Shimin pimp post/manifesto/ENDLESS RAMBLING
I guess this isn't really a manifesto/pimp post because it is heavily personal and biased and also totally not long enough (...edit: scrap that, it's way long enough), but whatever, let's just roll with this, okay?
SHIPPING SHIMIN: wait, it's legit?
I had never even thought about Shimin before April/May 2009. At that point, I was still posting to slutaday, and I was trying to do a Siwon cuddleslutting post. I asked crazychickencow for some pictures, she said, "Oh, I think I have some with Sungmin", and that was pretty much it. Except it wasn't. Because I think one week later we were actively looking for pictures of them.
I can't explain, even now, how it happened. I don't remember. It's like the process of shipping them is one long bender that I have no memory of. I'm not sure if I want the memory of it. I prefer to think of it as a week of rainbows and unicorns and sparkles, and not, as I'm sure it probably was, me and Lauren just shrieking at each other and flapping our hands. A few facts did emerge:
1. their dynamic would be perfection.
2. they would look really good next to each other.
3. the height difference would be adorable.
4. it was pretty much pulled from our asses.
The first three points all fed into the fourth point. This was not a ship that we believed had any basis in reality. Shimin was never going to be along the same lines as Hanchul, or Eunhae, or QMi. We could barely find anything to support the ship. There wasn't going to be anything like Heechul's cyworld or Zhou Mi's weibo, which are like, HANCHUL AND QMI ADVENTURE TIMES. Shimin was based on vague ideas, on looking at their personalities and deciding that yes, it would be cute.
Shimin, we decided, was the loveable whore with the earnest Christian boy. It was the perfect gentleman with a guy who would probably love being treated like he was pretty special. It was high school crushes and drunken kisses and walking in the snow holding hands. It was the tall ripped one with the cute one. It worked because there were lots of different facets to it. You could write it in a number of different ways and still have it work.
There was also a fifth point:
5. it solved the problems posed by Shihanchul and QMiMin.
This was a big problem that I was having to deal with at the time. ot3s solve a lot of things, but it's actually kind of hard to write ot3s all the time. Shihanchul wasn't as much of a ship to me anymore, Hanchul was my otp, but I didn't want to keep writing Siwon with random ofcs (hs!au), or random members of SNSD (girls!au). I'd shipped Kyumin for quite a while but it was more as a matter of course; much like Kangteuk, when I got into fandom, everyone shipped Kyumin. QMi changed that. I found myself increasingly torn, but it came at a time when Sungmin had jumped the ranks to become my #1.5. I couldn't not write about him, but at the same time, I couldn't write about him with Kyuhyun.
I wouldn't say that Shimin was exactly just a case of us putting the two together and going THERE, PROBLEM SOLVED, but that was a great deal of the appeal after we decided it would work. Basically I've used a lot of words to explain that this is not a pairing that we ever thought would be practicularly big in our minds, or even in real life.
ofc the second we decided this, Shit Happened. We decided it would be cute, and in the very next performance of Sorry Sorry, they started messing around together. Near the end of the song, Sungmin would usually hit Siwon on the shoulder, Siwon would then dance over him, Sungmin would act scared and it was basically adorable. It was, to begin with, obviously something that hadn't been planned, because Siwon looked pretty surprised. It continued, though. It became part of the routine. I remember shrieking at my computer whenever the camera didn't focus on them :| THIS STUFF WAS LIKE GOLD DUST. I NEEDED MORE OF IT.
But seriously. Shimin is adorable. I'm not going to say that we "invented" it, because obviously we weren't the first to ship it (believe me, I've heard that enough times), but it was kind of a rarepair. When I started writing it, it seemed like a lot of people went "hey, I've always thought that was cute!" A lot more people just went, "oh. oh that would be so cute." Our imagining of it was as something cute, with a cute dynamic.
It was this:
it was not this:
it was cute and a little circumstantial, it was not about actual moments and charged sexual tension. It was not about grinding up against each other and then not laughing it off. I mean, guys. Even Hanchul laughed off their ~ust moments~. Shimin? Not so much? They just grind up against each other and walk off and do their own stuff, usually wandering around shirtless in Siwon's case and being a whore in Sungmin's case.
