#Or is it a product of me being acespec

[amtrak12]

I do find it fascinating how many readers take a character statement as the Absolute Truth and don't consider there may be layers of hidden meaning tucked beneath the surface. This happens over and over again in my Lucifer fic, particularly with Chloe's dialogue.

The most recent example is when she said 'Our relationship doesn't matter. Rory's more important.' and some readers were like 'Doesn't seem like she's very interested in a relationship with Lucifer. Where does she think Rory came from then? Doesn't she realize if she doesn't sleep with Lucifer, Rory won't exist in the future?'

When the context of this argument and that line is it's the DAY after they learned this toddler is their daughter from the future and a mere TWO WEEKS after Chloe learned angels were real and her partner was the literal, actual Devil. This woman is stressed as fuck! Do you analyze the romantic feelings you've been suppressing since the object of those feelings rejected you when you're stressed as fuck? Cause I sure don't! She's in survival mode right now! I thought that was obvious??? STOP TAKING ME AND THE CHARACTERS AT OUR WORDS! WE'RE ALL LIARS IN THIS NARRATIVE!

[scriv3lloirl]

My personal Little Shop LGBT Headcanons (+ random shit lol) cus it's pride n I can do whatever t'hell I want.

There are tons of microlabels listed here cus I love givin representation t' the lesser known labels out there, includin my own!!

Also I don't wanna hear shit bout how they wouldn't know what half these labels even are. I'm well aware of that, I'm jus havin fun.

tw: f-slur

enjoy n feel free t' ask questions bout my headcanons if ya want ‼️

Seymour Krelborn | he/they

- transgender (ftm)

- biromantic (fluctuatin male-n-female preference)

- nebularomantic

- asexual

- in modern day, he'd probably use nature related xenogenders

- unlabeled Seymour also works tbh. He seems like the kinda guy who'd be overwhelmed by all these labels

Audrey Fulquard | she/her

- transgender (mtf)

- either hetero or panromantic

- demiromantic

- reciprosexual caedsexual

- she wouldn't say all of this if anyone asked, though. She'd probably say she's gay as a general term, y'know?

- Whenever pride comes round, she makes these beautiful bouquets t' sell that are discreet pride flags. It looks like a bunch'a pretty colors, but nope. Secret lesbian flag.

Orin Scrivello | he/him (maybe it/its too)

- transgender (ftm)

- biromantic (hella internalized homophobia)

- hypersexual.

- aegosexual n/or fraysexual

- he keeps his sexuality n all that locked t'fuck DOWN. He got lucky cus his top scars healed beautifully n ya can't tell he even had any surgeries done.

- If anyone even mentions being gay round him, he suddenly gets very defensive. "Who t'hell are ya callin a faggot?!"

- He has no issues with gay people, he'll tell ya that straight up. But he is not one of them, y' hear? (He is.)

Gravis Mushnik | he/him

- cisgender man

- hetroflexible (biromantic)

- heterosexual

- All gay customers get a discount on flowers. (He jus says that n has Seymour put up a sign in the window for it ...There's no discount btw.)

Twoey / Audrey II | she/it

- agender

- acearo REPULSED

- please do not fuck the plant

- triple a threat.

Crystal | she/her

- cisgender female

- sapphic

- asexual

- Random headcanon, but all the Urchins are aliens (cousin Twoey.) They jus spawned into Skid Row one day n nobody questioned it.

Ronnette | she/he/them (any)

- gender non conformin (gnc)

- neptunic

- aceflux

- fem presentin.

- Chat I've seen like three productions where they have Ronnie played by a dude n it altered my brain chemistry.

Chiffon | she/her

- cisgender female

- lesbian

- acespec

- she is a man hatin lesbian.

Frank Guest | he/him

- cisgender male

- mlm

- nebulasexual + graysexual

- def. has the hots for Seymour.

Arthur Denton | he/it (that/thats)

- cisgender male

- panromantic

- homosexual

- ambiamorous

- I saw someone headcanon that he has a wife n kids n that he's jus a big ol jokester who moans in the dental chair!! I think bout that all the time.

- Nobody wants his freaky ahh.

Mrs. Mack | she/her

- cisgender female

- lesbian

- dating Mrs. Luce cus fuck you guys

Mrs. Luce | she/her

- transgender (mtf)

- lesbian

- dysphorsexual

- in a lavender marriage with Mr. Luce (aka. the editor of Life Magazine (who's a gay man)) she's actually datin Mrs. Mack

Mr. Bernstein | he/him

- cisgender male

- polymantic

- homosexual

- "Seymour, sweetheart, dollface, bubalah..." Yea. Y'ur gay.

Skip Snip | he/him

- cisgender male

- aromantic

- homosexual

- "It's nice to meet me, the pleasure is yours!" Yeah. Welcome t' Homoville buddy.

Patrick Martin | he/him

- cisgender male

- heterosexual

- homophobic.

- I don't like Patrick Martin. so he's a cishet.

Wink Wilkinson | he/him

- cisgender male

- panromantic

- asexual

- He'd be the kinda guy who'd wear "Free Hugs!" shirt at pride n give out really cringy pride stickers like "I'm a Pan-da!!" N shit t' the people he interviews on the radio. He's great.

[visualtaehyun]

BL/QL Ask game : The Ugly, the Bad and the Worst

Thank you for tagging me @twig-tea 🙏 I read your post and the questions while going Ohhh interesting but when I actually tried to answer them myself, I realized that I'm usually pretty positive about the shows I watch or else I just move on from them. Most of the time, I don't fault characters or a whole show for being bad anyway, it's more the writing/script, directing choices, or editing that I tend to have gripes with.

So! Of the entire 22 original questions (by @clara-maybe-ontheroad), I'll only be answering a handful. This will also only be about Thai BLs because they make up the vast majority of QLs I've seen.

1 Worst soundtrack / weirdest song choice in a BL

My knee-jerk reaction was "Never Let Me Go country song NC" lmao but then I went to rewatch said scene and it barely stood out to me. So after re-thinking I'll have to nominate two shows: Dangerous Romance and Until We Meet Again, for basically the same reason.

Chimon's OST สายลม (Wind), which I actually fell in love with when it dropped because Chimon's voice was such a pleasant surprise, is being entirely overused in DR, to the point that I'm starting to tire of a song that I actually like. Honorable mention: The completely random and unnecessary stage performance of Perth and Chimon's ซบกันไปนานๆ (Sunset) in ep. 5. Was it not enough to have them sing and vibe to it in the car earlier in the same episode??

Similarly, UWMA's OST is either entirely by one guy or entirely one song but it sure was grating on me, my patience and my enjoyment of the show. P'New series are already hit or miss for me but that singer/song/OST had me so fed up.

5 Worst plot line

The first show I ever dropped was Star In My Mind which is ridiculous considering how short it is. But the entire premise of Kluen being unable to open his goddamn mouth frustrated me to no end. I did pick it back up again at a later point though, so I could watch Sky In Your Heart and indulge in the JoongDunk cuteness from there on out.

