#ARoS

[acexualien]

[mothshrub]

I really liked how ISAT worked Mirabelle's whole deal with aromanticism/asexuality into the story. Like--it's not just a blink-and-you-miss-it one time mention. I can hear people I know in how important romantic relationships are to the people around her and how she feels they're supposed to be for her. I can hear these people in how appalled she is at the idea that her earrings could potentially be a cultural sort of preparation for married life later. I can also hear them in how charmed she is by reading fictional romances, even if some parts don't connect for her, because so many aces and aros still enjoy reading smut and romances. She and Isa gush about helping that bonded house-person deliver that bond-earing thing! It's different for each person, but sometimes stories can have enough comfortable distance in them that it's possible to enjoy things you'd hate trying to actually live out yourself. At the same time, though, when she finally talks about romance and having kids herself--I haven't seen this everywhere, but sometimes I have, and sometimes people just fucking know concretely and completely that something will never appeal to them, and that's familiar too, and...

Just--I really like it, because it's such a seamless part of her, and learning about how she's struggling to make herself tackle the idea of dating like it's some kind of personal moral test, a mandatory phase of pious life--she's rung really true in lots of ways as a religious character, but this one rang especially true there too, right down to how she was trying to find good sides to it. 'Oh this one looks... nice...' she says, trying to find the least destructive gravel-sandwich to eat.

Mirabelle you're wonderful.

[isabellascarlett1]

Queerplatonic Polyamory is great 💗

Queerplatonic LDRs are great 💗

Queerplatonic Throuples are great 💗

Queerplatonic ships are great 💗

Queerplatonic relationships are great 💗

[ist-das-kunst-oder-kann-das-weg]

[cowboylikeghost]

fuck society. I want to live alone.

[caramelcove]

draw more aros pls !!!!!!!!! love, the unknown

Here you go 😊❤️

[le-loup-et-lion]

Hello,

Big fan of AROS (reread it for the second time straight), so I have a question: are you planning to finish it?

(No pressure, of course! Just... asking).

Yes my brain broke and yes I've been suffering from severe depression and burnout for the past 10 years straight, BUT the only thing that will stop me from finishing this fic is a premature death ❤

[desktoparchive]

[slapdashboard]

The aroace(???) dilemma of wondering whether you’re actually aro or just wary of romantic relationships because they are advertised and sold with sex as a package deal

[elvishdemigod]

Soulmate Red String, but it's 2 aromantics who don't want any romance at all

And they're not "fixed" by the end. They're instead friends who get married for benefits, with the addition to being each others best friends

Or two asexuals, one being fully sex-repulsed, who hate each other but still have that red string. They're destined enemies, and there's no hate fucking.

[autumngracy]

Hi, just a random question from a fan of AROS (for which I have no coherent words to decribe my admiration)- I'm sure you've been asked this a million times already, but I'm quite new to this fandom, so forgive me and feel free to ignore the question, of course- who did you base your Javert on, appearance-wise?

Actually I don't think anyone directly asked this before!

To be honest I didn't actually base him on anything or anyone in particular ... I think the reason for this is because I read the brick before ever seeing any adaptations of Les Mis, so the first Javert I pictured was just my own interpretation of him from the brick ...

And what's funny is I can't remember if I originally pictured him with short hair or long hair. I read the 1938 Heritage Press edition of the brick, which is the Wraxall translation + about 1500 Lynd Ward illustrations, and in those illustrations he has short hair. But, oddly, I didn't remember it as being short in those illustrations? I had to go back and look years layer to confirm. (Alas, my beautiful Heritage Press copy is lost somewhere now!)

So I don't know if the long hair thing was me originally picturing it that way despite the illustrations being otherwise (possibly because the illustrative style made it somewhat vague at first?), or if it was from me later getting brainrot from looking at all the post Terrance Mann Javert designs ...

Best I can say about the hair issue is, well ... I just really happen to like male characters with long hair ... idk why lol. I have a lot of male OCs with long hair and every time I make one, part of my brain goes "Another one? For real? Do we not have enough of these little bitches already? If you don't stop putting long hair on all these characters people are gonna start to think you have some kind of kink."

Which. Well. I'm actually asexual so idk lol I think it's just an aesthetic preference

ANYWAY

For his wardrobe, that's just the brick descriptions plus factual research into 1830's era menswear. The only anachronistic element of his appearance really is his hair, but I do get around that by pointing out that he could have simply picked the (older and naval oriented) style up while he was at the Bagne (which did in fact have a dress mandate for keeping long hair tied up, suggesting it was a common enough hairstyle among the guards) and just never dropped it even after it became unfashionable—because A) he doesn't seem to give two shits about being fashionable, B) keeping short hair means either spending money to keep it short or having an intimate enough relationship with someone that they will do it for you free—neither of which I can see him wanting to do—and also C) he appears to be a creature of habit, so keeping the same, easily self-maintained hairstyle over the years fits my understanding of him.

