#So there might be something here that contradicts the lore™���

[inevitably-johnlocked]

I’m so sorry if this question is ignorant or stupid I really just want to understand so I can become educated. When someone is asexual would they still gain something from reading explicit fic scenes? Again sorry if I’m ignorant

Hey Nonny *HUGS*

SO SORRY it took so long to reply to this one... Kind of started and then it got forgotten, and I am sorry for that. No better time than Ace Awareness Week to help you understand!!

So, short answer to your question, is YES, SOME aces do, whether to facilitate in self-pleasure, or because seeing their faves happy, or as placeholders because some aces take pleasure-by-proxy, or a variety of other reasons, it just simply makes some of us happy. You'd be surprised how many of those smutty authors are actually ace themselves. It's one of those funny misconceptions that aces are all woobie-uwu-innocent-pure-thoughts-only magical creatures, and I'm here to shatter that illusion... Aces are some of the smuttiest-minded people you will ever meet. Why, I have no idea, maybe it's because we don't fantasize about sex the same way allos do that we can come up with increasingly hornier ideas? LOL No idea.

The thing about asexuality is that it's a HUGE spectrum, and no one ace is exactly the same. A sex-negative ace might get something out of reading smut because it's not involving them. Or they might not at all. Same with sex-positive/neutral aces. It's ALL a matter of what makes us tick.

BUT here's where I go into my LONG answer, and get you REALLY into the Ace Lore™.

I want to introduce you to the microlabel of Aegosexuality (formerly autochorisexuality), which is a term that loosely translates to "sexuality with oneself". The expanded definition, from the Sexuality Wiki, bolding is mine:

It is [...] a disconnect between oneself and a sexual target/object of arousal; may involve sexual fantasies or arousal in response to erotica or pornography, but lacks desire to be an actual participant in the sexual activities therein.

Aegosexuals are known to:

Become aroused by sexual content (at times) without wanting to personally engage in sexual activities.

Masturbate, but feel neutral or repulsed by the idea of having sex with another person.

Fantasize about sex (with varying frequency), but envision people other than themselves, and/or view it in third person, as if watching it on TV, instead of imagining it in the first person, through their own eyes.

Predominantly—or exclusively—fantasize about fictional characters or celebrities in place of people they know personally.

Identify as asexual, feeling little-to-no sexual attraction to people though enjoy masturbating (with varying frequency), are aroused by sexually explicit content, and/or fantasizing of such.

[/end quote]

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Basically, smut turns them on, but some aces don't want to engage in the smut for-reals. This microlabel makes it ESPECIALLY confusing for newly-figured-out-aces because there hasn't been a lot of information about asexuality's huge spectrum until recently. Aegosexuals can initially believe that they AREN'T ace, BECAUSE they get turned on by porn or smutty stories, but then they're SUPER confused because the idea of having sex themselves is appalling or undesirable. It's a bizarre contradiction, understandably, to outsiders, but it makes COMPLETE sense once an ace figures this out, I promise you.

This is the microlabel I myself fall under. It's not from any trauma or past problems or medical issues. It's just me. That's it. And because of the confusion that this sexuality can bring, it often takes us a LOT longer to have ourselves figured out. For me, it was an accidental stumbling upon the "autochorisexual" label (before it became Aegosexual) and reading up on it that EVERYTHING fell into place. Before that, I thought I was maybe demisexual. After learning about it, I felt okay FINALLY calling myself ace, that I finally found the "right fit" for me. It was the piece of the puzzle that I was missing. I felt really liberated of my self-doubt after that.

And, of course, aros have their version as well called Aegoromantic, which is exactly the same but in a romantic sense.