7 A show people love but you find bad

I'm sorry to say but- it's Vice Versa. It was one of the first Thai QLs I watched along with as it aired but ultimately I gotta say Oof. It has a fun premise, the cinematography is super nice, and it's genuinely sweet. But the amount of product placements was staggering! I also just didn't vibe with JimmySea's chemistry, they just gave too much Friend energy for me to find them believable as a couple. They're not the only ones or the only series where I didn't really find the spark but that's not a Them problem. That's a me 'Needing my fictional couples to be head over heels for each other for my acespec ass to see/experience the attraction and connection' problem lol

8 A show people find bad but you will defend

Cutie Pie! And I will die on this hill, @twig-tea 😂 It has everything I love: good production quality, good acting, tangible chemistry between the couples (see last question lol), complicated emotions, push-and-pull between the romantic leads, a dedicated cast and crew, a great OST, I'm certain I'm forgetting a lot of stuff but there's just so much I love about this show.

At its core, it's about two people who turned themselves into the versions they think they should be for each other, based on their upbringing, expectations placed upon them, status differences etc. and how they learn to be honest with themselves and each other.

I've re-watched this show a number of times, each with different levels of Thai proficiency, which made me consider that this show might've been such a hit in Thailand but not as much internationally because there's maybe a language and trope/culture barrier here? On my first-time watch, I knew no Thai and was largely unfamiliar with what tropes are common in Thai romances and such. At the time, the show didn't hit me very much, I struggled to make sense of that pivotal fight in episode 1, I enjoyed the singing, it was mostly just a nice romance. On my most recent re-watch a few months back, I had reached the point where I could follow a spoken conversation in Thai as long as there were translated subs to guide me along. And suddenly the full weight of episode 1 but especially the fight at the end, setting up the central conflict, hit me and I realized: Oh wow! This is good writing! Introduce your characters, their backgrounds, their goals, and the show's core conflict and that's how you hook viewers.

This has already gotten long enough but I wanna mention how much it means to me to have this show not just call for marriage equality repeatedly but also to have them shout it out to the world by having their mlm couple fully make out in what is arguably one of the busiest corners of Bangkok - Siam Square! More specifically it is the area with the fountains between Siam Paragon on one side and Siam Center on the other, and the skywalk (that connects the various malls in the area) as well as the central BTS station Siam both overlooking that space. It's also called Parc Paragon, there's frequently events there, and it is busy as all hell!! And they not only cleared it for filming a lengthy queer kiss scene but, in the show, the huge LED/ad screens are used to project pride colors, a call for equal rights, and a queer marriage proposal in plain view of the entire square!

If you've never been to Bangkok, I beg you to look up photos, via Google Street View or the IG location tag for Parc Paragon so you get an idea of what I'm talking about. 🙏 (this isn't the only busy prominent location they used btw but djdjhdjsdj let's not write a whole damn essay here)

10 A bad show that you kept watching because you were intrigued/fascinated

Dinosaur Love - I watched the first episode, excited for Tonnam and Pepper, and found it charming with its low budget, pink-filtered tropey-ness. Except I quickly realized that this show was Actually Bad. The framing and blocking were often a big question mark to me. The pink filter and the background music got annoying quickly. The acting was subpar. At some point in episode 2 I started questioning if they ever even did more than one take per scene. There was a panning shot involving a mirror where the crew is just fully visible in the reflection?? Suffice it to say that I dropped this show like a hot potato when episode 3 very suddenly and very graphically had a side character self-harm. Squicked me out like nothing before, moving on!

11 A bad show that you kept watching because you were horny

I mentioned this already but I'm on the aro/ace-spectrum (...somewhere, don't ask me specifics lol) so I don't really watch shows for horny or eyecandy reasons. If I don't vibe with the characters or dynamics then I won't even perceive them as sexy, to be honest.

12 A bad show that you kept watching because of that one character

Why R U (the og Thai one), I guess? Everyone who's seen it probably knows that the production and filming suffered because of Covid so I wouldn't hesitate to call this show bad on that basis. I set out to watch it because I wanted to see more of Zee Pruk's acting, in another role, after having seen Cutie Pie. And Fighter ended up being most of the reason I stuck around till the end. The nuanced struggle with his own sexuality was so well-portrayed. Tutor is a very memorable character as well! And I'm entirely 🥰 about Hwa, she just perfectly fits this character archetype that I will always, without fail, completely adore.

21 The show that disappointed you the most

Most of the time, I either don't have big expectations or I let go of them quickly enough once I get a vibe for where a given show is going. The closest thing to 'disappointment' would then probably be all the shows that I kept seeing being recommended and hyped but that didn't leave a lasting impression on me after watching, like KinnPorsche, Love Mechanics, Manner of Death. None of these are bad OR disappointing and there's things I genuinely enjoyed and liked in them but ultimately I just didn't Get why they're so popular. I'm sure part of it is to do with me not having been around to follow along on a week-to-week basis but watching them long after they were done airing, basically in a vacuum. But alas!

I don't know how you managed to do all 22 questions, Twig Tea, when this fraction has already taken me like five hours 💀 Passing this time-eating curse on then to @airenyah @cangse-sanren/@zeesqueere @sadwetcatray @sorry-bonebag @telomeke @thegalwhorants @pharawee I'm sure this tag is making the rounds so some (if not all) of y'all have probably done this already. If anyone I didn't tag reads this and wants to play, feel free to tag me in it, I do enjoy reading hot takes and impassioned essays lol

[seaofolives]

ok but some selfish and abrasive g witch finale thoughts:

all these boohoos going on about how that shit sucked bc they were really expecting a kiss on screen and it didn't happen and how the execs chickened out of a """real gay rep""" just really tells me how much better we acespecs are at finding and telling a love story. like if fucking yuri on ice didn't/couldn't do it (I know this is a time slot thing and pls, we are talking about a production that happened in a country where the fucking nagano ruling is already considered monumental! try to imagine that if u can!!!!), what the fuck makes you think a gundam show will? and like, a kiss? really is the only way you'll believe two queer people are in love? so if you see two people who are out and out and they're just holding hands, you're not gonna believe they're in love??? come the fuck on, stranger

like let's give this the benefit of the doubt: execs wanted an onscreen kiss for the impact and the hashtag but censorship is homophobic and stuff. look, they went around it, didn't they?? eri identified herself as miorine's fucking sister-in-law, they have motherfucking rings, and they're living together???? and in so doing delivered an even more holistic couple??? and you're telling me that's not queer rep, that they're not in love, and that they owe it to you to explain their love story as if they didn't fucking spend 576 minutes telling it and almost literally even died for it??? like maybe at this point, people should just fing reevaluate their shallow grasp on romance and maybe even their inherent acephobia

am I stepping on toes here? yeah I'm fucking stepping on toes here but I wouldn't be me if I wasn't making enemies left and right, right? also you can't blame me for being angry about the way media has turned romance into a narrow checklist. I'm tired of that shit

in other news, after that roller-coaster ride of an anime, I think I'm suddenly prepared for anything the other animes I'm watching/games I'm playing can throw at me. character death? give it to me; my favorite character got a great ending in g witch so I'm happy to take a loss on another front. (and like come on, I was prepared for Jin Sakai to die until I realized that he was the mc of the DLC too which is a big duh on my part but anyway—) gay skater suddenly gets a girlfriend in the next season? give it to me, I don't care anymore. we'll all know it's fake anyway, we just need the money from the hetties

lastly and selfishly, I can finally work on my guel fanmix holy shit and boy am I glad I've been going on the right direction all along 😭😭😭 (guesule fanmix, don't worry, I have a hundred sad songs waiting for you, so you just sit right there and auntie liv will get to you soon 💖)

[his-dollette]

🍒 esther, lvl. 18, ne/nen, demigirl, sfw age regressor, eclectic witch, luciferian, acespec

🎀 always happy to chat and make friends! also, please send asks, they make me so happy!

