#also ace aro link REAL

[maydayprkr]

i love when people try to assign a sexuality to link as if he's not a conduit for the player but also... he's just a little fella thats been tasked to fight a never ending battle that has lasted multiple life times with no memory of the previous time which makes the battle harder but it doesn't matter, he'll be victorious... right?

[echooefrost]

TGS MEDIEVAL AU :0

Is this Historically accurate? no. Does that matter? no.

Alright, This is gonna be a lot, so thou shalt be warned

In the Au, Robert is a prince and Lanyon Sr. is the King, they rule over a small kindom somewhere in England - name TBA (so not like real monarchies which rule over entire countries etc.) The premise is basically; The Lanyon's personal/private doctor recently passed away so they call in a new doctor/chemist from Scotland - did you guess? yep, It's Jekyll. Hyde exists before Henry/Edward meets Robert (I haven't worked out the exact logistics about it yet, but I will) Jekyll/Hyde are more Chemists/Alchemists than Doctors but they are both still very good doctors regardless (so they don't really wear the 'plague mask' thing) I aged only Jekyll, Hyde and Lanyon down to about their early 20's so it matches around the original timing of when J&H met Robert in TGS. There are other smaller reasons but they aren't to important, all you need to know is that it doesn't really change anything

Lanyon is betrothed to Everly from a neighbouring kingdom -this is where it differs slightly from TGS, it's a political marriage not a lavender marriage. Neither Robert nor Everly are happy about this however, they are both only children in royalty so they don't really have an option.

Hyde is essentially the local gremlin that has in-built eyebags and a sense to sell you things not very discreetly that he probably shouldn't be selling. His Cape is comedically large and has a very extensive collection of illegal powders, drugs, and other nefarious items. Almost everybody knows Hyde becasue at some point they have all needed some rare item from him. - this is where the blackfog comes in (yes it exists!) the Blackfog is basically the same but Hyde really wants to go so he can buy/sell lots of items for his little side-business he has going on, however Lanyon Sr. is opposed to it and it's existence because well... illegal.

*Hyde also goes by: The Spirit of [insert Kingdom's name] at night (soooooo original, ik)

Jekyll stays pretty much the same, He really cares about his reputation so he can move up on the social ladder and create his own Science business at some point, and I mean he doesn't want to make a fool of himself in front of the King of all people, that wouldn't be a very good look, would it?

In this universe, The lodgers are all citizens of the small kingdom and they all sort of have different occupations/roles in the town. They can't all be scientists, but do not fear because they still as equally crazy and chaotic as before. Rachel is the Lanyon's personal chef but she also helps run the bakery in town with Mr. Doddle. Jasper looks after most of the animals and creatures in the kingdom, he used to be a farmer but moved to get away from home. I am yet to work out how Jekyll and Jaspers relationship dynamic stays the same in this universe but I will figure something out.

There is A LOT of Jekyon and Lanyde going on here, so I've got something for everyone, (there may or may not be a masquerade at some point...) and it's not just centred around romance, there is lots of other plot stuff happening so do not fear my ace/aro friends (or just people who aren't a fan of romance)!

That's most of it for now... I'll draw some more stuff at some point and give some extra details, If you have any questions please ask (my asks are open) I'd love to hear from you all!!! Don't be afraid to offer any suggestions or other criticisms. Maybe I'll write a fanfic one day who knows, we will see.

Thanks for listening to my rant (*^▽^*)

*Footnote - I don't think you guys realise how hard it was to make hyde not look like either A.) a fucking elf or B.) Link. Did I succeed? not sure.

[aroacesafeplaceforall]

You’re pissed that no one took any accountability for their supposed “aphobia/arophobia” but where is the accountability for the constant inhumane and disgusting homophobia, biphobia and transphobia STILL spewing out of ace spaces like puss? When will you all realize you feel that way because you are directly adjacent to the oppressor class and have next to nothing in common with the LGBT community as a whole but nearly everything in common with the average cishet? Y’all aren’t queer for not wanting to fuck, only fucking sometimes “if you emotionally connect”, or being emotionally unavailable to romantic partnership. And if you aren’t also gay, trans, or bisexual, you never will be.

I got my laptop out for this, goddamn. Where would i even start?

"You’re pissed that no one took any accountability for their supposed “aphobia/arophobia”" This tells me everything about you, you possibly don't believe in aro/ace identities. You don't believe people can hate on, or be hateful to, aro/ace spec people. And yes I am pissed. Because it was fucked up.

I would try to justify it with "if this was transphobic/homophobia you wouldn't be acting this way" but im guess you don't care about that as you obviously don't see it the same way.

you were also probably someone who sent asks like this (but more hateful) in 2016 and before, you were probably also someone who posted and reblogged aphobic content and said it was "just a joke" later while still sending asks like this to people. Take of that anon and show your face coward.

"where is the accountability for the constant inhumane and disgusting homophobia, biphobia and transphobia STILL spewing out of ace spaces like puss?"

where is the accountability for the homophobia, biphobia and transphobia still spewing out of ALL lgbtqia+ spaces? Where is the accountability in the REAL world? Where is it anon? Where is the accountability for the acephobia, the arophobia and so many other "not real sexualities/gender identities" -phobias?

You saw a post about aphobia, and instead of being like "yeah that was f-ed up" or "i dont care" you went "but what about meeeeee" which is very all lives matter of you. (I am not comparing racism to homophobia, however the "what about me" bs can be summed up very easily using all lives matter as an example) For the fucking record, all spaces have assholes, all of them. On behalf of the "normal" aro/ace spec folks, i apologise for any homophobia, biphobia and/or transphobia you have experienced from us. "When will you all realize you feel that way because you are directly adjacent to the oppressor class and have next to nothing in common with the LGBT community as a whole but nearly everything in common with the average cishet?" This is a main aphobe talking point so thank you for doing this by the text book so i can break it down easier!

