Get to Know my Shipping Preferences & Ships

[kylaraingress]

So, on BlueSky the other day, I saw THIS prompt, and figured 'what the hell'. I got to 11 out of the total 15, and as I started to answer them, I realized I could write it up as a fandom thing for my Dreamwidth.

So, here we go.....

1) List three shipping tropes you love.

Oh, fake dating FOR THE WIN. There's so much possibility for missed opportunities, unintended jealously, and of course yearning/pining.

I know it goes into noncon, but sex pollen. This also goes for other variations of 'something makes them horny'. There's plenty of research why people may have rape fantasies, but this has some 'willingness' behind it. (It's also why I do like a lot of Omegaverse fics.)

And is 'these two idiots' a trope? If not, miscommunication. I can understand why so many sitcom writers use this as a crutch. It's so FUN to write.

2) List three shipping tropes you don't love.

Oh, this is a toughie, because I'm a big fan that any trope can work of written well. But looking at the Shipping WIki, I would have to go with:

v All Amazons Want Hercules

v Babies Ever After

v Heterosexual Life Partners

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

That moment when they REALIZE. You know, the 'oh, OH' moment. ;-) It's like the twist at the end of a really good mystery: it makes everything leading up to that point WORTH it.

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

Hmmm. I guess that first kiss? Or when one is hurt and the other cradles their face in concern. ;-) Simple gestures of physicality show love so well.

5) Multiship or Monoship?

Oh, I'll ship anything if it's well-written enough. {Reiterates brag that I convinced a writer to write 'Arby's Mitt/Hamburger Helper Glove' and it was glorious.} Multiship all the way, although when I get into a fandom, I tend to stick to one pairing for the most part. (Although in Sherlock, I did like Mystrade until Mark Gatiss ruined Mycroft for me in series 4.)

6) Rare pairs or Mainstream?

... shows you note above about Arby's Mitt/Hamburger Helper Glove', but then shows you my 195 bookmarks on AO3, most of them Johnlock. So... both?

Also, there are currently 9 fics on AO3 that are The Lone Gunmen Byers/Frohike: 2 of them are mine, and the other 7 are a friend of mine's.

7) Polyamory or Monoship?

Depends on the ship and/or plot and/or how well written it is. So either? Both?

There are a couple of really good Sherlock/John/Sarah fics {BBC Sherlock} out there, and I can ONLY read Jamie Tart/Keeley Jones/Roy Kent fics {Ted Lasso}: take one of them out, and it just doesn't WORK for me.

And don't get me started on Byers/Frohike/Langly {The Lone Gunmen}. If I ever go back to writing it, I think the third story in my LGM Games universe would've most likely had Langly joining the pair.

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

Okay - I had to do a little research on this one, because I had no idea what it was asking. It SOUNDS like am I okay with strictly platonic relationships?

And - and this will be a shocker, I'm sure - it depends on how well-written it is. There's some great Sherlock fanfic where Sherlock is Ace and John is straight and they still are 'romantic', if that makes sense, and a great series where they get married and never have sex (well, there's one story where it ends up being a nightmare).

9) Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?

Not ALWAYS, but I tend to lean on reading romantic ships. (The last time I did a re-watch of The X-Files, I actually was 'nah' on Scully and Mulder, preferring them to be 'just friends'. But I totally could now see why people shipped Mulder and Skinner.)

And don't get me started on how pissed I was that Warehouse 13 ended with the two leads getting together.

But I have a romantic heart and love first times/reading about couples falling in love.

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

Starting to think the person who put this together had an anti-sex agenda.... (If you're yukipri, sorry to call you out like that.)

This is gonna shock you if you've read my other responses, but it depends on the writer. I'm demisexual myself, but love reading some smut from time to time. But I also love a good 'fade to black' romance ending as well, as well as no romance at all.

11) Opinion on platonic ships?

Oh yeah - there's a definite agenda to these questions. As I'm sure you can surmise from the above, if written well, I'm good. I don't seek them out, but I also don't avoid them either. The source material tends to have enough platonic ships for me.

12) List 3 ships you currently love.