🍒 this is a cozy, positive, safe space for all the sweet people; if i reblog a post of yours and you don't like it being on my blog, i will be happy to delete the reblog for you ♡

🎀 loves: reading, writing, stuffies (all toys really), pretty things, self-care products, trinkets, subliminals, animals, coquette/dollette/doellette and morute aesthetics, paranormal things, horror movies and cartoons

🍒 i post affirmations, my thoughts and things i enjoy, playlists, things i find in my life that brings me joy (like when i make myself pretty meals) reblog aesthetic stuff and try to look into what i actually want and enjoy

🎀 check out my tags here [🍓🍓🍓]

🍒 this is a manifesting a bf blog, but also a place to heal and explore my sexuality after trauma, and there will be occasional vents and darker fantasies; i'll do my best to tw tag, but if you need anything tagged, feel free to tell me ♡ (block #៚♡ 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘭𝘭 to filter all of it in one swipe ☺; also block #៚♡ 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 to filter the vents)

DNI: terf/swerf, abdl/bdsm/nsfw/r@pe fetish blogs, pro-ed, anti-LGBTQ+/anti-MOGAI, pro-ship, pro-inc*st, anti-endo, (NO)MAP/PEAR/supporter, anti-agere, trump supporter, anti-feminist, anti-BLM/anti-ACAB, abrahamic religions (there's nothing wrong with you guys, it's just a trigger for me), will add as i remember other nasty people

[izzasecretredacted]

Using A Spark in Fate Core to Build My World

I thought I’d show you my process through A Spark in Fate Core, a worksheet for creating an original campaign setting. This doubles as a writing tool and something that will contribute to gameplay, even after going through it, so I think it’s worth showing what I ended up doing before formulating that introductory post.

Since Spark in Fate was made specifically for Fate Core, a TTRPG I’m not using, I’m using part of it. I also homebrewed this a bit, since it’s built for collaborative worldbuilding and I’m just doing this on my own, but not that much..

Step 1: List Media

Going into this project, all I knew about it was that I wanted it to be kinky, in a world that’s atleast better than real life, and related to space. This first step, which is to list some media that I like or has things that I want in my world, will help me get a more solid idea. I’m not going to justify my choices, because I don’t have to, not until step 2.

Usually, you would have 1 or 2 per player. I picked 3 total, which is a bit less than you’d normally have, but that’s because of a future step.

Cowboy Bebop

Star Trek

Tekken 3

I didn’t need all of the media to be sci-fi, and in fact, only 2 have space travel. I didn’t need media with a story, either. I’m actually pretty sure that, every time I’ve done this with an actual group, atleast one person gives an album. I make a point that it works just as well as anything else. I picked these because they were either cool, or were cool and also had themes I wanted to explore.

Step 2: List Inspirations

After asking for some of the stuff I like, Spark in Fate then has the gall to ask ‘why’. This means I have to pinpoint specific things in the media I’ve listed that I want to see in my world, and put that concept into a phrase that’ll be called an inspiration. I went for 1 ‘cool’ inspiration and 1 ‘thematic’ inspiration for each piece of information, just to keep a balance or something.

I’ll describe my thought process for deciding each inspiration. I won’t go in depth about how that inspiration relates to the media it comes from, because I don’t need the inspirations to be perfectly reminiscent of how they were explored in the media I chose.

Cowboy Bebop

Bounty Hunting

This felt like a good way to facilitate swashbucklery duels, and maybe have an excuse to explore dub-con/cnc style dynamics.

Holding on to Identity

I tend to get bored of sex that just exists for its own sake (acespecs gonna acespec), so I figured it’d be fun to ask what makes sex, and for that matter, romance and gender as well, meaningful to the characters doing it.

Star Trek

Space Adventure

It’s fun, you should try it! That, and I recently came across a book called “Elf Genders” that has tables for randomly rolling genders for fantasy cultures. I won’t use that specific book, because some of the tables are checks for if certain things are discriminated against, and I just don’t want to introduce that in this game. I’m giving it a shoutout because it made me realize that it’s kinda silly how aliens in media are often just a couple of genders that humans ended up with, and I thought I’d contribute to rectifying that.

Almost Utopic

Utopian fiction appeals to me because I just think it’s a more productive way to comment on real world issues, and because not being depressing doesn’t make something less intelligent or meaningful. I went with ‘Almost Utopic’, partially to acknowledge that Star Trek’s politics aren’t perfect, but mainly because it makes fitting it into the Thirsty Sword Lesbians framework slightly more straightforward.

Tekken 3

Expressive Fighting Styles

I like when characters have fighting styles that fit their personality, and are flashy to the point of ‘that would never work in a real fight’. Basically, professional wrestling.

Tech Awakening Old Horrors

I wanted to interrogate the idea that technological advancement is inherently good. Obviously, as a tool, it's done some pretty cool things like develop modern medicine and make long distance communication practical, I guess. I’m more talking about the idea that we should have more powerful technology just for the sake of it, and thought maybe having really powerful technology that poses an existential threat could be a good jumping off point. I didn’t intend to end up with ‘fossil fuels but Lovecraftian’ but maybe I can lean into that.

Step 3: Genre

This is when you pick a genre and put an adjective infront of it to make it more unique. That’s about it. It sounds easy, but with a group, it can sometimes take awhile…

Anyway, I went with “Kinky Sci-Fi Adventure”, of course.

Step 4: Scale

Ironically, this is another one-question-long step. It asks what problems the PCs will need to face, ranging from small town drama to saving the world from a mad god. This is actually a pretty complicated question when you put it in the context of a single campaign, which is probably why it gets its own step. It asks you to say something like ‘small scale’ or ‘big scale’, but then add a phrase to elaborate on the nature of that scale.

I plan on this campaign being a monster-of-the-week with space travel and rival characters. Since the broader problems of the world aren’t being tackled (atleast, not in the start), this would actually be a ‘small scale’ campaign. I’ll specify that the setting takes place in a large location, but focuses on a certain type of character.

I went with “Small Scale (Space, but Filled with Rivals)”.

Step 5: Establish the Facts

At last, I get to start putting in some more tangible elements into this world. Normally what would happen is the DM would ask a question (my favorite starting question is ‘What does mundane life here look like?’, but that’s neither here nor there), and a player answers it in a way that incorporates one of the inspirations. Then, that player asks another question, and another player answers it by incorporating another inspiration. This goes on until every inspiration is incorporated, making sure everyone gets to ask and answer a question.

When I’m doing this on my own, I sometimes write down a question and randomly roll for what inspiration to use to answer it. For this campaign, I don’t have to, because Thirsty Sword Lesbians has a worksheet for worldbuilding, with questions that I can use for this process. This is why I only used 3 pieces of media with 6 inspirations, because there were six questions that I wanted to pull from the TSL worksheet.

Since the questions were decided by another source, I just picked the inspirations I wanted to use.

What community does the PC live in?

