, stats for the day, and the last three exercise sessions that the Versa tracked. Swiping down on the watch face brings up notifications as it would on phones, and you can tap on them to read more or even reply. (Yep, smart replies are here for Android users; we’ll get to that in a minute.) Swiping left on the watch face lets you browse through your installed apps, in groups of four.

Fitbit Versa software and apps

Like all Fitbit products, the Versa needs the Fitbit app for Android or iOS in order to work. While the app began life as a pure fitness tracker, the company’s foray into smartwatches has complicated its interface over time. That means needing more taps than should be necessary to get where you want to go, such as changing watch faces and installing new apps.

Though the app is complex, Fitbit OS on the Versa (and Ionic, for that matter) is anything but. The company has taken a minimalistic approach, and the UI makes use of distinctive colours to help with recognition. With a recent update, both the Ionic and the Versa are now capable of sending quick replies when paired with Android phones. You can choose between five customisable text responses and half a dozen emojis, and they work with most common apps, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, among others. The functionality depends on the quick actions implemented by the developer of the app.

  As before, there are tons of watch face options available for the Versa. Unlike the Apple Watch, you can also install third-party offerings. Fitbit is trying to show devs what’s possible with watch faces beyond just cramming in information, and so we have Fitbit Labs, which includes unique little interactions such as “taking care” of a dog or a cat by essentially “feeding” it steps.

But since Fitbit OS has only been around for a short while, the app collection is still sparse compared to watchOS and Wear OS. It’s also far too US-centric, with the likes of Pandora, Deezer, Yelp, Nest, Walgreens, Starbucks, and United Airlines, none of which are usable in India. That said, there are some useful ones such as Strava, The New York Times, Flipboard, and Tennis from Fitbit Labs. Of course, with big app developers such as Google, Instagram, and Twitter pulling support one by one even for the Apple Watch, it’s clear that there’s little interest in apps for smartwatches in general.

The Versa lets you listen to music via Bluetooth headphones, but you have to go through the hassle of manually transferring files to its internal storage, which requires a Windows PC or Mac. There’s about 2.5GB of available space, if you’re wondering.

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Fitbit Versa activity monitoring and performance

Like most Fitbit wearables, the Versa is capable of automatic workout detection, which means you don’t have to manually start exercise tracking for it to be recorded, provided the activity lasts for a minimum of 15 minutes. During our review period, we found that the Versa was quite good with automatically tracking heavy movement exercises – be it cycling or running – but would fail to pick up a game of tennis if we didn’t wear it on our racquet hand.

When it comes to the range of activities, the Versa is on par with the Ionic: it can do running, walking, hiking, biking, swimming, tennis, golf, weightlifting, spinning, yoga, circuit training, kickboxing, martial arts, and Pilates. It can also handle interval workouts and equipment including elliptical trainers, stair climbers, and treadmills. Each activity has a stock image that shows up on the Versa, which we felt was a nice touch.

Unlike the Ionic, the Versa relies on your phone’s GPS – Fitbit calls it ‘Connected GPS’ – since it doesn’t have the hardware built in. You can choose whether to have it off or on from the Versa itself, alongside other settings such as automatic laps, auto-detection, auto-pause, and the length of your swimming pool. The Versa is fully waterproof up to 50m, so you can track your swims without worry. We used the Versa daily in the shower, and submerged in into a bucket of water for 10 minutes a few times, and it still runs fine. Remember to wipe it down after it gets wet though, otherwise the sensors might be obstructed.

  The Versa underwent our standard testing procedure, with its accuracy at measuring distances tested against mile markers on a running track. We compared the numbers against the reading from a smartphone with built-in GPS (in this case the Samsung Galaxy S8+). Since the Versa doesn’t have built-in GPS, this is merely a test of how Fitbit uses the data provided by the phone’s sensors versus a leading fitness app, Runkeeper.