Three pages about asexual hate crimes which im sure every average cishet has to deal with (assuming their white and male) 1 2 (a booklet for asexual people to be actually fucking included) 3

An incredible interview is here but im going to quote a few things from it as theres a 99.9% chance aphobes wont click a link

"We know aromantics and asexuals have existed for as long as humans have. However, it’s only through the terminology recently going mainstream"

"Because of Freud’s influence, many of us grew up learning that our sex drive is the primary motivator of human behavior, but that isn’t the case."

"That mindset replicates itself within the community so that when a new identity emerges, or when people try to explain themselves, there is resistance and pushback from within the community with the mindset that “if we let these kinds of people in, then that will dilute the access to power and resources we have.” And it forces the community to maintain adjacency to white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, ableism and classism, all while leaving behind entire groups of people."

" Do you think there will be more identities joining the LGBTQIA+ acronym? JP: Yes. The more words we have to describe ourselves, the better we are understood."

"The biggest comparisons are the lack of visibility and exclusion from communities on the basis that they’re weird, different, othered or “don’t belong in this space.” Every queer person has experienced this narrative and as more join under the umbrella, the newbie will experience the same challenges, discrimination and misunderstandings as those who came before." and here is another article that has a quote i just live by

"When did trauma become the mark of queerness?"

but back to the aphobe ->

"Y’all aren’t queer for not wanting to fuck, only fucking sometimes “if you emotionally connect”, or being emotionally unavailable to romantic partnership. "

if you think queer = sex then so help me. queer does not equal sex, queer is sexuality. and guess what that is NOT always sexual. sexuality is who your attracted to, whether it be romantically OR sexually.

and Asexuality is a spectrum, some asexuals never have sex, some don't want to have sex but have had it due to trauma or peer pressure, some don't care for it, some did it for a partner but just dont care about it.

same with aromantic. Its a spectrum. By your process here, so so so so so many people are removed from the lgbtqia+ community but you couldn't possibly mean that-

"And if you aren’t also gay, trans, or bisexual, you never will be."

-oh you did.

So none of these are part of the community either then? Agender, Bigender, Intersex, genderfluid, pansexual, omnisexual, Omnigender, Questioning, transgender and queer?

interesting anon.

Anyways i hope my followers enjoyed that! Let me know what you think if you finished reading all this!

Love;

An aegosexual, pansexual, aromantic, trans guy with to much fucking time on his hands.

[nyxtheeclipse]

Question: Aspecs experience in queer spaces and in an allonormative society?

So for context, I'm a psych major and next tuesday I'm supposed to lead a guided discussion on the following article

I chose this article to be one im the discussion leader for because I am aromantic, and I knew it would be better to have an aspec person doing this article

But for why I am making this post! I need to link real world examples, and I mean I am going to scroll through the aromantic, asexually, and aroace tags for some. But I also thought I should ask y'all your experiences as ace, aro, or other variation of aspec in queer areas, and or in general in an allonormative culture.

Now I'm not expecting many people to see this, but I thought it was worth a shot, so if you want to share your experiences leave them in either the comments or tags! No pressure though, do whatever you want.

[ketterdamskaelishprince]

ada's spectre, and why i'll likely always feel sad about it

here is the promised analysis/talk about ada's spectre. going to preface this by saying i obviously don't know the true intent behind everything and her design, i just like to look, giggle and then make sad little observations which just help me love this silly webcomic even more. so if you disagree with me on something– totally ok! i love to learn and i love to see different interpretations.

there's also a few bits i missed out because i wrote this all last night in a bit of a haze, and i cannot be bothered to expand on some of my ideas, especially when it's just stuff like "BROS SO PARANOID AND RAW RIGHT NOW".

anyways, here we go :) @mugcereal this one's for u pookie <3

so i think with ada's spectre, we first need to look at the instance as to how she gets it, because that always makes things way more sad!

to specify, she turns into her spectre at episode 69, and i think it's really sad how she does it. she basically gets a string of roasts from prospero that go along the lines of calling her "conceited" "twadry" and "... and stupid!" – effectively throwing back in ada's face what she believes everyone thinks of her.

(obviously, as a very big and glaring sidenote, i believe prospero is aro/ace or just aromantic so OBVIOUSLY i am not bashing him for this. bros told her so many times that he doesn't want to be with her, let alone to be touched. that is a flaw in ada's character and is a reminder to us on the importance of boundaries!!!!)

so, ada is basically there, collapsed on the floor in a robe– effectively showing the most intimate and private part of herself as an insecure and lonely girl. and that's when she transforms.

i think it's interesting to understand how this most likely links to her life and how she died. so we know she was killed with an axe, most likely by the man she fell in love with and worked for, and how prospero's words in this situation, hurt her just the same as the words before her death. why?

because they remind ada of what she knows and fears she is: just a stupid, fake and cheap person who will never have the same status and respect as the people she pretends to be and surrounds herself by.

i think it's also interesting that she's clutching her stomach/torso here, and correct me if i'm wrong but that could be a potential signal to the part of her that was axed to death (?). no idea if that's a good shout or not but it's what i first thought!

anyways! now we move onto her spectre design!

first of all, her spectre design eats. like just a personal side note, i love it. it's just so gorgeous and i don't care if she's terrifying to some because to ME? to me, she's my gorgeous little pookie who can scream and show people their worst fears and she looks amazing whilst she does it <3

ok anyways, actual design.

to first understand her design, i thought i'd show you what banshee's traditionally in folklore look like!

typically, they are described in two ways. the first way is a youthful women with long black hair, blue eyes and just super pale. this description could also lose the blue eyes and just keep the black hair– either way the first depiction of a banshee is a super young woman.

