lavinia-de-mortalium:

Hey, it’s cloudsinvenice editing lavinia-de-mortalium’s post, because I thought that was how you did this meme but possibly not? Sorry, failing!

I tag: anyone who wants to do it!

Choose 5 OTPs without looking at the questions in the Read More first, then tag five people.

OTPs:

• Pandora/Marius (Vampire Chronicles)
• Lestat/Louis (Vampire Chronicles)
• Aeryn/John (Farscape)
• Tony/Pepper (MCU)
• Jaime/Brienne (ASOIAF)

SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL THESE FANDOMS!!! (duh)

                        ——(no, not really in my case)——

1. Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 5?

(Jaime/Brienne) I believe they were in the bath at the time. 

2. Have you ever read fanfiction about 2?

(Lestat/Louis) HAVE I EVER!

3. Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr ID?

(Tony/Pepper) Tony has, by himself. I had that panel of him going, “Oh my god, I can’t believe you don’t have a filing system!” as my desktop background when I first got my laptop, JARVIS. 

4. If 3 were to suddenly break up today, what would your reaction be?

(Aeryn/John) Wouldn’t happen. 😛

5. Why is 1 so important?

(Pandora/Marius) BECAUSE IT’S JUST EVERYTHING. Okay, sensibly for a moment: the VC has a lot of relationships that are either very chalk-and-cheese or very adolescent. I don’t mean that insultingly, it’s just true. I like that Pandora and Marius are both adults who know who they are, and who actually have a great deal in common. From there, the ways they connect and conflict are interesting and speak to me more than most fictional relationships.

Also, and again in contrast to most ships in the VC, it’s interesting that neither of them had their formative trauma/life change as a result of becoming a vampire. Sure, Marius had to confront the existence of the supernatural, but he rolled with it surprisingly well. What really damaged him was the prospect of having to destroy every Satanist zealot who’d show up looking for Those Who Must Be Kept for the rest of eternity. The responsibility for TWMBK. And while that devolved from being a vampire, it wasn’t about the transformation itself, the “loss of humanity” or the wrongness of killing to live, and that’s a different and interesting dilemma. 

Pandora’s trauma came from the loss of her father, and she had to move through her existential horror entirely alone. The tools she needed to survive were forged by her, and the problem Marius has is that he can’t leave that alone and be okay with her need for spirituality (perhaps because then he would have to address the point where rationality doesn’t solve everything for him). He gets being a seeker in need of answers, but he has real difficulty with the fact that she’s sought, and found, different answers.

6. Is 4 a funny ship or a serious ship?

(Tony/Pepper) It’s a serious ship that requires a considerable sense of humour for the participants. (“You’re with me. Everything will never be okay.”)

7. Out of all your ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry?

Lestat alone probably has more chemistry than the rest of the list combined. His chemistry is as a red giant that will swallow smaller planets in its path. 

Which is another way of saying I actually have no way of defining who has more chemistry than anyone else. 

8. Of all the ships, which ship has the strongest bond? 

Marius and Pandora, and Lestat and Louis, both have that maker/fledgling thing where they always come back into each other’s orbit eventually. But maybe it’s not fair to compare them to ships where both parties are mortal. If going through trauma together cements a bond, then Aeryn and John must have one of the strongest ships ever. 

9. How many times have you read/watched 2’s fandom?

(Lestat/Louis) I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the movie, and I’ve probably read the entire VC twice, with IWTV and TVL three times (recently started QotD again with people on VC Media), and lots of little re-reads of different bits of the series when I felt like it or was researching something. 

10. Which ship lasted the longest?

Marius and Pandora managed to live together for two hundred years. 

11. How many times, if ever, has 5 broken up?

I don’t think they can be said to have got together in the first place, yet…

12. If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 1 or 3?

Marius and Pandora have the unfair advantage of being vampires with pyrokinesis. They could STOP the zombie apocalypse if they wanted to (and they would want to – it’s kind of pointless being a vampire in a world of the undead) by destroying the infected and stopping the contagion. 

But John and Aeryn? I wouldn’t put it past them to figure something out. They’ve been through worse. 

13. Did 4 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason?

(Tony/Pepper) I’m going to guess there was some MAJOR discussion of how to play it when they officially got together (as opposed to when they were unofficially dancing around it for years beforehand), because of their working relationship and because of the sexist reactions she would inevitably be subject to. I mean, it’s already awkward for her when they dance in IM1 (and I love that the script points that out). 

14. Is 5 still together?

(Brienne/Jaime) Um… physically they’re both in the same place? To the best of our knowledge? Officially they have not got together, and knowing GRRM she’ll have to kill him before it can even happen. 😡

15. Is 1 canon?

(Pandora/Marius) Yes!

16. If all five ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win?

Pandora and Marius, by dint of sheer firepower. Unless it started during daytime, in which case they’re fucked. And unless it happened post-PL, in which case Lestat would be more powerful. I think. As lavinia-de-mortalium said in her answer re: Marius and Armand, these charactes “are Ricean Vampires, which means nothing short of their own torment could kill them.” XD

17. Has anyone ever tried to sabotage 5’s ship?

(Brienne/Jaime) WELL. They can’t officially be together due to the social structure in which they live – Jaime’s a member of the Kingsguard, and if he wasn’t he’d be expected to marry more strategically. And I’m not sure Brienne would be up for snatched moments of fucking around. Also, at the present time in book canon, there’s that whole she-seems-to-be-luring-him-to-his-death thing. 

In short: yes, GRRM. 

18. Which ship(s) would you defend to the death and beyond?

I’m not a wanker about ships; if you don’t feel it then you don’t feel it. Then again, I also tend to be a canon shipper, so that helps. Jaime/Brienne is the only ship here that hasn’t actually happened in canon, though there’s some damn good groundwork. 

19. Have you ever spent hours a day going through 3’s tumblr page?

I’m not sure if there even is one, and I don’t think I would if there was. 

20. If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the five ships to break up forever, which ship would you sink?

Tony/Pepper. There’s a lot of reasons for it to work, but just as many for it not to. I’m not opposed to Pepper and Happy getting together while Tony and Bruce drive off info the sunset to science together.