I guess this entire post is basically about me reacting to the above pictures, because it's like I'm having to look at this pairing again in the knowledge that oh my god it's legit. There are moments. Instead of shrieking IT COUNTS I SHIP IT whenever they walk past each other, I can have actual evidence. This freaks me out a little bit. I mean, I remember laughing at umberela when she came back from SS2 at Malaysia screaming about how it was real (after the grinding). I was all, girl you crazy. turns out she may not be.
So what I'm going to do is take my original four points, and have a mini-pic spam taking the theories and proving them.
1. their dynamic would be perfection.
the best way to do this point would be to point you towards fanfic. Unfortunately, there is very little fanfic for Shimin, despite my best efforts, and despite my knowing that lots of people ship them. Here's the few bits that I've seen. If you guys have any recs, let me know:
1.
title: Come Together
author: kayevelyn
rating: G
summary: Three times Sungmin and Siwon tried to have a perfect date and one time they succeeded.
2.
title: Gravity
author: umberela
rating: PG-13
summary: Kyuhyun grows wings, literally, and he quickly discovers it is both a blessing and a curse.
note: not a Shimin centric, but there is Shimin in it and it's adorable.
3.
title: Band Practice
author: civilized_era
rating: PG-13
summary: "From the top," Sungmin says.
4.
title: my soul to take
author: noraehaeyo
rating: NC-17
summary: Siwon is very, very uncomfortable, and that's putting it gently.
2. they would look really good next to each other.
3. the height difference would be adorable.
you know what a perfect height difference is? it's when you can hug someone like that and not have to lift your arms too much to fit. I mean, if ever there was evidence of ~bodies made to fit~.
4. it was pretty much pulled from our asses.
well, Sungmin begs to differ
because nothing says "totally legit" like undressing each other on stage:
or potential kissing:
or creepy hugging:
or clinging hugging with your fingers digging in:
or carrying someone:
or whatever this is, beyond adorable:
In conclusion: holy shit guys, it's a real pairing. It has to be. Even Siwon ships it.
so go crazy. tell me why you ship it. give me fic recs. spam me with images. I dun curr. let's have a Shimin party.
coming soon: Heechul And Sungmin Are Friends So Don't Pull That Shit With Me.
(on other non-Shimin news, my heater is still broken though I reported it in September. the guy was just like, "oh it's an electrical fault. the guy will be around in a couple of days." GUYS. I CAN'T FEEL MY FINGERS. THIS IS BULLSHIT.)
SHIPPING SHIMIN: wait, it's legit?
I had never even thought about Shimin before April/May 2009. At that point, I was still posting to slutaday, and I was trying to do a Siwon cuddleslutting post. I asked crazychickencow for some pictures, she said, "Oh, I think I have some with Sungmin", and that was pretty much it. Except it wasn't. Because I think one week later we were actively looking for pictures of them.
I can't explain, even now, how it happened. I don't remember. It's like the process of shipping them is one long bender that I have no memory of. I'm not sure if I want the memory of it. I prefer to think of it as a week of rainbows and unicorns and sparkles, and not, as I'm sure it probably was, me and Lauren just shrieking at each other and flapping our hands. A few facts did emerge:
1. their dynamic would be perfection.
2. they would look really good next to each other.
3. the height difference would be adorable.
4. it was pretty much pulled from our asses.
The first three points all fed into the fourth point. This was not a ship that we believed had any basis in reality. Shimin was never going to be along the same lines as Hanchul, or Eunhae, or QMi. We could barely find anything to support the ship. There wasn't going to be anything like Heechul's cyworld or Zhou Mi's weibo, which are like, HANCHUL AND QMI ADVENTURE TIMES. Shimin was based on vague ideas, on looking at their personalities and deciding that yes, it would be cute.
Shimin, we decided, was the loveable whore with the earnest Christian boy. It was the perfect gentleman with a guy who would probably love being treated like he was pretty special. It was high school crushes and drunken kisses and walking in the snow holding hands. It was the tall ripped one with the cute one. It worked because there were lots of different facets to it. You could write it in a number of different ways and still have it work.
There was also a fifth point:
5. it solved the problems posed by Shihanchul and QMiMin.
This was a big problem that I was having to deal with at the time. ot3s solve a lot of things, but it's actually kind of hard to write ot3s all the time. Shihanchul wasn't as much of a ship to me anymore, Hanchul was my otp, but I didn't want to keep writing Siwon with random ofcs (hs!au), or random members of SNSD (girls!au). I'd shipped Kyumin for quite a while but it was more as a matter of course; much like Kangteuk, when I got into fandom, everyone shipped Kyumin. QMi changed that. I found myself increasingly torn, but it came at a time when Sungmin had jumped the ranks to become my #1.5. I couldn't not write about him, but at the same time, I couldn't write about him with Kyuhyun.