this is not the one we're focussing on today folks!

we're going to focus on the second depiction. a hag/ old woman, with red cheeks, a grey cloak and a green dress, often seen to be combing her hair. banshee's throughout folklore are known to wail, scream and cry when a family member had died. to most, the banshee was a sign that death was coming to your household and they are known in myths and folklore as a predictor of death.

now, hold onto the green dress and look at ada's design real quick for me.

here we see a lot of green, which yay! definitely shows signs it comes from the second depiction. i think, on top of it being a nod to the second depiction, i think it could also be an allusion to something else: jealousy.

green symbolism in media can often vary, from meaning new life, luck and also jealousy. and i think if we take in the things ada screams whilst in her spectre form, such as this from episode 82:

you see there definitely is some sort of jealousy there, but this isn't something i necessarily want to focus on, it's just an observation i made that may or may not be true!

anyways, to continue, i want to look at ada's outfit when she's a banshee. i'm going to basically be making my notes i took last night look nicer.

(keep in mind that when i wrote these, my ideas were literally bouncing off my brain and sometimes they're a bit contradictory, but i think that's the beauty of my crack theory analysis!)

i think the act of almost showing her bones to the outside, there's a level of rawness to ada we don't usually see. her spectre form essentially gives her the power to scream out her anger, and by seeing her bones it's almost as if to say this is the ada she doesn't show people. this is the ada that she keeps to herself because god forbid anybody love her (because in life and death it's become abundantly apparent to her that nobody does seem to love that ada).

but then, what i thought was also a super cool thing as how the bones almost act like a corset!

then i got sad because i looked at the bows, and because something dawned on me and it made me start to frown. there was a sad realization to me as i looked at ada's spectre design that even in this all powerful form, she hasn't lost her insecurities, they just become more prevellant. because for all of the traditional wrinkles, hag-like appearance a banshee is meant to have, ada barely has any.

obviously this could be in part to character design and stuff, and yeah probably– but let me be sad!

because ada carries her frills and bows from life here because she doesn't want to be ugly, she doesn't want to be this creeping monster who rips apart people. because if she's not got her intelligence or status or anything going for her, she has her appearance and by god she's not going to let that go to waste. so here her spectre form is, a banshee.

so what must ada do? she must takes her frills and keep her insecurities, her fears and her crippling need to be loved.

another aspect which is super interesting is the stitching on her body. one one hand, it could be an allusion to her violent death, suggesting the man she fell in love with didn't just stop at axing her once, but just kept on fucking going (which, you know: fuck you, whoever you are).

but on the other hand, it could be a metaphor for ada's thinly veiled facade she puts on of being a prim and proper lady (which we actually, interestingly enough, see she looses a lot the more time she spends with montresor– opting to take parts of his language like "ain't" and "beggin'". this sort of leads on from previous ideas people have made of ada willing to change herself to be loved. she swaps civility for the wild wild west all for a bit of love).

ada offers up parts of herself in this metaphor. that's what she always does. she offers herself to the rich man she fell in love with, she offers herself up to prospero (again, look at the. side note. bro wasn't wrong for rejecting her he literally can't like her) and she offers herself up to the acolytes and she fucking barks for them (because i'm not over that).

piece by piece, she strips away everything she is until she literally is just skin and bone. and once she's torn herself apart, she needs to stitch herself back together– because it's against the facade she's put on to look so broken and messy. and so she repeats the cycle again, giving more and more until she is literally hanging on by a thread.

her powers are also super cool. traditionally, as i said, banshees wail when a family member is soon to die/has died, and is often like an omen/predictor of death. so yeah, ada having a banshee scream makes sense. but the whole 'fear itself' is also super cool. i kind of like that she has this– because its sort of satisfying for her, the girl who's been pushed over but still comes running back, to watch as people become paralysed with fear. idk, retribution or whatever.

i'm going to leave you with this not very profound thing i wrote last night (and then just some other mumblings):

i think that although spectres are super powerful and also just a very fantastic concept, they're also fragile. spectres are quite literally the monster inside of you. yet here ada's monster is, and with all her bows and revamped dress of a banshee (or potentially an allusion to her life as a maid) she tries desperately to be anything but that. because to here it's ugly and it's too much of her on display. and with some much of you on display comes the very fear that if you are hated, disliked or something repulsive, you no longer have anything to blame on anybody else. you just have yourself to blame.

(as morella says here in episode 88).

i'm not saying ada isn't deeply flawed, because she is. she has so much fucking baggage and insecurities that they literally forbid her from doing the right thing sometimes. i don't think she's a good person, but i also think that she has the opportunity to be a good person/ do a semi-good/ non-bad thing, and all she has to do is take it. but i also think it's nice how that's shown in her spectre design.

and, you know, if none of this makes sense, that's also fine!

anyways, yeah. somebody tell me never to make a random analysis at night again because it's a bit of a bitch to translate in the morning.

