Wracking my brain and, I'm struggling to think of what the answer would be... I guess it depends on what one considers 'dark'? Like... ? Scary, horror, violent things...? If so, I'm very sensitive to things like horror so despite being allured by horror concepts, I've never been able to stomach things that are tooo scary...! My mind has always been very permeable, and I often dream about what I look at, so as a kid I was desperately trying to avoid having nightmares by focusing on more 'pleasant' worlds... like pokemon and hamtaro. (To the point where I couldn't even played games I really liked... I had to stop playing OoT & MM because of chronic nightmares spawned from them kfkfk... I'M BETTER NOW but it was a problem when I was under ~10 years old.) It took quite a while to be able to work my way up to psychological horror and artsy adult movies... [squints.] Maybe.......... Elfen Lied........... was as buck wild as it got, around ~14...

But if you mean 'dark' as in... fanworks, fan content (uhh age gap incest noncon etc...) Then. [my mind tabs through, childhood of kid Bird searching for 'Link and Zelda kiss'] hmmmmmmmmm......... Hm. Perhaps taxonomically it was when I discovered there's a lot of pokemon porn out there in the world. I was like ~12 for that... Ooh but it feels kind of silly to call it dark or weird. Since even tho it was ferals/zoo the content itself didn't feel dark in nature, and. My reaction to seeing it was just 'yassssss god doujin of girl being railed by zebstrika wooooo!!!!!!!!!! Epic.' What I was writing/drawing happening to my own OCs at the time was far more ah, gritty at least, like lots of stuff happening there, but that doesn't count as 'consuming'...

The takeaway here might be that, I was already engaging with '''dark'''' fantasies in my own head well before I saw fanwork of it/was able to stomach it in books/movie/TV. So I don't think I have a very strong impression of my 'first' experience with it...!

Such a cute ask... Our interest in these two is one from childhood and, I think me and Avvy were pretty simple as kids with lil het ships like this, like them 'as they are'. (Prone to shipping things like, Angel and Scamp lol, agreeable to what is presented!) Growing up, I find that those feelings don't change a great deal... If anything, I am amused to watch my adult brain form a whole scenario that is effectively not more complicated than childhood desires.

As a kid, Avvy especially liked things having litters — I did too, so, whenever we've talked about them, we've thought about breeding scenarios.... Things like, their owners childishly want to see them have babies lol so they are put in the same cage with the intent of babies being made... (Just kids not thinking about consequence, though also it wouldn't be a big deal ultimately, I feel, from parent POV...) I like that Hamtaro is stupid and dense, you have to accept it's like his charm point, so it is Bijou who is moreso burdened with piecing together what this arrangement is 'about'... And feeling like >///< Noouuu... It is torment, since she has this crush, and she really wants Hamtaro to... notice her someday, it's too much. But I like to think it's very simple to initiate, actually, that Hamtaro would be easily receptive and eager, he just literally needs to be hit with the pheromones and autopilot, raw instinct mount. And then it's like kyaa-! Wait... This is so fun!! OUhh!!!

Dense he may be, but I think also genuine and loving, so once it 'clicks' he is fawning and loving. No qualms with complimenting Bijou! It'd just validate things she was insecure about, like, of course I find you pretty! I love doing stuff with you! ... I think Bijou deserves more overt romantic sentiments, a sense of favoritism, which again Hamtaro is kind of too dumb for (that Love all my friends sort) but with a lil time, I think it could be that too. Just need to give a childish type some time... but I don't think of it as unharmonious to his nature, it's an organic innocent feeling of I LOOOVE YOU! YOU'RE THE PRETTIEST! YOU'RE THE BEST!!! Hehe.

As for the babies, you know they would be soooooooooo cute, all white and spotted, some paler orange than others, maybe one solid orange. They just get adopted out etc... UGH if you know you know but I really DO think about that 1 meme image that's like 'SEX MAKES BABIES????' ALL THE TIME bc I can hear it in Hamtaro's voice and YES i think that is how he would feel.>F kjgdfhfjhkg... though really I think it would take time to connect the processes... Maybe Bijou would have to explain.

Ty for enjoying my sona... I think me and Avvy's hamhams are funnily just bepsis of Hamtaro and Bijou... It's appropriate though. I like them still. :) And, I like the original pair... All good!

I quite like skitty yes, such a simple and cute design... Always have enjoyed her existence. :> Though I don't think I've had a specific pair with skitty in childhood. With PMD, I amusingly had more attachment to the pokemon the test would assign me as, because it felt like it was Really Reading My Aura or something (embarr...) So of all things, it tended to assign me like, mudkip and bulbasaur, which I still feel a kind of kinship to this day. Felt like it showed me something about myself.

