Ship Tease / Webcomics

• Bittersweet Candy Bowl loves this trope, in particular teasing at Paulo x Daisy quite a lot, though Mike x Daisy, Mike x Sue, and Lucy x Jessica all get teased at. In-character, the rest of the cast members tauntingly ship Mike x Paulo after the two end up sharing a room and get into a (rather noisy) fight over the bed that sounds like something else.
• Eerie Cuties: Despite the fandom's hopes, Layla is canonically straight and both ships with Tiffany and Brooke have been sunk. But that hasn't stopped Giséle (the comic's artist and co-writer) from providing the fans with bonus material, featuring Layla with both of them.
  • The print edition of Volume Ø included the "Kissing Booth" bonus story, in which Layla turned Brooke's attempt to shut the booth down against her by kissing her in front of everyone. And those who bought the collector's edition also received a pack of postcards, including this one.
  • One of the incentives for the Kickstarter for Volume 4 was a commissioned picture^note it had a limited run of only three copies, for a pledge of $450 or higher of Layla making out with Tiffany, in her bedroom. Brooke is featured in the background, seen being jealous of Tiffany.
  Brooke: (thinking to herself) "That should be ME kissing Layla!"
• Gunnerkrigg Court: Certain fans have noted subtext suggesting romantic feelings between Annie and Kat. Other fans have noted text-text that seems to contradict it (namely, that both characters have encouraged the other's crush on some third party). And then there's this page, which simultaneously plays up the subtext and undermines it by putting it in the mouth of the resident Deadpan Snarker Jerkass. Whatever Tom Siddell has planned for the characters, he seems to enjoy messing with the fans' heads in the meantime.
  • Remember, said Jerkass called Annie "Surma" when they first met, and killed a man for the chance to be with Surma back in the day. And then we get these two strips...
  • Recent strips have gone almost beyond teasing for possible Beta Couple Parley/Smitty. It starts with Smitty admitting that he lets Parley push him around because she's hot, followed by both Reynardine and Annie remarking that she does so because she has a thing for him. Cue Smitty's spluttered denial, and Parley's return to the scene and quickly draped all over him. And then she accidentally teleports the group to her bedroom. It all finally culminates in a Relationship Upgrade in chapter 30 where Parley's experience with the ghost of Jeanne causes her to finally admit her feelings for Andrew.
  • Predictably, a lot of "Jack/Annie, Yea or Nay?" reactions resulted from this page's obligatory He Is Not My Boyfriend teasing. Much more predictable would be the reactions to later developments.
    • Speaking of which, this page becomes more ship tease-y when one recalls this page.
  • Tom just went absolutely crazy in zigzagging the trope for the entirety of Chapter 34, especially in regard to Jack/Annie, and towards the end manages to sneak in Kat/Paz and Kat/Annie too. As the troper Meta Four put it: "With one hand Tom sinks ships, and with the other he raises them from the briny deep."
• The Wotch had a page supporting a Robin/Cassie pairing for April Fools day.
  • More recently, Robin has sought Cassie out and is spending a good bit of time with her. All friendly outings, but with just her. Maybe this ship has come in...
  • Supported more fully by this strip. Perhaps it's not that much of a joke after all.
• Misfile. Dear god, Misfile. No matter whether you ship Ash/Missi or Ash/Emily, it's a bumpy ride either way.
• In Agents of the Realm, Kendall suggests Norah/Adele and Paige/Norah also has a moment in chapter 3.
• Something*Positive has teased fans by having PeeJee and Davan go through many relationship-like hurdles for years after Randy got sick of being asked the question. They both display forms of jealousy with other potential love interests, they spend a startling amount of time doing warm and fuzzy things together in a comic remarkably devoid of the same, and PeeJee even goes with Davan when he moves back to his home state of Texas. Since PeeJee is based on artist Randy's friend and Davan is an Author Avatar, he was encouraged to do this with the condition that it never actually happened, which was finally killed once and for all.
• Looking for Group has this in the scene where Richard's spirit and Pella have a moment in a parody of the movie Ghost. After which we get the infamous "I thought we agreed no eye contact." and "You violated my spirit!" exchange. Way before all that, Richard had even declared "Can we keep her?" when having first met the dwarf. If you read in between the lines a few pages later on, in the scene right before she throws an axe into his forehead, he almost seems to be throwing a pickup line at her before being shot down. "I'd like to see more of that." indeed.
