﹒⌗﹒Interview with Mashikpu ⸝⸝

"All selfshippers are selfshippers, but I'm a Christian"

©Mashikpu

The style, spelling and punctuation of the author and interviewer have been preserved.

Tell us how you came to selfshipping?

Mashik: Glad to participate in the interview! Thank you all very much for your questions.

Selfship has always been in my life. Like many, I did it without realizing it myself, and without even suspecting that it was something common and normal.
Internet pressure made me think that selfship was something vile, because only characters like ChrisChan were made public. People ridiculed and mocked an obviously sick person and considered all selfshippers to be like that.
Over time, I began to see more and more selfshippers, and still treated them lightly and with slight irony, until I plunged deeper into the phenomenon and realized that it suited me.
So, I realized that selfshipping has always been an integral part of my online activities. My first f/o were Tikki Tobby from Creepypasta, Kazuichi Soda from Danganronpa, and Butters from South Park (we were the same age at that time). It's worth noting that I no longer self-ship with any of the above, but to this day they remain my favs!
Also, my close acquaintance with selfshipping was influenced by the loneliness that I constantly experienced. It seemed to me that no one except f/o could understand me and make me comfortable. Now this feeling is long gone: I am surrounded by wonderful people, as well as my loved one (hi Victor <3), but I don’t even think about leaving selfshipping.
In addition to Mattias, I have several other f/o, but I have not become as attached to anyone as strongly as to him.

The fandoms you listed seem very far from Eden in theme. How did you find out about Eden FD?

Mashik: My now ex-girlfriend, with whom we were fans of Danganronpa, came to Idenfd during, it seems, the second part of the crossover with Ronpa, and began sending me screenshots from the game.
Then I didn’t know anything about the gameplay at all, and the only thing I remember from its screenshots was the waiting lobby, and then I thought that the game was a kind of mafia 😭 like the Persians sit at the table and discuss, and that’s all, lmao….
In 2021 I downloaded Eden and, it seems, then Victor became my first character purchased? He was also my fave. It makes me look like Persians with their mouths sewn shut.
Since then I have been playing Eden regularly, with occasional deletions and downloads. So I missed Mattias's sphere. sadness

We are sure that Mattias will have a huge number of wonderful skins in the future! Tell us how your love for Matthias appeared and what exactly attracted you to him?

Mashik: HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE HIM!!! 😭
It is very difficult to answer this question, despite the fact that I am often asked this. From the very beginning I was hooked by its design, then by the story. Vince_WuEdit on Twitter correctly noted the so-called Chernin paradox:

“Matthias, who represents the man, is depicted as a rag doll with characteristic doll-like features, while Louis, who is meant to embody the image of the puppet, actually looks more human.”

Isn't this beautiful?

In general, with Matthias I have an “I can fix him” situation. I'm very comfortable with him as a character and, I don't know, my heart just flutters when I look at him. I want to stroke it, pull my ears and cheeks. Caress! Noo Matthias don't blame yourself 😢
I really like going against the entire fandom with my vision of Mattias, having my own incredible canon in my head, which is even better than the Netizes/sh
That's why I really like writing it together with Michelle 🤤

What kind of interactions do you mainly like to write?

Mashik: I don’t know about the actions, but my favorite part of the mishtias’ relationship is their childhood and post-canon.
Speaking about the first one, it’s just something charming, very tender and sincere. I love thinking through some small interactions between them, and especially Michelle’s care for Mattie, because when you are kids, the difference of just a year feels like something super important and serious. The post-canon is just interesting to me. It's not entirely canonical, but I really enjoy looking at it. Especially when the mishtias have already recovered from Manorgame, matured, let go (or not completely?) of their cockroaches in their heads, and are simply happily living their calm (as far as it can be with Michelle) life in Paris. I also like to write about their fankid, Pierre, and the relationships within the family.
Well, in general, if you love your Oscanon, everything will be interesting to prescribe. That's how I'm fooling around with Manorgame itself. I think it counts as something epic.

The soul rejoices when you see how much a person burns with his favorite character! By the way, about the canon, the next question is about this. How important is canon to you? How do you feel about fanon? What are your conflicts with the fandom?

Mashik: FANDOM MATTHIAS IS THE DEVIL.

