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kittlesandbugs · 11 months

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HELLO 👁️👄👁️ I'm going to challenge you... Feeling for each other in the dark, with Steel and Riley. Can be pre or post-HB, I'm not picky :wrex:

TY FOR THE CHALLENGE it's fun to write not-shippy stuff sometimes :D Pairing: Teensy bit Chargestep Warnings: Nothing much, just two slightly antagonistic comrades stuck in the dark without their mutual friend idiot. Word Count: 710 Not alone. You're not alone in this tunnel. The relief is almost instant.

You feel his mind coming to, a slow clearing drag of fogged confusion before snap-sharp focus. He's slow. Methodical. Military-trained. Analyzing the situation. Where he is. What happened. How to proceed.

The way his mind works is a little too close for comfort.

Without him knowing you're there, the solid brick walls encasing even his surface thoughts are gone. In this pitch black, neither of you can see anything. His helmet is damaged. He's frustrated about that, not sure if the rubble or the explosion knocked out the optics. Either way, useless. There's a clang of metal on rock paired with the instant relief of fresh air as he discards the face plate. And more frustration when it's still pitch black.

He climbs to his feet, mechanical joints grinding with dust and gravel. At least he isn't trapped. You couldn't help him right now. The gears grind more as he moves around, and he sighs. That's at least a few hours in the shop when they get back. He does all his own maintenance. Something you've admired but never said.

"Is anyone here?" he asks.

"Just me, I think," you call back.

Instant offensive defense, the brick shield snaps into place.

"Sidestep." His voice is as dense and flat as his mind now. "Is anyone else here?"

"If they are, they're unconscious. I can't sense anyone." You aren't worried though. "I can sense some of the others, they're digging us out." Anathema's thoughts are especially sharp. She'll find you, you're certain of it. But it'll take a while in this labyrinth. They're being careful about further cave ins.

"Are you hurt?"

You have to think about that one before you answer. You don't trust him but… you can't defend yourself. And he is very duty bound. "I think my knee is dislocated. I can't put weight on it."

It's been a dull throb thanks to the pain-gate, and you're certain if it were broken, you'd be in a lot more pain. Small favors.

"Where are you?"

"I think behind you. Against the wall. Your voice is going away from me." It's nice when the stupid shit beaten into your head actually comes in handy.

You hear the scuffle of boots against gravel sliding around you, the servos still clogged and angry. Following the wall. Is he trying not to step on you? Huh…

"Fuck!" But then his foot hits yours and jostles your knee. "You would hit that one."

"I'm sorry." He actually does sound sorry. "Is that your left or right side?"

"Left."

More angry servos whirring, definitely clogged up joints because now you can hear the grinding, and a thud as he takes a seat right beside you.

"Scared to be alone?" you ask, teasing because you don't know what else to say to him. Ever since he saw your face, he's been more distant. More disapproving. You haven't been able to hash out why, and you're pretty sure it's not just because Ortega kisses you.

"No." And then a few moments later. "You're injured. If they accidentally trigger another cave while digging us out, I can protect you."

"Why?" you ask sharply, not sure what to make of this. That's… more consideration than you ever thought Steel would have for you.

He sighs, and you still can't see past the wall of his shields. "I may not entirely trust you, but you are a comrade. I trust that you would do the same if our positions were reversed."

"... oh."

Maybe it's the pitch dark. But it feels easier to accept his implied help. Maybe he isn't entirely like your old handler after all.

"... Thank you. I would," you say quietly.

He grunts an acknowledgement and then falls silent. This is weird. He's being weird. It doesn't take long before being left with your thoughts and his silence makes you feel more claustrophobic than your actual situation.

"Hey, Steel?"

"Yes?"

"Pawn to B5."

"Really?" He huffs a breath that almost sounds like a laugh. "Without the board?"

"Too challenging?" you taunt, grinning in the dark.

"No. Let me think," he says, and then you aren't sure how many minutes pass. "... Pawn to C4."