More recently, as in the past couple years, I played the demo for the switch revamp of the first PMD game. And since I was playing that in front of Avvy, we got attached to the pairing of mudkip with skitty... Now that is my fairing match-up for skitty, it feels like my mudkip self finally got a proper mate. Somehow these shapes... very cute together...?? I think of mudkip as a bumbling creature, pair this with the energetic skitty running in circles, bapping and pawing, so cute in my mind... Would love to draw more of them someday.

Yes. :3 One of those OTPs I still think fondly of. Mooostly I think of things Avvy drew (she was better at drawing them than me...) + a handful of RPs that were lit. Like one where Sunny and Mari are home alone on his bday so they let loose and Sunny gets fed lots of ice creams and pizzas etc... Indulgence. And then this other very evocative one set in Headspace/Blackspace. Also still feel proud of our joint fic, feels like a solid piece, glad to have contributed it to the ecosystem. :>

I don't like actively create for/look at art of them anymore as, my mind is elsewhere — also I feel like I "did everything I wanted to" with them. Some ships are like that, like ah, get a sense of satisfaction from all that we did so, now we always have these memories to look back on... Which is good because I think I'm going to be trapped in JSHK for a million years probably. At this rate❤ lol

I'm not actually rewatching MLP, sorry for confusion? (Been rewatching SU, maybe that's what you're thinking of?) Anyhoo, sitting on this ask... I guess I have to accept I Do Not Have thoughts on Cozy Glow. This sort of design & demeanor can appeal to me, I don't dislike her, but I didn't feel compelled by anything the show did with her...! A filly playing the role of antagonist is an exciting concept but it is ruined by how much idgaf about Tirek... and ultimately she doesn't have any interesting motivation, just power hungry, and then we like. Imprison her in tartarus and that's fine ig... because she is, evil. The evil villain alliance stuff also VERY BORING completely asleep for it. As with most things in FiM i just find her underutilized, but I could appreciate her design and if anyone made thought-provoking fanart. And I would be happy to draw her... that sorta thing.

Hmmmm... The blunt answer is, I don't like them-!! So no, I don't like any characters that are this. But digging into this a little more, I think I struggle with grocking the term itself & have struggled since childhood... Never liked the thought that if a girl just acts a certain way, she gets termed a 'boy' in some manner. Because you get into the issue of what 'acting like a boy' even means... whose metric is this. We talking about just wearing? Shorts? Having short hair? Playing, with 'boy things'?? Somehow it makes me sad & frustrated to think about a character I like being deemed a tomboy just because she does any of this. Like if one saw a kindergarten age Nene-chan with her scruffy rat qualities, loving ghouls n skulls, and deemed her a tomboy, sigh, CAN'T A GIRL JUST... etc.

So I dislike the term + I disagree with what often qualifies as a tomboy. The part 2 of this though is — let's say it's undeniably a tomboy we're dealing with, no grey area. Perhaps the character themselves would flat-out would ID with the word tomboy. Well by then I'm put-off LOL... Doooon't like masculinity, so I don't like masc girls. Would actually sooner go with a very feminine boy. My alignment is such. The delicate fairy-like shota much more valuable than punky boorish loli.

[walks into this ask serenely, like I stepped through the curtain of a waterfall]

... I've always been bad at describing succinctly my favorite ship dynamics... But, my best efforts, I shall give... hummm!

I think oneeshota is in my core... So nutritious for me. I like varying personalities, dynamics, within it! A classic for me is moody, aloof older girl... Troubled, isolated, difficult — someone who often fails in their relationships, or just lacks charm, this or that... Paired with bright, earnest, naive boy. But I like a genki girl, and more mature shotas, the precocious sort... I'm pickier about boys being aloof (because it can easily become aggravating!) buuut it can appeal to me when done right. Just has to balance enough traits... You can have a dumb excitable girl x dumb excitable boy, too. Hard to picture aloof girl x aloof boy tho, unless they were very loving with one another distinctly. That's key of course...!

It's important that they be special to one another, in some manner... The cute thing about the age difference is, I often like it to be a product of the older one being immature, putting them on the playing level of the kid. The ability to 'play' together is so key... I'm always thinking about my ships playing with toys, playing games of pretend, play play play. It has to be innate and fluid, something they can sink into one another, magnetized... A desire to be playful! Deep down I like anyone of any maturity level being ~brought down~ into childishness, so even a more modest or mature shota must succumb to wanting to be sillay...

Alongside play, I like caretaking...!! I feel like it's another part of ships that's always present. I like to think of it as mutual, even if there's a particular lean for one doing it more for the other. Taking turns and providing each other care and comfort in some crucial way... Babysitter is a cute role for oneesan, she can cook and clean after shota, but it's also sweet if the shota can do things for her... caretake her emotionally or, help her when she is sick, as competently or feebly as it must be.