The Sell-Whips. (Expressive Fighting Styles)

What’s the scale of this community?

Scattered across two galaxies. (Space Adventure)

What is especially positive about this community?

Complete and mutual respect for each-other’s needs. (Holding on to Identity)

What is a serious flaw of your community?

Sometimes you need to ‘grab’ someone to help keep the ship running. (Bounty Hunting)

What poses a threat to your community?

The sorta benevolent Federation, which pressures others to assimilate to a specific way of life. (Almost Utopic)

What poses a threat to the world?

The chaotic, powerful, and destructive Extinction-Tech. (Tech Awakening Past Horrors)

Step 6: Name Your Child

It wants a title for the world. Most groups skip this step. I figured there’s no better title than my blog title, so refer to that and continue to Step 7.

Step 7: Step 7

This is Step 7. It’s the step where ‘Sparks’ are come up with, root problems that have an effect on the entire world, and it’s the last step that I want to do. This step exists even for small scale campaigns, because they give an understanding of where more local problems originate. This is normally done by each player thinking of 2 sparks, but I like to make sparks usings the facts I established in Step 5, which is not Step 7. Step 7 is this.

Remember these Sparks, they’re the whole reason why I thought this process was worth showing. They’ll come up in a future, similarly ‘behind the curtain’ post, and will hopefully play a huge role when actual gameplay starts.

It’s a dangerous job, but someone’s gotta do it. (The Sell-Whips.)

Interstellar travel takes a while. (Scattered across two galaxies.)

Sell-Whips stick together. (Complete and mutual respect for each-other’s needs.)

Sell-Whips hunt each other. (Sometimes you need to ‘grab’ someone to help keep the ship running.)

Life’s hard for those who aren’t homogenous. (The sorta benevolent Federation, which pressures others to assimilate to a specific way of life.)

Extinction-Tech is never good news. (The chaotic, powerful, and destructive Extinction-Tech.)

In later steps, a group or solo player would create more local issues, and then create some key characters and places. I plan on doing all that without Spark in Fate, so that’s why I’ve neglected them. I just needed to come up with a skeleton (or the outside of the iceberg, if you’ve seen that Brandon Sanderson lecture that one time), and get those Sparks as a secret tool that will help out later. It’ll be a bit until I start the actual journal, I got some homebrew ideas I want put into writing, plus a bunch of rivals and my PC’s crew, but next post will have atleast a little bit of narrativeness to it.

[onlydigressing]

A Rant- Religion and Queerness

I’m Acespec. Having been raised Christian and being Queer, I have a lot of feelings. And here is where I shall vent. (3/4)

So we know that religion kinda screwed with me, because you know, compulsive heteronormativity.

I just need a mention for how frustrated I am that I spent so long not considering girls as a romantic option.

Actually, I feel the need to interrupt myself here and produce a record of my bi crisis.

Apparently it’s quite normal for Ace people to think they are Bi or Pan because their lack of sexual attraction (0) means they have no preference over who they date (0 = 0). This means that their “sexual attraction” (read, lack of) is equal so they’re actually attracted to MANY genders/identifies since they HAVE to be attracted to SOMEONE, RIGHT?! (hello compulsive/expected allosexuality, i dislike you)

Well I don’t think like that. Or, well, I had already read that by the time I was starting to accept my first aspec label, so my thought process was a little different. Either way, I was convinced of my asexuality before anything else.

So I took on the label of demisexual at first. Analyzing that is a different post. It was only after I started suspecting I was demisexual, that my bi crisis appeared.

See, demisexuality means you start having sexual attraction after a deep bond is formed. It’s not really on purpose, it just happens because you need a lot of trust and confidence before even experiencing attraction (no demisexuality isn’t always the product of trauma). For my ex, that meant being friends with him before considering a relationship, and being in our relationship for a while before considering we could be “more.”

So for me personally, getting into a relationship had to be kind of purposeful. I was homeschooled, so honestly, trying to connect with someone at all always had to be purposeful. And, well, i had never been purposeful towards a girl.

So as soon as my asexuality started showing, one my first thoughts was “well how do I know I’m not bi? After all, from my limited experience, I won’t be attracted to a girl until I’ve already been in a relationship with them for a while, and I’ve never tried that.”

So that was my crisis. (Let’s ignore the fact that I am probably bi if my immediate thought was “could I be bi <3 ????”) Not too bad. So what am I upset at???

The fact that it never once occurred to me that romance with a girl was permissible. Yeah, I’m basically angry that homosexual relationships were somehow silently yet loudly discouraged in my experience. Which was because Hello Christianity, I don’t like you either.

Because I had to ask myself if my “ick” towards dating a girl was because of how I felt, or if it was because i’ve been conditioned to feel that way.

And that angered me. I was already facing fears of what my relationship could even look like in light my newly discovered sexuality, I had also been raised to ignore HALF THE POPULATION?! Ridiculous.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

credit to @justlgbtthings for the ace hearts divider

[reblogging4thewin]

A Revision of the Layered attraction model for All

I typed this out in the closing thoughts question for a survey for visibility, and that evolved into making this post, which became a complete re-design of the layered attraction model to include the full spectrum of romantic and sexual orientations.

Origin of this project:

The presence of romantic attraction without sexual attraction doesn't invalidate or erase the romantic attraction.

Ace people, for example, whether heteroromantic, homoromatic, Biromantic, etc, have romantic attraction without sexual attraction. It is not unusual for Bi or Pan Demisexual or Graysexual people to experience romantic attraction to more than one gender but only experience sexual attraction towards one gender.

I've found out by interacting with people online that even outside of the Ace spectrum, there are also Biromantic Heterosexual (or Homosexual) people who are Allo. You don't even have to be on the Ace or Aro spectrum to experience romantic and sexual attraction separately. Such people tend to, in public settings, just say they are straight (or gay, as applicable) or Graysexual, to avoid having to justify their romantic attraction to additional genders not being coupled with sexual attraction despite not being Asexual.

To add to that, there's also the idea that potential partners of the gender for which they only experience romantic attraction would not be happy in a non-sexual relationship unless that person is Ace, or perhaps that they themselves wouldn't, since they do experience sexual attraction to other genders. But that is broad brushing, and given that Ace people can be in happy, fulfilling relationships with Allo people, then it is possible. It's just a matter of whether they'd want to pursue that or not. That's just another reason why Biromantic Heterosexual and Biromantic Homosexual people tend not to be out or only be out online.

The Layered Attraction Model (est 2017 as far as I can tell):

Here's the Layered attraction model for those who haven't seen it. It combines the Ace Spectrum (with some Arospec poorly thrown in), the Kinsey Scale, and a scale of polyamory (idk if that scale has its own name). It has served as a starting point for educating people and helping people find their labels. I definitely think we need additional dimensions. It wouldn't make for as nice a graphic, but just the list part is fine with me.

Kinsey scale deals with frequency/proportion of attraction, but the original layered model does not account for different types of attraction to different genders.  The wording in the original focuses on action rather than attraction.  One’s orientation is defined by attraction, not by what you choose to act on or have had opportunity to act on.  Instead of “prefers,” it should say “experiences attraction to”.  

Demisexuality corresponds to Pink in the layered attraction model, but the description of Pink as written assumes alloromanticism.  It doesn't really include those who are also Demiromantic (double Demis), or other aro-spec identities.  The wording of what appears to be aro-ace is also problematic.