• Questionable Content is occasionally doing this to Angus and Marigold. Like, here. And here. Poor Faye...
  • This strip contains some Marten/Hanners shiptease. Hanners immediately feels guilty, and goes to apologize to Dora....which immediately results in some Dora/Hanners shiptease.
  • And of course, the first 500 strips tease Marten/Faye to hell and back. It doesn't happen and it's never going to.
  • There was a bit of Martin/Claire teasing, such as here, before they became an official couple.
  • Likewise with Faye/Bubbles. To the point it went beyong "teasing" to "everybody, in-comic and out, was wondering when they're going to realise it". They did eventually.
• Homestuck writer Andrew Hussie just might be doing this intentionally. The first few acts have a lot of people making claims about who has fallen victim to the human weakness of amorous inclination. John tells Terezi that Karkat loves her, Dave accuses Kanaya of having a thing for Rose, Rose accuses Kanaya of having a thing for Dave, Rose accuses Tavros of aiming to couple with Dave, John accuses Rose of hitting on Dave, Dave tells Rose he loves John, and Dave flips out on Tavros at great length.
  • PM gets this with WV quite often.
  • And now we get this strip, which teases Andrew/Ms. Paint.
  • The famous "Dave Smirk" sent a lot of readers into Dave/Jade mode, and various parts of the comic have subtly hinted at it, most notably of which was her revival of Dave's dream-self via kiss. The second intermission in Act 6 has Jade trying to underhandedly ask John what Dave's feelings for her might be. John responds by saying that he's sick of talking about shipping. Near the end of Act 6, Davepetasprite^2 kisses Jade goodbye, and Jade awakens to a note by Dave attached to her finger by a red string.
  • Seer: Descend has quite a bit of John/Rose shipping. Karkat and Jade have also shipped this. John, like Jade, also revived Rose via kiss.
  • Karkat and Terezi's relationship is...complicated. They have received many a tease over the course of the comic.
  • This strip has some between Gamzee and Tavros.
  • A combination of fetishes and call backs demonstrates really strong Jake/Jane shipteasing; both have a fetish (blue ladies and moustaches) that happens to be what the other was/had in the Beta universe (Jane was Nannasprite, a glowing blue lady, and Jake had a fantastic stache as Grandpa).
  • There's also been some very strong Dirk/Jake teasing. It was established pretty quickly that Dirk had a crush on him and was planning to do something about it, but for a while we had no idea how Jake felt. Then, it was revealed that Jake was already well aware of Dirk's feelings, and had actually been thinking about taking him up on it. He wasn't sure whether to or not, but then Jane persuaded him to actually go ahead with it and ask him out, although she did so accidentally while flubbing an attempt to confess her feelings for him. Suffice to say, the matter is far from settled.
  • During an episode where he was drawing "porn" of himself and his friends for uu, Dirk's shown already setting up the Dirk/Jake pictures before uu even requests it. And then uu tells Dirk he doesn't want it.
    TT: Lame.
  • Almost every single character combination has been teased at one point or another; most of these teases go nowhere (such as when Vriska was looking at Kanaya with obvious adoration and a heart appearing near her head; later on, Hussie stated that it was just an one-off gag).
  • Some Kanaya/Rose and Dave/Terezi, long before their respective Relationship Upgrades, when Karkat, made paranoid by John's riff on his earlier comment about "sloppy troll/human makeouts" in a letter sent in a bucket of the style used for fertilization by trolls, sees them as making eyes at each other.
  • One of the chatlogs teased Karkat/Jade by having Karkat's future self turn up and white knight for her against his present self.
  • Karkat/Dave has been teased quite a bit since they got on the meteor, despite having a contentious relationship due to having a shared interest in Terezi. This is first seen when Karkat and Dave have a fight over a pen due to Karkat attempting to draw a diagram to organize their romantic interactions. Both Karkat and Kanaya interpret this scuffle as an advance by Dave, and this isn't diminished by the fact that Dave attempts to troll Karkat by drawing penises all over his grid.
    • Later, it gets a lot more suggestive when Karkat sees Dave during the walk-around when passing through a dream bubble. Karkat is asleep, but because of the dream bubble his "ghost" appears next to his sleeping body. One of the first things Karkat asks Dave is to test whether he's still tangible to him. How does he want to test it?
  KARKAT: TOUCH ME.
