Shipping Meme, Conclusion!
Share five must-read fics.
This is so hard, so I’m just going through my recent bookmarks and picking the first 5 fics I’ve got about some of my favorite ships!
Green Light (1567 words) by APgeeksout: WWE, Brian Kendrick/Daniel Bryan sex pollen. It’s the ship I felt alone in shipping, but no longer! Hot and just tender enough to be sweet while staying in character.
Than Dreamt of in Your Philosophy (1775 words) by misura: Master & Commander, Jack/Stephen. This is a Lovecraftian take on M&C and is very good, understated horror--nothing too dark or disturbing, and Stephen saves the day and his dear one.
like monuments (1929 words) by Neffectual: WWE, Tyler Breeze/Fandango. This story takes a fundamentally silly pairing in canon and finds the sweet and wistful heart of it.
Q: Mourning (100 words) by jaclynhyde: Picard/Q was the first pairing I ever searched for fic about! This drabble is a terse, painful look at how Q deals (or does not) with Picard’s death.
Corporal Punishment (5988 words) by x_los: Blakes 7, Blake/Avon. Aliens made them do it: Blake must administer a spanking to Avon, and both of them try very hard not to find it erotic. (They fail).
Share your favorite fanmix for your OTP.
Currently I’ve been listening to a lot of “Asterisk*” for Kevin/Sami, with the tracks:
The Bouncing Souls - The Something Special The Orion Experience - Nice Guys Finish Last They Might Be Giants - I've Got a Match Miike Snow - Genghis Khan Sleigh Bells - Bitter Rivals OK Go - Do What You Want Version 2 (Wallpaper Background) The Mountain Goats - Cry For Judas ( New Single from Transcendental Youth Gotye - Night Drive The Mountain Goats - Unmasked! Samson - Regina Spektor Suckers - Turn On The Sunshine Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed The Bouncing Souls - Hero Zero MASHUP DAY - (Of Sami)
Talk about a ship you initially disliked.
I was slow to warm up to Kevin/Chris, because--I confess it with some shame--I am not very good at multishipping and I get jealous on behalf of my ships rather easily. But the two of them had such good, easy chemistry, and were messed-up in a whole different way than Kevin is with Sami, so it was fun to write them for a couple of snippets.
Do you have a favorite trope and/or AU for your OTP?
With Clark/Bruce it is always and forever identity play of some sort. The fact that the different facets of their personalities are so distinct and they often find themselves in situations where they have to pretend to be only that facet; the fact that there are so few other people in the world who know all of those facets--Clark the Kansan and Superman the hero and Kal-el the alien refugee; Brucie the rich kid and Batman the vigilante and Bruce the relentless will that unites them--so they can give each other a space to be all of their complex and contradictory selves, it’s really appealing to me.
With Sami/Kevin there’s some identity play going on there because of Generico, and part of what I love about wrestling as a fandom in general is the identity play aspect--the complex and blurry lines between the actors and the characters that inhabit their bodies and their lives. With shipping that would take me further into RPF than I’m generally willing to go, but I do find myself sneaking ways to get that same frisson into my stories. An AU that I’m turning over in my head with them is setting a story back in the 1920s and making them literal carnies, going from town to town fleecing marks and hopping boxcars in the night (Sami loves the art and challenge of it, but he always feels a bit guilty and leaves some money at the village orphanage before he goes). I’ve started doing research on it, but it’s surprisingly hard to find out what life was like as a wrestler back when it was just starting to be a rigged game.
Is there a fictional relationship you’d really want for yourself?
Gotta go with American Alpha here. I just love that they’re basically goofballs who flat-out adore each other. I mean, who wouldn’t want someone to look at them like Jason looks at Chad?
If you could change one thing about your OTP, what would that be?
Comics Clark and Bruce: I’d want to go back to some form of them that has a long history together. Right now there’s this weird and completely unimaginable situation where they each have years of history with someone who is almost but not quite the other guy, but they’ve only known each other a year or so, and… it’s awkward and unshippy for me personally.
Thorin and Bilbo: I would love some canon hint they were reunited in the afterlife, whether the dwarf version or the Secondborn version.
Sami and Kevin: I’d want some guarantee they’re going to be tag team champs someday. I don’t want it to be right now, that wouldn’t work psychologically. But I just want to know it’s going to happen somewhere down the line.