A potential solution is to duplicate the layered attraction cake for the Aro spectrum, allowing you to choose a Kinsey Scale number for your romantic attraction separate from the number for your sexual attraction. Instead of reds and pinks, it'd use greens & grays for the Arospec colors. Adding a column for one's gender identity would make this model a full label. Acespec, Arospec, Romantic orientation, Sexual orientation, and gender identity.

This should cover everyone. Oriented aroace demiboys, Double demi panromantic homosexual girls, Allo Biromantic Heterosexual guys, Asexual Polyamorus Alloromantic Heteroromantic trans women, etc, etc.

We are a diverse community, and the world is more diverse than we tend to recognize.

The Full Spectrum Layered Attraction and Identity Model:

It took a couple of weeks before I finished the project and came back to this draft post.  Behold the revamped layered attraction model:

(It’s 34″ squared, so please zoom in to full read your parts.)

It includes:

Romantic orientation

Aromantic Spectrum Kinsey Scale Polyamory scale

Sexual orientation

Asexual Spectrum Kinsey Scale Sex Favorability

Gender Identity

Gender Identity Cis-Trans-Intersex (not mutually exclusive) Gender Fluidity

I did my best to make this inclusive to everyone, but if I missed anything or worded anything poorly, please let me know and I will make a revised version.  (Especially with the gender part, seeing as I am cis.)

Also, thank you to my fellow mods of @demisexual-kingdom​ for giving the finished product a look over before posting.

[butch-bakugo]

Another way lesbian allies can help lesbians! A post to address why there is ( almost ) no non-lesbophobic reason to not include lesbians in merch

Dont support lesbophobic lgbt merch creators! If someone dose not include the lesbian flag in merch titled " lgbt/pride" do not like, reblog or contribute to it until you know why! Put your foot down hard aginest lesbian erasure and support creators that include us!

What should i do if a creator dose not have any lesbian merch?

Ask them! They will more than likely either add it later after requests or give you a reason why.

If they do not respond ever, that means they are most likely ignoreing you for lesbophobic reasons or they do not listen to the consumers. Both are reasons to not support these creators.

Heres some common excuses/reasons and why these do not work ( most are tailored to knitted creations):

1. The lesbian flag is offensive!

A: Calmly show them this lesbian flag.

Originally people had problems with it because the creator was an ace exclusionist. However, if that stopped them, please inform them the creator is now an ace inclusionist. Otherwise the creator is not problematic. If they do not adhead, they dont care to include us. They are then and only then lesbophobic.

2. Too many colors! Its too expensive and ill get the colors wrong!

A: calmly show them this abbreviated version of the flag above

Remind them that its a total of 3 new colors ( if they included the usual rainbow, bi and trans they should already have a basic red and white) and shouldnt be too much more expensive. Tell them that lesbians do not care if the colors are alittle off and that most understand that the colors are tricky and they will be thankful. If this dose not encourage them to include lesbians, remind them that they shouldnt of tooken on making lgbt merch if they werent prepared to include the first letter. Then and only then are they lesbophobic.

3. I dont want terfs to buy my products!

A: this is an inherently lesbophobic answer. This means they equate lesbians to terfs and thats widely offensive.

4. Lesbian merch dosent sell like the gbt+ merch.

A: ask them why they veiw making money off lgbt people over representing lesbians and producing representative merch. They'll shut up reeeaalll quick and add it.

5. I just dont want to.

A: this person is litterally a lesbophobic child. Do not give them your money.

6. This merch is made specifically for multisexual identities/acespec identities/trans identities.

A: Ask them if they plan on making this in for other identities. If they say yes, encourage them to include the lesbian flag in that. If they say no, respect that and move on.

6. I already have the rainbow flag!

A: remind them that the rainbow flag is meant for the whole community and that they shouldnt be shoving lesbians under a " etc" flag. Also remind them that most people assume that to be the gay man flag and lesbians would appriciate their own flag being represented so they arent automatically assumed to just be ambiguous. If they still decline after this, remind them this is lesbian erasure and would make them inturn lesbophobic.

7. I already have the sapphic flag!

A: remind them that the sapphic flag is for wlw, not necessarily lesbians. Wlw includes lesbian,bi, pan, poly, ace and multiple other wlw identities. Remind them that lesbians have their own flag and specific experiences that differ from other wlw. That lesbians do not deserve to be listed under " lady-lover etc." And request a lesbian specfic one. If they do not concide, remind them that it is lesbian erasure and therefore lesbophobic.

7. I wont include lesbians if they keep harassing me for not including their flag/rebeling aginest those calling them out for lesbian erasure

A: these people believe that demand for their product = harassment and that they will only include specfic oppressed groups if they are nice and their are few of them. This person is trash and entitled. Tell them they are lesbophobic and do not contribute to them.

8. I dont want to look like i enable transmisogny or ace exclusionism.

A: this is another inherently lesbophobic answer. This person equates lesbians to terfs or ace exclusionists and this is offensive. Call them out on their lesbophobic assumptions and do not contribute to them.

9. I only want to do my identities.

A: ask them why they are only producing their own identities if they are selling them to other people of mutliple different identities. If they are only suspiciously producing rainbow, bi and trans, remind them they are one away from producing lgbt merch in general and people will assume this lesbophobic erasure. They will probably change that.

10. You asking this is suspiciously terfy/exclusionist.

A: this is another inherently lesbophobic answer. This means they think even the request of lesbian merch must be only by terfs or ace exclusionists. Remind them that is lesbophobic.

And thats about every argument ive heard so far! If you run into lesbophobic creators and catch their lesbophobia either through reblogs please @ me! If you catch it in pms, please screenshot it, post it and @ me! That way we can stop other people from supporting lesbophobic creators either entirely or they change their lesbophobic ways!

Reminder to also support creators that include lesbians and praise them specifically for that! Most will be encouraged to continue to produce lesbian merch if they get praised for it.

You also should be actively engaging in this fight aginest lesbophobia and lesbian erasure if you are not lesbian yourself! We love merch but we love allies even more!

Thank you to the creators who do include lesbians in your merch! We appreciate your stance in the fight aginest lesbophobia and lesbian erasure that plagues this specific group!