He likes same-age dynamics too though. And in those I see play/caretaking happening readily as well. Lately been really enchanted by twins... but the fun of that is every second of life spent together. In sync, sharing experiences and milestones. That's so much time to be together, to become obsessed with one another... it feels like you can have such a legacy of intimacy at such a young age. An entire world between just the two of you... so cozy, so magical to think of. ❤

I always think, as long as my ship is obsessed with one another, that's what really matters. There needs to be a degree of passion, as well, intensity...? As much as I love romance, the more mild, 'wholesome' sort does make me quite bored... Fine but not very relatable haha. I think love needs to be... all sorts of painful, scary, all-consuming... So that's an essential 'tooth' that I crave. Age gap and incest and interspecies dynamics helps bake in that struggle... but the struggle to be together is worth it! It means you have to really, REALLY want it, also... you have to want it more than anything.

So on the other end of childhood friends are extreme... 'love at first sight' or... kidnapping scenarios, something where someone is entrapped by the other, put through great extremes. Stalked for a while and then snatched. Afraid! Disoriented! Confused! Not... expecting romance at all...! But falling into it! I like that too... I liiiike delusional draw, something that compels someone to do things that seem... awful, yet are entirely necessary to express their need. Harming, being harmed, this being a crucial part of the process. It is genuinely overwhelming... but in this upheaval, strangeness, then someone has to realize that they don't feel the way they 'should' about it... The victim isn't quite right either, the perpetrator is more innocent than you think... Balance. The end game is learning this is how it is ultimately Supposed to be... ..............

~like I said... it's hard to summarize...~ In some ways it's easier to describe individual character types, like umm generally liking hermits, outcasts, very unwell and ill types, underdogs... Two lonely hearts finding one another. Maybe they gave up on love or, maybe they never even conceptualized it for themselves, never thought it Could happen, or never wanted it for themselves...

This is more generalized and maybe less ? sensical sounding, but I do like ships with a knight/princess vibe... in the way that HomuMado has this, but also ZeLink literally Is It. Believe it or not this is a facet of AmaTsuka (as Amane evokes samurai and Tsukasa is some sort of kami/emperor...) He is allured by it repeatedly, yet unintentionally. It kisses with my simp, loyal, anything for you💕 mind. Worship princess... goddess... heurrr.... Wait but I thought about it and why is Kris a knight and Asriel a prince. IT JUST HAPPENS...

Cough cough... Ah, I always feel like I can't make it sound cohesive or elegant~ (*/ω＼)💦 'My favorite ships that are deeply madly in love and best friends'... lol.

Sure I will be stinky, if you desire it. I do wish more people hated ships in the petty way — well... all ship hate is petty, so IG what I wish is that we all discussed it with acknowledgement to that pettiness. Instead of proposing it like a great moral quandary (because it's not, it can't be.) I always equate ship taste to food because 99% of the time it IS as arbitrary as loving watermelon popsicles but hating grape. With all the trappings of 'but I do like real grapes and grape juice even'. People could look at you and just not understand why you dislike something... Personally I just find this funny. Taste! It is what it is-!! It should just be funny when you see your friend really lay into some rando ship/character like whoaaa lol...! Haha.

Like Avvy said in her reply, I'm also bored by ships that feel... mundane, something one could experience IRL that lacks whimsy, a boring amount of... 'things that happen and aren't great'. The opposite of a fantasy. Why would I bother thinking about this... I suppose what I'll add on is some ships also give you a sense of wastefulness... Like someone is completely neglecting a perfect opportunity before them. Whatever people feel about how Light treats Misa YK? It's just a Waste.

As we are rewatching SU... For me, it's Steven/Connie that trip this frustration constantly. I'm like glaring at every intimate scene that passes by... knowing what their trajectory is in Future. It winds up feeling like... A WASTE! Like... all that time spent getting to know each other, training, sharing major experiences... BUT FOR WHAT!! For your friend to just organically move on after a couple years and focus on becoming a lawyer ig. That's soo crazy... Your minds and bodies have melded magically in a way no other human has ever experienced, through fusion. Connie dreamed of having a 'magic destiny' and got to BE a part of a 'universe'... ALL TO LIKE, HAVE A BIZARRELY MUNDANE LEVEL OF NEGLECTING A FRIEND AND NEEDING SPACE AND FOCUSING ON CAREER... OMG...!!

Ah they're unfortunately a ship that I used to find plenty cute... to, HATING TERRIBLY after the development in SU:F... It's rare that happens but, Connie's character was totally ruined for me, what with having her commit to education/college/prestige. The very things she was originally rebelling against her parents over...? How miserable. That would already be sad alone but, along with Steven spiraling & feeling left behind, along with her reacting poorly to his proposal... That's faaaaaaaar too depressingggg... It feels like any romance they had built up got shot down brutally, deconstructed to no return.