Here are some more resources for Aegosexuality, if you'd like to learn more about this lesser-known branch on the spectrum:

What Does It Mean to Be Aegosexual? (Cosmopolitan US || November 24, 2022)

WHAT IS AEGOSEXUAL? MEANING, HISTORY, AND USAGE. (Gayety.co ||July 11, 2022)

History of Aegosexuality (The Michigan Gayly || February 1, 2021)

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TOO KNOW ABOUT AEGOSEXUALITY (Live Love LGBTQ+ Blog || October 27, 2017)

VIDEO: 5 Signs You Might Be Aegosexual (Lynn Saga, YouTube || August 6, 2022 || 6m20s)

VIDEO: What is Aegosexuality? | Aspec 101 (Slice Of Ace, YouTube || July 15, 2022 || 3m54s)

VIDEO: Asexual Identities: Aegosexuality (Ace Dad Advice, YouTube || May 22, 2022 || 12m27s)

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AGAIN, I'm SO sorry I put this ask off for SO long, but I'm glad that I did, so that I could educate you guys on my brand of Asexuality during Ace Awareness Week!

And, finally, no offence taken at ALL! I LOVE educating y'all about stuff I learned through my journey, and you were very respectful in your ask :)

Hope you are well, Nonny, and hope you're still here to see this 🖤💜

[fearlessinger]

Who wants to hear a conspiracy theory?

You guys know Rick’s favorite unexplained plot device aka the fact that demigods just constantly stumble upon useful info in their dreams, learning stuff that’s specifically pertinent to whatever they need to do, getting premonitions of their own and others’ future? To the point that this is unofficially considered a standard demigod superpower despite the fact that the notion contradicts the established lore, according to which children can only inherit powers related to their godly parents’ domains? 

Well, we were talking about it on discord the other day and @tsarinatorment​​ jokingly declared she was just going to blame it on Apollo because at least that would make more sense. We had a laugh and that was that.

But then I kept thinking. It DOES make more sense. It just does make more sense that the god of knowledge, prophecy and protector of the youth himself, Apollo, who we all know deep down always cared more than he let on, who would therefore have been both able and willing, would give this gift to the children of the gods after the passing of the Ancient Laws made it impossible for the Olympians to intervene in other, more direct ways, to help and guide the kids in the most unobtrusive, hard-to-prove-and-easy-to-deny way possible.

And the kicker is… there is textual evidence of this. Like, a ton of it.

No really. Listen. Listen.

Why do the demigods on Kronos's side not possess this ability? Those guys need spies to know what's going on at CHB, while our heroes spend practically all their sleeping hours snooping around Kronos HQ. This is especially strange when one considers that gods like Morpheus and Hecate – and presumably a whole lot if not all of their children – are on Kronos’ side. Shouldn’t it be even easier for them to go dream snooping than it is for our protagonists? Come to think of it, why does Morpheus not bar enemy demigods from accessing the dreamscape altogether? 

None of this makes a lick of sense in a scenario where Plot Convenient Dreaming is a standard power that all demigods possess naturally. 

But it makes perfect sense if there’s a higher power involved, like, say… the power of an Olympian god. It makes perfect sense if it’s actually Apollo who grants those visions to our protagonists – and not to the demigods who have defected, overriding whatever sort of barrier Morpheus and the likes might try to put up. 

Yes, that one time Kronos catches Percy dream-snooping he seems to believe that Percy's doing that entirely on his own power... But what does Kronos know? He's been in literal pieces for thousands upon thousands of years. When he was last whole, none of the second generation Olympians, including Apollo, had even been born yet. And Percy keeps conveniently dreaming completely undisturbed well after Morpheus gets recruited to the Lord of the Titans’ cause. Is it plausible to think that Percy alone could have more power over dreams than the actual god of dreams? Come on. No, it’s obvious that Percy’s got help.

Especially because it’s not just Percy. It’s not even just demigods. Zoe Nightshade, daughter of the titan Atlas but loyal only and forever to Artemis, gets some Convenient Dreams™ of her own:

"Whoa. What do you mean? Zoe had a dream like that?"

