5 OTPs from 5 different fandoms

[alias_sqbr]

I was tagged by nilhmai but am totally ignoring the tag ten people bit myself because it's too hard. I have decided to define "OTP" as a pairing I not only like but am so invested in I find it hard to see the characters with other people. I'm generally a multishipper so these are rare!

Anne/Diana from Anne of Green Gables: I haven't consumed the canon in literal decades but it was deeply formative and I still feel a DEEP SENSE OF RESENTMENT any time I am reminded that Anne/Gilbert is canon.

Chell/GlaDOS from Portal: Have I mentioned how much I like robot/human femslash enemy ships?

Dave/Terezi from Homestuck: I don't ship it as hard any more due to canon shenanigans but ohhh did I love it in the day. I can ship them both with other people, but there will always be a small part of me going "But where is Terezi/Dave?" (LIKE SAY AT THE END OF CANON)

Leliana/Morrigan from Dragon Age: the ship I have the most works for at the AO3, even though they never liked each other much in canon and there's more supported f/f I could be shipping instead. And they got EVEN MORE PERFECT for each other in DAI, the subtle similarities I saw in Origins were teased out in really interesting ways. Shout-out to (Isabela/)Fenris/Mef!Hawke as the Dragon Age ship that consumed me the most emotionally.

Darcy/Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice: such a great example of an initially combatitive pairing that ends up genuinely perfect for each other. I have enjoyed so many versions of them getting together and am still enthusiastic at the prospect of more.

Honourable mentions: Root/Shaw from Person of Interest, Utena/Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sam/EDI from Mass Effect, Ahiru/Rue from Princess Tutu, Mary/Anne from Pride and Prejudice, Zuko/Mai from Avatar the Last Airbender, Zen/Obi/Shirayuki from Akagami no Shirayukihime (mainly because I'm into it right now I don't know how I'll feel later), Magneto/Xavier from Xmen (probably my first m/m ship), and f!Shepard/Tali from Mass Effect

Comments

[cheshirenoir]

But but but GlaDOS is promised (PROMISED I say!) to S.H.O.D.A.N! :-)
(See http://egypturnash.deviantart.com/art/Code-Sharing-70773186 and http://egypturnash.deviantart.com/art/A-Healthy-Relationship-70747042 for why I might just think this. Safe For Work)

[alias_sqbr]

Get your dirty robot/robot filth away from me! I only have time for pure, innocent robot/human ships.

(I've never played System Shock but based on the Wikipedia summary I can see the appeal. There's also GlaDOS/EDI but I see that more as a maternal, mentoring along the path to mass murder relationship)

[cheshirenoir]

Well the strangest robot/robot pr0n I know of is definitely the Hot Bjork robot on Bjork robot action of All is Full of Love
Not sure if that technically counts as a OTP, but... Ehh ya takes what ya can get, amirite?

[alias_sqbr]

I find that video weirdly squicky, I'm not sure way. I think it might be the uncanny valley + all that touching.

[tree]

I still feel a DEEP SENSE OF RESENTMENT any time I am reminded that Anne/Gilbert is canon.

WHAT

how did i not know this about you?? how will i recover from this terrible betrayal??

[alias_sqbr]

Hey, I recovered from finding out you ship them :) I don't have anything in particular against Gilbert asides from not being Diana, if that helps.

[tree]

fine. if you're going to be all reasonable.

;D

[alias_sqbr]

I am! JUST TO SPITE YOU

[tamsin]

Anne/Diana

Yes! Those two are so great together.

[alias_sqbr]

They are <3

[rachelmanija]

Anne/Diana is a delicious pairing. It may not be canon, but it has a LOT of textual support and is written in a very romantic way. I read it as "Anne's crush is visible from space, Diana is clueless (but might get a clue if Anne kissed her.)" It's in the tradition of female "romantic friendships" which were a big thing at the time, and sometimes were romantic but platonic, and sometimes not platonic at all.

Have you read Montgomery's Emily books? Emily/Ilse have a somewhat similar dynamic in terms of "romantic friendships" (they literally sleep together) only Ilse is much more knowing. (I have written Emily/Ilse, but not Anne/Diana.)

[alias_sqbr]

nods Learning about romantic friendships explained some of child!me's connection to certain 19th century books. I've had a lot of fun writing femslash developing from these relationships myself, mainly with Jane Austen books, which aren't as romantic as some but are fun worlds to play in.

I've pondered reading the Emily books a few times but never gotten around to it.

[rachelmanija]

The Emily books are really interesting. They're both more sincerely romantic and darker than the Anne books (and have minor fantasy elements). People tend to love them best or least of Montgomery's works. The dark aspect (at least, the most crucial dark aspect is one of those frustrating things where it's both potentially triggery and spoilery, AND is a "depiction does not equal endorsement" but part of the surprise is that depiction doesn't equal endorsement, when in many books it would. If you ever want to read them, I could you a trigger run-down or some such.

Emily/Ilse is less OTT than Anne/Diana, but is treated more seriously, so while it's got slightly less explicit text behind it, it also feels more mutual and like it might really happen.