  DAVE: what
  KARKAT: JUST GIVE ME A LITTLE POKE.
  DAVE: no
  KARKAT: DON'T BE LIKE THAT, JUST MAN UP AND TOUCH ME. MAYBE JUST BRUSH MY CHEEK GENTLY WITH THE BACK OF YOUR HAND. SOMETHING UNAMBIGUOUSLY PLATONIC LIKE THAT.
  • A few pages later, Dave doodles Karkat riding a penis into the sunset. No, seriously.
  • Later, after events are changed so that Vriska is alive with them on the meteor, they are ship teased much more. It is implied several times that they are/were in a relationship, such as in the Vriskagram flash, though their relationship is ambiguous since they don't like to talk about it and other characters say that they don't know.
  • Dave/John is teased a little as well during the walk-around:
  DAVE: maybe ill just dream up my own john tonight and well have an awesome time without you what do you think about that
  ROSE: (sniggers)
  DAVE: fu
  • Jane and Roxy are seen going at it in a still insert in the second [S] Ride Easter egg^note found via the pink horseshoe in the bottom-right corner at the end of this flash for those who insist on doing these things properly, with cotton candy littering the floor in a nod to their Idiosyncratic Ship Name.
  • While Roxy has had ship teases with just about everybody (Jane, Jake, Dirk, Jane's Dad, UU/Calliope, etc.) the odd ship out is John/Roxy; John sees her when she sleepwalks into a dreambubble and comments that she's attractive. Then, he pushes her out of the way of a trident (although admittedly he probably would've done that one anyway). Later, Roxy mentions that she wants to give the ring she found to the person she's going to marry. Guess who is currently in possession of said ring and has made similar comments?^note Granted, it might just be something about that ring, considering Tavros also planned to use it to propose to Vriska, and Hussie actually has used it to propose to her. Eventually solidified when the two finally meet. John certainly acts smitten, and Roxy's inner monologue during John's exposition consisted of "boyfriend material? probably totes eligible. mental note: mack on."
    • Later updates feature John comforting Roxy after Rose dies, and a ton of very blatant Ship Tease between the two in general. Terezi even sees it, though she's kind of annoyed by it. John later admits that he may or may not like her.
  • And now, according to Karkat, John's got a black crush on Terezi (though he denies it and is rather confused by those feelings), and Terezi definitely reciprocates.
• Done several times in Sluggy Freelance.
  • Such as when Gwynn kisses Torg.
• Tessa, the artist and writer behind Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name might very well enjoy intentionally teasing her shipper readers, especially when it comes to Doc Worth, Conrad, and now Lamont. And it's awesome.
• Tracy Williams, the artist of Goodbye Chains has made it very clear that she thinks being both the artist and the fangirl of such a comic is nothing short of the greatest fun. Dig through her deviantART gallery if you don't believe me. You'll see what I mean. You'll thank me graciously.
• Penny and Aggie teased shippers of the title characters for over five years, whether through Sara first espousing the theory in-comic (and Lisa and Katy-Ann temporarily considering it); Penny's occasional blushing awkwardness around, and erotic dreams about, Aggie; a strip depicting either a possible future, or Penny's unconscious fantasy, where they end up together; ^note the author always declined to say which it was and Aggie's dream in which Penny holds her hand and looks at her longingly. Furthermore, T Campbell dropped ambiguous hints in the forums and in his strip annotations in the P&APlus pay-site. The most straightforward comments he made on the issue before the finale were that both characters had "bisexual leanings" and that the issue of a mutual attraction had been part of the plan from the comic's beginning. They get together in the last "proper" arc; the Distant Finale reveals they broke up within a few months, and ends with some more Ship Tease between the two.
• In The Dreamer, in the 18th - century part of the comic, although Bea/Alan is the official couple (for now), there is some teasing for Bea/Alex potential, such as Bea and Alex living together for a summer and this little comment from Alex in the third panel.
• Used, and possibly alluded to by name, on this Higgs/Zeetha-heavy Girl Genius page.
• The first VG Cats strip in 2010 did this and gave a rare canon hint of something more than what are usually seen between Aeris and Leo, inspiring a very good number of Fan Fics and Fan Arts in this subject.
• Ménage à 3 features a lot of the same sex and heterosexual variety of this trope, most notably Zii and Gary.