I wouldn't say that Shimin was exactly just a case of us putting the two together and going THERE, PROBLEM SOLVED, but that was a great deal of the appeal after we decided it would work. Basically I've used a lot of words to explain that this is not a pairing that we ever thought would be practicularly big in our minds, or even in real life.
ofc the second we decided this, Shit Happened. We decided it would be cute, and in the very next performance of Sorry Sorry, they started messing around together. Near the end of the song, Sungmin would usually hit Siwon on the shoulder, Siwon would then dance over him, Sungmin would act scared and it was basically adorable. It was, to begin with, obviously something that hadn't been planned, because Siwon looked pretty surprised. It continued, though. It became part of the routine. I remember shrieking at my computer whenever the camera didn't focus on them :| THIS STUFF WAS LIKE GOLD DUST. I NEEDED MORE OF IT.
But seriously. Shimin is adorable. I'm not going to say that we "invented" it, because obviously we weren't the first to ship it (believe me, I've heard that enough times), but it was kind of a rarepair. When I started writing it, it seemed like a lot of people went "hey, I've always thought that was cute!" A lot more people just went, "oh. oh that would be so cute." Our imagining of it was as something cute, with a cute dynamic.
It was this:
it was not this:
it was cute and a little circumstantial, it was not about actual moments and charged sexual tension. It was not about grinding up against each other and then not laughing it off. I mean, guys. Even Hanchul laughed off their ~ust moments~. Shimin? Not so much? They just grind up against each other and walk off and do their own stuff, usually wandering around shirtless in Siwon's case and being a whore in Sungmin's case.
I guess this entire post is basically about me reacting to the above pictures, because it's like I'm having to look at this pairing again in the knowledge that oh my god it's legit. There are moments. Instead of shrieking IT COUNTS I SHIP IT whenever they walk past each other, I can have actual evidence. This freaks me out a little bit. I mean, I remember laughing at umberela when she came back from SS2 at Malaysia screaming about how it was real (after the grinding). I was all, girl you crazy. turns out she may not be.
So what I'm going to do is take my original four points, and have a mini-pic spam taking the theories and proving them.
1. their dynamic would be perfection.
the best way to do this point would be to point you towards fanfic. Unfortunately, there is very little fanfic for Shimin, despite my best efforts, and despite my knowing that lots of people ship them. Here's the few bits that I've seen. If you guys have any recs, let me know:
1.
title: Come Together
author: kayevelyn
rating: G
summary: Three times Sungmin and Siwon tried to have a perfect date and one time they succeeded.
2.
title: Gravity
author: umberela
rating: PG-13
summary: Kyuhyun grows wings, literally, and he quickly discovers it is both a blessing and a curse.
note: not a Shimin centric, but there is Shimin in it and it's adorable.
3.
title: Band Practice
author: civilized_era
rating: PG-13
summary: "From the top," Sungmin says.
4.
title: my soul to take
author: noraehaeyo
rating: NC-17
summary: Siwon is very, very uncomfortable, and that's putting it gently.
2. they would look really good next to each other.
3. the height difference would be adorable.
you know what a perfect height difference is? it's when you can hug someone like that and not have to lift your arms too much to fit. I mean, if ever there was evidence of ~bodies made to fit~.
4. it was pretty much pulled from our asses.
well, Sungmin begs to differ
because nothing says "totally legit" like undressing each other on stage:
or potential kissing:
or creepy hugging:
or clinging hugging with your fingers digging in:
or carrying someone:
or whatever this is, beyond adorable:
In conclusion: holy shit guys, it's a real pairing. It has to be. Even Siwon ships it.
so go crazy. tell me why you ship it. give me fic recs. spam me with images. I dun curr. let's have a Shimin party.
coming soon: Heechul And Sungmin Are Friends So Don't Pull That Shit With Me.
(on other non-Shimin news, my heater is still broken though I reported it in September. the guy was just like, "oh it's an electrical fault. the guy will be around in a couple of days." GUYS. I CAN'T FEEL MY FINGERS. THIS IS BULLSHIT.)