entirely ruined her disposition with books

I haven't done anything like this in a long time! Stolen from lebateleur

1. Three shipping tropes you love?

+ Slow burn. Honestly, I don't just love this dyanmic--it's basically required. If it's not a slow burn, I'm not into it.* I am ace, hear me roar.

+ Mutual pining. This goes hand-in-hand with slow burn for me. I just need a stretch of time where they're both in love and yearning for one another and aren't together yet. It makes the getting together so very delicious.

+ Hurt/comfort. I love it. Angst with a happy ending is my favorite genre, so obviously this fits right into it. Hurt/comfort is all about the tenderness!

2. Three shipping tropes you don't love?

+ Insta!love. Just. No. Ace me simply does not care if your characters are instantly attracted to each other. I only care if they put in the work for their relationship.

+ Love triangles. I can think of one single love triangle that really worked for me (Tony/Michelle/Sid from Skins gen 1) and the reason it worked was because it was equally about all three of them and their relationships to each other. Each line of that triangle was equilateral, which is rare. If I like all three characters, I end up OT3-ing it. If I don't like one (or more) of the characters, I just get annoyed with the narrative.

+ Makeovers. Where Character A never realized how attractive Character B was (mostly because she's got glasses and curly omg) until Character B gets a makeover and then Character A is gobsmacked. Wow, I really hate that. Note that this is not the same thing as a character finding another character super attractive in formal dress. I like a man in a well-cut suit or a woman in a gorgeous dress as much as the next girl.

3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you?

All the ways people can show that they love each other besides the obvious (saying it, kissing, sex). Character-specific or weird demonstrations of devotion are literally my favorite thing. Things that wouldn't be romantic to any other pairing but super are in the context of this one specific relationship and their history.

4. One physical aspect of a ship that always gets you?

I like snuggling. I also have to say that I love casual physical intimacy. There's this one scene in the Buffy episode "Tabula Rasa" where Buffy and Spike briefly fight and it ends with her straddling him, and then they have this whole conversation where she's straddling him and neither one are paying attention to the fact that she's straddling him. They're just so comfortable in each other's space and I find that appealing.

5. Multiship or monoship?

In my old age (lol), I have become a multiship-but-with-favorites person. So for instance with CQL, obviously Wangxian is one of the great ships of all time, but I also love Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, and I also love Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing, etc. I don't want to write or read about them nearly as much as I do Wangxian, but they make me happy and I love fanfiction because it lets me explore those worlds where my secondary pairings are together while still having a "main" world that is Wangxian. Or, like, Mulder/Scully is another one of the great ships of all time, but that doesn't mean I don't every once in a while really want to dig into the screwed-up-ness of Mulder/Krycek or whatever.

6. Rare pairs or mainstream?

Totally depends on the fandom/ship.

7. Polyamory or monogamy?

I'm into polyamory where all three (or four) characters love each other equally or are at least all in a relationship together (like, I'm okay with Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Jiang Cheng where LWJ and JC both love WWX more than they love each other, but they're all together). I am not much into Character A dates both Character B and Character C but Characters B and C aren't together. I'd rather have monogamy in that situation.

Though I also enjoy messy polycule situations where everyone has been together with everyone else. I haven't watched Interview with the Vampire yet, but the polycule that is Lestat/Louis/Armand/Daniel is hilarious and I love it. Or the Fanged Four from the Buffyverse. No matter who's together at a given moment, it's all fun. But in these situations, it's all about the codependency and, well, messiness.

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

Does this just mean in reference to "topping/bottoming"? Because if so, reversible all the way.

9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?

No. I do most of the time, but it's definitely not a requirement. I will say that I'm most often drawn to acting fannishly (aka reading/writing fic) for fandoms where I also ship, but there are so many things I love madly that do not involve any romanticalness at all.

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

It can be important to the characters and their characterization, but it's not important to me. I would happily read a million G-rated fics about my ship. I mean, I'd happily read a million E-rated ones, too, but I honestly don't care which it is.

