sail on time, rain or shine

Last night I started making a Facebook status, then I changed my mind. But I still felt the need to make a statement, so I proceeded to Twitter. That helped.

But it is not enough.

I apparently feel so strongly about this that I'm writing an entire blog post! The subject: shipping.

I'm not talking FedEx or DHL.

I'm talkin' HMS Harmony and Fire & Ice.

(Those are the only two cool ship names I remember, and one of them is still a portmanteau. But the best portmanteau. Man, Harry and Hermione should've ended up together just because Harmony is a great ship name.) (Fire & Ice was Draco/Ginny. Yes, people really thought they should be a couple. I have no room to talk though, I actually wrote them as a couple one time.)

In case the context clues haven't filled you in, "shipping" is seeing two fictional characters and thinking, "You should probably end up together." Probably a shortening of "relationship"...if relationship were a verb....

Shipping is great! But it is also apparently only understood on the internet. One night at dinner I asked my friend if she still ships me with one of our mutual friends, and she had no idea what I was talking about. And it's hard to explain shipping.

"I...like the idea of you guys as a couple," she said, hesitatingly. "Does that mean I ship ... I'm shipping?"

Yeah, she so ships Chilimac. (I gave myself a ship name?! Too bad this one is destined to never sail. Much like Pine Tree. That ship never sailed.)

Best codename ever invented, though.

(I don't usually ship myself with people. Or ship real life people in general. Much. Just so you know. It's almost exclusively a fictional endeavor.)

I used to be all about the canon ships. You know, ships that made it into the actual canon of the fictional universe I was in. Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Remus/Tonks. But the older I get and the more fandoms I experience, the more willing I am to get behind ships that didn't sail in canon.

AND NOTHING WILL EVER EVER EVER CONVINCE ME THAT ZUKO/KATARA SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN A THING. IT SHOULD'VE BEEN A THING. ZUTARA FOREVER.

THIS REALLY HAPPENED I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP

Shipping is a big part of my fictional escapades. And, let me tell you, it's huge on the internet. Ship wars are a thing. (Especially before Half-Blood Prince came out. H/Hr and R/Hr were at odds all the time! And then HBP did come out and JKR called H/Hr shippers "delusional" and then those who didn't jump ship started calling themselves "Proudly Delusional" and it was a big thing and I'm so glad I was there for it.)

I even have opinions about using portmanteaus as ship names instead of a symbolic representation of the characters (I mean, which would you rather ship, Literati or Rogan? Little shout-out to the Gilmore Girls fandom...that I missed by however many years. Just as well). Never ever will you see me use "Hinny" when H/G or even Harry/Ginny are an option.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I like to get invested in the fiction I partake of. I like to talk to people about the fiction I partake of, especially if they are also invested (or if they're open to be talked into investing). And I'm more willing to admit to these things than I used to be. Feel free to ask me what I'm shipping these days. I'll let you know.