• There's plenty of this between Tanna and Rolan in Ears for Elves at the Taurëcuiva Festival. They walk around arm-in-arm, Rolan compliments Tanna's flowers in her hair...
• El Goonish Shive:
  • Despite (or because of) her apparent asexuality, Susan gets this with a lot of characters, including Matt, Catalina, Justin and even Elliot. Whether or not any of these will lead anywhere remains to be seen. She's since gotten a lot more of it with Elliot. Good examples are this and this. Susan also seems to be aware of it, as it led to a I Am Not His Girlfriend moment here, and a Verbal Backspace here. They also have a Shipper on Deck, as seen here.
  • After a Q&A claimed to have run out of space to discuss whether a Tedd/Grace/Sarah polycule was a possibility (twice), the question was raised again in a "Wrong Answers Only" Q&A. This time George gave an elaborate answer claiming that everyone in that friend group was a biromantic asexual who was dating everyone else. When asked why he didn't just say "Yes", he replied that he wasn't sure it was a wrong answer.
  • Elliot/Tedd also gets teased a lot: In the Beta universe Elliot is cis female and they're dating; in the April Fool universe and Oblivious Wand Waving universe, Tedd is cis female and they're dating; Ellen (who has mostly the same personality as Elliot) has commented that she finds Tedd attractive, and that her memories of being female-Elliot say so did she, and references it again, without the genderbending, when Elliot realises he's bi; Elliot dreams about kissing female Tedd (but doesn't remember it clearly); both their girlfriends kind of ship them; and at one point Tedd's dad almost seriously considers the possibility they're engaged.
• The Sims 3 blog/webcomic Alice And Kev is doing this a lot with Alice and Zedadias. Recently, the creator introduced the character Shirley, who just has to be a Romantic False Lead. Has to be!
  • She is, as it turns out. Zedadias tries to be too romantic too early on, and she ends up breaking up with him for it. As for Alice and Zedadias, their ship ends on a Maybe Ever After, with the final panel of the webcomic featuring Alice calling Zedadias on her phone as the sun rises in the background, the morning after Kev dies.
• Todd Allison & the Petunia Violet does this with absolutely everyone. Particularly, Todd Allison and Petunia, Meredith and Elijah, Elijah and Dylan, and Cyril and literally everyone he ever talks to. Ever. Heck, possibly the only characters the author doesn't ship tease are Petunia and Elijah, and even that's debatable.
• In Joseph & Yusra, Joseph/Yusra shippers have been teased for a long time. They think each other the very best friends, really care the other, and there are a lot of Implied Love Interest, Accidental Pervert, or Not What It Looks Like scenes. Plus Mary told them that their superpowers activate when someone who they "love" — that is, someone really precious for them — is in crisis. However, they still keep She Is Not My Girlfriend behavior and the relationship is still Like Brother and Sister or so good friends in spite of their power is continuing to strengthen. Moreover, Yusuf, so religious Muslim and Yusra's brother, watches them not to approach and overcome to sinful temptions, and there are another girl, Yael.
  • Implied Love Interest, Accidental Pervert, or Not What It Looks Like scenes... Yes, literally there are a lot of such matters...even without any spoiler-pages!
  • Also, don't forget Joseph/Yael shippers are also teased. Yael looks like falling in one-sided love, and they both are Jewish — say in other words, there are no religious problems for them. However, Joseph doesn't give any special attentions for her, and no growth of their relationship.
  • Anyway, remember the introduction below:
  "Love, Friendship, Religion and supernatural powers?"
• The most popular 'ship in Go Get a Roomie! is Lillian/Roomie — something which the author is very clearly aware of and willing to tease. To the point that the fans couldn't even tell when it was posted if a Big Damn Kiss was serious or not.
• Cohen/Bennett in But I'm a Cat Person. Just look at this page.
• Awful Hospital: Subverted with Fern and Harmburger, being something the voices/commentators forced - he's taken aback by her advances, and she gets very angry that they made her do that.
• Sequential Art has Art/Kat, with several moments indicating more-than-platonic feelings and a boatload of Unresolved Sexual Tension. The character Q&A outright confirms this, with Art all but admitting that he's secretly in love with Kat {or at least not denying it when it's brought up), Kat admitting that she would gladly go out with Art "if he would f*cking ASK", and Pip admitting that he's hidden cameras around the house precisely for when, not if, their sexual tension finally reaches its breaking point.