"I… I don't know, exactly. About three in the morning she came to the Big House and demanded to talk to Chiron. She looked really panicked."

[...]

"What did she say?" I asked.

Grover grimaced. "Well, she starts talking really old-fashioned when she gets upset, so it was kind of hard to understand. But something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the Hunters. And then she called Argus a boil-brained lout… I think that's a bad thing. And then he called her—"

"Whoa, wait. How could Artemis be in trouble?"

[...]

"Well, Zoe said she needed permission to leave camp immediately. Chiron refused. He reminded Zoe that the Hunters were supposed to stay here until they received orders from Artemis. And she said…" Grover gulped. "She said 'How are we to get orders from Artemis if Artemis is lost?'"

"What do you mean lost? Like she needs directions?"

"No. I think she meant gone. Taken. Kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?" I tried to get my mind around that idea. "How would you kidnap an immortal goddess? Is that even possible?"

[...]

"I don't know," Grover said. "I think somebody would know if Kronos had re-formed. The gods would be more nervous. But still, it's weird, you having a nightmare the same night as Zoe. It's almost like—"

"They're connected," I said.

It’s almost like all these convenient dreams are connected, says Grover, and he probably just means it in the sense that they might all be about the same thing, but still… the text itself is suggesting – not even subtly – that all these convenient dreams might have the same origin, that they might come from the same source.

Later, Percy mentions his strangely informative dreams to Zoe:

Without thinking about it, I took Riptide out of my pocket. Zoe looked at the pen, and her expression was pained.

"You made this," I said.

"Who told thee?"

"I had a dream about it."

She studied me. I was sure she was going to call me crazy, but she just sighed. "It was a gift. And a mistake."

Zoe is not surprised. Of course, because she also got one of these dreams. And maybe… well, maybe because she didn’t only get the one. Maybe Convenient Dreams ™ are a common occurrence for her and the Hunters too.

Isn’t it interesting that Zoe never even thought of questioning her own dream of Artemis being held captive? Everything she’s said and done since her introduction has established that she’s very reluctant to trust, but for some reason she trusts her dreams completely.

Could it be that she actually knows who’s the one sending them to her, to alert her that Artemis is in danger, to urge her to go looking for her patroness?

Also of interest: Aphrodite, the only Olympian to whom Percy ever makes mention of the dreams, has no idea what he's talking about.

"Annabeth is in trouble."

Aphrodite beamed. "Exactly!"

"I have to help her," I said. "I've been having these dreams."

"Ah, you even dream about her! That's so cute!"

"No! I mean… that's not what I meant."

She made a tsk-tsk sound. "Percy, I'm on your side. I'm the reason you're here, after all."

It doesn’t seem to even occur to her that Percy has been having some sort of actual prophetic visions. But if this were a standard demigod ability, wouldn't she – shouldn’t she – know about it?

Now hold on a sec Fsinger, you guys may want to tell me at this point, shouldn’t she also know about this if Apollo’s the one responsible for it? 

Well the answer is no, of course. Apollo wouldn’t tell anybody (except maybe Artemis but even that is a big maybe) that he’s doing this, because this is technically illegal. This is illegal divine intervention right here. The laws are clear: no interference. And yes, lots of gods often try to sneak around the laws, but none of them trusts the other gods to not tell on them when they do. As Apollo himself helpfully summarizes: 

I’d never had a brother defend me in front of Father. My Olympian brethren were more likely to deflect Zeus’s fury by yelling Apollo did it!

So yeah. Of course nobody else would know.

I lied though. Sort of. There is one other god beside Aphrodite with whom Percy talks about the dreams, but it’s not Percy to bring up the topic in this instance; the god is. Guess who?

As I watched the sun go down, I thought of Annabeth. I was afraid to go to sleep. I was worried what I might dream.

"Oh, don't be afraid of dreams," a voice said right next to me.

