#<- the other aro(ace) boy

[cosmicredcadet]

"This fandom is so queer friendly!" This fandom literally hates, bisexual, trans, nonbinary, and aspec people but ok.

[clownsuu]

How do you feel knowing you converted most of the welcome community to Howdy lovers

The howdy propaganda

W O R K E D -

[mini cw link has mini caterpillars in it]

[jenn-the-mostly-harmless]

I think Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy is probably one of my favorite ongoing anime right now. I've been reading the light novel and I just keep having feels about it.

It's easy to dismiss it as just another isekai or harem show but it has a habit of surprising me. A lot of isekai anime are just regurgitations of tropes in new slightly different configurations, but unlike those stories, the author of Tsukimichi (Kei Azumi) seems to have something to say. There are obvious themes and explorations on beauty, power, responsibility, mental illness, and the power of familial love.

I don't know if the author intended it or not, but I think it's really interesting that Makoto has trouble connecting to feelings besides anger and embarrassment, that his decisions only take him and his friends into consideration, that he feels nothing when he kills a person he doesn't know, and that he can be destructive and impulsive on a national level without realizing how others will perceive it. To me personally, he comes across as someone with a severe mental illness who grew up in the best environment possible and learned to cope with most of his issues in healthy ways.

He would be a totally different character if his environment and connection to other characters were taken away, and the story plays with that constantly. The anime hasn't gotten there yet (super light spoiler warning for details that are not as far as I know, important to the larger plot), but at some point he's granted dreams of true alternate realities of his path and they are all incredibly dark. In those other realities he was left alone with his fear and anger and became a terrifying destructive force.

In his own timeline, multiple side characters realize that he has no qualms about killing (even if he only ever does it to save or avenge friends, a classic hero trope) and decide that he's scary and needs watching. When one of his closest companions starts to worry about him falling victim to bloodlust, another close friend tells her that Makoto will never love killing because life means nothing to him.

But my favorite part of this reading is that Makoto is a kind, thoughtful boy, who treats his friends well, treats every new person he meets with respect, helps any random little girl that is in danger around him, and generally bends over backwards not to hurt anyone who isn't actively attacking him or his allies. The people who love him know he has some dangerous faults and love him totally and completely anyway and without fear.

I haven't finished the series quite yet, so I hope this doesn't slap me in the face, but it feels like a really nuanced, positive depiction of a mentally ill protagonist and I love it.

[mo-ok]

I wanted to become a warrior with Hyuuga. I could work as hard as I did because Hyuuga encouraged me.

[ashtreelane]

WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU IS THAT THERE IS AN ARO VERSION OF COMPULSORY HETEROSEXUALITY . AND IT IS HAUNTING . BUT WHAT THEY ALSO DONT TELL YOU IS THAT YOU CAN SOLVE THIS BY DATING OTHER ARO PEOPLE & YOU WILL FEEL TRUE JOY

[keeps-ache]

collecting words for self-description yippee :D

[goldyluna]

There are two wolves inside me. And they go woof woof and bark bark

[crescentlyautumn]

Ok, so some people asked so here it goes.

The people I think that fall under the acespec and/or arospec categories in KPTS are as follows:

1) Kim. This boy screams acespec, and quite frankly demiromantic if I’m being honest.

2) Vegas. Demiromantic boy and I love him.

3) Pete. Demisexual and I love him for it.

4) Khun. Acespec and possible arospec.

5) Tay. Acespec and also arospec.

6) Chay. Acespec tho he’s the one I flip flop on most, sooooooooo.

Again, feel free to ask me to expand or anything on these. And as always I’m open to hearing others that people might feel like I missed. (I do have a few I could toss on here, but they’re not as concrete for me as those.)

[unproduciblesmackdown]

and I'm Always Saying This: let's think about how confident we can be that what's on the verge of happening in the comic is the savoys easily catching up to mordecai trying to scoot along a guy like thrice his size in a squeaky desk chair through a derelict brewery, serafine will noscope gracie, and mordecai will have to agree to Stay Friends With The Savoys Whatever Happens if for the practical purposes alone (as he presumably did when enduring rather than physically fighting his way out of, oh you know, serafine putting a hand-width sigil on his chest with a knife amidst the congregation Zulie Is There like hands together against my nose and mouth Deep Inhale. absolutely beyond belief. happy pride) when otherwise he'd at best be left with the savoys having something to hold over his head without any especial incentive to cash it in on any particular thing, so rather may as well let them use the leverage to press the Affiliation on him, when evidently in offering it in the first place, the savoys aren't that invested in staying affiliated with marigold forever, nor even really anticipating being thus indefinitely. plus, yknow, maybe if mordecai, for the strategic interests of it all, offered up the info that he's trying to figure out what's going on around here re: marigold, because the savoys might like to know too rather than everyone being jerked around & kept in the dark while they're here, mysteries re: atlas / anticipations of breaking ties or forming other connections or no, such that they're at all willing to help / be in on it