• There's a lot of this in Nightmare Factory. First, there's Emai and Kreyul, then Emai and Phirre, and Kreyul and Kissae.
  • For Emai X Kreyul, they progressively get closer and closer throughout the series. They have the closest relationship so far, except for maybe Kreyul and Seppi. They also have the most screen time, and Kreyul is one of the few people who doesn't trigger Emai’s touch aversion. He also strips and twerks to cheer her up when she is feeling especially depressed after being unable to find her dad or brother.
  • For Emai X Phirre, they have only had one scene together so far, but it was interesting, with a lot of mind games. Plus, there were those few shots where, judging by the position, you almost expected a kiss... The fact that Emai has turned out to be Ylantis, or Phirre’s soul mate, doesn’t help.
  • For Kreyul X Kissae, they're also close and have known each other a while, although Kissae tends to be a bit of a Tsundere. And then whenever Kissae pretends to not understand humans, Kreyul does kiss them to try to get them to admit they understand human behavior.
• Realmwalker has this between Ingrid and Gunhild. They hug and hold hands often, and Ingrid comes out the closet to Gunhild- quite a big deal, as Ingrid was born in the 1920s, and same sex relationships were taboo and illegal then. Ingrid also describes Gunhild as looking "Gorgeous".
• The Weave has its protagonist Tally in a lot of situations with romantic overtones both with Emil and Ruby. Tally has already plainly stated that she likes Emil, but there was an Almost Kiss with Ruby, and she is considering going on a date with her.
• Sweet Home (2017):
  • Jisu and Jayhun have have been working with each other since the start of the crisis and are loyal to each other. In Jayhun's last moments, he imagines her face with a smile before he is killed by the security guard.
  • Despite a rough start, Jisu and Hyun get close fast. Jisu becomes incredibly protective of him and the idea of anyone abusing him becomes her Berserk Button. It's also stated that Jisu looks a lot like Maria, the main character of Hyun's favorite cartoon that he has a crush on. In chapter 129, as Jisu attempts a Heroic Sacrifice, she closes her eyes and sees Hyun instead of her dead boyfriend, much to her surprise.
  • Wook and Yuri have some teasing the moment they meet, with Yuri giving Wook her phone after his was destroyed, causing him to blush heavily. Wook is infuriated when Hyuk refuses to visit a pharmacy when Yuri needs a new inhaler. Chapter 128 heavily implies they have mutual feelings; when Ihyun asks if Yuri has a boyfriend, she states he's too late though she doesn't exactly have a boyfriend. The panel then cuts to Wook as he worries about Yuri's safety.
• Dumbing of Age:
  • The comic has been teasing Joyce/Joe a lot, mostly to illustrate the massive amounts of Character Development they've both had since the days when Joyce was the sort of person who'd hire Mike to punch someone, and Joe was the sort of person someone would hire Mike to punch. They became an Official Couple in 2023.
  • On the other hand, there's Joyce/Dorothy. Joyce has had a one-sided crush on Dorothy for quite a while, to the point where it's been commented on by other characters, and when Daisy reads Joyce's Her Codename Was Mary Sue comic strip, she says that if the character who is clearly Joyce and the character who is clearly Dorothy don't end up together, she's going to be accused of queerbaiting. They didn't become an Official Couple, but they did have ... something that was arguably sex (although both would say it wasn't).
• Outsider has, at least through chapter 2, teased a pairing of Alex Jardin, the human main character, and Beryl, a Loroi systems analyst who has been his near-constant companion since the Loroi rescued him. She is clearly fascinated by him, and this can sometimes come off as being clingy or possessive of his attention, especially when the pilot Talon is around, as Talon and Jardin hit it off almost immediately and she seems to find him attractive. For instance, Beryl doesn't react well to seeing Jardin and Talon shaking hands or being reminded that they couldn't have done it when they first met since he was restrained. Also, after circumstances have her sitting in Jardin's lap for several pages with no complaints from either of them, her intense mental broadcasting to test Jardin's sanzai resistance looks from the outside like she might be about to kiss him, as well as putting his hand on her thigh. Later, she seems to be very happy when Jardin says that she can call him Alex, and has a slight smile on her face as she snuggles up to him to sleep. The biggest tease, however, is a picture the author drew for Valentine's Day 2013 in the site's Outsider Insider section showing Beryl, apparently at least topless, kissing a surprised Jardin.

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