11. Opinion on platonic ships?

Does this mean queerplatonic? Or does this mean relationships that aren't romantic but that make me feral? I mean, I like both of those things. I haven't read a ton of queerplatonic fics, but I love queerplatonic dynamics. And, for instance, I care just as much about Wei Wuxian&Jiang Cheng in a platonic way as I do about Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji. I'll lose my mind over both of them.

12. Three ships you currently love?

I don't stop loving ships even when I move onto a different fandom, but here are three that I am currently very invested in:

+ Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji [The Untamed]
+ Art/Tashi/Patrick [Challengers]
+ Eugenides/Irene [The Queen's Thief]

13. Five OTPs from past fandoms?

Again, still love these madly, I'm just not as fannishly engaged with them anymore:

+ Buffy/Spike [Buffy the Vampire Slayer]
+ Mulder/Scully [The X-Files]
+ Parker/Hardison(/Eliot) [Leverage]
+ Kang Yi-na/Jung Ye-eun [Age of Youth]
+ Nick Charles/Nora Charles [The Thin Man movies]

But I could name twenty others!

14. Opinion on the importance of marriage?

Depends on the ship and how important it is to the couple. For Wangxian, for instance, they really need to be seen as each other's person in the eyes of the world. Or the whole joy of Nick/Nora is how much fun they make marriage look. But, like, Buffy and Spike are never going to get married and who cares. For someone like Mulder/Scully...well, if they got married, I'd be happy, but if they didn't and were just together, I'd still be happy.

15. Opinion on OC kids?

Not my thing to read/write 99% of the time, but a really, really skilled writer could pull it off.


* There are a couple of exceptions, actually, like Orpheus and Eurydice form Hadestown, but that works because it's a sung-through musical. Also Peaceable and Barbara from The Sherwood Ring and I have no idea why. I'd have to reread it to analyze why that kind of instant attraction works for me. But I can't think of any other exceptions!

i got bored at work and made a thing.
( what is my life? )

There's been a sudden explosion of discussions about gender role-reverals in the Buffy/Spike relationship on my flist. Which obviously I love. It has given me feelings about other pairings, too, and I am working on a picspammy post about favorite pairings that do a lot with gender reversals.

But I am so sure I'm going to forget something I love, so y'all should tell me what your favorite examples of this are. From anything: books, even. Movies. TV. Whatever. Just tell me! You might have a favorite that is also my favorite!

Warning: this post is a mess. Just…a mess. Proceed with caution.

There’s spoilers here on things that have already aired, but everything’s labeled with its fandom, so just skip over anything you haven’t seen all of yet.

So a couple of days ago when that “ask me a fandom-y question!” meme was going around, I ended up asking ever_neutral what her top five this-should-just-end-in-a-threesome fandom situations were (because: duh) and the answers were awesome and it got me to thinking about love triangles.

Because mostly I find them annoying. Mostly I think they’re there to Create! Drama! and there’s no real question of who’s going to end up with whom (I mean, seriously, did anyone in the world actually think that Bella was going to choose Jacob over Edward? I mean really? Ship that all you want, but I don't think the most naive person alive would think there was a chance Bella would choose Jacob) and it’s just this sort of lazy device to Keep the Starcrossed Lovers apart. I start to yawn.

But! Occasionally it’s done Actually Well! My basic philosophy on stories in general is that Almost Anything can be awesome if it’s Done Well (there are a few things I have no interest in even if they’re done well, but that list is veeeery short). And that occasionally does apply even to the dread Love Triangles (or Squares).

Of course the key to them being good is that they have to actually come from the characters and not from the demands of the plot (I guess this is a theme with me lately). Now there are some that fall into that category, where everyone’s acting in character, but I am still annoyed by the triangle because I don’t care about 1/3 of said triangle. If I have no investment in that character, I find it hard to invest in their role in the triangle. So. Mostly my favorites are ones where A) everyone is acting in character and B) I love (or at least like) everyone.

( cut for length and fail )

So now you should tell me about which love triangles work for you and which you hate and why. We should talk about this.

Warning: this post is a mess. Just…a mess. Proceed with caution.

There’s spoilers here on things that have already aired, but everything’s labeled with its fandom, so just skip over anything you haven’t seen all of yet.