Oh, I have to start with my first love, my OTP of OTPs: Sam Beckett/Al Calavicci {Quantum Leap}. As I've written about before, the first time I was introduced to slash, this was the pairing that when suggested my brain went, 'Oh, yep – totally see that.'

I have to include John Watson/Sherlock Holmes {mostly BBC Sherlock, since that's when I became obsessed with the pairing, but other variations are okay) – even though series 4 of Sherlock left me very cold on the series as a whole.

As for the third, I've started reading more Aziraphale / Crowley from Good Omens. Even though I love the show (and am absolutely in love with both Michael Sheen and David Tennant), for some reason I didn't really reach out for fanfic and still don't actively search for it.

13) List 5 OTPs from past fandoms.

The very first slashfic I read was Ares/Joxer from Xena: Warrior Princess. I read it because of the 'what the hell?' aspect, and ended up LOVING the idea.

Of course I have to put in my Casey McCall/Dan Rydell pairing from Sports Night. This was the first pairing that I actually read the fanfic before seeing the show, so went into watching it with the pairing already in my head. As with Quantum Leap, their chemistry is 90% of why the show works.

I loved reading Jonathan Archer/Trip Tucker from Enterprise when the show was on, and desperately wanted to try and write a story for them. Never got there, though.

Of course, I have to include my Star Wars OTP: C-3PO / R2-D2. (Just did a search: there are 119 fics on AO3 with this pairing. YES!) Otherwise, I love love LOVE Qui-Gon / Obi-Wan and there were some GREAT fics (and of course this EXCELLENT fanvid from Diane Williams) that I still re-read. (In fact, two of them were by the same writer who wrote that Ares/Joxer story.)

As for the fifth OTP, I immediately fell for Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes when Captain America came out. It was only reinforced by The Winter Soldier. (And don't even get me STARTED on Civil War. Dude's about to lay hands to save his friend!)

14) Opinion on the importance of marriage?

Not sure what this has to do with shipping outside of romance sometimes ends in marriage, but...

I grew up in the 80s, and still remember the debate around giving gays the right to marry. I am married to a trans woman, who was presenting male when we met. The biggest reason we got married was 1) to calm my family, who were upset we were 'living in sin', and 2) so she could get on my health benefit plan (because of course this was before the Affordable Care Act as well).

As I've noted before, for stories, it really can depend. I've read stories where it made perfect sense for one to propose to the other, but I've also read fics where it feels like the author is writing a proposal because it's 'expected' at this point. Some characters I see as wanting marriage (John Watson pre-series 4 in BBC Sherlock) and others I can see as where it's just a ceremony/piece of paper (Sherlock Holmes in most adaptations).

15) Opinion on OC kids?

I am personally childfree by choice, and absolutely ABHOR shows that feel a kid will 'help'/'save' a show. It's usually a sign that a show is already on its last legs, and the addition of this new 'character' typically only makes it worse. Or, there's shows like BBC Sherlock, where they add a kid in ... and then do absolutely NOTHING with it.

There are many writers who seem to think having children is the only way a married couple can be 'happy' and/or 'complete', and that bugs me up the wall. (I'm looking at you, not only Sherlock but Brooklyn Nine-Nine.)

On the other hand, I tended to stay away from Sherlock fanfics where one (or both) of the two has a child (pre-series 3). And then earlgreytea68 wrote "Nature & Nurture", a fifty-seven chapter fanfic wherein Mycroft accidentally clones Sherlock and Sherlock decides to raise the child as his own. (Yeah, just go with it – it's a wonderful fic / series.)

And despite me not liking her on the actual show, I really enjoy most fics that include Rosie Watson, and have a WIP of my own that has her as a character. So....

Final Thoughts

When all is said and done, I love ships. Canon or no, romantic or platonic, relationships are what make a show work. But at the same time, the abbreviation 'ship' was created as meaning 'romantic ship', so asking about platonic 'ships' seems weird to me.

I'd say that 90% of the time when I go in search of fanfic, it's to read a sexy and/or romantic interlude, and almost all of the stories I have on AO3 are romantic/sexual in nature.

But as I'm a big fan of 'ship and let ship', I'm also a fan that you read / write what you want to read / write. To each their own. Language evolves, and I try and tell myself that.