I always knew that part of the vision for SU was that it doesn't just 'end' with a 'happily ever after'... You don't get married and solve everything. It's something Rebecca has talked about + it was covered in the movie itself. I never thought that Steven/Connie were 'end game'...? (Not like I wanted it to be?) Er, I figured it'd just be a 'possibility'; something that Could be more, has plenty potential, but we just don't see the conclusion. That... I could accept, but, fsr the way we unpack the idea of 'happily ever after' is to... just, point blank have Steven panicking and overly needy with Connie and then her unable to accommodate... but to a cartoonish degree like, she can't set aside more than 15 minutes for him because she is so busy with school . And she wants to move across the country for college w/o really discussing it . and she has other perfectly normal friends accruing . and she herself is just not distressed or worried while Steven is like losing his mind, having breakdowns that result in things like. I mean Jasper nearly dying, and White, nearly, dying.

[inhales...] I'm someone who really adores childhood best friends, being hopelessly intertwined, soulmates... and I dislike respectability, academia, society. So this is like unfathomably upsetting to me to think about experiencing fjkjfjgjg... It's already tedious in life, when you have crushes on friends and it doesn't work out... But you're telling me that the crush is ignoring me serenading her on the beach 💢 after everything we've been through... just to read books 💢💢💢💢 It makes me want to kill Connie quite frankly. Ooh dumb little nerd, you just want to be independent and have cool educated friends. Fine. I understand why Steven just drives tf away at the end of the series.

Another ship that makes me feel the "you're wasting it" emotion is Roy/Riza... Though in this case it's seeing a girlie I like very much get treated in a way I can't stand, so I just want to break it up to get in there. The mundane aspect of this one is like the... way Roy is like her boss. So that's already disinteresting to me, idc about things like co-workers... Working a job together very boring. I like a submissive girl but it's sullied in a context like this for me, like, it's far too clinical and mired in obligations, to society, beh. Riza doesn't feel elevated enough from Roy's other comrades... Hughes or whatever tf. And that's gross to me, you can't have your girlie on the same level as your dude friend. DECLINED!!

Of course it's more complicated with these two than just working together... They do have 'a history', but it's ruined by the other thing I dislike: DADS!!! Roy having studied under Riza's father is gross. Since flame alchemy is evil & her dad was evil so Roy perpetuating his teachings feels, evil. And then Roy basically is the reason she enlists in the military & gets traumatized by. Seeing flame alchemy be used for a genocide. So Riza feels heavily responsible and carrying this eternal guilt, she lives a life full of toil and suffering as a way to 'atone'... and Roy just sees this and is like yep yeah. We'll just toil eternally and suffer. And be chaste ig, and I won't coddle you when you cry, and I also won't even honor our psycho arrangement where you can shoot me dead when I go nuts (bc when I do go nuts I'll just be soooo mad I don't wanna listen!!) Ugh.

Again it's just all these details that negate romance to me... negate exclusivity as well... I'm really mad that Roy would go ballistic over Hughes dying and in general just be protective of his crew. It's not like he's just really protective over Riza... Those two, their relationship is never going to crest into more, it has no reason to, so it won't. IT'S A WASTE THEN... YOU JUST HAVE A VERY LOYAL GIRL FOR NO REASON. And then you have the GALL to be thinking about girls in miniskirts. Grim to me. [gives Roy Mustang a wedgie]

Less intense but in the realm of FMA i also can't stand EdWin god. In this case it's not that I extremely stan Ed though, he is amusingly, shitty and. Like a funny character to me. But it is just an annoying relationship to spectate, it makes you think "these two need to just leave each other"... I don't really know what's gained from two fussy people who are going to yell at each other. Yet one of them IS like... ultimately very guilt-addled, self-hating and miserable. It just feels unnecessary then to get like whacked on the head by a wrenchf kfkgghf like that's not HELPING... ANYTHING. I look at edwin and it's really like a caveman relationship to me, barking at one another, then one of you gets BONKd.... No depth or value LOL. I can't imagine being stimulated by it. Just a bit too rote, shounen designated het, something something that girl you bicker with she's your first girl though so... Egh.

I realize I have this older retro reply where I'm breaking down why I don't like Sunny/Aubrey... So if you'd be interested in that, you can read it here. It's not nearly as bad as how much I dislike THAT RAT with Sunny, cuz I like Aubrey quite a bit, but I still don't like the idea of them together romantically. Amusingly one of those things where I just cannot fathom either person 'making a move'... Inert.

Hm that's probably plenty to read... heh. Enjoi lol