#kitbug writes things #fhr #wei chen #sidestep #steel #riley owens #the sidestep days #prompt fill #maybe you guys were less antagonistic than riley remembers #trauma fucking with memories and that sort of thing lol

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fangirl-erdariel · 2 years

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I wonder what is it that makes some fandoms seem to attract more ship-centric fanfic, while others have a much better selection of gen stuff? Like, this isn't even about a fandom having a specific ship that everyone and their mother and their mother's dog ships, or leaning towards a specific kind of ship (whether that be het, slash, femslash, or something else). But some fandoms seem to have their fanfics be almost entirely ship-focused, while in others gen fics seem to make up a good third or even nearly half of all the fics.

And I just can't help wondering what it is, since most of the time it doesn't seem like it has anything to do with how many canon character dynamics there are that canonically are or can easily in fanon be interpreted as romantic/sexual relationships. It doesn't even seem to have much to with any clearly identifiable aspect of canon (except maybe a little bit that some fandoms seem to keep fanfics closer to canon anyway, while others deal a lot more in canon divergence AUs and overall put much less value on adhering to canon, but even then it doesn't seem to me like the correlation is that strong)

Is it something about what kind of demographic of fans happens upon it? Is it something predictable? Or is it just one of those things that happens, without any rhyme or reason? Does it feed itself, with the fandom as it grows just happening to develop a certain way, and once the direction of that development has established itself, fans start acting accordingly, writing more gen fic for that fandom because gen fic is common in it, or writing more shippy things because the fandom has a lot of shippy fics already?

Sometimes I wish it was clearer/more predictable, if only because very rarely tend to get into or care about ships a lot myself, and it gets kinda annoying sometimes to get into a fandom and then discover that it's one of the ones where gen fic is rare, and good luck finding any gen fics with the tropes you like if it's about anyone but a handful of the most popular characters. Okay, tbh I would probably still get into those fandoms even if I knew how to predict how the fandom was gonna be about ship vs gen fics, but at least I'd know it beforehand and it wouldn't be a disappointment I only find out once I start looking for fics.

(I will not be tagging this as any specific fandom because this is just my own whining and I don't want to stir up any drama or imply any fandom is better than another. I also do not mean to imply that any way of being a fan or engaging with fandom is inherently better than another. Everyone has their preferences and should have the freedom to exist in fandom and engage with the aspects of it that they like in peace. You may reblog this and add your commentary, but please do not use this to start drama about any of your fandoms either)

#fandom #fanfic #fanfiction #meta #shipping

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chocobox · 11 months

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incest tw i hate the hetalia experience -_-

i've been very scared of touching the hitsuji de oyasumi drama cd with england and america in it because i've known for years that people champion it as being ship bait and i didn't wanna deal with it even in the interest of hearing england's voice. but yesterday i processed the rest of the volume covers for that series (my england bubble is very thick. this one is on me.) and i realized that it was quite literally a series built around highlighting familial relationships??????? and i was like. ok. SO LIKE... WHAT? because one of the most common arguments that has always been used for that ship is "well they aren't brothers ANYMORE!!! so it's ok" and if this series is. deliberately highlighting their sibling relationship... how does that track as ship bait. (and this isn't to say i'm unaware that there IS ship bait for them in canon, but most if not all of it is relegated to the comic and seldom makes it past that)

so i caved i was like well i might as well see what's going on. and i did. and it was so innocuous that it makes my HEAD HURT. THIS WAS THE "SHIP BAIT" I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT? Does no one here have SIBLINGS? literally everything was so. normal. like it really goes out of its way to highlight the familial aspects of their relationship (talking about how england would count sheep for america as a kid) and anything people were deeming shippy was stuff that literally any siblings wouldn't bat an eye at? asking your sibling to come to your room and sleep in your bed because you're scared + having a "sleeping contest" to see who falls asleep first. What. THAT'S IT. God i'm so tired of people who ship them.

unfortunately i have a personal history with the ship that makes me really vigilant about it. I know all the things people have deemed indicative of it being as canon as a hetalia ship gets but looking back on it as an adult it makes me almost feel paranoid. like without that pretense, no one would make that assumption about their relationship. only if you read through the comic would you see a few things and go like oh that's weird. but they fly past quickly, and they still piss me off but it's all just to say. it's. they are just Troubled Brothers. if you were seeing it as more than that it's truly on you.

