#selfshipping.

Just toxic ship thoughts ♡

Come to the conclusion that your crush must be some kind of angel, a gift, a sign from god

fetishize his androgyny for your own god complex

attempt assault cause you Know Fucking Better than to destroy the world

God likes your angel more than You. get Jealous

still wants to destroy God

reintegrate back to society, which you hate, Get Jealous Part 2

get you a man who can do both: soft and mean. oh so very mean sometimes~

I’m of the full belief that Volo, no matter what, never loses his hangups in a  dynamic with the protagonist. What remains consistent is that he is jealous of them, he is driven, he is emotional, and he is primarily interested in the protagonist’s usefulness. Whether or not he sees Akari/Rei as a child, even if he cares so about them, they are chalked up as a necessary sacrifice to his goals. He may feel nothing of them, or, he may feel everything and for it still not to be enough to quell his ambitions.

Romantically speaking, with Felix, no matter the context....the relationship has a strange and weird air. You see, there is always a power struggle at play in their circumstances, to begin with. One of them has to win, and has to lose. They are too similar to each other, so an imbalance is damn near inevitable, with one either forced, or convinced to come to the other’s side. They are Not Normal, and this is not a fully tame dynamic, even in the quietest moments.  Felix cannot die, without being erased from existence, and while Volo could die horribly, it is a doomed timeline- Cynthia wouldn’t be there in the future, The Celestica ruins might not have been preserved, Sinnoh as we know it could be in danger. It’s the kind of bullshit that perhaps even Dialga would go mad helping to fix, should Felix kill him.

A lot of the divergence has to do with when one of them gets the upper hand, and how. Canonically, Felix wins, at least at Spear Pillar.  Volo waffles between sticking to his ideals, and feeling utterly crushed at that defeat. He won’t give up in life, no matter where that takes him.

The sort of obsession that Volo takes, has he a positive connotation to Felix, might be that he is too good for this world. He does not understand why he keeps giving and giving, for it all to be in vain.  It’s also highly frustrating, for him to think of Felix when he has his own goals in mind. That obsession with Arceus itself easily transfers over- A desire to subjugate, or to serve. 

But, Felix has of course, a weakness or two. It is an emotional weakness, for he too is jaded with the world....but he Loves it.  Volo taking advantage of Felix is absolutely the main path that I see. Likely to convince him; he knows the hero is starved for attention, and just might give it to him. As such that force did not work in the past, other methods may be used to captivate him. If Volo somehow succeeds in creating a new world, he will take Felix with him and be sure to reward him for cooperating so. Even with such, Volo is still controlling. He just can’t rely on death in this world as ending, so will settle for killing him with kindness, and charm.  Truly enough that he could probably still even fake a romantic relationship to cruelly get his way to erasing him. But, were he to adore Felix beyond this world, his desire for control, and smugness in getting what he wants drives a desire to ‘spoil’ him.

But, if he can’t, even if he is powerless in that regard....Volo won’t stop trying to change the world. Lucky that this is a constant goal for Felix.  A version of Volo that has no choice but to live in this world, a schizm from his dreams, will invest in it intensely. Fiercely protectively, as with how Giratina views the region. But he will be largely protective of Felix, and offer his help unfailingly. It’s the same desperation as dedicating his life to Arceus, and turns to fussing over him and his tired body, because he will not let life screw him over. If he has to lose, and he hates losing, he will be cutting further losses. This world will not get worse, on God.

a ship between zivan and felix's aesthetic calls for that feeling of understated 'will they or won't they' and 'do you still think of us?' even when they are together.

So, the only muse of mine, in fact the only verse of mine that smokes cigarettes is Volo's modern woes verse. And the reason that he does so is very circumstantial, and "extreme" enough from his point of view, because smoking sucks and nobody actually likes it (despite having manufactured media sex appeal. lol)

It's definitely a cope that he never intended to do forever. being singleship as a verse is part of what makes it even a thing; He's just so broken from having Felix taken from him in the PLA era, knowing that both of them will be alive when they meet again, but he has to wait however-many years to see his unrequited love again.

So the nicotine is pretty much an addiction for in the meantime. He's immortal, so it won't kill him, and it's literally a case of 'i can quit anytime that i want.' because he's Sad and old and his sources of seretonin are limited and temporary. And it doesn't matter, in fact may help, that it turns people off- While he is actually a gentle and friendly guy, keeping people from getting too close is fine while he waits.

But it definitely doesn't last once he gets what he wants. Felix's own dislike for smoke smell, along with becoming out of breath at the end of a long awaited sex session- it's pretty fucking clear to reiterate that his dream of being a good husband and father among other career things ain't happening with trashed out lungs. So naturally he quits, probably cold turkey because he's dramatic like that and masochistic. but he does, because he can, and enventually those lungs and etc. heal up. He gets his sense of smell back, and some of his zest for life.

💘: Why would people love your ship? Why would people dislike your ship? How might it start debates?

🎞️: What ‘canon’ scenes would the fandom point to as evidence for the validity of your ship?

💘: Why would people love your ship? Why would people dislike your ship? How might it start debates?

