The Ship

You've probably heard these phrases before...

"Ship it."

"Ship it like Fedex"

"If it fits it ships."

If you haven't, you are one of the lucky few who haven't been thrust into this crazy world (or you have and you just don't know the terms yet). Today is about shipping and my obsession with it (yes, I'm obsessed. No, I don't have a problem, I just ship anything and everything). BTW, Pinterest is a lovely little thing where you can find old Tumblr posts that are just brilliant.



Let's start with the basics...

What is shipping?

Shipping [Verb] : support or have a particular interest in a romantic pairing between two characters in a fictional series, often when this relationship is one portrayed by fans rather than depicted in the series itself.

I have many ships. I used to have one or two then they evolved into a small pier and then a nice fleet and now it's just an armada.

Now that you know what a ship is, or at least have a basic definition, let's get to the fun part.

The Beginning

Picture this. You're watching something, reading something, doing whatever and you see two characters interact for a while and think, "They should be together." You might not realize it but you've just shipped something. You start rooting for them and either a) get excited when it becomes canon (apart of the story) or b) wonder why they ended up not together or with other people (sorry, but that ship has been sunk by the writers). But worry not, in your own head and probably a lot of other people, you can deny the actual reality and ship it anyway (Sherlock... Johnlock, ship it.) But this is only one thing. If you're anything like me you start seeing pairings and ships in other things you are a fan of.

From Ship to Armada

This is where things vary from person to person. I have an armada of ships. So many that I forget that I ship something and don't remember until I circle back to that fandom. I've tried to keep a list but I forget to update it. Shipping can take over your life if you aren't careful. My friends can vouch for me, I have been known to look up from the book we are reading in AP Lit and say, " (name of character) and (name of other character), ship it." and go back to reading. (BTW, Newt and that other Irish guy, ship it.) But what turns a few ships into an armada, to me it takes a mix of things. My armada involves multiple ships within a fandom, ships from various fandoms, crossover ships, submarines, and ships from my everyday life (that bagger and the check out person at Publix, ship it.) Ships come in all shapes and sizes...

The arrow is as straight as my otp.

Submarines... This is a concept that I'm trying to help take off, so I'm including it.

Now comes the fun part before the final crazy part...

The OTP

OTP stands for One True Pairing. This is the ship that you ship the most. The ship you think of when anyone says ship, pairing, or otp. This is the ship to end all ships for you. This is the ship you hold on to till the end of time. The OTP is yours, love it forever. But you can have other otps. The difference is, at least to me, that an otp and the OTP is that an otp is a main pairing you support in a fandom while the OTP is the pairing that you will stand by for forever and a day. 

My OTP is Janto, the one otp of mine that became canon and was taken from me all to quickly... Damn you Davies!!! *Takes a moment because it's all so painful*

Love your OTP and love your otps. Treasure the ones that make it to canon and hold the ones that have been sunk close to you. 

Now for the final part(s) that is a bit [read: a lot] nuts...

Shipping IRL

I do ship in real life. I ship real people. I don't usually advertise my ships. But I do. I've been known to ship random people at Publix. Random things in my front yard... TOPBOGIMFL Fandom!!!



Yeah, fangirls, fanboys (though I haven't met many), and shippers are nuts.

My shipping motto: If it fits, it ships. (Take that however you like). {Side note: Thank you USPS flat rate shipping, you just handed me my shipping motto}

What this means is whatever you want it to mean, lol. Seriously, so many ways you can take that. The general answer as to what it means is that if I feel that it would work and produce shenanigans and something amazing and adorable and "OMG, I can't live without this ship" feelings, then I ship it.

Sometimes it takes me a while to ship something (Hamlet and Horatio, two reads and five years) and sometime it takes me a second to ship something (Johnlock and Janto). Ship it, ship everything, ship all the pairings. It's okay to have multiple pairings for one character (Stony, Frostiron, Hawkiron, once Fury/Tony... yeah that was weird but it worked for that one moment). As long as it makes you happy, go for it. Ship what you want (McNozzo, Percy/Oliver, Hotch/Reid, Google/Yahoo, Tumblr itself). Now for some tumblr things to make sense of those last two ships...

Personally, I ship Link/Quote, Chat/Video, and Text/Photo with Audio being the guiding force that gets everyone together!

BTW.... Sorry this next one is looooong... http://pin.it/weObDS3



And then after all that THIS still happens...



And this...



So anyway, that's shipping and a few of my many ships. I ship anything and everything, nothing is safe. Until next time, Sanders out.