So a couple of days ago when that “ask me a fandom-y question!” meme was going around, I ended up asking ever_neutral what her top five this-should-just-end-in-a-threesome fandom situations were (because: duh) and the answers were awesome and it got me to thinking about love triangles.

Because mostly I find them annoying. Mostly I think they’re there to Create! Drama! and there’s no real question of who’s going to end up with whom (I mean, seriously, did anyone in the world actually think that Bella was going to choose Jacob over Edward? I mean really? Ship that all you want, but I don't think the most naive person alive would think there was a chance Bella would choose Jacob) and it’s just this sort of lazy device to Keep the Starcrossed Lovers apart. I start to yawn.

But! Occasionally it’s done Actually Well! My basic philosophy on stories in general is that Almost Anything can be awesome if it’s Done Well (there are a few things I have no interest in even if they’re done well, but that list is veeeery short). And that occasionally does apply even to the dread Love Triangles (or Squares).

Of course the key to them being good is that they have to actually come from the characters and not from the demands of the plot (I guess this is a theme with me lately). Now there are some that fall into that category, where everyone’s acting in character, but I am still annoyed by the triangle because I don’t care about 1/3 of said triangle. If I have no investment in that character, I find it hard to invest in their role in the triangle. So. Mostly my favorites are ones where A) everyone is acting in character and B) I love (or at least like) everyone.

( cut for length and fail )

So now you should tell me about which love triangles work for you and which you hate and why. We should talk about this.

It really annoys me that I can only have 150 interests on my profile. Is that unreasonable? Would reasonable people be perfectly fine with only 150 interests? I'm sorry. I have never been a reasonable person. And I never learned how to like things a reasonable amount. I always feel too much. Too many things too much = story of my life.

In acknowledgement of this, wanna play a game? You can ask me about some of my interests that interest you/that you are curious about/that you'd like to hear me ramble about, and I will tell you why they deserve a spot on my interests list.

So today I was doing some employment verifications, and someone’s job title was: SHIPPER. And I thought, that should be MY job title. I would be the best at it! They could pay me! This should happen!

But since it won't, have some shippy quotes, okay?

(1) Think of up to 2025 ships you support.
(2) List them using descriptions of the characters involved rather than their names.
(3) Have your f-list guess as many of the ships as they can.




1. Haiku seems fitting:
Led Zeppelin versus ABBA,
Unnatural love.
2. Call them Mr. and Mrs. Dillon, TX
3. This romance is mostly written in the margins of borrowed books
4. STUPID BEE!!!!!!!111!!
5. Waffles are totally better than soup, okay?
6. The waiting is the hardest part. Because the waiting lasts a really, really long time, especially with all the deaths. But it’s totally worth it.
7. He’s pretty much obsessed with her hair, and who can blame him?
8. Princesses don’t marry kitchen boys, or so they tell me
9. I’m pretty sure most of their conversations involve at least one mention of baked goods
10. Having teddy bears pantomime their story was a really good call—they’re that adorable
11. She wants her bear won through some sort of demonstration of ring-tossing ability
12. The ultimate amnesia!fic. True love can’t be erased. This should make me want to hurl; instead, I ship.
13. Hell in high heels; the devil himself
14. Not even the rain has such small hands
15. There were tears on their wedding night, and my bet is that they were his
16. She’s a warped, repressed power-mad bitch, but he’d kill a dragon for and then drink her bathwater
17. They were better than good
18. Lesson learned: paying attention to your prospective-love’s social justice causes will pay off eventually, even if you think they’re silly and it takes seven years
19. They’re not magnets, but the same rule applies, no matter what he says
20. There’s blood on both of their hands; hers mostly comes from cleaning up after him, at least at the beginning
21. Their romance is WAY better than her parents’ probably because theirs has a sense of humor and is quotable enough to enter pop culture
22. His type is lanky brunettes with wicked jaws; good thing she fits the description
23. She smells like Paris and he lets her fly
24. Caterpillars and ducks
25. She definitely didn’t like him the first time she met him, but she couldn’t put a finger on why. My guess is that it was the mustache and that things got better once he got rid of it.

( answers once they're guessed behind the cut )