[spacelazarwolf]

So do you like think there's a line between lgb (cis homos) and "queer" people? Because I hate the term queer (for myself), but I have always and will always be for trans rights. L with the T. The argument you make (aro manifesto) makes it seem like the same idea of "well bi people and pan people are different bc pan people are the real 'queer movement' and trans inclusive"...as if cis lgb people don't consider themselves queer or trans inclusive. Just seems like a separation of us and queers, which only divides us more. Like I get people think we are only ever for marriage equality/rights (due to the aids crisis) and also current organizations highlighting only that need, but like stop separating "us" (cis lgb) from you/queers as if we don't have the same goals in mind. I too think we should focus more on other goals as marriage is not the only important thing. We are of the same community, not different.

i'm gonna break this down/define the way i use things so you can understand what i'm talking about, because you have made a lot of assumptions. these aren't like official definitions, because strict definitions just never really quite work in these kinds of conversations, but this is what i generally mean when i use these terms. any identities listed aren't an exhaustive list, they're just what i thought of in the moment.

lgbt+ community: anyone who is lesbian, gay, bi, trans, ace, aro, pan, nonbinary, etc. this is not an established group with a mission, it's just a category of people who identify as not cishetallo.

queer community: a group united by a mission you can read more about the original queer manifesto from 1990 here. queer people are cis, trans, intersex, genderqueer, nonbinary, gnc, straight, gay, lesbian, bi, pan, ace, aro, etc. but that's not what makes them queer, what makes them queer is the goal of collective queer liberation. (some people use queer as an individual identity and want to separate themselves from queer as a political identity and like, i can't stop them, but the fact of the matter is that since the word queer was reclaimed in the 80's it has been inextricably linked to the queer liberation movement, which is inherently political.)

the difference between these two is that lgbt+ is an individual identity whereas queer is a political identity.

there's a lot of ways lgbt+ people might form community that don't include being part of the queer community, and there are many queer people who take the political stance of not identifying as lgbt+ because they consider their queerness to be more than just an individual identity and feel that being categorized under lgbt+ removes the political aspects of their identity. the venn diagram of these two communities is not a circle, but it's also not two completely disconnected circles either. there is overlap, and that includes cis queer lesbians and gays.

lgbt+ advocacy: this is advocacy that is based within the current system. fighting for marriage equality, right to start a family by adopting within the system or using ivf, fighting discrimination in the workplace, etc. all great things to fight for.

queer liberation movement: this movement seeks to dismantle the cisheteropatriarchy entirely. for example, some folks believe that we should be fighting to dismantle the concept of marriage rather than just fight for lgbt+ people to be able to get married under the current system.

neither of these approaches is Objectively Correct, though everyone is going to have their own opinions on what they think the right course of action is. you can think of these two categories as reform vs. abolition. sometimes they overlap, sometimes their ideologies are incompatible.

so when i say that the aromantic manifesto had a fundamental understanding of what the queer community is and what the queer rights movement is, this is what i mean: the manifesto presented the "queer community" and "queer rights" as what i would define as the lgbt+ community and lgbt+ advocacy. based in identity, and prioritizing reform over abolition. so their critiques that the "queer community" and "queer rights movement" only fights for marriage equality seemed bizarre to me, because queer liberation is more likely to fight for the dissolution of the concept of marriage. it's more likely to tackle the concepts of societal norms and what a "normal" relationship looks like and how it functions.

and the thing is, i get a lot of people who get angry at me for "separating" queer people from the rest of the community, but the fact of the matter is that the rest of the community separated itself from us. when i talk about cis lgb people who prioritize assimilation, i'm not talking about Anyone Who Is Cis And LGB, i'm talking about cis people who are lgb who will throw trans women under the bus to maintain a cisnormative view of what a woman is. i'm talking about cis lgb people who think that kink is disgusting and wrong and blame queer kinksters for "making the lgbt community look bad." i'm not talking about identities, i'm talking about actions.

i'm not saying i think any one identity is "more queer" than others, i'm saying that i do not definitionally consider the lgbt+ community and queer community to be the same thing. and tbh, i do get really tired of people who don't identify with the queer community getting pissed off that i don't set my queerness aside to align myself with them if they wouldn't set aside their discomfort with queerness to align with me. if you don't want to align yourself with the queer community, that is entirely your prerogative. but it seems like you think that queer people are the ones creating the separation simply by identifying as queer while you don't, when the problem is that people who don't want to identify with queerness still want access to the same level of community with queer people as if they were in the community, and i'm very sorry but that's just not feasible. we can still fight side by side for our rights, but no, we are not the same community.

[prototypesteve]

hi! I just came across your acc and read some of your posts and you seem a really inspiring individual. im a 18yo demisexual person who's really close to their queerness (both in the sexuality and gender aspects) as its a fundamental part of my individuality. and i dunno, both my being acespec and genderqueer are a tricky... thing to get into when i want to get into relationships. im trying to be happy by myself. and this was very random and all, but as you're an adult aroace (i see very very few of them) its inspiring to me knowing I can still have a good, normal life? while living in full authenticity. idk. sorry if this is random. you dont have to reply. your account was nice to come across. have a wonderful day

Thank you for this. This is why I’m here. Honestly this is most of why I came out. Seriously.

Being Different and “New”.

The world is catching up with you, so you’ll have to be patient sometimes. Language often outpaces feelings. People know how to address genderqueer (they know all the words) but they’re still learning how to process genderqueer (they’re deconstructing all the old gender “archetypes” and stereotypes they were taught by parents and teachers who didn’t address or process genderqueer in their day). They will figure it out, because they can see it’s real. But it’s frustrating, in the meantime.

Even our own community of LGBTQIA+ (in Canada we use 2SLGBTQIA+, leading with 2S for two-spirit) is catching up with us in a lot of ways. The queer community has largely thought of queer as for/about genderqueer, and so when they see aros and aces and demisexuals and demiromantics, they have to either accept or reject that there’s a whole other layer of queer called relationship queer who intersect and overlap with genderqueer inside the bigger (and for some “newly bigger”) queer category/world/thing.

Being alone.

Alone is a complicated word for us. Aspec people experience a few kinds of alone-ness. There’s completion, which allos sometimes don’t get. We’re complete inasmuch as aspec people don’t have as many spaces in their lives where they need an “other half,” even though many of us spend a lot of our lives being told we have that space and we need to fill it. I wrote about that, here.

Then there’s the way we can can feel isolated from the bigger queer world because of the ways some people refuse to accept asexuality and aromanticism as queer, because they see it as a cishet thing, somehow.

