Celebrate your ships!

[such_heights]

I am tagged by prettyquotable:

1. List your top seven ships
2. Put all of them in order of your love for them; 7 to 1, 1 being your favorite.
3. Name their fandom.
4. Supply photos for said people.
5. Tag seven people: avendya, cherryfeather, cho_malfoy, crooked, faeriemaiden, lorannah, sunnyrea.

Art recs instead of pictures for the book fandoms.

7. Kaylee/Inara
Firefly



"What's Companion policy on dating?"
"It's... complicated."
"Figures."

In which a mechanic and a society queen fly around being space pirates and becoming best friends.

Firefly's not a particularly shippy show for me. These two, I love. They care about each other in such an open, uncomplicated way, they ground each other out in the black. The way Inara is when Kaylee's shot in 'Serenity', Kaylee's longing for the world Inara represents ("I'll be in my bunk" may be the famous line, but it's Kaylee I'm watching in that scene.) Because sometimes it's time to stop waiting for something that may never come, and look at what you've already got.


6. Aziraphale/Crowley
Good Omens

Rec: Aziraphale and Crowley by remeciel

It was the sort of sensible arrangement that many isolated agents, working in awkward conditions a long way from their superiors, reach with their opposite number when they realize that they have far more in common with their immediate opponents than their remote allies. It meant a tacit non-interference in certain of each other's activities. It made certain that while neither really won, also neither really lost.

In which an angel and a demon live through history, meddle in human affairs, and go on dinner dates at the Ritz.

They have their little quirks and loves for Earth, and an age-old back and forth that's seen them move closer and closer to each other, each making the other a bit more human. There's no question about how much they love and respect each other, even though they really shouldn't, and at the end of Good Omens you can't help but feel that, apocalypse averted, they want nothing better than to go back to enjoying their cushy little life, together. I do love them.


5. Will/Lyra
His Dark Materials

[I don't have an art rec for these two! *sadface*]

"I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..."

In which two impossibly brave, brilliant teenagers from different worlds fall in love and save the whole of creation.

Now that's an OTP. Lyra's belief and Will's steadiness, the way they bend the world to their will - separately they're both amazing, together they are completely unstoppable. Midsummer's Day at the Botanical Gardens. Their daemons. The tragedy of it all.


4. McKay/Sheppard
Stargate: Atlantis



"I think in the grand scheme of things we're... we're good, aren't we?"
"Of course."

In which an incredibly closeted flyboy turned military commander and a brilliant and snarky scientist run off to another galaxy and fall in love.

I didn't ever consciously decide to start shipping these two - I knew all about the ship via fannish osmosis, then started watching the show, perhaps a little sceptical, and went "... oh that's what everyone was talking about." I love them. I love John, how talking about his feelings is the worst thing in the world, how he can't say how much Rodney means to him (oh hi, 'Miller's Crossing'). I love Rodney, who lets John ground him, lets him make him brave. They're the biggest dorks in their world, they save each other's lives, they fight like an old married couple all the time. The computer games, the mind-link in 'Doppelganger', the whales, "I shot him. ...In the leg!"


3. James/Lily
Harry Potter

Rec: Magic by clickart

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid."

In which a cocky boy and a feisty girl fall in love and fight in a war.

It's a classic rom-com trope - except with added TRAGEDY, yeesh. James has to pull himself together and become a decent human being in order to have the only thing that's ever eluded him. Lily's in a tricky position, political tides turning against people like her, deteriorating relationships with her sister and her best friend, but she stands up for herself and for others, and turns James into a hero. Together, they defy Voldemort three times - more than that, if you count starting a family, bringing that new joy into the world, as an ultimate act of defiance in the middle of a war. They were young, they were brilliant, they were in love, and it's all so sad.


2. Remus/Sirius
Harry Potter

Rec: Moon River by kasche

"But then... why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless -- unless he was the one... unless you switched... without telling me?"

Very slowly, his sunken gaze never leaving Lupin's face, Black nodded.

"Professor," Harry interrupted loudly, "what's going on --?"

But he never finished the question, because what he saw made his voice die in his throat. Lupin was lowering his wand, gazing fixed at Black. The Professor walked to Black's side, seized his hand, pulled him to his feet, and embraced Black like a brother.

In which a disinherited heir and a werewolf grew up too fast, survived a war, had a love they thought they'd lost restored, only to have it snatched away again.

And so, in second place -- wait, first -- no wait, argh, second, I'm such a traitor -- Remus and Sirius. Lights of my shippy little heart. They have a shared history, a boatload of chemistry, a endlessly fascinating push-and-pull dynamic. They contrast each other, Remus' pragmatism against Sirius' ideals, but right from the moment quoted above in PoA there's no doubt they mean the whole world to each other, one last person to have faith in. And then -- well, you know the rest. *cries*


1. Jack/Ianto
Torchwood



"You shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you."

In which an intergalatic ex-conman and his enigmatic secretary have a lot of sex and then accidentally fall in love.

If you'd told me midway through Series 1 that Torchwood was going to provide me with my favourite relationship of all time, I would have laughed. A lot. Torchwood was fun, and good for shipping purposes but I never imagined I'd move from "ooh, Jack/Ianto, that would be shiny" to the levels of glee they afford me now. It helps that Jack's become my favourite character in all of Whoverse, it helps that Ianto is entirely made of win. There's snark and general hilarity, angst and tragedy, and then there's the fact that it is canon and on my tellybox. But it's because neither of them meant this to happen, because there was Lisa and the Doctor, and a mutual attraction that shouldn't have meant anything. But then Ianto fell, hard (and shot Owen in the shoulder), and Jack worked through some issues and came back for them all, and even if they are terrible at talking about things other than in the vaguest of ways, even if there are still a whole bunch of reasons why this will probably all end in disaster, they're trying. Dabbling. Dates. Pterodactyls. That coat. I wouldn't change it for the world. ♥

Honourable mentions: Ginny/Luna, Josh/Donna, Booth/Brennan, Jack/Doctor, Gwen/Rhys, Zoe/Wash.

Well that was all manner of fun.