i don't talk about it much but my unfortunately extensive knowledge of this whole situation and inability to reconcile with it as a kid was part of what did drive me away from england for so long. ): the fact that there was anything that could imply he had a crush on the younger brother he had raised since he was a kid.... it really bothered me and i didn't. want TO BE IN LOVE WITH A CHARACTER LIKE THAT? and it was easier when i was able to convince my little child mind that it was fine. but when i realized it wasn't i didn't know what to do because obviously people who ship them will make it seem much more real than it actually is. so i couldn't really bare to think about england for so long because that relationship made me so uncomfortable. but i'm glad i came back because i've been able to realize that it isn't that bad, i just thought it was worse because of how much i had seen. but it's definitely a process, and it's frustrating to sift through almost 2 decades of england fan content when so much of it is at least subtextually supposed to imply... that. That. because it has been the most popular ship for SO LONG, and that changed kind of recently, but its impact is still felt. it makes it really hard to give benefit of the doubt WHENEVER i see them together in any context, and i'm trying to get over that.

due to my past here i've had to go on like a continuous recovery mission to fix the way i see them and not hear alarms go off in my head whenever they're in each other's vicinity. i think this was a big step for that though because the cd WAS cute and i DO really like their sibling relationship 😭 aside from that another big help was rewatching the anime and seeing that they deliberately removed literally everything that could have been perceived as shippy in regards to them, which makes me feel more confident about doing the same thing myself. (DUB FANS DNI)

(also i don't know how i manage to be consistently surprised by shit like this but when i found out about all the New Brothers england got when i was gone somehow i didn't anticipate for people to be weird about that until i was being directly faced with it. i'm baffled at my own naivete there, like that hasn't been the problem for so long.)

#sparkletwinkles #incest tw #this is like a diary entry to me

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nagisasstunningpersonality · 3 years

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Retranslation and Analysis of That Fight Scene

So firstly, I just want to say the subs are not bad and convey the general meaning very well, in a way that sounds natural in English. That being said, there's always some things that get lost in literal translation, and I really want to demonstrate how much depth the Japanese in this scene actually has for Karma and Nagisa's characters.

Basically the TLDR point here is that this fight is very much not about Korosensei. This is completely platonic, I promise I resisted making any shippy points.

Karma: Hey, Nagisa kun, aren't you getting extremely carried away?

Nagisa: Eh? (definitely surprised and bewildered)

Karma: The number one strongest assassin in Class E is Nagisa kun, isn't it? (uses yo here, which suggests confidence in the statement). Are you (very directly yourself, your own thoughts) wanting to quit assassination? Let's think about the talentless others who are desperately trying their hardest to kill him. When you put it like that, it's like a woman who 'has it' telling the ugly ones that they should honestly quit being so desperate to get a boyfriend, that kind of feeling?"

So some interesting analysis here is that Karma says "zuibun", or extremely, when the original translation is "a tad". The translation feels more natural in English, however it kind of makes me feel that Karma's trying to make more of a point. Nagisa has the right to be making suggestions and stepping up, but he's gone so far this time it's crossed a line.

I think 才能がないなり (talentless, saino ga nai nari) is also very interesting. Talent is the best translation, but if you look at the kanji very literally, there's "genius" and "ability". This specific word choice more implies that the other assassins are good, but Nagisa's just another level. Japanese grammar is confusing at best, but essentially 'nari' means become. So you take this as kind of like 'students who couldn't develop genius ability'.

The repetition of 'desperate' is also pretty interesting, linking the examples together better. It emphasises the point that they're kind of at a loss with. He also doesn't directly say attractive woman, he says "motteiru onna", which essentially means the same, but is literally "a woman who has (no object given but essentially 'it'). This more directly reflects to what he's saying about Nagisa, he HAS talent, this unspecified natural quality that makes him better than everyone else without trying.

There's also a lot more rhetorical questions in the Japanese, which got combined into single sentences in the English. The "let's think" thing is very literally what he says, like he's wanting Nagisa to actually consider his thoughts for himself.

Nagisa's original argument and intention may have been about Korosensei. Karma may be genuinely opposed to saving Korosensei. But that isn't the point of Karma's argument at all, he's making this about Nagisa because he's reached a limit with the both of them.