We can feel isolated from traditional communities built around faith, politics, ethnicity, national identity, or even generational identity (GenX was wiiiiildly amatonormative), all because our defining differences are falsely interpreted as “new”. People misread our orientation as a phase, or a “made up internet thing” even though we’ve always been here. For ages, the world didn’t want to talk about all the asexual, aromantic, demisexual, and demiromantic people they could see everywhere—unlabelled, but plain as day—and now that we want to talk about ourselves, they’re going to say “you’re making that up”.

Then there’s the alone-ness of trying to explain how we do love, but differently. That one’s hard. I think that’s the one I’m going through the most, this year.

“See Also”:

Anyway, here’s a poorly-sorted and always growing “library” of links to my most popular social media posts, and stuff I’ve learned as an older ace. The recurring theme is that it really is going to be okay.

I’m still me, but now I know why. (How I explain my “thing” to straight friends who knew me from before I came out.)

Phase (You don’t outgrow it. I’m proof.)

Complete (Our complex relationship with “Alone”)

1994 (The counsellor story)

When I realized (Slow origin story)

Lifeline (Something bad happened to me when I was young, and believe it or not, Spider-Man rescued me.)

Recipe for Disaster (When life happens BEFORE you figure out your orientations)

Sexual Induction rather than a sexual awakening. (Things won’t always follow the romance novel playbook.)

Complicated. (Being queer AND Christian.)

Din Djarin Aroace Rep (We love. We just mostly do all the other kinds of love)

Treasure (a note to my trans friends)

Happy Ace Week (yes we’re here)

Masked (About not being out to everyone)

Negotiating (About gaining “acceptance” from the bigger queer community.

[linked-through-the-centuries]

Here’s a bit of an intro to the Links in this au!!

Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions or wanna know more about any of them :)

Warriors (Hero of Warriors)

- He/Him, Asexual Biromantic

- 27 years old

- Games: Hyrule Warriors

- Good friends with his Zelda

- Not a real blond, dyes his hair regularly to keep up the appearance that he is. He has no one fooled

- Absolutely fantastic at doing eyeliner, everyone’s jealous

- Knows Mask and Tune from the War of Eras

- Natural born leader, acts a bit over the top to cover up insecurities

- Bad food anxiety from being poisoned a lot but he’s doing his best

Tears (Hero of the Wild)

- He/They, Bisexual

- 24 years old (124 years old)

- Games: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom

- Married to their Zelda (recently)

- Rebuilding Hyrule slowly after everything that’s happened

- Missing an arm, wears a prosthetic. Has startled several of the others by just removing it at random because they forget it’s a prosthetic sometimes

- Very friendly, selectively mute so they use sign to talk sometimes

Wolf/Twilight (Hero of Twilight)

- Currently stuck in wolf form so Tears just calls him Wolf because no one knows he’s a hylian, they just think he’s a really odd wolf. Will eventually be called Twilight once he can turn back into a hylian

- He/Him, Bisexual

- 24 years old

- Games: Twilight Princess

- Assisted Tears on their first journey when Tears was 17-18 and Wolf/Twilight was 23. He has been stuck as a wolf ever since

- Lives with Rusl and Uli, but has been missing for a whole year

- Quiet and anxious, incredibly loyal

Sky (Hero of the Skies)

- He/Him, Bisexual

- 22 years old

- Games: Skyward Sword

- Chronic pain, lightning scars (look up lichtenberg figure), tattoo of wings that wrap around his wrist in honor of his loftwing

- Plays his harp as a way to relax

- Very friendly and talkative. Good person to go to if you need a chat

Tune (Hero of the Winds)

- He/Him, Pansexual

- 19 years old

- Games: Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass

- Didn’t loose his eye, he just wears and eyepatch “for the aesthetic” (that’s his answer when people ask him why he wears it) but also so one of his eyes is always adjusted to being able to see in the dark so if he has to go below deck quickly for an emergency one of his eyes is well adjusted and he isn’t disoriented. His right eye is also extremely sensitive to light and the patch protects it

- Wears dark eyeliner under his eyes

- Curly, shoulder length hair that he ties up and has several small braids weaved into

- Knows Warriors and Mask from the War of Eras

- Very talkative, misses his boat

Hyrule (Hero of Hyrule)

- He/Him, Aro/Ace

- 18 years old

- Games: The Legend of Zelda, Adventure of Link

- Pretends to be a lot more shy and quiet than he really is

- Loves people but is very cautious around them

- Looks a bit frail because his clothes are a bit big for him, but is actually quite strong. He is not someone who should be underestimated

Past (Hero of Legend?)

- He/They, Pansexual

- 18 years old

- Games: A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, Link’s Awakening, Edit: And the Oracles games

- Dyed Pink hair, has the longest hair of the whole group

- Happily lives with Ravio

- Loves apples

- Has a rabbit form he can shift into to squeeze into tight spaces

- Friendly but cautious, isn’t the most trusting

Calamity (Hero of the Calamity)

- He/Him/They/Them (usually prefers He/Him), Bisexual

- 18 years old

- Game: Age of Calamity

- Mute, doesn’t speak at all, only uses sign

- Doesn’t trust Tears at all, in fact at first Tears makes him extremely uncomfortable. Calamity makes Tears sad because they’re reminded of all the trauma the both of them went through, but Tears recognizes they’re two different people

- Looks up to Warriors a lot

- Very facially expressive

Mask (Hero of Time Masks)

- He/Him, Bisexual

- 17 years old (physically)

- Games: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask

- Refuses to tell anyone his mental age, that’s between him and Hylia

- No one knows he is the Hero of Time, he’s scared to admit it because the others hold the Hero of Time up on a pedestal and he’s scared they’ll be disappointed to realize it’s him

- Has the Fierce Deity markings on one side of his face and one of his eyes is completely white but he can see out of both of them.

