The Crank Palace

In all of AO3’s history, how many instances has there been in which a fandom with over 100 or over 1000 fics has had a platonic relationship be the most written one, appearing at the top of the dropdown list?

Because I can only think of one (2 if you count both book and movie): Project Hail Mary.

And I’d really like to know whether there’s any others.

This isn't necessarily an exhaustive list (especially if the same pairing appears in multiple fandom tags, which many of these do), but I used my AO3 Ship Stats data to try to find a few of the largest fandoms where the largest relationship tag is a platonic one:

Batman - All Media Types - 194,603 works - top relationship Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

Minecraft (Video Game) - 115,828 works - top relationship Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson | Philza

Dream SMP - 93,420 works - top relationship Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types - 39,556 works - top relationship Donatello & Leonardo & Michelangelo & Raphael (TMNT)

Danny Phantom - 28,996 works - top relationship Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson

The Last of Us (Video Games) - 14,208 works - top relationship Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)

White Collar (TV 2009) - 13,819 works - top relationship Peter Burke & Neal Caffrey

Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Cartoon) - 13,537 works - top relationship CT-9901 | Hunter & Omega (Star Wars: The Bad Batch)

The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton - 10,432 works - top relationship Darrel "Darry" Curtis Jr. & Ponyboy Curtis & Sodapop Curtis

I've tagged the relationship as the top-line item, with the fandoms right below -- so you'll see Peter Parker & Tony Stark twice, for both the Spider-Man and Iron Man fandoms (I thought it was interesting to compare the size of the ship in each fandom) and similar for the two PHM fandoms. I also split the number of works into those that have the Gen category and those that do not; I figured that the platonic ship might be a background ship in the ones that aren't tagged Gen:

If we look at this graph (and the underlying data), the main ship from Project Hail Mary looks relatively tiny -- which makes sense, given that that fandom is new and the others have all had much longer to grow! But what's particularly interesting is what happens when we look at the same ships as percentages of their fandoms:

I've once again sorted the data by the number of works that are Gen and therefore likely to actually be platonic. (I also showed how much of the rest of the fanworks in the fandom are tagged Gen outside of the biggest relationship.) In this view, PHM leads the pack -- both book and movie! It'll be really interesting to see if anything changes as the fandom grows.

@pscentral​ event 41: heroes [insp]

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH — spider socorro, jake sully, kiri, neytiri, lo’ak, tuktirey

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH — miles quaritch, jake sully, spider socorro

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH — jake sully, miles quaritch, spider socorro, tuktirey, kiri, lo’ak

escaping the mangkwan.

It was very kind of Kiri/Eywa to have him unconscious during his transformation and not have him realize that a kuru is growing out of his head. But UNFORTUNATELY, I have to see him suffer, and then be comforted.

We've all heard about his upcoming growth spurt where he'll feel every single bone in his body stretching.

And when his fangs come in, it'll be a whole new kind of tooth-ache.

His stripes are etching themselves into his skin so that he never has to repaint them, but it burns and itches SO bad.

His hearing and seeing improves to Na'vi levels, but it's giving him SUCH a terrible headache at first.

A personal favorite of mine:

Yes, he himself is still breathing oxygen. But the mycelium is a symbiotic relationship and wants to get something out of it too. So if he hasn't breathed outside-air for long enough, the mycelium starts to lock his lungs.

For one of the reasons mentioned above, he's been inside the medbay of high camp for a few days, and suddenly he can't breathe anymore. They try to give him more oxygen, but it's no use; he's suffocating. Until Kiri has the idea to put her own rebreather on him....

Part X

How to show pleasure

dilated pupils

mouth half opened

increased heart rate

increased breath rate

increased blood flow

heightened sensitivity

body parts turning warm and flushed

body parts becoming engorged or wet

tension in the entire body

trembling

involuntary contractions

hard to speak, but incapable to be quiet

How to show tenderness

sincere, warm, and open smile

slow and soft movements

leaning in towards what they feel tender about

listening carefully, head held towards them

gentle tone of voice

softening of facial expressions

relaxed eyebrows

soft and relaxed eyes

a hint of a tear appearing

relaxed mouth with a little smile

gently touching or stroking who or what they feel tender about

calm breathing, not too shallow, not too deep

How to show guilt

avoiding eye contact or looking down

tightness in the shoulders, neck, and jaw

being hunched over, slumped shoulders, making themself small

turning their body away from who they feel guilty towards

sweaty palms

trembling hands

heart racing

fidgeting with their entire body

crossing and uncrossing one’s legs

shifting from one foot to the other

pacing around

knot in the stomache, not being able to eat or eating too much to compensate

a feeling of heaviness in their body

How to show curiosity

open, dilated eyes

holding eye contact

raised eyebrows

tilting of the head

leaning towards what they find curious

mouth slightly open

uncrossed arms

actively listening

holding still, so they don't miss anything

More: How to write emotions Masterpost

"Since when did I start caring about what you do, Carter?" "Never."