[philosophiums]

i don’t fully agree with the way the op talked about this but a) there is lgbtq as identity and then there’s lgbtq as a political coalition. neither you nor op made any distinction between them and of course there’s overlap but that’s part of the issue with this whole argument. second not all ace people are straight obviously but a cisgender heterosexual person is what people are referring to when they talk about straight people. i don’t think that’s about exclusion it’s about being honest >>

about privilege imo plus the split attraction model is deeply problematic for a lot of reasons, namely that it assumes that “””allosexual””” lgbtq people somehow don’t experience atypical attraction or have complicated relationships with sex. that may not be the intention but it’s a problematic way to frame the conversation. like mogai culture has a lot of problems and if this is about community those concerns should be taken seriously. idk op was not wording things well but i think > >your response didn’t necessarily address some of the actual issues with mogai and/or the aro/ace discourse. like i think this has devolved into a “who can be in the club” argument and that’s not the point either “side” is trying to make. idk i just think this is an issue almost exclusively on the internet and it would be more productive for us all to discuss solutions bearing in mind historical and social context. i am really sorry some fuck sent you death threats over this though wtf

oh hey look an actual reasonable discussion. i’m going to break this down into a numbered list to stay a bit organized and try to address things as you brought them up so please don’t think the list is my way of being like... snappy or something

100% agree. lgbt as an identity vs lgbt as a political coalition are different but not mutually exclusive. lgbt+ is a looooong acronym and includes a broad range of alignments and identities, and it’s great that so many people can find comfort and community in that identity, and i think that anyone who feels like they’re not solidly cishet is welcome to try on some identities or keep themselves as “questioning” and educate themselves further about different identities and the community history, and no one should be held back from exploring because - shocker - identities and our understanding of them change frequently, especially in relation to ourselves

genuinely i think the split attraction model is the biggest problem here. and place the blame for this wherever you like (media, society, the church™, whatever). like i hate that our options are I Have/Want Sex All The Time vs Maybe I’m Acespec. that’s not.... how attraction works. that’s not how people work. the ace spectrum is.... so strange to me because “ace” as in “actually asexual” can not, by default (in my opinion) be cishet, because the “ace” replaces the “het.” they would be cis ace. unfortunately, i think a lot of the ace spectrum is full of sexuality modifiers (demi is probably the most popular one). demi isn’t actually.... a sexuality. i think it’s a valid identity and i think it should be allowed in the community, but we circle back to, then, the difference between lgbt as an identity and lgbt as a political coalition

i am 100% with everyone on the whole “some acespec people are cishet” thing. a cis girl who IDs as demi (i’ve already used it once i’ll keep going with it) but who is pretty sure she’ll only ever be attracted to cis guys is welcome to use lgbt as an identity, but shouldn’t have a say in lgbt as a coalition. she’s still cishet, because even though demi is “ace” in the absolute loosest of terms (because it’s on the spectrum), it’s a modifier. the reason i get so worked up about ace discourse posts is that no one who makes them bothers to differentiate between asexual and the rest of the spectrum - they just say “ace” and refuse to acknowledge it as its own sexuality. asexuality is, by default, not cishet. and like... i’m saying this as someone who ID-ed as demi for a long time because i was still convinced due to social expectations that “surely i have to want to have sex i just need to find the right person” 

however, of course, you then get into the complications of “some people who were cishet but who were abused are now ID-ing as asexual and should they be allowed to ID as lgbt as a coalition.” well... no. they have always been cishet. if they want to actually ID as asexual then i think they can use lgbt as an identity, but the other side of it isn’t open to them

also please don’t get me started on romantic attraction i’m not even sure it’s a super real thing i honestly think it’s something (western) society more or less made up by uplifting the ideals of marriage and more or less banning close physical contact between friends because honestly how do you even define romance as an attraction it’s bonkers 

i didn’t touch on this stuff in my initial reply to the post because every time there’s ace discourse it always seems to boil down to “we can’t be adults and understand that there’s nuance and complications to all of this so we’re just going to hate all acespec people and try to ban them from ID-ing as lgbt and they’re only valid if they also hastily say that they’re trans or wlw/mlm but they’re on thin ice.” and that pisses me off because if you think you’re in a sound enough place to start dictating who is and isn’t allowed to say “i fit into the lgbt political coalition” then you need to be less line-in-the-sand about it and more understanding to the fact that some people who identify as ace actually aren’t cishet Even If They’re Still Cis And Not Bi/Gay/Pan/Etc. because asexual is. literally. a sexuality and you can’t be het if you’re not. attracted to people?

but yeah like......... no one can really be the Identity Police and say that someone who thinks themselves to be something other than the social standard of cishet isn’t allowed to identify as lgbt (allies can fuck off they don’t get to be in the acronym but like.... it’s open ended with a + for a reason). and i think that anyone who wants to identify as lgbt needs to start doing some research on different identities and on the history of lgbt as a political coalition and it’s evolution as an identity as well. and you’re right - none of this actually exists in the real world, because it typically happens that getting into discussions in the real world results in learning instead of tightening your grip on your beliefs (which is how tumblr discussions always go; everyone gets defensive and no one actually learns anything)

and i’m not saying that even i’m 100% right. everything is so dependent on minute details and individual identities. we get so used to binaries that i think it’s difficult, sometimes, to remember that no two people are in the same exact place on the spectrum. no one experiences their sexuality the way another person does. sometimes even the definitions of terms and identities are different for different people, and they change so damn frequently

thank you for being a reasonable human being and please feel free to keep up the discussion if you want to ♡♡♡

[a-polite-melody]

Are there actually people on this hell-site who are upset at acespecs celebrating Asexual Awareness Week because “there are other, more important things going on that actually oppress people”?

Really?

Actually?

Am I upset that the Trump Administration is trying to eliminate trans-ness and intersex-ness by trying to change the legal definition of sex to being only male or female and unchangeable?

Abso-fucking-lutely.

I’m a nonbinary person who’s biggest issue with dysphoria is social. Being perceived as female triggers extreme suicidal thoughts and want to self-mutilate. I absolutely understand how awful this would be for trans and nonbinary people, in at least one aspect: how this can bring the numbers of trans and nonbinary suicides up even higher than they already are and decrease our expected lifespans to even shorter than the small number they are.

There are many other ways this, if it passes, can harm trans and nonbinary people. And intersex people, too, though I don’t feel qualified to talk on that part because I’m not very well-versed in intersex issues and I don’t consider myself to be intersex (I have what can be considered an intersex condition, but I don’t really feel right claiming the label intersex, so I don’t want to talk over intersex people (((like how non-queer people who could theoretically call themselves queer shouldn’t speak on queer issues))), but I digress).

And while I don’t live in the US, that doesn’t stop me from being incredibly angry and wanting to spread the word. Because even if I personally can’t do anything tangible, I can at least help people who can vote in the US aware of the issue. I haven’t yet reblogged anything on it because, beyond when I add to things or when things are within a day or two in terms of time sensitivity I run my blog on a queue. But I have reblogs queued up. And I’m going to queue more. Because this is an atrocity that I want to do everything in my power to stop.

BUT GUESS WHAT?

It’s also Asexual Awareness Week.

It has been planned to be this week for a while. Acespecs didn’t suddenly decide, “oh, we should have Asexual Awareness Week right this very moment!” on October 21st. It was planned to start that day long before now. Acespecs aren’t trying to “steal the spotlight” from other issues. It was coincidental that these two things happened at the same time. It’s not anyone’s fault.

And implying that Asexual Awareness Week be, what, cancelled? Because this news dropped right around the same time as it started?

It’s petty.

It’s just using another awful event against people within the LGBTQ+ community as justification to be assholes to aspecs and try to force them out of a community they’ve been in for much longer than exclusionists want you to believe.

And I highly doubt that any other celebrations of any other identity would be dropped because of this. What if this happened during pride week? Would you want all pride to just stop?

No. The only reason there’s this much backlash is because it just happened to be asexuals, and they’re your target for your anger at everything.

Yes, something awful is happening. But that doesn’t negate other things. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to drop everything and give 100% of their time, energy, and focus on that one thing. Especially when so many of us have so much fatigue about... everything going on in the world. Let people have good things, even when bad things are happening.