This is a very sensitive topic for me. I will swear! with your silent agreement.
I don’t know how to answer about the importance of the canon for me, because, I’m ashamed to admit, but at the moment Matthias is nothing more than a plug. He is not connected with anyone, no one knows him, and only the third letter will reveal who he is rubbing shoulders with. (Okay, he's kind of related to Orpheus, but who isn't Orpheus related to?)
I don't like Fanon. More precisely, I love it, but very precise and definite. There are only a couple of artists who, for me, portray Matthias well (in terms of behavior).
The problem is the pairing! Although I love him very much (you yourself will understand what I mean), but for some reason people really like to ostracize and drain Mattias into a weak-willed rag. On the other hand, Mattias was only touched by the fate of becoming a member of the fandom’s favorite pairing, and it was inevitable.
For me, Matthias is not a crybaby, but he is not menacing either. Canonically, he is “closed, sensitive, constrained, timid.” I believe that he suppresses a lot of anger and resentment in his sadness, and when someone or something brings him out (which happens quite often) he simply cannot utter a word, and swallows the irritation without doing anything.
During his “breakdowns” (imho, he is characterized by hysteria), he can be cruel, which in canon shows his behavior with Louis (constant attempts to get rid of him; I think he tried a lot).
Otherwise, although he looks scary and even ugly, he sincerely wants to look neat and cute. In the birthday art, he smiles while looking in the mirror and standing in front of it in a chic suit, in the emojis he smiles a lot, and in general in the official art you can see how charming he is 🥹
My favorite thing about Mattias is his love for food. He is so skinny, but he eats so much!!! He has 2 favorite dishes, his “likes” mention beef stroganoff, at the congratulations on the anniversary of the game he asks if the dishes on the table are for him, and in one of the comics, he dreams of eating fried chicken 😭 we're matthiases please feed us

You clearly have a very clear idea of ​​his character, which is amazing! Did you have any problems adding Michelle to Mattias' lore? Have you sometimes had impulses when you noticed that you yourself were beginning to mischaracterize him, because of which you had to pull yourself away?

Mashik: To be honest, it seems to me that I am mischaracterizing him all the time, but as long as no one from the outside is talking about it, I continue. Basicly, at some point he already began to turn into my wasp, when I began to separately prescribe Michelle and her life /psh.
The only problem I have is age. I have already changed it several times: at first Misha was 2 years younger, then, on the advice of a friend, I made her and Matthias the same age, and at the moment she is a year older.
While the canonical age of his move from the Czech Republic to France is unknown, I’m just trying to turn a blind eye to it. In the lore of the Mishttias, this happened when they were 12, but there are suspicions that the Chernins finally moved earlier. We sit and don’t rock the boat

Did you encounter any other difficulties in creating the selfship?

Mashik: It was very difficult to untie Michelle from Mattias so that she could represent something on her own, and I think I succeeded.
Oh, and it was hard to come up with a name for her, lmao 😭 before this there were only “masttias”, and the name “Michelle” fit very nicely and comfortably with mine.

What other variations of your sona were there?

Mashik: Before directing, Michelle was a pied piper. More precisely, then she was not Michelle yet. Their first meeting with Matthias was supposed to take place under the bridge 😭

Why did you choose the director?

Mashik: Oh, I can tell you about this!
In fact, everything is quite simple: I myself am interested in cinema and am applying for directing, although I am still far from reaching Misha’s level.
Despite the fact that this is our main similarity, her view of the film industry is very different from mine. She likes long, arthouse and auteur films that carry a three-level meaning, and if you don’t understand it, I’m sorry, of course, but you’re a redneck. /sh
She does not watch obviously low-quality films. She considers it extremely disrespectful to go to the movies just to laugh. She doesn't like any film adaptations of video games. But Misha is ready to sit in place for hours, peering at the drying paint.
Michelle's favorite contemporary directors:
Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick, Lucifer Valentine, Andrei Tarkovsky and David Lynch.
I can't stand any of them. This is how Michelka NISHE is 😍

What feelings/desires do you express to your f/o through your sona?

Mashik: Of course, all of Michelle exists to complement Mattias’s empty interior. I would say that they complement each other, like 2 pieces of a puzzle: she gives him the unconditional love that Mattie so needed, and he, in turn, is a kind of “calming” for Michelle, because only with him she allows herself to relax and measure her difficult, ardent character.
Through Misha, do I express some of my clinginess? I think so. I won't go into detail, but their relationship is something I would love to have irl.

You said you love a certain fanon. Do you consider headcanons fanon? What are your favorite headcanons and where/who do they come from?

KV MENTIONING SELFHARM IN THE REPLY

Mashik: Uumm, it depends! From the mood, hahaha

My favorite headcanons are pretty simple, but here they go:
1. Matthias is tall (190 cm is my favorite 🤤)
2. An eye that leaked out during a fire.
3. Matthias has sx habits, but that's all. not quite standard? may I say so. For example, he deliberately does not hide his facial scar to punish himself, and wears uncomfortable clothes for the same reason.
4. He has a funny accent!
5. He has a very quiet voice and is selective mute.