I looked over. Somehow, I wasn't surprised to find the homeless guy from the rail yard sitting in the shotgun seat. His jeans were so worn out they were almost white. His coat was ripped, with stuffing coming out. He looked kind of like a teddy bear that had been run over by a truck.

"If it weren't for dreams," he said, "I wouldn't know half the things I know about the future. They're better than Olympus tabloids." He cleared his throat, then held up his hands dramatically:

"Dreams like a podcast, Downloading truth in my ears. They tell me cool stuff"

“Apollo?" I guessed, because I figured nobody else could make a haiku that bad.

He put his finger to his lips. "I'm incognito. Call me Fred."

"A god named Fred?"

"Eh, well… Zeus insists on certain rules. Hands off, when there's a human quest. Even when something really major is wrong. But nobody messes with my baby sister. Nobody."

Percy and Apollo have a little chat about the quest. Percy asks where Artemis and Annabeth are. Apollo replies that he doesn’t know: they are “clouded from [him]”. This fits with the idea that Apollo has been sharing with Percy, through Percy’s dreams, all that he personally can see. He knows that his twin and Annabeth have been captured, he doesn’t know where they are held. Percy notes that he is visibly frustrated by this; Apollo’s not used to being unable to see or know things.

Apollo advises Percy to seek out Nereus, for “he has the gift of knowledge sometimes kept obscure from my Oracle."

Their exchange ends with Apollo literally putting Percy to sleep.

Apollo checked his watch. "Ah, look at the time! I have to run. I doubt I can risk helping you again, Percy, but remember what I said! Get some sleep! And when you return, I expect a good haiku about your journey!"

I wanted to protest that I wasn't tired and I'd never made up a haiku in my life, but Apollo snapped his fingers, and the next thing I knew I was closing my eyes.

In my dream, I was somebody else.

In his dream, Percy will once again acquire knowledge that will reveal itself crucial to the success of his quest.

Y’all convinced yet? 

Now let me take you back to the very first book in the saga to look at this conversation between Percy, Grover and Chiron with the insight we just gained:

"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."

"Done ... with what?"

"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"

I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.

"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."

Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."

Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.

"Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they?"

Chiron and Grover exchanged looks. Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"

My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And ... I've also been having these dreams."

"I knew it," Grover said.

"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.

"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"

"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard.

Doesn’t this read like Grover and Chiron going "oh look, Apollo's confirmed it for us: the quest is the way to go here." Chiron specifically seems to definitively make up his mind that he can send Percy to the Oracle precisely because Percy’s been dreaming about it.

It’s worth noting, too, that while we are never told on whose side of the Zeus-Poseidon dispute the rest of the Olympians fell, we do know that the Apollo cabin had taken Percy’s – and by extension Poseidon’s – side, and considering that Apollo keeps regular contact with his children (specifically through dreams, we are told by Will), it doesn’t seem much of a stretch to imagine Apollo himself would have been sympathizing with Poseidon and inclined to help his son.

And now let’s fast forward to the end of this saga, to Apollo’s very own pentalogy, to ask the million dollar question. If these convenient dream visions are indeed a standard demigod superpower, why is Apollo having them? Even more importantly, why is he the only one having them? Why do none of the demigods who accompany him on his journey – and there’s so many of them! – dream convenient dreams too?

There’s really just one single exception to this: Meg dreaming about Hercules the saguaro hiding the seeds that will give birth to the Meliai. This I would argue is very likely Demeter’s doing, but can also easily be attributed to the fact that Meg and Apollo are magically linked, to the point that they are able to share thoughts and memories when they wish for it hard enough. Which they do, coincidentally, right before Meg has her dream.

And so here’s the answer: Apollo is the only one to have the dreams/visions/premonitions because this is his power. It has been his power all along.

In his weakened state, he can’t share it with anyone but Meg, and he can’t even really do so intentionally, it just happens once, maybe twice at most, by accident. He can’t even really control the visions anymore, something he, in fact, often complains about.