In order to spare you, more under the cut.

Nagisa: T-the aim wasn't... Above all, for assassination, your understanding is always better than mine

Karma: Saying that directly (take with slight pinch of salt - he could have also said "fixing your statement") is irritating. In reality, isn't it that you yourself are the most powerful, and you can't comprehend the feelings of weak humans?

Nagisa: That's wrong (also using affirmative yo here)! That's not what I said! These are my true feelings! Do you hate Korosensei? We went to see a movie together with him, didn't we have a variety of great times?!"

Karma: That's why, that octopus did his best to come and make a fun classroom every time, and didn't give up like Nagisa. Without bloodlust, this classroom wouldn't have been built. Can't you understand the effort?! It's not just your body, are you still a fresh elementary school student?

One thing to note here is that Nagisa isn't actually finishing his sentences. You can absolutely tell what he means because Japanese makes sense like that, but he's still dropping words. Or when he does say a full sentence, they're very short statements. He is desperate here, trying to prove a point he can't actually voice into words correctly.

The context here is that this is before we know their full backstory. Nagisa admired Karma, and he can't quite say it right yet. He thinks they're on different stages still, and Karma is frustrated because Nagisa doesn't see the point.

Karma, after all, does have this inhuman image of Nagisa in his head from years ago. The image of Nagisa looking like some kind of snake demon as he kills Karma in his sleep. He genuinely still, here, believes that Nagisa is purposely hiding this. That's why he keeps putting words into Nagisa's mouth. He's also cutting him off at points, not listening at all to what he's truly saying.

At the same time, Karma starts talking down to him. Instead of saying 'no' (how you'd end a sentence to a friend), he starts using 'kai', which is condescending and how you'd speak to a child. There's an argument here to be made for Karma doing this as a kind of defence mechanism too, but that's very complicated. At this point he really is just trying to get to him.

They are not arguing about killing Korosensei, not at all.

Karma: Huh?

Nagisa: *does the creepy eye thing*

Karma: Eh? What are those eyes? You with the social standing of a tiny female animal, are you defying a human?

Nagisa: I was just...

Karma: If you have a complaint, how about saying it after you win a fight for once? It's aimed at me, so come on. C'mon. C'mon. C'mon!

This is actually one of the most significant changes to the original.

This is the thing, Karma was never calling Nagisa a tiny mouse of whatever, he was just comparing him to one. Because he knows very clearly that Nagisa isn't like that. He sees that look in his eyes and it prompts him, in his frustration, to finally try and bring it out of Nagisa. He's trying to prove a point.

But then Nagisa stops himself. He lets go of his bloodlust for a moment, defaulting to Nagisa as we know and love him, literally turning his head away from Karma.

But Karma's too far gone at this point, he's dragged stuff up his past feelings about Nagisa, the ones he's been hiding for a year to be tentative friends with him, and now he can't let them go. He needs to see Nagisa's darker side plainly, no matter what that means.

It's also important that he says "it's aimed at me". I think this is a little deeper than literal. I think what he's implying here is this entire thing is somehow aimed at him, like Nagisa's trying to strip everything away just for his own perspective.

Obviously at this point Nagisa snaps and chokes him.

Nagisa internal thoughts: Even I...

Nagisa: I'm not going with half my feelings!

Karma: This guy...

This is also pretty significant. I'm surprised they cut the "even I" part because that says a lot about Nagisa's current feelings. He still doubts himself. He's aware that he's a pacifist, that he's got a lesser social standing, but Karma's put him into a position where he has to stand up for himself. And this is important to him.

Karma smiles when he says "this guy", getting ready to punch him. He feels like he's succeeded, in a way. Though at first he looked genuinely surprised Nagisa actually did it. There's a certain kind of satisfaction that finally he managed to bring Nagisa's 'true' self out.

Obviously at this point they get separated.

So what does all of this actually tell us? Well, pretty clearly here, this is just Karma's issues coming to light. But also a very helpful and useful moment for Nagisa's development as a character. Whether we agree with Karma using him as a punching bag or not, it genuinely does force Nagisa to get some self agency for once.

