old east blue polycule/merryshipping archive blog

archiving old east blue polycule fic via links and posting them occasionally to ao3. help is always welcome! ideas for where to find things, tips, and encouragement is what keeps this blog going

[ms-all-sunday]

All east blue polycule fanfiction from fanfiction.net

This is my formal post about it but I recently (as of a few seconds ago) found out Merryship/Merryshipping is what people used to call East Blue polycule, and then I looked it up on fanfiction.net. And then I'm now copy and pasting the (5!! FIVE!!) fanfiction links for archival purposes here on this post, because I think these fanfics would be lost to time otherwise.

I haven't read all of them, (currently, I've only read "It isn't Love" and that one gut punched me so I'm still recovering,) and my archival of them isn't a testament to their quality. If there ends up being any bad ones in here. But it is a testament to how badly I want these fanfictions to be preserved.

-

Merryship 50 (Fifty sentences of piratical polyamory.)

It Isn't Love (because great swordsmen don't fall in love)

Rainy Day (It's raining hard, and everyone is cooped up in the galley. This does not bode well for Nami's sanity, Sanji's physical stabilty, or Zoro's pants.)

Five's Bad Company (It's indecently hard to get privacy on this ship. Luckily, nobody wants it. Nobody ships like Nami ships: Merryshipping)

Bar Fight (A guy hits on Nami in a bar, and the Strawhat boys take action to defend her honor. And to get some peace and quiet so they can finish their drinks.)

[ms-all-sunday]

so the level of deep that this goes is insane. i knew, or at least had the suspicion that east blue polycule has EXISTED for a long ass time but has been decentralized due to it's upkeep as a rarepair not being held by consistently the same people over 25 years.

and it seems like I was right.

in the mid 2000s, there was a livejournal community dedicated to this stuff. i am now looking at piles and piles of fanfiction that mightve been completely lost to time if i didn't have experience with this. I now have a pile of east blue polycule fic to archive and read.

i think (despite the dubious morality of this) i am going to upload every livejournal east blue polycule fanfiction i find under a pseudonym on ao3 dedicated to archiving so this fanfiction will become more easily accessible. i dont want to take credit for these peoples work, but i also really dont want this fanfiction to be lost.

[animentality]

[merryshiparchive]

where do we stand on fics where the merryshipping is a background relationship or something to that affect? because not only have i encountered recent edgecases on ao3 within the past year or so, but there's a merryshipping x reader fanfiction on ao3 that is the reason ao3 has the term merryshipping archived at all, but the main relationships are all the x reader ships? but it IS merryshipping. do i archive that?

[merryshiparchive]

going to be honest with you got a bit scared tonight thinking about how easily things are deleted off the internet. i decided to make a personal copy of 5s bad company but after deciding to do that i just thought why not upload it to ao3? I'll archive the rest of the merryshipping fics if its ever announced ff.net goes down, promise. i just am the most emotionally attached to this one. its selfish. but im a selfish guy.

i just want people outside of tumblr to know that this is our origin point and this is the fanfiction that sold eb5 to people. i think that context is important. and has never not been incredibly important to how we view this ship.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[merryshiparchive]

context for it being "the most popular old eb5 fanfiction" for new followers: ive found multiple threads of people discussing this fic outside of ff.net and praising it to high heaven- by multiple people its been considered the best op fanfiction there is. its 55 positive reviews speak for itself really

[merryshiparchive]

going to be honest with you got a bit scared tonight thinking about how easily things are deleted off the internet. i decided to make a personal copy of 5s bad company but after deciding to do that i just thought why not upload it to ao3? I'll archive the rest of the merryshipping fics if its ever announced ff.net goes down, promise. i just am the most emotionally attached to this one. its selfish. but im a selfish guy.