[alias_sqbr]

Interesting! Do either of them have canon male love interests?

[rachelmanija]

They both do, but they're more complicated/problematized than in the Anne books, so there isn't the fandom MF juggernaut Gilbert/Anne equivalent. Explaining how is spoilery. Like I said, I'd be happy to give you a spoilery rundown if you ever want - there's some genuinely disturbing stuff in there, but a lot of that is author's intent disturbing, and I'm not sure how much of it hits your specific DNWs or if it would be an exception. (For instance, there's an extremely major element that would be book, meet wall for me if it was written as a positive, and lots of books from that time period would have written it as a positive, or it could be written in a boring "this is bad" way, but this one digs into its creeptastic nature in a complex way that I really like.)

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you! I am rather overwhelmed by my to-read list right npw but if that changes I may get back to you :)

[kiezh]

Do you have any f!Shepard/Tali recs? I adore Tali, and it was clear that she was very into Shepard regardless of gender. I'm sad they refused us canon f!Shepard/Tali, though maybe the writers would have mucked it up. :/ (I watched some of the m!Shepard/Tali romance on YouTube and was massively squicked by the fetishizing of her virginity and the attitude of "only unprotected penetrative sex counts as a Real Consummation of Love, despite the serious risks to Tali's health that involves!" Tali deserved so much better.)

EDI/Sam is awesome. Canon voice kink...!

[alias_sqbr]

Alas I do not ;_;

I totally agree. I did the Tali/m!Shepard romance and enjoyed it, but had to do a lot of rewriting in my head.

[maramcreates]

Leliana/Morrigan

That's a great pair, I agree :) (I'm partial to Leliana/f!Cousland(/f!Warden) myself, but I can dig just about any Leliana/f pair short of Marjolaine)

The not liking each other in DAO never made any sense to me. I mean, I understand Morrigan having issues with Leliana (but that's because Morrigan had a hard time getting people and expressing herself in general), but not Leliana having issues with Morrigan (Leliana would have certainly have had no problem with Morrigan's opinions on the Maker). That element (the mutual 'dislike') was put there for the benefit of m!Wardens romancing either of them, in my opinion (and thus was lazy and sexist characterization on BioWare's part, to be honest).

In my headcanon, Leliana and Morrigan respected each other (at least eventually) and got along for the most part (with key issues regarding specific approaches to problems), which is how I tend to write them. They certainly have much more in common than most people realize, and I'm glad that DAI made a point of making some of those connections.

[alias_sqbr]

Oh, I like Leliana/f!Warden (and f!Cousland in particular) plenty too, don't worry :)

And yeah, it felt like laziness to me too, luckily I like enemies-to-lovers so it was just extra inspiration :D

[maramcreates]

Oh, I like Leliana/f!Warden (and f!Cousland in particular) plenty too, don't worry :)

Well...if you're ever interested in some of my Leliana/f!Cousland stuff, it's up on AO3 (with a DAO novel coming in the next month or so -- I hope ^_^;;)

To be honest, most of my long WIPs involve that pair...I'm just a really big fan.

And yeah, it felt like laziness to me too, luckily I like enemies-to-lovers so it was just extra inspiration :D

I'd love something along those lines involving Aveline Vallen and Queen Anora to be honest (which means that I'll probably have to write it myself). I know that they're not actually enemies (as they don't really know each other), but I imagine that Aveline's ethical code and Anora's political know-how would clash enough to put them at odds if they were forced to work with each other (perhaps Aveline is the new Captain of the Guard in Denerim?).

Cassandra/Sera, or Josephine/Sera would be great too.

Aww crap...now I've got more to add to my WIP list ^_^;;;

[alias_sqbr]

I have definitely pondered Josephine/Sera though never got the inspiration to go anywhere with it. I'd never thought of Anora/Aveline before, interesting!

[maramcreates]

[Feel free to let me know if you're done talking about this by the way (I won't be offended) -- it's hard to read nonverbal cues through text after all ;)]

There's no Anora/Aveline fic on AO3 (I've checked), so I'm pretty proud of that one :D

These three ideas are a bit of a guilty pleasure (comedy and erotica in one?! what?!) that I've been sitting on (which I don't have to be the one to write, of course, so I'm sharing in case anyone's interested):
- Anora meets Aveline in Kirkwall, sparks fly, they find a room...and lo! Neither seems to be able to take directions well.
- Josephine is busy studying for her GREs (by candlelight of course), when an extraordinary sorority queen, Vivienne, happens to pass by the open dorm room and decides to have a bit of fun.
- Cassandra had done everything by the book (Varric's book that is) and still she didn't seem to get it quite right. She expected things to be easy, this was Sera she was bedding after all, but, for some reason, the imp kept giggling at the worst possible moments.

There's this one rare pair (also nothing on AO3) that I've gotten as a prompt, and it's really exciting: Josephine/f!Hawke. I've done a good chunk of it so far, but I've got to switch gears and work on a different WIP (for a deadline). It won't take me long to return to this rare pair though :)!