And if you’re angry, how about directing it at the actual thing you’re angry at, rather than continuing to antagonize people of a minority orientation over something that doesn’t involve that orientation. That would be infinitely more productive.

But wait. That would ruin your double standard. Because, you know, aces aren’t worrying about this transphobic shit going on (I can assure you, they absolutely are worrying about it) because they’re too busy celebrating, but it’s totally cool for you to not be worrying about that transphobic shit in favour of directing all your energy toward bullying asexual people to score some “woke” points to add to your social capital among your exclusionist pals, because that’s all that seems to matter.

[aroacehogwarts]

“Pass the jam?” Once Cho complied, Padma simply replied, “thanks.” The two smiled small smiles at one another as Padma enjoyed her biscuit and Cho sipped her tea.

It had been a long road for the two to fall into this now comfortable and easy domesticity. That was okay, though. Their past just made them both appreciate their present that much more.

Everyone was a mess after the War. Cho had been a mess long before that, ever since Cedric died. She’d always been soft and delicate and gentle. All smiles and no sharp edges. After she saw Cedric’s body, murdered by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, she began to harden. She sharpened herself into jagged points and just continued sharpening herself, cutting down her softness. Marietta became the only one who saw her lingering softness. When Marietta died, Cho broke up her remaining softness and rebuilt herself into a soldier. The War was over, but there were still Death Eaters to hunt down. She became an auror. Even though she’d fought in the War, she still had to go through training. She barely slept; she barely ate. She trained, pushing herself physically, mentally, emotionally, and magically. Cho remained completely focused on her training and then her job. She no longer had friends, just coworkers she was sometimes teamed up with, an always changing rotation of fellow aurors, none of whom could keep up with her intensity.

Padma didn’t break until after the War. Once she did, though, she didn’t know how to pick back up the pieces. She watched everyone around her move forward with their lives. She watched them heal. She put on smiles and pretended to heal with everyone else. Parvati asked her to be her bridesmaid when she and Lavender got married. Padma said yes; she knew she should be happy for the two, but she just felt disconnected from all feeling. While her peers started marrying and having children, Padma struggled. Sometimes she held down a low-paying job long enough to stay in a shady apartment for a while. Usually, she squatted. At times, she found herself totally zoning out for days at a time. Padma had large gaps in her memory, only realizing what had happened when she’d suddenly come back to awareness, staring at some dirty spot on some crumbling wall, a gnawing hunger reminding her that her body still had needs.

It was during one of these zone outs that Cho and Padma ran into each other again.

“Dammit! Where the bloody hell did he go?” a raspy voice broke Padma’s stupor. “You! The lanky wizard that just ran in here. Where did he go?”

“Dunno.”

“You don’t know?” Cho sputtered, voice hard and angry. “He either had to apparate or run through here. Where is he? Are you colluding with him?”

“Sorry, didn’t see him.”

Hard lines etched into Cho’s face. “How could you not have seen him? That’s it - hands up, away from your wand.”

Padma wasn’t even sure where her wand was. She raised her hands, allowing the familiar face to come frisk her. Finding no wand, Cho marginally relaxed. But only marginally. Once she did, she noticed something, taking a genuine look at Padma, who hadn’t showered in weeks now and hadn’t bothered to straighten or wash her clothes.

“Padma? Is that - it can’t be you.”

“It’s me. Or so I’m told,” she answered dully.

Something - and she wasn’t sure what - made Cho do something she hadn’t done in years: cared about something other than hunting Death Eaters and other criminals. She led Padma back to her small, sparse flat and fed her, then encouraged her to shower. Cho told her to stay. She herself was rarely home; Padma could even sleep on the bed instead of the sofa whenever Cho wasn’t home. No, she wasn’t a bother.

They didn’t talk much for the first few weeks, learning to live around each other. Cho relied heavily on her instincts these days, and something nagged at her. Padma clearly wasn’t doing well. So, Cho ended up dragging her to St. Mungo’s to see a therapist. After three sessions where Padma sat and said nothing, the therapist suggested that perhaps Cho’s presence might help move things along. Cho reluctantly agreed, believing she could attend without having her own mental state revealed. Or perhaps she was just ready for help but unable to admit it to herself.

“Cho, perhaps you could share something so that Padma knows she’s not alone here. Something personal about how the War still impacts you today.”

Cho frowned, but glanced at Padma. The woman was looking better, but she still barely spoke and Cho didn’t think she even ate when Cho wasn’t there to offer her food. That was the only reason she didn’t deny the request.

Eventually, she worked past the knot in her throat. “Well, before...” she couldn’t bring herself to say Cedric’s name, “before, I had always wanted to play professional Quidditch or perhaps be a healer or possibly teach at Hogwarts. I never thought of being an auror until I fought Death Eaters. They’re the reason I started this job and the reason I’ve stayed.”

The therapist made some remark, but Cho couldn’t hear her past the rushing of blood in her ears or over the suddenly engaged look on Padma’s face.

“I can’t keep a job,” Padma said quietly, looking directly at Cho. “That requires too much thinking, which means I’d have to face what happened.” After a brief pause, she whispered, “I don’t know how to face it. Everyone else moved so fast, and now I’m just so lost.”

Any tension between Cho and Padma broke after that. It was slow going, and it was definitely awkward at times, but things had changed. Padma started engaging in therapy. Even though she probably could have done it alone, Cho kept going to some sessions with her. Life slowly began sparking back in Padma’s eyes. She gained weight and stopped zoning out. The biggest change of all - she started chasing jobs. She started at Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, helping George, sometimes accompanied by Ron or Ginny, with the long process of creating new product. She ended up facing her demons, writing history books to document the Second Wizarding War and the events leading up to it. Without meaning to, Cho started sanding down her sharp corners and jagged lines. She learned to actually start living life again rather than just going through the motions. 

“You have a beautiful laugh you know,” Cho informed Padma, who blushed faintly and tried to change the subject.

“I never thanked you, Cho, for rescuing me that night and putting up with me since then. It... I don’t really know how to express how grateful I am.”

“I actually think the rescuing was mutual. I’m glad you never just disappeared.”

“Speaking of, would you like your space back to yourself?”

Cho looked down, a small grin playing on her face. “I was actually going to ask if you wanted to move into a bigger flat with me.”

When Cho looked up, Padma was grinning. “I’d love to.”

It wasn’t long after their move that the two started dating. The real catalyst was Padma revealing that she was acespec and Cho realizing she was too after Padma explained what that meant. 

And the rest, as they say, was history.

Asexual Awareness Week HP Fandom Challenge

Day 4: Post about ace/spec HP characters who are in relationships.

~Hufflepuff Mod

[aroacehogwarts]

4,000 Followers Shout-out!

George felt like he hadn’t stopped moving in the past few months. Fred felt like he might not ever be able to stop moving. They thought opening the shop had been busy - and it had been - but it was nothing like comparing for a big surprise while also running the shop and dealing with customers.

Four had always been a lucky number for the twins. Perhaps it was because they were the fourth birthday of the family. Perhaps it was because they were born in the fourth month. Perhaps it was any number of things, but the twins were connected to the number four. That’s why they had decided to do an ambitious celebration to celebrate their 4,000th sale. They would have planned a 40,000th or 400,000th or even 4,000,000th sale celebration, but honestly with the looming war... Well, better safe than sorry. Plus, the world could use more cause to celebrate at the moment. The only problem - if it could be considered such - was, their 4,000th sale was coming up faster than anticipated.