i just want people outside of tumblr to know that this is our origin point and this is the fanfiction that sold eb5 to people. i think that context is important. and has never not been incredibly important to how we view this ship.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[merryshiparchive]

this is tenuously related but im doing some research on what i can find of spiderflowers comments left in livejournal communities- the stuff account purges cant wipe. spiderflower was a bisexual(?) (she talks about liking both men and women, although she ids also with the word "lesbian") woman, she cared a lot about how fanfiction was written and criticized the use of heteronormativity in femslash. (link separation) she didn't like when fandoms became all about yaoi shipping and dismissed female characters- she's talked about finding sexist nge fans annoying. (her favourite character is asuka!)

i know this isn't directly related but i'd like to know what influences lead to spiderflowers assumed creation of merryshipping and what lead her to write 5s bad company since i cant ask her, can i? and maybe youre curious too. control f "spiderflower" to get to her segments of the linked journal entries.

for those who havent read it, heres her fanfiction.net bio, which also advertises her bisexuality openly. (her bisexuality for usopp and nami god she's the most relatable woman on earth)

now this will never happen. but if you ARE livejournal user spiderflower fanfiction.net user guardian1 please i love you so much im literally your biggest fan please can we talk i have so many questions

[merryshiparchive]

i forgot, i really want to know who came up with merryshipping as a term. i wonder if it was spiderflower (the author of fives bad company) and linadarkstar (the owners of the merryshipping livejournal site) while i have no real evidence for this, the merryshipping community on lj seems to imply the community was made for only them originally. this is under the "about" section (which i didn't know existed haha livejournal is so easy to navigate)

these two ladies are currently our only suspects. both of their accounts are purged, but the way this is phrased makes me believe they came up with both the lj and the concept, because if they didn't and there was a preexisting following wouldn't they expect more users to join almost immediately?

can we credit spiderflower and her friend with both the reason we have old content of them- 5s bad companys entire legacy and the name? currently there's no decisive evidence. but i have found no evidence to the contrary, and this is the closest thing we have to evidence of who came up with the name. tentatively i would credit the both of them.

[merryshiparchive]

evidently i can be complimented into finding more stuff

[merryshiparchive]

fanart is rough because i wish i could find more of it but we have a decent amount now and are arguably more hurting for fanfiction which is way easier to find. but it bugs me that we have so much fanart now and less fanfiction, and in the past it was the other way around? something doesnt add up. im convinced i havent found the site where all the merryshipping fanart is, because it cant be just deviantart user syblatortue. if you have any ideas at all speak up because i need to get to the bottom of why this is

[merryshiparchive]

today was a successful day but the only working theory i have is deviantart sucks. absolute dick for searching things up, so i cant find any of the old stuff that must be posted on there. none of my searches on deviantart even reveal syblatortues art

[merryshiparchive]

chapter 11: A Serious Question

[merryshiparchive]

evidently i can be complimented into finding more stuff

[merryshiparchive]

fanart is rough because i wish i could find more of it but we have a decent amount now and are arguably more hurting for fanfiction which is way easier to find. but it bugs me that we have so much fanart now and less fanfiction, and in the past it was the other way around? something doesnt add up. im convinced i havent found the site where all the merryshipping fanart is, because it cant be just deviantart user syblatortue. if you have any ideas at all speak up because i need to get to the bottom of why this is

[merryshiparchive]

evidently i can be complimented into finding more stuff

[merryshiparchive]

shady stories (fanfiction, deviantart)

[merryshiparchive]

Because I'm a rebel, that's why.

[merryshiparchive]

Sleep

[merryshiparchive]

by SybLaTortue (deviantart)

[merryshiparchive]

"Request for the Mugiwara boys at the beach (Luffy skateboarding, Sanji surfing, etc.) and I added Nami because I'm a Merryship addict."

by SybLaTorture (deviantart)

[merryshiparchive]

@menocider <333 i love when i get kind comments on this blog. so much man. its no problem and i love my work and i love that people enjoy what ive done. thank you

[merryshiparchive]