Karma and Nagisa will never be characters who sit around and talk honestly about their feelings. But even if they're using a whole situation to mask the fact that they very much are discussing their relationship here, it is still a significant moment where pretty much all the barriers they've been putting up against each other drop. They're just still not entirely on the same page through this scene.

Nagisa thinks Karma is just looking down on him and trying to pick a fight. He's baffled and confused as to why Karma feels so strongly against him.

Karma, on the other hand, thinks Nagisa is better than them all and is frustrated when he 'purposely' acts like he isn't. Karma still feels lied to from when they were kids. And he wants to expose it all, to get Nagisa to understand the position his skill puts him in. I honestly don't think Karma ever thought Nagisa was less than him at all, he just knew it would be an easy way to get a reaction. See how he flips tactic from "you're the best here" to "you're a tiny animal" when Nagisa just went into denial the first time?

I'm not going to go into the whole of their actual full fight, but there's some interesting points that reflect back on all of this.

Korosensei saying "your own answer is right in front of you", basically demonstrating that this entire thing really is just Karma and Nagisa

The entire point of the fight was to get one hit in with a knife, but Karma decides to just continuously beat Nagisa instead. Which yeah, is pretty ineffective. Pretty much proves again that it wasn't about just taking a victory.

Karma took Nagisa's hits on purpose, maybe it can be argued that this is trying to make things last longer, to get Nagisa to actually work for it.

Nagisa demands that he listens to what he has to say. And that's right, because Karma was cutting him off originally.

Karma is a super strategist right? And he was genuinely shocked that Nagisa didn't use his bloodlust to take him down. This is Karma. Sure, he's allowed to make mistakes. But this is odd for him. He was so caught up in his own perspective of Nagisa just having that skill that unfairly made him better. But Nagisa literally throws that skill out and beats Karma on his own level, pretty much disproving him. Maybe Nagisa has this special ability, but he's also worked just as hard as everyone else. He's trained to know what assassination means.

Beating Karma like this, on a 'human' level, was pretty much it. Karma stopped fighting back when he realised that, because he was disproven, and pretty much every wall he put up against Nagisa got literally choked out of him. Karma is already known as kind of an ass and a dirty fighter, you really think he'd worry about the others not accepting it if he stabbed Nagisa fair and square? If he cared that much about killing Korosensei, he would have just done it.

Their fight was never about Korosensei.

#assassination classroom #ansatsu kyoushitsu #ass class #karmagisa

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full-course-identity · 4 years

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gonna split this between canon character ships and oc-sprinkled ships. we'll start with canon (i also know most of these answer but eh): jeremy/rich, mr. heere/mr. reyes, michael/chloe, jake/rich, squip/michael, squip/brooke, brooke/madeline (STILL COUNTS, SHE'S TECHNICALLY A CANON CHARACTER), squip/rich's squip (in general fanon 'rich's squip isn't mo' situations--i'mma ask about OUR r!squip in the next ask)

HI SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG

Warning: Some of this goes into darkfic territory, and is lightly NSFW/NSFT.

Jeremy/Rich

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell (when this option is italized, it means OTP feelings, not Shipping Them As Problematique)

THIS IS MY FAVORITE ALWAYS-FLUFFY (or the comfort portion of hurt/comfort, or tragic lovers, etc) SHIP. It makes me SO VERY INCREDIBLY happy; Rich and Jeremy have this magnetic chemistry in the musical and in fandom--Hell, I even genuinely enjoy most fanon interpretations of the ship, which is really rare for me (still don’t read much fanfiction besides yours though... >u>; )

Also? Hot. Very hot.

... that was not meant to be a pun but I think it probably is...

Mr. Heere/Mr. Reyes

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell (bolding this one means it is/can be Problematique, obvs)

Platonic H/R? Nahhh. I think portraying both of them as queer is a good idea (Reyes gay and aro, Heere bisexual with a strong preference for women and femme enbys), but it just feels like Mr. Heere would want something else tbh. I mean, Mr. Reyes is pretty openly anti-children during the play, and Mr. Heere really loves his son and his son’s friend. I just can’t imagine they’d have much chemistry if they tried dating

Oh but what if... they were predators bonding over their mutual love of abusing the vulnerable people in their lives... haha jk... unless?

Michael/Chloe