- Shy, quiet, reserved and mistrustful. Extreme abandonment issues have left him to expect everyone will leave. He only trusts Warriors and Tune, it takes him quite a long time to warm up to the others

Spirit (Spirit Tracks Link)

- He/Him, bisexual

- 16 years old

- Games: Spirit Tracks

- Friend of the birds

- Sees spirits and talks with them occasionally

- Absolute gremlin

Minish (Hero of the Four Sword)

- He/Him, straight

- 15 years old

- Games: Four Swords, Minish Cap

- Selectively mute, uses sign sometimes to communicate

- Very sweet, a little shy at first but quickly warms up to the others

- Misses his grandpa very much

- He and his Zelda are childhood friends

[star-anise]

Pulling a piece out of an already massive post to reply to @zenosanalytic :

Most of this is great, but I feel like this overstates the influence and power of exclusionists; they never took over either Feminist or Lesbian groups or turned them en masse against bisexuals and transpeople, at least not in the US(in Britain it's an accurate description from what I've read). They def were still there, TRYING to(they were majorly annoying in the Fair scene), and you'd meet them or lesbian-separatists moving in wider queer circles, but they were pretty consistently losing that fight especially in academic and political queer orgs and, by the 00s, were pretty much irrelevant. They stayed that way until the Conservative movement deliberately revived/coopted them in the 10s.

Because... here's the bit from the original post I think this is talking about:

That process of expelling bi women from lesbian groups with immense prejudice continues to this day and leaves scars on a lot of bi/pan people. A lot of bisexuals, myself included, have an experience of “double discrimination”; we are made to feel unwelcome or invisible both in straight society, and in LGBT spaces.

It is absolutely true that radfems did not succeed in making exclusionary politics the mainstream policy of LGBT institutions. Hooowever. That's not what I was talking about.

Most people do not engage with the LGBTQ+ community solely by, like... walking into a policy meeting at GLAAD. Generally we do things like finding LGBTQ+ content on social media, or by attending LGBTQ+ social events, or by trying to find people to date!

In those settings, groups that are minoritized within the LGBTQ+ community (bi, pan, m-spec, ace, aro, trans, nb, etc) experience being treated in ways that are invalidating or derogatory. Not all the time! #notalllesbians!! The majority of the community might actually be kind and welcoming, and it might be relatively small microaggressions. But those microaggressions can happen often enough, and in a context where not much is being done to show that we are valued by the community, to create a sense of wariness and unwelcome in a space that ought to be safe for us.

I didn't attend a single LGBTQ+ event, or try to date a single woman, my entire undergrad career, because when I was 16, the first real-life gays and lesbians I ever met laughed and joked, in my hearing, about how bisexual teenage girls are just sluts who are doing it for the attention, not actually gay. It's not that I believed them, since they were obviously wrong; it's just that I went, "Oh okay, so LGBT spaces are still ones where I'll be bullied and shit-talked. I absolutely cannot deal with any more of that, so I'll just never go into those spaces."

Mine is a very small story. There are a lot of little stories like mine, and also ones big enough that they'd look exclusionary even to an outside observer. I know people who actually did get pushed out of their college GSAs, or lost their whole social support network, or had people try to coerce them into thinking they were horrible misguided tools of the patriarchy, in LGBT spaces, because they were bi, pan, m-spec, ace, aro, trans, nb, etc.

If you'd clicked the link in the post labelled "double discrimination", you'd read an NBC article that says, in part:

“This study adds to the growing body of research confirming that bisexual people face unique mental health disparities [that are] closely related to stigma and discrimination [they face] from straight, gay and lesbian communities,” Heron Greenesmith, a senior policy analyst at LGBTQ advocacy organization Movement Advancement Project, said.

(Note: this means "unique" as compared to gays and lesbians, which have been the focus of most mental health research and practice in this area. Namely, bisexuals tend to face certain pressures as a group that cis gays and lesbians don't so much. It does not mean "unique" as in "only bisexuals experience this". Bisexuals are just one of many groups that feel unwelcome or unsafe in LGBTQ+ spaces they ought to belong in.

Maybe you didn't mean to imply that all these experiences didn't happen. I hope you didn't. Because it would be really goshdarn silly for someone who's been on Tumblr for years to suggest that the 2010s were not a fucking golden age of young LGBTQ+ people tentatively reaching out to explore their gender and sexuality, and being deluged with immense volumes of bullshit by other LGBTQ+ people for it.

I don't want to in any way discourage people from reaching out to LGBTQ+ groups, because it's very possible that the reward will far outweigh the risks. It's possible that other people will welcome you and will enforce a code of conduct against anyone who gives you shit. I'm not saying, "Hide forever! You're on your own, kid!"

But on the other hand, it is very easy, in a million different ways, to say "We didn't think very hard about making these groups feel welcome and protected in our space" without ever writing it into official policy.

[echo-bleu]

Intro post

Welcome to the new people who found me through the radar! I've been meaning to do an intro post forever so this is a good time.

Hi, I'm Echo! I mostly use they/them but any pronoun is fine, I'm queer and autistic and I draw and I write fanfiction (and original things occasionally). This post will be pinned and is subject to change.

Links: My AO3 is EchoBleu. I'm also on Instagram as florilegeart.

My art: I mostly draw digitally. The tag is #echo's drawings. My commissions are open! Information here.

Please feel free to send me random (nice) asks about my fics or my art or anything else, I love chatting about what I do and the fandoms I'm in.

Blog navigation under the cut.

Fandom: My main current fandom is the Silmarillion, and by extension everything Tolkien. You'll find things on my blog from my previous fandoms as well (Witcher, Shadowhunters, Hamilton, etc) and from fandoms I occasionally dabble in (Leverage, Discworld, etc).