it also just seems Probably Helpful more generally for mordecai to have allies based on recognizing a kindred spirit of Trying To Survive, Brought Here By Nearly Dying existing in the (ferocious little, gay little) shadow(s) and this rather than emphasis on mordecai ending up isolated thanks to people finding him impersonable not even simply b/c of his efficient gunman job aaa eek but just his personality (autistic character alert) like that matter of why mordecai ends up with that brush with death initially like, was he cooking the books? seems completely plausible, in that: he'd be able to do so successfully for any amount of time, and escaping tenement conditions is time-sensitive (as in the sooner the better for like morale but even more general wellbeing), and random bookie probably doesn't pay as well as doing that And being a gunman And ferocious little shadow, even if it pays better than things like, i dunno, see: newsies. other possible child labor '20s moments that are more "legal" haha lmao & furthermore lol. wow yeah apparently the higher competition for jobs during the depression shifted things so that now there was that incentive to regulate child labor to now prioritize adults, Lol Lmao, additionally, whatmakesyouhaha.mp3 like christ. one does imagine the employment opportunities for an immigrated jewish child in a tenement are a heartwarming inspirational bootstrapping tale for the ages waiting to happen for all, way to fuck that one up mordecai. same as we see the charity(tm) bestowed upon the young savoys & the authoritarian violence of its cishet agenda to be a real opportunity they fumbled! smh! which, just as they say, We Are The Same Kind. happy pride, again (savoys are Not of the cishet agenda in any way shape or form. neither is mordecai)

so that is to say. potentially Great to indeed have a steadfast alliance that is based directly on "i recognize we're kindred spirits who are trying to survive on this bitch of an earth" rather than that anyone finds mordecai personally likable & charming, since how much they care if he lives or dies again sure is more weighted on "oh well You Know how people hate his general personality" than on what he actually does, see: already i'm like [my god the Autistic Character Alert] that "gee mordecai you're really good at killing people before they can kill you" factor is what makes people interact with him Positively at all, doesn't particularly factor into [wow you're so hated], bobby framing it as like "oh i don't even have to theorize or confirm that mordecai crossed anyone by cooking the books. i'm sure any & everyone was raring to kill him because he's so annoying & weird & it inspires seemingly completely speculative rumors of disability to explain the nature of his just day-to-day existence" and that speaking of speculation it's entirely plausible someone else might've been skimming funds from [whoever / whatever mordecai worked for] & mordecai was just an easy scapegoat to settle that (this hypothetical responsible party could just stop / change course after that lol)

like absolutely No Exaggeration Required that truly like mordecai is as endangered by "yeah people dislike him in interpersonal interactions & find him weird, grating, rude, surely just too full of himself, and so on. hmm" as by the danger of lethally dangerous jobs & like oh no now viktor lives for revenge e.g. (which we probably would've heard about by now if he did. even if he's also probably not thrilled mordecai kneecapped him. just another classic no emotions zone fellas type of moment. it's kind of funny how much i Don't often think about the mordecai & viktor history & dynamic but i do appreciate them lmao. no characters / dynamics that Can't be appreciated around here, like goddamn) and like, especially because This Is A Narrative lmfao like now we Know it's not required like hay's code style "well this must end with everyone being arrested, because of the crimes" or similarly that we should weigh & rank those breaking Laws or God's Laws (abelard arbogast time) and decide on a threshold for Whom Must Die about it. kicking my legs thinking of these irl Certified Lawbreakers and like the right hand man of years who kept living w/this lady after they retired from the business & doing poetry, all the interesting stories of (and still very recent) history....But it is like. :/ wuh oh, autistic guy everyone hates. oh lord and he's [Romance Armor]-proof. :/// plot armor For Now but most everyone's got that (except how i think gracie's a page away from being shot on sight by serafine, as mentioned). Staying Friends No Matter What Happens With The Savoys and their triumvirate being able to break away from marigold and anyone else too and keep offering collaboration on Survival to each other? that's great i think that's great i think mordecai could use that Something, Anything to help him out on that front. And i think they're a lot of fun as that trio, though i have to presume that unfortunately once again the savoys probably must personally dislike mordecai (who has certainly had actual extra hostility towards them lmfao and they've also apparently only been interacting for like, a handful of days at most? which also still only contributes to the joys of the savoys agreeing "well been mulling him over & damn if we aren't the same kind!!!" like well i respect the hell out of that lol. and of course i like the savoys on their own, as a duo & individually) and their interest in messing with him to get a reaction probably still starts & ends with Like A Chew Toy dynamics there (extrapolation based in Boy Is There An [Autistic Character] Moment Here (Ongoing Of Course)) but. one can dream of "path to Genuine Familiarity via both this active interest & in shaking this range of reactions from him." but again, that's where "regardless, they recognize being The Same Kind & want to forge a transcendent affiliation based on That" comes in.

and i appreciate the drama of it all. let's think again of Missing Scene scarification like. bracing inhale

[persy-r-bozo]

Happy flower day!!!!

Everybody deserves flowers

I don't give a shit what you think your getting manifested flowers from me

You. Reading this.

F L O W E R.

[mo-ok]

🦁 + 🐴

[useless-gay-kid4]

all this arguing over who can or can’t be a lesbian. honestly. what are you, straight?

[soysaucevictim]

... brain's just suddenly batting around another microlabel for Gymrat!Ro - frayromantic.

Dunno where I'm going w/ that but it vibes. Along with him being bellusromantic~

[csaw]

[wolfertinger666]

"let men be feminine " crowd when they see a feminine black guy(cis or trans) and try not to be racist challenge.

I feel like feminine boys/gnc boys are mostly seen as like, a predominantly """"white thing"""" I never see feminine black guys get attention or praise at all, only met with bigotry from bigots, and racism specifically from so called progressives and other gnc guys.

gender, queerness and blackness is something that is never really talked about enough because like, our experiences are often overlooked and ignored, or our experiences are questioned and thoroughly searched for any validity. black lesbians exist, black trans people exist, black gay, bi, ace, and aro people exist.

(sorry if I don't make sense I have a lot of feelings for this)

[spinogreen0iq]

definitely not the reason why lots of my characters are a lil bit autistic and asexual looool xDD

but I think I’m doin my best not to make everyone like that, so uhhh whooopsies

something they don’t tell you about being autistic is that every character you write WILL end up autistic/autistic-coded whether you like it or not