Also, I'm not even exaggerating his tools of the trade because there really is a line in the brick about him having some kind of sword, which I had to go back and reread several times because it surprised even me (but it's 3am and I'm too assed to look it up rn). And we already know he has 2 pistols and a bludgeon (which the brick says he holds tucked up invisibly in his sleeve, Assassin's Creed style, lmao).

On another subject—

Given his stiff and distanced way of interacting with the world, questionable of social skills (see him bluescreening when Fantine is pleading with him in the mairie by way of what may be thinly veiled sexual advances), as well as his black and white thinking, penchant for being distracted by his thoughts to the point of complete obliviouness, propensity to either give extremely short responses or to go into ranting monologues, with little in between—plus the idea that he hates reading but makes himself do it for self improvement reasons, and how he seems to start stimming when lost in thought—I could definitely see him possibly being Autistic or having ADHD.

Now then, about his race ...

I know originally I actually pictured him differently than the Javert I wrote for my fic—as more white, at least—the way he appeared in the Lynd Ward until I read people discussing how he was probably supposed to be part Romani. And when it came to me having to pick conclusive character designs for my fic, I thought it would be much more interesting if it was a Javert who was visibly Romani instead of white passing, which he seems to be in most everything that bothers to mention his background.

I do find it weird that he's seemingly been played by nothing but white guys except for Norm Lewis and David Oyelowo (that I can find). So there's never really been a Romani Javert in stage or screen adaptations ... However, there's still a decent amount of fanart that shows him as darker skinned/Romani, so at least there's that.

Anyway I find that a visibly non white Javert just adds a lot more nuance and depth to his character, even compared to a still Romani but white passing version of him. Because then it changes how he interacts with and views the world (and vice versa), and it changes or adds to his motivations for doing what he does. It brings his (very canon!) struggle with internal racism to the forefront, which a lot of adaptations downplay or completely ignore.

I think part of why this appeals to me is that in modern times we are very used to the idea of the shitty oppressive white cop who is approaching everything from a position of absolute privilege and authority (which is a very shallow and uninteresting archetype, character-wise) ... and brick canon Javert, regardless of whether or not he is white passing, is not coming from a position of privilege—and not just because he is poor. He is coming from a position of social insecurity and vulnerability, which (at least it seems to me) he is trying desperately to escape/overcome.

And this makes his motivations for choosing his specific job far more interesting than "shitty white cop that enforces the status quo because he gets off on exerting power over other people". It suggests a sort of willful mental dissonance and denial that also make a lot of sense in hindsight when we consider the effects of his derailment.

The idea of him snapping and realizing for the first time that most everything he was doing was morally corrupt (or at least highly questionable) is one thing (and a level of obliviousness/ignorance that is somewhat hard to believe, imo) ...

But the idea that he knew how morally reprehensible his actions were all along, and was repressing it on purpose? To gain the only foothold he could see on the ladder of a world he was born on the lowest rung of? And after decades, is forced by external factors to finally, finally look his decisions in the eye and confront himself about them?

Well, shit. That hits a lot harder, doesn't it?

And it certainly hits him pretty hard. Obviously (as I pointed out in the the fic) he did mentally store away notes of things he found morally questionable about/during his career over the years—he just didn't let himself act on them. But it implies he was aware of the injustices, even if he only relegated that awareness to his subconscious.

The brick talks about how he felt he existed outside of society and had only two choices in life—black and white thinking; criminal vs protector, etc.—and it spells out how this is pretty much the direct result of his internalized rascism—so, I mean ... I don't think it's unlikely that canon Javert knew from the beginning that he was sacrificing his his heritage, culture, and moral compass in pursuit of respect and recognition from society (and thereby, social safety).

And in a Post-Seine world, he's forced to reconcile with all of that.

I may have just spoiled a major upcoming plot point for AROS tbh but oh well I was dropping breadcrumbs of foreshadowing about it the entire goddamn time lmao

[mingos-commodoreblog]

AROS distribution: AROS One 2.7 (x86)

[isabellascarlett1]

Happy Aromantic Spectrum Visibility Day to:

- Romance repulsed Aros

- Romance favorable Aros

- AroAllos

- AroAces

- BIPOC Aros

- Neurodivergent Aros

- Aros who are in a relationship

- Non-monogamous Aros

- Hyperromantic Aros

- Aro Lesbians

- Aro Gays

- Mspec Aros

- All Aros

💚🤍🖤

[q2k]

Drew some of my friends on twitters' OCs!