One True Pairing
You may be looking for the zine publisher OTP Press (aka One True Pairing Press) or the zine publisher OTP Press (aka Other Times and Places Press).
| Synonyms: | Shipping | |
| See also: | OTC, GSF, Threesome, Polyfic | |
| Click here for articles related to this term on Fanlore. | ||
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"One True Pairing" is abbreviated as OTP -- it is the sole or primary pairing someone is interested in for a given fandom. Someone with an OTP may have little or no interest in reading or creating fanworks for other pairings, although they may still be interested in reading/producing gen. Fans who do read or create fanworks for multiple pairings in a single fandom may or may not have an OTP; if they do, they may describe their favorite pairing as their OTP.
Contemporary Usage
The term and its derivatives are largely synonymous with shipping, e.g. "I ship Harry/Hermione" can mean "My OTP is Harry/Hermione". However, while one may ship more than one pairing in any given fandom, OTP is used to single out a fan's favorite pairing in that fandom.
Original Usage
Actually, according to the original use of the term, back in the days of Mono-Fandom fans, the term OTP meant the only pairing that the fan was interested in, period. There wasn't even a second fandom, let alone a second pairing within the fandom, that was included as part of the definition.
OT3
OT3 is a play on OTP, and means "one true threesome". Its use is generally looser than OTP; OT3 tends to mean "the threesome I really like" more than "I'm only interested in this threesome and no other pairings or combinations." In some contexts, "trio" is a synonym for OT3.
OT4
OT4 means "one true foursome", and is a riff off OTP and OT3. When used on a story it generally means an actual sexual foursome, but it's also sometimes used by readers to describe a warm gen "team" story that made them feel like the four people are (or could be) "together" -- a sort of team smarm. It is fairly popular in SGA and Merlin, although marginal compared to the common OTPs John/Rodney and Arthur/Merlin; for details on SGA, see Stargate Atlantis/OT4; for Merlin, see Merlin (BBC)/OT4/5.
OT5
"One true fivesome," is used in Merlin (BBC) fandom to refer to stories in which Merlin, Arthur, Guinevere, Morgana, and Lancelot are all involved in a single relationship or pattern of intertwining relationships.
It's also used in Prince of Tennis fandom, generally to refer to Fuji/Tezuka/Echizen/Atobe/Sanada stories. OT6 occasionally shows up too, adding Yukimura to the group. However it sometimes refers to a slightly different group of five or six characters, PoT having a large surplus of attractive boys.
The term also appears frequently in Arashi fandom.

