Lemme tell you the story about how my wifey and I went to the Great Lakes Aquarium for our 17 year anniversary. We took the Deku and Bakugou plushies I got her for our anniversary and spent a good couple hours giggling like kids and taking dumb pictures. Now off to get amazing seafood!
KACCHAN I HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!
17 years, incredible!!!
Who in the world knew we’d make it this far?
14 years ago, I was 18 years old and starting my first year of college at Iowa State University. It was my first time away from my home, my family, my friends, and my boyfriend. However, over the summer, I had joined a Gundam Wing yaoi mailing list, wrote a bunch of fics, and met a lot of great people.
This included a girl named Jessica who went by Snow Tigra.
Over time, the two of us started talking more online, and we became friends. She was there for me when my boyfriend stopped talking to me, and even sent me a plushie white tiger so I wouldn’t feel so alone.
Spoiler: I still have that tiger and it comes to cons with me.
We started writing fics together, and chatting more and more, and at one point during one of our chats she mentioned how she had a crush on this girl in one of her classes. I went along with it, but when we were done chatting, I realized something.
I was jealous.
I was jealous that she liked another girl.
And then… I proceeded to ignore her because, in that moment, I discovered that I liked girls.
I thought, “no, no way,” because up until that point I had had a boyfriend, and all the friends I grew up had also had boyfriends. Being gay was out of the question, I was supposed to find a guy and marry him. So I avoided talking to her at all cost, would say I was too busy, but, after a while, I started to miss her.
So finally, one day, I went to the campus library and wrote the email that would change my life forever. I told her why I had stopped talking to her and not only came out, but admitted that I liked her. She was stunned, but decided that it would be best if we took things slow. We hadn’t even met in person, yet, and I did just break up with my boyfriend. I agreed, but we quickly realized that, nope, that wasn’t enough either.
So, on this day, 14 years ago, we decided to start dating. This involved a lot of chatting, fic writing, roleplaying with different characters, sending each other gifts, meeting up at conventions, her coming to see me on a monthly basis from Minnesota to Iowa, and finally, after I graduated in 2006, I got in her car with all of my stuff and moved to Minnesota.
I never knew, all those years ago, that that email I was writing was going to lead to me meeting this amazing woman who would become my support system, my seamstress, my coauthor, just… everything, absolutely everything. I had no idea that we’d have this house with these cats. I had no idea that we’d be creating art together. I had no idea that we would becoming inspirations to people. I had no idea that we’d be talking about so many issues together and promoting such positive messages. I had no idea, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Happy Anniversary. I love you :)
STORY TIME!
So back when the wifey and I were dating (back when we were in college, her in Minnesota and me in Iowa), she would come down to visit me. During one visit, I told her that I really wanted mac and cheese. She was like, “Sure, let’s go get some.” And since my place in college was basically an apartment, I had a kitchen and stuff, so I was really excited. It would be my first attempt at making mac and cheese, but I really wanted to try.
So we went to the grocery store and she grabbed a box of Kraft. I looked at her, confused. “What are you doing?” I asked.
She looked at me and said, “You want mac and cheese, right?”
“Well yeah but I meant real mac and cheese,” I said.
“What?”
That’s when I realized that she had no idea what I was talking about, that she hadn’t had the soul food goodness of mac and cheese. I mean I grew up in Chicago, I thought this was just common knowledge, but apparently it wasn’t. “Oh man,” I said, “Let me show you.”
And so I grabbed all the ingredients I needed, remembered all the times I saw my mom make it (it was what I’d ask her to make when I’d visit over the weekend)…
… and now, 13 years later, it’s still the wifey’s favorite thing I make
So our anniversary dinner consisted of ribeye steak, mac and cheese, and asparagus With Hawaiian rolls, of course, because you have to~
13 years ago I was a freshman at Iowa State University. 18 years old, it was my first time away from home, from the friends I knew, my family, and my boyfriend. Over the summer I had joined a Gundam Wing yaoi mailing list and had been making some online friends through it, so I at least had that while I was away. I was the baby of the list, the youngest one on it, since I was only 18, but we all got along well and had a lot of fun writing fics and sharing fanart of Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell.
One day, on the list, I inadvertently started a “war” of sorts with one of the other ladies. It was all in good fun, to this day this is the only fandom I was a part of where “ship wars” weren’t terrible. We were debating who was on top: Heero or Duo, and we started a war where we all took sides and wrote fic/did fanart to “fire shots” at the other side. In the end we all won because, huzzah for more fanworks of our OTP! Anyhow, while taking sides, I was all Heero x Duo and this other lady was all Duo x Heero, and surprisingly, someone by the name of Snow Tigra took my side. It was odd because she geared more towards Duo x Heero, but she decided for a change of pace.
Neither of us knew that, 13 years later, we’d be living together, cosplaying together, writing books together, and planning a Mortal Kombat wedding.