“Is it-”

“-ready? Not quite.”

“Maybe some essence of murlock?”

“Hm, yes, its uses for satisfaction are promising.”

“Probably just a few drops will do it.”

“Just what I was thinking, brother!”

The big day was coming fast, but a few nearly sleepless nights and it would all be worth it.

~

“So, you talked to Angelina yet?”

“You talked to Lee yet?” George retorted, a little extra snap in his throw when he tossed the cinnamon in their mixture.

“No,” Fred admitted. George delighted in the blush that’d crept up his brother’s face. Neither of them blushed much, but bringing up Fred’s crush was a surefire way to bring on the red. “I don’t know how to talk to him about being grayro. Which is a great excuse. What’s your excuse for Angelina, huh? She may identify simply as queer, but I’ve talked to her a lot. I’m pretty sure she’s acespec, bro. Definitely would understand you being demisexual.”

George shrugged. “I just... It’s something I don’t want to rush. I don’t want it to be tainted by whatever this war is going to bring. I feel like if it’s meant to be, it’ll be after the war when it can be good and happy.”

Fred was silent for a moment, carefully counting out clockwise stirs. It’d been a while since him and George had made time to actually talk with each other. Most of their conversations had been literal shop talk. They really hadn’t even had the time to be brothers for the past few months.

“Actually, your excuse is better. Can I also use it?”

George chuckled. “Anytime. For what it’s worth, I had similar conversations with Lee. I’m not sure he was ready to admit it, but he’s likely bi. I think he’d understand being grayro.”

“Alright, ready?”

“Yep, on three.”

“One, two, three - beatigaumus!” they shouted in unison. Bright orange flashed in the twin’s vision, temporarily blinding them.

“Whoa.”

“Wicked.”

“I think we’re good to call it a night,” George grinned.

~

They were usually happy around the shop, but today Fred and George nearly scared away customers with their dragon-sized grins. There was no way they weren’t reaching their 4,000th sale today.

George slid behind the counter to join Fred at the register. “Thanks for shopping with Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes - tell your friends!” Quietly, to Fred, he said, “We maybe should have chosen a shorter name. So how many was that.”

“Nonsense the name is perfect. Just five more, Georgie boy!”

Their fifth customer after that was someone they recognized. A young, Hogwarts-aged wix who was seemingly homeschooled. They often came around the shop but had yet to buy anything. “I saved up enough allowance by doing extra chores!” the young one proclaimed, exceedingly proud of themselves and their hard work. Fred and George were all at once reminded of themselves.

“This is so perfect,” Fred told his twin.

“So what did you decide on?” George asked their young customer.

“A pride pop for my older sister!” Their pride pop lines were one of the products they were the proudest of. A whole package of pride colored lollipops. One side of the package was for bigots and bullies, the other for the prideful purchaser. The side for bigots and bullies looked like normal suckers but literally tied the tongue of the bigot in knots. The pride side came in shifting pride colors depending on who grabbed it and what they asked for. Its side effects ranged from a short happy high to being able to breathe pride-colored fire to burping pride-colored bubbles to floating a few inches off the ground for a few minutes.

“Are you getting anything for yourself?” Fred asked.

“No, I don’t really need it. But my sister is having a bad time with my parents, so she needs it.”

George smiled fondly at the kid. “You’re much nicer to your sibling than we were to ours,” he teased, pleased that this would be their 4,000th customer. “That’ll be seven sickles.”

George nearly squirmed in anticipation as Fred took the offered sickles and opened the register. Upon closing it, in true Weasley twin fashion, everything exploded into action. Money coins exploded out of the register like a fountain as more coins rained down from the ceiling. The whole shop briefly flashed purple. Celebratory sirens ran out three times. Wix who needed protected from the sensory input were temporarily bubbled - either to protect from falling coins, the color, and/or the sound. 

Fred and George’s voice boomed out above the crowd. “Four thousand sales, folks, and it’s you who gets to reap the rewards! Our lucky 4,000th customer here is winning a grand prize of 4,000 sickles! And one of you lucky folk in the crowd can win 2,000 sickles if you find the candy galleon with a blue inner wrapper! And by the way, these galleons are our newest product meant to help you celebrate - any that dropped a moment ago are absolutely free. Bite into one of these cinnamon-y chocolate delights and you’ll hear the roaring of a crowd in your ear, feel like you’re getting a congratulatory handshake or slap on the back, and get a boost of adrenaline and happiness that comes with succeeding in your goal! Have it folks - but no pushing! Violence automatically disqualifies you from winning, and we’ll know if you cheat or steal the winning candy from another!” The two stepped down from the counter they’d hopped up on for their announcement.

The young wix, their 4,000th customer, looked up at them in awe.

“Sickles? Four thousand sickles,” they said faintly, and Fred wondered if they might faint.

“Congrats! Is a guardian here with you? I’d love to just give you the sickles, but I think there’s some legal issue with doing that. Or maybe we could hold your winnings here at the shop and give you some free stuff until you’re old enough that it’s not an issue? Of course, you might spend all of it here at the shop by then-” George nudged his twin. “Er, uh, or we could give you some time to process first.”

“I got it!” a triumphant voice sounded from over in the potion aisle. The twins immediately recognized the voice of a witch about their age that Fred occasionally flirted with. She was charismatic and friendly and sometimes came in the shop just to chat with its owners - and sometimes to escape the whether, which the twins never minded.

A chorus of disappointed groans sounded from the shop, but the young girl received plenty of congratulations as she made her way to the front. Other customers satisfied themselves by stuffing as much of the free candy into their pockets as possible.

Fred verified the witch’s win quickly. “Congrats,” he grinned as George handed over her winnings. “We were hoping a regular might get to win.”

“You’ve no idea how much this means to me,” she said. Then, with a “aw, hell,” she leaned in to hug the both of them. “And congrats to you,” she beamed at the young wix, still mouthing the words ‘four thousand sickles’ to himself.

“Excuse us just one moment,” George told them before he and Fred stepped back up to the counter and amplified their voices.

“That’s it, folks! There’s our winners. However, besides the free candy, you’re all also winning today. Fifty percent off everything in the shop for the next four hours only as a thank you for your loyal business thus far!”

Even though they had plenty of time, customers sprang into frenzied action grabbing products they had earlier been debating on buying. Although everything was half off, the next four hours resulted in Fred and George having the most successful day of their business yet, unexpectedly selling out of many of their products. Nearly every customer at the register asked if they’d be putting the Gratification Galleons on the shelves (yes, they would be once they whipped up a new batch). Their young 4,000th customer winner ended up settling on getting a “weekly allowance” from the twins, which they figured worked as a loophole to make sure they actually got their winnings instead of their parents.

~

Fred let out a loud groaning sigh as he flopped into a big, squishy chair in their flat above the shop. In contrast, George silently collapsed on his bed.

“My feet,” George complained. “Can we take tomorrow off?”

“Just use some of our Petrissage Potion. If I’m working, you’re working.”

George grinned in spite of himself, summoning some of the potion from the bathroom. “It was a good day, huh.”

“I’d do it all over again,” Fred agreed.

And neither twin even thought about complaining when they fell asleep right where they were.

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