#zirczak

[firecooking]

My drawing tablet is kaput rn so i'm organizing my art with my time

have an old doodle of Zak and Zircon from AGES ago, she loves that disaster man and he is Ambivalent lol

Also background zipcents lol

[firecooking]

Hellooooo!!! I've recently got into reading your tugs fanfics (THEY ARE AMAZING!!) but I'm just a lil confused

Are all the z stacks in a relationship? or like a few? Cuz I know Zak and Zircon are a thing and that apparently Captain Zero married Zebedee? but also he and Captain Star are a thing.

Idk if I missed something or if I'm reading too far into it, im just curious if there are actual pairings?

Welp. I just spent an hour answering this ask and then proceeded to delete my answer. Let's see.

First of all, thank you. I'm very glad that you're enjoying my fic. I'm very glad that you have questions as well. I'm always happy to answer them.

So to answer your question in a direct manner, the only relationships in my au that I would consider the Canon ships are Ten Cents and Zip as well as a very ever complicated, Zero and Star. Zak and Zircon have a tumultuous relationship that I would say is romantic, but it's also open and neither is exclusive to each other. Their wedding is more than officially being a couple but they never are exclusive to each other. I would also argue with other things that I've written that their relationship would not function without other people. Being in Zak and Zircon's lives. Particularly, Zebedee and Zug are absolutely necessary to keep Zak and Zircon functioning as a couple.

Other ship relationships that exist technically Zinc does both have a casual relationship with Star for a period of time as well as eventually having a relationship with a not yet introduced to my human au but introduced in another fic that I have named Iron Thread.

In my au as a way to get around certain terms. Not existing yet in their language and also to explore a lot of different possibilities. I use the concept of relationship anarchy to help explain and give more depth to different relationships. If you have not heard of relationship anarchy before, a very brief explanation is that the relationship between two individuals should only be defined by said to individuals. It opens up an ability to have very rich and fluid dynamics between people. It also helps me get around the fact that terms like "friends with benefits" don't exist in the 1920s but the concept does.

Defining how my ships work in human terms is something that technically can be done but doesn't necessarily describe them. Wholly. This is intended ships work differently than humans. That is just a fact. In universe, it is sometimes hard for humans to grasp what the actual relationship between two ships might be two ships that are fleetmates and sister ships might have a relationship that humans find weird or uncomfortable, or too close or too distant, but the ships themselves don't necessarily see as any issue. This also opens up that different ships can describe themselves with different human terms to describe the relation to other ships. For example, Hercules and TC or sister ships and they describe themselves as siblings. But they have very little and physically comment with each other beyond certain design, language and certain other attributes that ships. Consider as markers of sister ships, zinc and Zircon are more directly sister ships they match. You took their much closer in design but they look very visually different and a lot of of ships would just be like Ah. Their sister ships, but not anything more than that, but they self-describe themselves as twins, but they aren't technically related in any way that humans would say that they are siblings beyond having the same whole design and having similar internal workings. But their or superstructures are completely different and they're built out of technically the same parts. But you could argue that most of the ships share similar parts.

Something in my au that I guess would be close to how genetics would work. Would be the idea of what effects of ships personality it has to do with the captain that they are christened under and the builder that builds them as well as the fleet that they are built for. A ship built for Atlantic has very specific traits. One being that they're a little more wild and Free, they're a little reckless. They don't think quite as much as say other ships do and they would be considered what we would think is promiscuous. The original Atlantic ship is OJ. OJ in the show is very proactive and thinking, but he's also a bit of a mischievous character. He's able to be seen as a bit reckless and a bit impulsive. He does some wild shit. Does not care that he's a million years old. This is a very similar personality trait that the other ships I've deemed as Atlantic ships in my au are zorin is a very forward-thinking leader, but he's very impulsive and he's very wish-washy, Zebedee is impulsive and the impulsivity is usually in a "oh God. I got a help" situation regardless of what his loyalties are but that impulsivity and ability to just go with flow still makes him Atlantic ship. Zak As well has a lot of impulsivity he's doesn't really think before he acts. He's very wild. While the four of these characters all share character traits and they share a common original Fleet, I would not say that any of them are related to each other that would be complicated. A human in Universe might think that, but ships and sailors really have their own way of thinking about the different vehicles.

The fic in question that I think this confusion comes from is the fic Zebedee and Divorce. This fic takes place right before Zak and Zircon's wedding. In fact, they're getting ready for the ceremony. In this Fic Zebedee is really just musing and thinking, nothing serious is going on there. I thought it was very fun that out of all of his ships Zebedee who seems to be the least z stack is the one that has gotten the least of zero's iyer over the years. They're not married. They're not divorced. They are something much worse. Friends.

To save myself from rambling any further than this needs to be. To answer this question, the relationships are difficult to define in my au but that is part of my au. I never want someone walking away from one of my fics, unless it's directly tagged or stated that two characters are romantically involved or intended to have a platonic relationship within the FIC, that you walk away and say yes. They are having a relationship. Cuz most of the time they're just existing as ships, not humans. They do not define relationships like humans and thus they're just enjoying themselves and having fun and the bond that they have and the lack of humanity means that to a human. You might see it one way, but to them it's just "I'm hanging out with my fleet."