Once Snow joined my side we started talking. It was mostly about fandom stuff, geeky things, ect. We even wrote a terrible fic where the Gundam Wing boys had to deal with the T-virus from Resident Evil (omg you haven’t lived until you write a scene of Trowa shooting a zombie dog who tries to bite Quatre) I learned about anime conventions through her, cosplay, and even about canon boy’s love series like Gravitation and such (she even burned cds of it and mailed it out to everyone on the list so we could all watch, which is how you watched anime before streaming was a thing). At some point, my boyfriend and I broke up. He stopped talking to me while I was away and I was pretty depressed. Snow sent me a white tiger to keep me company, and I actually still have her and sleep with her every night. During all this we also sent each other pictures of ourselves (through actual mail, lol, because phones that took pictures whut are the things?). I remember being really anxious and hoping that she thought I was cute, which was odd because she’s a girl, and I had had a boyfriend once upon a time. But anyway… we kept talking and one day she told me about this girl in her class that she had a crush on. And… I got jealous. Which, again, odd right? I had had a boyfriend and girls were supposed to like boys.
Unless…
… no.
No!
So then I proceeded to ignore her for about a week. No chatting online. No emails. No nothing. Because there was no way in hell I could like a girl. That’s not the sort of thing that happened! Don’t get me wrong I had no issue with gay people, I just knew damn well that that wasn’t me. It couldn’t be. All of my friends at home either had boyfriends or were boy crazy. And forget telling my parents, I still remember to this day a conversation one of my aunts had with my dad about, “What if she were gay?” And he was like, “She’s not. No.” This was before I met Snow and during the movie “In and Out” where the guy gets called gay by one of his students who was a celebrity at the time, and he goes down the alter with his wifey and just blurts out that he is, in fact, gay. But that movie spurred on that conversation where my dad was like, “Nope, not even a possibility,” and I stuck with that mentality. No. No. No!
But after a week I started to miss her. She was sending me emails asking if I was o.k., if something had happened because I wasn’t online, and finally I just said… tell her. So I stood in my campus library and wrote this long email about how I was jealous of the girl she had a crush on, that I never had feelings like this before for a girl, and that I liked her.
Again, 13 years later, who knew?
She said it would be best if we stayed friends until we met in person, which would be at Anime Central 2002 in April, and we did try, but just… there was a connection, and we just gave up. We were dating, plain and simple. Our online conversations were our ways of communication, and it turned into roleplaying with anime characters which, oddly enough, would give birth to the book series we have going now. When we finally met at Anime Central that was it, it just added to the love we had for each other, and we knew that we’d be together for a long time.
We’ve been through a lot along the way. Learning about each other, dealing with telling our families. It didn’t go well at first. My dad and I fought during my Christmas break. Her parents flat out denied it. My mom could care less, honestly, so we at least had that going. There were many holidays with her family where I was just a roommate. My dad slowly got used to the idea and finally came around. We’ve had months of struggling financially because I moved up here after college with no job. We had to deal with me losing said job 6 years later. We’ve had to deal with losing two cats. We’ve had to deal with being broken into. There’s been a lot of hurdles, you know? But I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so determined to keep me happy. She takes on so much, and I do the same, too. We work together to make our dreams come true. These dreams have been festering over time and now we’re working together to make them happen. Writing, going to conventions, all of that. We’re a team, and I don’t think either of us imagined that we’d have so much support going into this. Cosplay was a flat out accident, honestly, I’m still in awe over the people we meet who say we’re an inspiration. But if you ever want to know how I can keep going, it’s because of her. She works her ass off doing these costumes, and she’s always encouraging the second I feel insecure. If too many negatives try to bring me down she’s always my positive. She’s everything, really.
As for her parents? They’ve turned around completely. Not only did they help us pay for our house a couple years back, but they helped us repair it and even announce us as being together when we’re over at their house and new people are coming over. My mother has met them and she even talks with Snow’s mom online. It took some time, but everything clicks now, and neither of us could be happier.
One year ago, my first book, “Treat Me Kindly,” was published by Damnation Books :) To celebrate, I’m offering autographed copies at a discount from now until 6/11. I’m happy to say that I actually don’t have many copies left after conventions in May, so if I run out, I’ll still honor the discounted price until next week :)
Thank you, everyone, for supporting everything I do <3
Happy anniversary, urm… me! Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a year <3
Here’s the geekiest love story ever told. Today marks the 12 year anniversary for me and my wifey. Why am I posting pictures of Gundam Wing? Because this, my dear followers, is how we met.
This story actually starts 14 years ago. When I was 16 I discovered Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network and got hooked pretty quickly. Back then, the internet was still a new thing, but I used it when I could to find whatever information I could on the series. I ended up discovering a page that cited evidence of Heero and Duo’s relationship. Back then, I had no idea what yaoi was, but I learned pretty quickly. I also didn’t know what fandom was, or the difference between “fanon” and “canon,” oh man, it was the late 90s and everything we new and wonderful.
