Ancestors

Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-18 at 21:32

I would also like to do this shipping meme (via @soph_sol). I’m going to sleep now—like this toot and I’ll write some answers in the morning. :)

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-19 at 19:21

All right, let's answer these! I have been quite grumpy today but answering questions will probably cheer me up.

1.Three shipping tropes I love:

• Only one bed! It gets me every time. You can do so much with only one bed!

• Anything to do with identity issues! A thinks B is someone else; B thinks B is someone else; A doesn't know B was the one who did something important back then; A could probably think for fifteen minutes and work out exactly who B is, but they have Very Good Reasons for not doing so, okay?

• Pining-while-fucking is always a good time. For me, not necessarily for the characters.

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-19 at 20:30

2. Three shipping tropes I don't love:

• Soulmates, especially if the means of recognising your soulmate is very elaborate. It just feels contrived to me, and makes it hard to connect emotionally with the story.

• whoops, I got distracted when trying to think of what other tropes there are and started reading a 400,000-word fic instead.

• what other tropes even are there?

• Okay, I'm going to put omegaverse in here even though I sometimes enjoy it (and have written it), because to me it is a Sometimes Food, and there's so much of it on AO3 that I usually filter it out so as not to get oversaturated with it.

• I can't think of anything else, so I'm going to perform the surest spell to think of tropes I dislike: posting this toot.

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-19 at 20:38

3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets me:

Partners having absolute, justified reliance on one another, fully trusting in each other's abilities and that the other one would never let them down. Especially if the rest of the world sees things very differently!

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-19 at 21:03

4. One physical aspect of a ship that always gets me:

I like it when the characters in the ship know each other well enough to always (or nearly always) be able to touch each other with the right amount of care. Grabbing the other one by the hair/wrists/waist and manhandling them around? Great, they're into that right now. Clearly signalling an approaching touch and using just the right pressure? Appreciated! Not touching at all? They are so happy to be able to relax together without worrying about it. 🥰

Obviously, in shippy fic, characters' physical interactions are usually just perfect for the situation, because we're writing a fantasy on at least some levels, and that's fine! I do like it, though, when it's clear that touch could be fraught and that these characters have worked their way through that possibility.

Is this just my answer to #3 rephrased? Yeah, maybe.

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-19 at 22:00

5. Multiship or monoship:

Multishipping all the time, including mutually exclusive ships. For me, transformative fandom is about exploring as many ideas and potential story directions as possible for the characters and setting, so let’s try things out!

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 09:37

6. Rarepairs or mainstream:

I adore rarepairs for all the unexpected insights and emotions they can bring—not to mention the problem-solving aspect of working out how characters who don’t interact much in the source material might come together in the first place. That doesn’t mean I don’t also love mainstream ships, though!

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 11:36

7. Polyamory or monogamy:

Monogamy totally works for some ships. Probably. I mean, some people are monogamous so it's definitely the same for fictional characters, right?

(A bit more seriously: I do have monogamous ships, but I can't think of any cases where I wouldn't also ship the same characters as part of some kind of polyamorous relationship. 🤔)

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 13:18

8. If the ship is physical, reversible or not:

I’m generally very Why Not Both? about this question. (As with all these questions!) I’m open to there being ships where I get a very firm sense of who’s top and bottom, but it hasn’t really happened yet. There are some characters I feel might be happier in one role or the other, but even with them, I’m the gremlin in the corner asking, “What might it take to change that up? Oh whoops, now they’re crying.” [makes note in lab book]

I did recently discover, however, that I have a strong conviction that xuexiao are vers together. Just cannot imagine them being strict about top/bottom roles! Make of that what you will.

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Toot

Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 14:22

9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?

No, not always, but often. I didn’t/don’t really have any for Machineries of Empire, which I find amusing because Yoon Ha Lee is quite shippy about his own characters there. (Wait, does Nirai Kujen/Everyone/A Bad Time count? Because that’s truly not romantic.)

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Descendants

Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 19:17

10. How important is the sexual part (if any) of your ship?

It's often fairly important, both as an expression of the characters and their relationship with one another, and because I personally find sex interesting—but I'm interested in all the other parts of a ship as well!

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 19:20

11. Opinion on platonic ships?

I love platonic ships too, and there are some in particular that are very important to me! (Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian, QPPs and mad scientist friends forever <3)

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 19:29

12. Three ships I currently love:

• songxuexiao and all combinations thereof

• Chen Chou/Xu Dong from A League of Nobleman (not so much a ship as a single floating flipflop, but I'm right and I'll keep saying it)

• Chu Liuxiang/Yidian Hong from Gu Long's Chu Liuxiang novels (CLX is oblivious and does not deserve YDH... it's about the pining)

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 19:44

13. Five OTPs from past fandoms:

(With the caveats that I still feel fannish about these source materials, even if I'm not very active in them right now, and that I've a fairly loose definition of OTP.)

• Lestat de Lioncourt/Louis de Pointe du Lac from the Vampire Chronicles

• VegasPete from KinnPorsche

• Guo Jing/Huang Rong from Legend of the Condor Heroes

• Qin Jiu/You Huo from Global Examination

• Nangong Jingnu/Qi Yan from JWQS

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 19:58

14. Opinion on the importance of marriage:

It's not important to me, but for some ships it's more meaningful and I like to see them happy (except when I don't, you know).

I would really like to see lavender marriages more often in fic! I also think that weddings make fantastic set pieces for fics, in that they get everyone together, lower inhibitions, and make people think about the romantic relationships they have now or want in future.

This concludes my opinions on marriage.

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Written by villainous friend on 2024-11-20 at 20:08

15. Opinion on OC kids:

Not something I specifically filter out, but also not something I go looking for or that especially holds my attention. I have definitely seen it done well, but I also doubt that I'd recognise it being done badly, since I don't spend a lot of time around kids in my everyday life. If it gets to the point of an author making a chart of OC children and their ages in the fic notes for ease of keeping track, I will probably lose interest, sorry.

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