Rhetorically speaking, people actually do kinda go nuts for VoloxProtag, for better or worse... typical fanon is a highlight upon the 'religious' aspect- Volo concludes that the protag is 'also' blessed by the grace of Arceus, therefore they are meant to be, or something like that. Fandom and I are both guilty of using the 'last of his kind' motivation as well.

Though, with Felix specifically, I suppose the theme would be more towards their actual similarities; curiosity, lost heritage, and altruistic rebellion. Plus, their physical differences are kinda hot. lol.

I think the primary debate is simply how you portray Volo and ergo how 'healthy' the ship can be. I feel like it's safe to guess, that the earlier his infatuation lies in the story, the bigger the red flags. Felix is an adult so that takes a lot of wind out of certain conflicts. But there are those who just simply refuse to humanize Volo on the basis of evil=aromantic/incel, on the shallower end of takes.

anyways, the appeal for me is largely historical, largely physical. They're from different times. Countries. Bodies. But still have some paralells, especially punkish/rebellious ones. Felix isn't a hero because he's lawful, like Kamado.

🎞️: What ‘canon’ scenes would the fandom point to as evidence for the validity of your ship?

The 'stalking' obsession in game

the goofy solo act Volo gets post-credits (and to a lesser extent, the red chain arc before that.)

🤪: What is your trait that fanon would exaggerate?

💌: How would your dynamic be portrayed? What might people focus on most? Any misconceptions?

Realistically speaking, there's 2 routes that I see as far as a canon portrayal- either Felix-muse would be casual buddies with who the ship partner was and fanon would ship them, Or, the relationship would be an offhand and casual confirmation. I don't exactly see the series that I indulge with turning into some dating sim or even focusing on it, even if a tastefully done romance subplot would be nice; I feel like these franchises are perfectly capable of portraying it well, but it's unlikely due to mass appeal/childsafe* appeal. (*even if some kids wanted romance in their stories, their parents might not. especially huge companies like pokemon that're in the public eye.) My favourite series are never really romance-based, I ship within the confines of a bigger adventure.

Sans and Villager! Felix would probably have smash-based shenanigans, or maybe, an interaction at his hotdog stand. ....Come to think of it, probably with the same vibes as anything canon-soriel. Perfectly Platonic,....or is it? leading to shitposting (positive) in the shipping community. Smash itself does like to have fun with subtle implications- charizard handing pikachu a flower, villager inviting Wii Fit to his 'bachelor pad'; things that don't confirm a ship outright but could be a cheeky hint of evidence. Or, we have some weird spirit board valentine's day event to confirm shit, lmfao-

Meanwhile, for Pokemon stuff...It really is hard to say because Felix is a protagonist character. Generally speaking, Everything the protagonist gets involved with story-wise is this big huge thing; There is a chance that the ship would be baked into the story dramatics, during a swelling point of the action itself. It's the question of whether they go Big and follow the protagonist vibe, or go home and follow the general pokemon vibe with romance; shipping in-series generally happens to less important people, as an offhand mention. So, you'd either start off in a ship as this canon's partner while the game was still calm, get together dramatically™️within the story, or have the ship canonized in postgame/future content, like some offhand mention in masters. Also, I feel like whatever we got, fans would bitch about it as well.

The 'worst' would probably be the anime; it'd show a couple in their calm period (like Blossom's parents) with a merely implicit wholesome romance that isn't too on-the-nose, or.....something extremely awkward. They've made a lot of homophobic jokes in the past, so I'd imagine it would have a baby ally's sense of humor- in the 'oh my god they're Gay Congratulations!' sort of sense.

tl;dr, pokemon's sense of seriousness tends to be all or nothing, lmao, so I'd be surprised if it was anything mid or nuanced, for better or worse! <3

🤪: What is your trait that fanon would exaggerate?

well, the canon gay/transness would be a 'hoo Woof' moment, so for lack of a better word, my gender??? I could see someone leaning hard one way or the other with the masc/femme stuff, popular/outcast kinda dynamic. I feel like there's mostly just a potential for mismatched tone; but it'd be more series relevant than mun relevant as far as the dissonance. which happens anyways with fandom. I feel like possibly, people might overexaggerate the effect being trans has on his life, while underexaggerating how he feels about it, or vice versa in the case of bad faith from transphobes. TL;DR I've had more people call me brave than actually had to be brave. most transphobia i deal with is subtle/unintentional, but fandom would either make it a non-issue, or a huge issue.

.....i don't trust most Fandom™️ with the concept of a vers switch, much less series ability to showcase it, so I'd assume casual observers to pick more concrete hetnorm roles- he'd be assigned the 'husband' or 'malewife' of the ship depending on which traits the shipper picked up about him. This would be understandable but possibly annoying/incorrect. this could also extend to writing him as primarily mean or naive, if the fan was going for a flat character. (the character himself has temptations/instinct to weaponize both of these, regardless of his final decision outwardly.)

possibly make Felix over-capable/high energy. It's kinda hard to write true laziness or introversion and have it be actually interesting. ergo. If you know how to improvise as well as i do, it can come off as professionalism/expertise. He's more of a ditto in that way-