But Fsinger, you may ask me now, if Apollo really was the one behind these incredibly useful dreams that the demigods were having, why would he not tell us? Why does he never at any point of the 5 books series that he personally narrates admit to having done this? Especially considering how much he loves to pat himself on the back and sing his own praises. Heck, he insists that he’s taught Percy to fight and we know that’s blatantly false. If he could brag about something that’s actually true, would he not do it?

Of course not. That’s the thing. That is exactly the thing. As long as he has a choice in the matter, Apollo only ever takes credit for good deeds that he’s sure we either know or will assume must not be true. If it had been up to him he’d never even have confirmed to have actually defeated Python the first time. The founding of CHB? Teaching Chiron everything he knows? Offering the satyrs a home and the job of seekers and protectors of the children of the gods? All these are things that Apollo is canonically confirmed to have done, we have reliable testimony of it, and yet just listening to him… you’d never know.

But here’s the twist. None of the above considerations even matter in the end, because Apollo DOES in fact admit to sending helpful dreams to those in need:

I needed my powers – strength to bend bars or break through walls, fire to melt Gunther’s face the next time he brought us crustless sandwiches. I did not need a nap. And yet … Lu wasn’t wrong. Dreams could be vehicles.

As the god of prophecy, I’d often sent visions to those who needed them – warnings, glimpses of the future, suggestions for what sort of temple incense I liked best. I’d driven dreams right into people’s heads. But, since I’d been mortal, I’d lost that confidence. I had let my dreams drive me, rather than taking the reins like when I drove the sun chariot. My team of fiery horses could always feel when their driver was weak or uncertain. (Poor Phaethon had found that out the hard way.) Dreams were no less ornery.

There it is. 

As the god of prophecy, I’d often sent visions to those who needed them.

He says that so offhandedly it almost doesn’t register, but there it is. Straight up confirmation from Apollo’s own mouth. The fact that it’s said in such a low key, completely not ostentatious manner is as close to proof that it is true as you can actually get with Apollo.

I’m sure I have persuaded you guys at this point – the evidence kinda speaks for itself. But I know the most contrarian of you won’t resist raising me one last objection: why, oh why if Apollo knew all the things the demigods learn in dreams about the enemies of Olympus, about the threat they posed and the plans they were enacting, did he not speak out? Why did he not warn his fellow gods? Why did he not argue that the Olympians should take action, like his twin sister did? 

To which I say: have you noticed how the gods tend to react to not just unfavorable prophecies but even simply friendly warnings?

Apollo lost his previous Oracle to a curse just because the girl tried to warn the Lord of the Dead that his children were in danger. Apollo himself was sentenced to mortality because, in his father’s words, he’d “revealed a prophecy prematurely”. Because Zeus believes that simply the act of appointing a new Oracle on Apollo’s part “hastened the war”. Artemis states outright that Zeus does not listen to Apollo like he does to her (she can charm her way out of a punishment; Apollo can’t), and the entire reason why the demigods were in a race against time in TTC to find the goddess before the solstice was that she alone stood a chance of pushing the Olympian Council to take action.

The gods, and especially Zeus, do not take well to being told what to do, especially if the other person is right, and especially if the other person is Apollo.

But once again, the twist is: Apollo did, in fact, try.

I tossed up my hands. “I wasn’t the one who opened the Doors of Death and let Python out! Blame Gaea! Blame Zeus for his bad judgment! When the giants started to wake, I drew up a very clear Twenty-Point Plan of Action to Protect Apollo and Also You Other Gods, but he didn’t even read it!”

What else is there to say?

I rest my case.

[akihsulkaz]

So here's my contribution for the VenturianTale fandom

(SORT OF LONG POST)

So I've been a fan of VenturianTale even from the earliest days (not really but I have been watching since 2013 which was the first year of the channel) and so I have been sort of around during the times people theorized regarding its lore. People still do but I feel like everyone has been caught up with shipping due to all the gayness™. And right now at 1AM I have decided to write a post about Johnny Ghost’s potential DID.