Our data set consisted of 10 laps of 500m, with Connected GPS alternately on and off. With Connected GPS turned on, the Versa had an average error rate of 7.17 percent versus Runkeeper on the phone. With Connected GPS turned off, the error rate went up 10.22 percent. In every test, the Versa always estimated lower than the actual distance. Honestly, these aren’t great numbers for a product that costs Rs. 20,000. We’ve seen better from trackers that cost a lot less, such as Samsung’s Gear Fit 2 Pro.

That brings us to battery life, easily the biggest selling point for Fitbit’s smartwatches. The Versa lasted for over four days, with us checking notifications all the time and tracking exercises every other day. We could stretch it to five and a half days with low activity before we got the low battery warning, which is triggered at 25 percent. You can squeeze a full day in after the prompt first appears. There are no power saving options, but honestly, there’s no need for them.

Moreover, the Versa achieves that battery life despite offering continuous heart-rate tracking, even when you’re not tracking an activity. That allows the Fitbit smartwatch to collect heart-rate data all day, and in turn give you a more reliable indicator of your resting heart-rate. We found Versa’s hear-rate tracking to be fairly accurate, in line with how we were feeling during an exercise.

That continuous heart-rate tracking also helps in other ways. Like the Apple Watch, the Versa offers guided breathing exercises on-board, via the Relax app, in either 2- or 5-minute options. Once you hit start, it analyses your breathing pattern by reading your heart-rate and then “guides” you to inhale and exhale by creating vibration patterns on your wrist.

Meanwhile, inside the Fitbit app, the heart-rate data is used to determine your Cardio Fitness Level, which shows how fit you are for your age and gender, by estimating your VO2 Max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise). As we noted in our review of the Fitbit Charge 2, it should be seen as an estimate since a proper evaluation requires a controlled lab environment.

Verdict With its second smartwatch, the Versa, Fitbit has improved upon the design. Everyone will be okay with being seen with the Versa on their wrist, which can’t be said of the Ionic’s edgy design and large trapezoid ends. Plus, the Versa retains everything good about the Ionic (save for the in-built GPS), including full waterproofing and a battery that lasts nearly a full workweek. Fitbit deserves praise just for that, considering how difficult it is to manage battery life on any device with an LCD screen.

  Add to that Fitbit’s fitness ecosystem, which the company has been building for longer than most. The company recently improved functionality by adding female health tracking – and maintains a lead over Apple Health, Google Fit and Samsung Health. With Fitbit also improving its watch through updates (quick replies among those), the Versa is a great new contender at around the Rs. 20,000 price point.

Of course, there are problems. There are very few apps (and no basic offerings such as an official Maps app) and there’s no voice assistant from Fitbit, à la Siri on Apple Watch and Google Assistant on Wear OS. And then, there’s also the matter of inaccurate tracking, which is not acceptable for a fitness tracker at this price point. Laughably, Fitbit has introduced another proprietary design on the charging front. It eschews the magnetic hook of the Ionic, and opts for a cradle that holds the Versa in place.

If you have an iPhone and an Apple Watch Series 3 seems too expensive, you could save Rs. 10,000 and choose the Series 1. For those who have an Android device, or are open to stepping outside the Apple ecosystem, the Versa is worth a look. The Versa could also be attractive if you’re buying a smartwatch for the fitness side of things, where Fitbit remains one of the best in the industry.

A problem unique to India is the minimal price difference between the Versa and the Ionic, and this makes choosing between the two Fitbit smartwatches tougher than it should be. The Ionic costs just Rs. 3,000 more and gives you in-built GPS, allowing you to leave your phone behind. On the other hand, if looks are more important, then the Versa is the best that Fitbit has to offer right now.

Price: Rs. 19,999, available via Amazon in black, grey, and peach

Pros

Superb battery life

Extremely light

Supports standard watch straps

Waterproof, can track swims

Well-designed OS

Cons

Tracking not up to the mark

No in-built GPS

Lack of third-party apps

Proprietary charging cable

No voice assistant

Ratings (out of 5) Design: 4.5 Tracking: 2.5 Other features: 4 Value for money: 3 Overall: 3.5

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