All Tolkien things are tagged with #tolkien as a meta tag. I have far too many WIPs but my niche in this fandom appears to be drawing and writing disabled characters, so you can check the tag #disabled tolkien characters for that (and also #queer tolkien characters).

My fics are all on AO3, though I post most one-shots and some longer fics here as well under #echo's fanfiction. I like posting snippets here too (same tag) and sometimes meta under #echo's writing thoughts. Longer fics and series are also tagged by title, currently you can check out #the bark of our bones, #those towers we built, #on that tree i'll carve your name, #elrond vs the valar, #shine still brighter, #silm xmen au, #the imperfect, #werewolf finrod, #queen nerdanel au (all Silmarillion).

#beautiful art and #fic rec are for other people's wonderful creations. I don't always have the spoons to leave gushing comment tags but if I reblogged it, I loved it.

I tag most other things as #[something] things. The most used are probably #autism things, #neurodivergent things, #aro things, #ace things, #nonbinary things, #queer things. And not following the tag rule, #linguistics, #tall ships. All fandom things are tagged with the fandom, plus the characters if it's a fandom I'm in. #echo's ramblings is my tag for random things about IRL or rants (which is why I'm not linking it, but you can mute it) and #real world things for reblogs of current events (that you can also mute).

I try to tag CWs and TWs to the best of my ability, usually with #cw [thing] but please warn me if I miss something. I'm unlikely to post or reblog anything explicit but if I do it will be warned. My own images have IDs in alt text, or in plain text for older posts. I don't have the energy to add IDs to other people's post very often, and I do reblog undescribed images, but I try to make my posts as accessible as possible.

[candycryptids]

Get to know me better! Tagged by @zylphiacrowley and @ahollowgrave ✨

Last Song: Space Ghost Coast To Coast by Glass Animals (YouTube link) cos it’s on my ‘spooky’ playlist for Carbs 😂 it’s actually one of the few songs on that with like, proper lyrics

Favorite Color: Orange! And Yellow! And Green! And Purple…!! (My favorite in FFXIV color though, is Celeste Green. She doesn’t lose!)

Currently Watching: Season 10 of Hermitcraft! We’re trying to keep up with MumboJumbo, Grian, Rendog, Geminitay, Bdouble0, Smallishbeans, Zedaph, and ImpulseSV :) …. Remember how I reblogged that pill about having interests I just don’t talk about? Yeah this is one of them. Lol. We’re also watching Zedaph’s new solo create mod series 😌

Last Movie: Beetlejuice (1988) for my brothers birthday, it was just as silly and fun as I remembered!

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: yes. I think my general go-to is, Sweet breads, Spicy Noodles/Meats and Savory Veggies…. But I couldn’t pick just one over the others 🤔 I could MAYBE drop Savory for a sweet/spicy in S-tier tho

Relationship Status: Poly, married (commitment/ceremony only can’t legally marry where I live), and not super fussed (personally) about finding more dates/people to add to it. I can’t even joke about needing a sugar daddy I’m just not cut out for that I’m too aro-ace

Current Obsession: U h….. being alive. Jkjk I just chewed through all the available chapters of Greatest real Estate Developer, it took me a while to suck up and read ‘the popular thing’ cos i thought it was gonna be like other infinite power up fantasy Story-Book Isekai’s but it’s actually really charming- the artist, adaptor, AND author are all having a really good time working on the series from the ‘extras’ they posted and the expressions are………. Well if I ever get around to posing the stuff I have in mind you’ll see the influences I’m sure. 🫣 …. Also I’m still super obsessed with FFXIV and all my blorbs- rn the spotlight is flickering a lil tho cos I gotta clench my jaw and just take the time to do some work in blender instead of playing the game and spinning the camera real fast around my beans cos my beans are still BROKEN lol. I gotta find a way to update Lev’s skin and Mochiie needs to be rebuilt from the ground floor still basically.

Last thing in my search history: ………….

“Beetlejuice 1988” I was making sure I was putting down the right year cos I knew it was a lil older than me but not by a bunch but I couldn’t remember /)////////(\ sh.

People I wanna know better: Uhm! I’m tagging @becquerelnoir @cadrenebula @archaiclumina @oneiroy uh, I actually dunno who has or hasn’t done this 🫣 no pressure to do this if you don’t wanna or you’ve been tagged already! Also if I didn’t tag you and you WANT to be tagged you can pretend I did or even just send me a dm and I’ll tag you XD this monster says you’re ‘it’ if you wanna be

[scr-ppup]

@ Scr-ppup | 🪦👁️

—"Even the divine of the mercy and prayers will not help you..

"For I will still smite your ass to the oblivion's growing hunger."—

- liomogai: neogenders, general & alterhumans flags and terms.

- request status: open

Ask box: — (24 requests) | queue: 35 | drafts: 500+

Creds; PFP mask.

Coinfight info link; team Villains.

Anons; 🌊🐈‍⬛,

— "sir, If the hounds don't kill you, I will make sure I have your head at my feet by sundown."

"You hear me, old bastard?"—

> my main is @ Reveseke and that's where I'll be interacting from. Don't get spooked lol.

> here's my pronouns cc & pronouns.page

> I am neurodivergent & disabled, 06/18 & genderqueer, Finnish entity, transspecies, alterhuman & holothere.

> Call me mainly Koiri or Ashlin on this blog, or Kalma.

> I don't have a DNI for my terms and flags, but I do block folks that are specified in my BYF if following. :)

> please use tone tags with me, it makes it easier for me to interpret y'all when it comes to answering questions and interactions in general. I have a tendency to interpret the tone wrong in text. Also please don't use fonts or colored text in the asks, thanks.