So I’ve done some fair share of research on DID sort of and honestly, I’m pretty sure Jordan didn’t realize this, but Ghost’s DID is nearly accurate as to how DID works. At least in how I see it, I’m not really an expert of mental disorders.

Warning I might be not up-to-date with every information so this may not be as accurate but I’m bored so I might as well give it a try. And reminder once again this was done at 1AM and I do not think properly at those times.

Okay first off DID is linked to PTSD, as whatever traumatic experience in the person’s childhood can sometimes cause their brain to be fragmented, that it developed different personalities in one body, usually stated as some sort of coping mechanism for the mentioned traumatic event.

This means Ghost has experienced a traumatic event that led to his identity to be fractured into different other personalities or alters that can have varying genders, age, sexuality, voices, gestures, and other interests. When these alters take over, they usually take over due to “triggers” or something that happens to the individual, much similar as to Casket taking over when Ghost sees blood or is injured or is overly stressed, at least in earlier videos.

This fragmentation causes the individual to be very forgetful and forget chunks of their life as well as forgetting what they just did just a few minutes ago, and this is evident as Ghost doesn’t seem to remember much of his childhood. Sometimes the individual can be aware of this switch, and it seems Ghost is starting to know he’s having “episodes” where he apparently passes out and doesn’t remember what happened.

Now there’s a bunch more information about DID that Ghost seems that he can truly be diagnosed with it but there are some questions in mind about this. You see in DID there is a “host”, which is usually the core personality and the one that takes on what you can say the “true identity”. Now if you look at it, Gregory seems to be the host, however, he seems to be the one with the least amount being active. A possible way of explaining this is that Gregory and Ghost are of one alter, and that Gregory eventually changes his name to Johnny Ghost. However, this doesn’t explain why Ghost can’t remember he was Gregory, unless he was lying to self. Either the Gregory is Ghost statement is false or Jimmy houses that memory, since alters can have the memories that the host might’ve forgotten. This means the only true alters are Ghost, who is truly Gregory and the host, and Jimmy, who contains the memory of his childhood.

Another possibility is that Jimmy is the host, which makes it more plausible that Gregory and Ghost are separate alters but doesn’t explain much in terms of backstory. You might say that it sort of makes sense as it’s shown in “A Real Guy. In a Real Room. In a Real World.” but remember, Jordan himself said that we shouldn’t use that video as some sort of confirmation on their backstory. Personally, I think it’s an alternate universe backstory, because the entire video just contradicts everything that’s been built up beforehand. Remember, the title itself says “A” real world. It’s not “the” real world. Meaning it’s a different reality.

Another possibility is that Ghost doesn’t have DID and he just suffers with some weird supernatural bullshit since VenturianTale does that often anyway. But I ain’t accepting that. And it’s why I made this post in the first place. Then again maybe I just want to explain how Ghost truly has DID since sometimes DID is accompanied with depression and anxiety and I’m using it as an excuse for more angsty fics. But whatever.

So this is what I just randomly thought in 1AM that may or may not help you in some way regarding as to thinking what may have happened to Ghost. It probably doesn't even make sense. I might post more random 1AM ramblings to try and explain Jimmy’s violence and how he came up with the “secret” thing. Cause I love the twins backstory theory the fandom has and if the DID thing is true, then that theory is debunked which kind of ruins few of the best VT fanfics who use that theory. And during the times I believed the twins theory I thought Jimmy’s secret was his backstory with Ghost. I’ll just talk about of him in a future post. I might talk more on the other characters like CBF and Toast, who in my opinion should be given a little bit more attention when it comes to his contribution to Ghost and “treating” his DID, as well as his own couple of problems.

But yeah, who knows this post is just me overthinking stuff, but hey, this was just a theory, a VenturianTale theory! Thanks for reading!