You mentioned that besides Mattias you have several other f/o. What makes Mattias the most special among them?

Mashik: I think I just went far enough with him. None of my school has such a well-written lore and such an independent dream as Michelle.
After I began to prescribe it in more detail, did I lose interest in the others? I want to polish it, and only after that move on to others.

Let's go back to your very first answer, because there is a lot to discuss there! Pressure on selfshippers and attempts to ridicule them is, unfortunately, a very common phenomenon in fandom spaces. Has it ever happened that you yourself found yourself a victim of condemnation because of your interests?

Mashik: Here I will answer briefly: no! I was very lucky in this regard.
I'm used to not giving a damn about people who try to judge or ridicule me. Tho, I haven’t even met anyone like that.
Almost everyone in my circle has no selfshipping friends besides me, and they say that I’m the first one they’ve met. I am very pleased every time they draw or write something for me <3 ty friends

This is incredibly cute! How did you manage to overcome your bias towards Yuma topics? What made you want to dive into this phenomenon? Maybe there was something special about the ss you saw, or just something that made you want to dive deeper into this topic?

Mashik: “I started not to give a fuck and stopped fearing consequences” 😛
It’s hard to answer what exactly prompted me to delve into selfshipping.
It seems like this was something that was always destined for me; As I wrote above, it was always there, and I just had to accept it within myself.

I asked myself: Is there anything wrong with loving a character? Is being obsessed with a character a little too much worse than wasting your life in food courts, sharing one potato among six? I'd rather do it first. And if someone says it’s weird, well, well, I’ve always been weird.

As for the selfshippers that I am “inspired by”, it was probably an artist under the nickname papertrlck, who at one point started posting a lot of art with his yume with Akira from persona5, which really impressed me in a pos sense. I especially liked that they posted Akira with their headcanons on his appearance. They were the ones who showed me that self-shipping is not scary and is actually very cool.

There were also foreign guys like Yume with Fuyuhiko and Yume with Daisuke. Now I try not to react to them in any way, because they are, well, interesting characters. But for the still green self-shipper Mashik, tons of their merch and entire rooms dedicated to it seemed something very cool. (Ngl, this is really cool).

By the way, about the merch! We see your wonderful Matthias plushie all the time (and more recently Michelle's plushies too!). Your merch collection with Mattias is impressive. What does merch mean to you in the context of your yume? In your opinion, is expensive merch the highest indicator of love for f/o, or, in your opinion, is the highest degree of love for Yuma manifested in something else?

Mashik: Thank you! A lot of effort and money went into it, and I'm glad you like it, hehe.

At all! I even consider myself more of an oshikatsu than a selfshipper.

(Oshikatsu (from Japanese 推し "oshi" - favorite idol/character and 活 "katsu" - activity) is a Japanese term for actively supporting one's favorite.)

Collecting merch makes me very happy, and arranging shelves calms me down. Such a unique act of meditation. It all started with commissions, and my “noble” desire to help artists by ordering art from them. I hope this take doesn't sound weird, haha ​​😭
And in general, my love language is gifts. I love bringing souvenirs to my friends, giving gifts to loved ones and fulfilling their wishes.

Collecting is undoubtedly an indicator of love for a character: I have repeatedly written that Matthias would be flattered by such attention to his person, but I do not think that this is the highest indicator. I'm just lucky to often have extra money to buy the next pin or plush.
Many do not have this opportunity, and make merch themselves - and this is what I consider the highest manifestation of love. It just so happens that I am quite a lazy person and in case of failure I quickly give up, so I never had the strength and patience to do something on my own. So I sincerely admire selfshippers from our, and not only channel, who themselves create content for their favorite.
But personally, I love collecting expensive merchandise. At the same time, it’s lucky that there isn’t much content from Matti, and it’s sad that there isn’t any! Finally bring him a collab skin, it makes me sick. And, GOD, please, bring his lawson stand somewhere!!!

How does the US affect you in general?

Mashik: More positive than neutral and negative!
As I wrote above, he helped me cope with loneliness, and also helped me get out of the art block more than once. In general, now I’m only interested in drawing misttias.
Well, he also pushed me to develop in the media sphere, so from time to time I make posts on Twitter and TikTok, share my creativity and look for mice.

Interviewer: Evchik
Taiping: Nenpi