Anyhow, I wrote some pretty terrible fics for these two boys. I wrote terrible, terrible yaoi sex scenes because all of my information came from whatever dirty fics I could find. When I was 17, someone messaged me about joining a Heero and Duo yaoi mailing list, but you had to be 18 so I waited. When I turned 18 I joined the list. A month later, I went off to college, and went full force into the list (I was the youngest member at the time).
Two things happened. Well three things, really.
1. I accidentally started a ship war between Heero and Duo versus Duo and Heero (or 1x2, and 2x1). However, unlike the ship wars we see today, this was super friendly and probably the most fun I’ve had in a fandom, since we all wrote fics and drew art to “fire shots” at each other. There was a girl who preferred 2x1, but she decided to take my side because I was the baby of the list. More on that girl later ^^
2. I got my nickname, Chibi. I was going by “Chibi Shi-Chan” on ff.net, but there was a certain girl who said that that name was too long and that I should just go by Chibi. Which leads me to the most important thing that happened, 12 years ago.
3. I met my wifey, who named me Chibi, and joined my side of the ship war because I was the baby of the list.
Now at the time, I had a boyfriend. But he ended up not talking to me anymore because I wouldn’t sleep with him. I was pretty upset about things and she ended up sending me a white tiger (which I still have). We talked and talked, not just on the list, but on IRC (wow yes I am that old) and everything. We wrote a terrible Resident Evil/Gundam Wing fic together, and just… it was good fun. We sent each other pictures, and even started talking on the phone. I didn’t realize that feelings were developing until she told me about this girl she had a crush on in her class.
Now, back then, the thought of being attracted to a girl never ever crossed my mind. All my friends back at home had boyfriends, and even I had a boyfriend at one point. There’s also the fact that no one really talked about homosexuality, nor did we really know anyone who was gay. The one girl I remember who claimed to be a lesbian also had a boyfriend, or at least, a guy who got her pregnant? We didn’t really know what “bisexual” was at the time, and just called her confused.
But anyhow, when I realized that I was jealous of her liking this girl, I freaked out. I stopped talking to her and everything. I thought, there was no way I could like a girl, no not at all. That’s not something that was done, right? Girls had boyfriends, right? But when I stopped talking to her I started to miss her, and it was really hard not to send an email, or call her, or anything like that.
So finally, on this day 12 years ago, I stood in my college library and sent her an email that told her that I liked her.
The plan had been to take things slow, since we hadn’t met in person. That didn’t work at all, because we both liked each other, so we just went with the flow of things. We met in person at Anime Central 2002, and then at some point she started coming to see me once a month while I was in college. Before I graduated, I told my parents about her (well I told my mom, my dad found out). My mom was cool with it, my dad not so much. We had a pretty big fight, but we talked it out and now he loves her to death.
She told her parents and they pretty much ignored it/didn’t acknowledge it, and we figured that they never would.
Over the years we’ve been through a lot together. Apartments, a new home. Being broken into. Dealing with her parents not acknowledging us. Conventions, writing dreams, hard realities of my job being terrible and me being miserable. Rejection letters for books. Money problems. Losing both of our cats. Just… a lot, and I mean a lot, has happened. But with the bad there’s always something good, or at least, she makes me feel like there is. And so much has improved with our relationship that it’s hard not to be optimistic about the future.
Her parents love me now. They’re supportive of us. For the first time ever her dad introduced me as her partner this year.
The writing dream is coming together, slowly, but surely. Also, so is the costuming convention art dream.
Hell, we can get married in our state now.
After 12 years, I still love this woman more than anything. It’s amazing what she does to me. She can always make me smile no matter how bad I’m feeling, whether it’s me missing my brother, or having writing frustrations, just… she can make me feel so good about things. And she makes me feel good about myself. She makes me feel like I can do anything. She makes me feel beautiful and creative and talented. She makes me feel all of these things. Sometimes, I look at her and can’t believe that I found this woman, and it’s so cool that it’s all, essentially, thanks to anime and the internet.
So thank you Gundam Wing. And the 1x2x1 ML. And fanfiction. And just… all of those things helped create this relationship. It’s been an amazing 12 years and I’m looking forward to 12 more.
Headcanon: In which there’s an anniversary on what day?
For the always lovely krisrix who requested either first date kannao shenanigans or first anniversary shenanigans. I’ve decided to tackle the anniversary one since an idea popped in my head right away :)
This is the story of a geeky anime/gaming gal by the name of Chibi. Please fasten your seat belts and prepare for... some sort of ride? Oh! I love to write, and I also love doing crafty things. I go to conventions with my partner and sell woodburned things, clocks, mirrors, and more! So expect to see those on here too :)
