i take my craft of multishipping seriously so here’s some thoughts on my faves. quick note that if i ship yeehan and spuriken, it’s never in the same universe.
so let’s start with yeehan since it’s what dropkicked me into the fandom. god they were tailor made for me, i love rough softies (hanzo main), i fucking LOVE cowboys, and accents are my favorite thing ever. i think it’s incredibly interesting to put hanzo with a person who had a close personal relationship with the subject of his shame. i’m really stunned it took THIS LONG for us to get an interaction to acknowledge that cass knows what hanzo has done, perhaps better than anyone besides the brothers. forgiveness is not for him to decide, but genji heals and grows, and cassidy is willing to make an effort to see hanzo in a new light. hanzo’s shame closes him off like a clam, but if cass could befriend genji during blackwatch, i think he can manage. like his brother, hanzo needs support and guidence to heal. likewise, helping someone could allow cassidy to slowly unearth the trauma he internalized from his past as a criminal and as an agent of deadlock. they are soft and fluffy. genji and cass have light gossip on hanzo. it’s great.
spuriken is one of my current favorites, especially blackwatch era. there’s so many details; meeting each other at probably the worst stages of their lives forges a relationship that stays with you for life. cass is a sneaky bastard who puts on an act each time he’s talking to someone (which is his biggest strenght as a blackwatch agent and the reason why he’s gabriel’s right hand), and genji is (understandibly) always angry and genuinely unbearable. but they are both lonely to their very core, and touch starved enough to seek each other out, either with just having a hand on the other’s shoulder or straight up friends with benefits. cus what better way to use the leftover adrenaline from missions than fucking like animals and nearly driving each other insane. neither of them are alright in the slightest.
on the other hand, after genji got boinked on the head by zenyatta, they can become so sweet and fluffy and domestic. they are wildly different from their old selves but fall in love with each other again regardless. i think seeing genji so happy and calm and content would pull on cassidy’s heartstrings in ways i can’t describe without making this post five hours long. imagine him seeing new era genji, face uncovered and everything ouuughhhhh,,,,,,
on the topic of genji getting better, genyatta. zenyatta is a comfort to me in a way that none of the others are, and i imagine that’s multiplied by a hundred in genji’s case. again, someone seeing you at your lowest and them standing as a rock among the waves cannot be ignored. there’s a fair bit of power inbalance at the begining, genji is constantly on edge, glass one drop away from overflowing, swithing between fighting everyone and, even without words, desperately begging for help. it does affect zenyatta, even if he’s disturbingly good at hiding it. with all genji went through, he would have doubts about being able to help him, about being worthy of genji’s growing admiration towards him. but genji is stronger than he thought, stronger than him or any of the people who hurt him, and recovers. while it’s not a linear, he improves, and once he’s well enough, something starts slowly developing between them. it’s adressed by genji, even if zenyatta fell first. he thought it would be inappropriate for him to initiate.
i honestly haven’t dug deep enough into ramyatta but like. it’s right there. they were literally written for each other what am i supposed to say. i adore how it was ramattra who brought zenyatta to the temple, but it was zenyatta who found peace there. they are searching for the same thing, but they have entirely different views on that thing, which eventually tears them apart. imagine recieving the news your friend — and no question, soulmate — started a war for the peace that was your shared dream. zenyatta’s heart must ache for him the way you watch a cat run onto a busy road to avoid the human approaching it. they are doomed by the narrative so hard i can’t even propose a fix-it fic to you. i love angst.
if you want my detailed thoughts on ramji, i have a fic. but long story short, they are too alike to get along, at least while genji is still learning under zenyatta. they were built and raised to be weapons, looked down upon by society. ramattra is weary of humans and genji struggles with his humanity, so they can either grow from getting to know each other, or push the other’s negative thoughts and emotions to the extreme.
no idea what’s the name for genji/zenyatta/ramattra (if there’s any)(there should be), but surprise! i’m feral for a good poly ship.
i imagine the common interest at first is zen, of course. him and ram have the kind of of mutual respect and closeness that doesn’t have to be discussed. they just are, enjoying each other’s presence, serving as each other’s anchor points. then genji arrives to stomp into their lives with all his anger and desperation.
genji and ramattra only tolerate each other to make zenyatta happy. ram, even though he doesn’t particularly want to admit it, is jealous of just how much time genji spends with his master. i could talk about them for hours, zenyatta plays a huge role in both their lives so it’s really similar to ramji, but with an added layer of yearning. timeline is genji becomes zenyatta’s student > ramattra eventually comes around and falls first and refuses to tell him > meanwhile zenyatta is developing feelings for genji but can’t tell him > ramji go through a bunch of homoerotic repaires on genji’s cybernetics > genji cames to his senses but now he’s stuck crushing on both of them > and during all this ramyatta have someting. they are so bad at this.
bonus headcanon is genji being so touch starved that the moment he trusts zenyatta enough, he will not let go of him, even before their relationship turns romantic. making sure they sit close enough for their legs to brush, hooking his chin over his master’s shoulder, even falling asleep with his head in the omnic’s lap sometimes. once closer, he just likes to cuddle up to both his boyfriends, really enjoying how ramattra is big enough for him to curl up in his lap, and with the omnic’s arms around him, it’s so, so safe. genji struggles so much with being deprived of touch for so long that he’s deeply disturbed by omnics’ inability to experience physical touch, making sure he can convey his fondness in ways they can enjoy.
there! genji is so shipable i can’t help it. i also adore stuff like gency, reaper76, lifesym(!!!), emre/chernobog, whatever that’s called, but these are the ones that roll around in my brain like tumbleweeds. feel free to ask about them/add to my thoughts, i can talk for hours i mean it