Masterlist nav. — req list - tag nav.

— "The world didn't go too easy on you, did it, Kalma?"

BYF

- I belong into quite a few blankqueer/-punk stances in some way; reclaimed feralqueer, hallowpunk, redemptionqueer, darlingqueer, yandequeer, (ally) rabiespride, eepyqueer, para-health, Beastpunk, mangledqueer, Sataniqueer & freakqueer.

None of these labels will override *my* stances that I've laid in my BYF. Beware of this. (Also I'm going to get all the links in a bit lol.)

I am anti harassment, pro-para - anti-contact (+ a para myself) & pro- safe recovery, anti-censorship & I'm peacefic. I'm pro good-faith / contradicting terminology, I believe everyone has a unique sense of self and should be able to use the terms and call themselves what they want to reflect themselves. I stand with the 4B, land-back, black lives matter movements, and pro decolonization.

My political view is anarcho-leftist, however I do not go into that side much since this is a hobby blog.

I am not interested in ship- or syscourse and I find radical pros and antis extremely harmful from both discourses. Do not include me in them. (Besides I'm singlet thus I don't think someone calling themselves endo or supporting or not supporting them is something I should be "included in" on or concerned by. Pro & anti endos alike can interact if they want, just know where I stand and don't break your own DNI for the sake of it.)

Also, those who cannot separate fiction from reality or glorify and romanticize real-life murderers, S/A, mafias, criminals, and so on, you're not even on the thin ice if you follow me you will be blocked.

I do not fuck with (read: i am a heavy anti of) wrongfully used harmful transid folks, rad./queers, xeno.satanists. white supremacists, nationalists, facists, or racists & ableist at all. (Neo) Na.zis and supporters/apologists, pro-colonialists and -capitalists, pro-cop / blue lives matter / all lives matter believers. Neither do I fuck with those who glorify, romantize, or demonize (or speak over folks with) mental illnesses, personality disorders or disabilities.

Also label lumpers and exclusionists (""bi-spec"", aros to aces, aphobics, transphobic, multitransphobic, intersexists, etc), queer-phobic/anti-LGBTQIA+ folk. SW-/TERFs, Radfems, misogynist & misandrist alike; sexists in general. + folks who suibait, witch-hunt, and harass others or condone/support it.

—"you look like an animal, a cornered hound baring its teeth in front of certain death..."

Themed after a CoD oc named Kalma.

—

Questions are always welcome, but please bear in mind that if the question is asked in noticeably bad Faith it will not be answered unless I feel the need to answer it because it's important.

[sparkyskid]

Gale Dekarios The Wizard of Waterdeep ace-spec propaganda

Spoilers for Gale’s romance below the cut

I, an Aroace, have finished BG3 having romanced Gale and taken the route to “fix him” (I.e. encourage him that he is enough as he is and doesn’t need godly power, that his value does not depend on his power or talents or usefulness to others.)

Yes you make out a little in his romance scenes. Yes he says that he has been intimate with mortals before Mystra, and was Mystra’s lover.

BUT.

It is never stated that you have sex with him.

At most, it is implied that you are physically intimate in some way, primarily the post-game where he asks you to marry him, you wake up together and you can beckon him to come back to bed.

Even then, even when it is implied, Gale’s romance is entirely chaste. For a game so horny, a game so ready to let you fuck so many people, a game that gives you power to make your party hang out at camp in their underwear or even naked…

Astarion and Shadowheart definitely have topless/nude scenes. Karlach and La’zell express sexual attraction. Wyll is entirely unknown to me. But Gale, despite being very upfront about his feelings in some key moments, does not have a nude or partially nude cutscene. A game that loves showing or describing the sex you have with NPCs, and Gale has none of it.

Furthermore, the moment that stands out the most as possibly showing sexual attraction, in Act 2 when he comments about reading a book that links the rush of battle with desires for other “stimulation”. He is having such thoughts, but even as he says he wants Tav, it seems to be about pleasure and stimulation more than flat out sexual attraction.

As we all know, willingness to engage in sex and the experience of sexual attraction are different. Gale expresses a very ace or demi sort of relationship with sex- for him, it’s about pleasurable stimulation with a beloved person.

Take this in contrast with Halsin. In my game, Halsin came onto my Tav in the last night before the final battle. He spoke of natural desires, of wanting skin on skin etc. similar to how La’zell expresses a desire for Tav’s body in Act 1 or Karlach “ride you till you see stars”. Halsin, La’zell, and Karlach, all clearly express sexual attraction. Astarion is, well, Astarion. I don’t know Wyll very well, but his first romance scene is a dance and he gets such puppy eyes when you reject him. There is none of these things in Gale’s route.

One last thing, the compliments Gale gives. Yes, this is a difficult thing to write because the appearance of Tav can vary wildly. But his compliments are centered around aesthetic attraction, not physical. “Beautiful” is one of his most common ones. Non-specific, wholistic, and aesthetic. It would be hard to write anything more specific with the Tav’s appearance being so variable. But the other NPCs still have doubtless sexual attraction.

So Gale is a romantic, so what? He could also be a “wait until marriage type”? False. He has not been married, but (at least implies that) he has had sex before.

But it could just be that his route is supposed to be the most romantic, and not all of the NPCs need to have equal levels of horny? Yes. Not all of the NPCs should be the same amount of horny. And the least horny, if they are this different, will always come across as ace-spec or aro-spec, if only by comparison (as it is in the real world).

Consider another detail as well: how the people closest to him are expected to react to him finding a relationship.

Both his BFF Tara and his mother apparently want him to get in a relationship. Tara is obvious, Gale speaks of Tara encouraging him to have more mortal friends after his relationship with Mystra ends. And Tara does at one point comment on Gale finding a mortal partner in-game. Later when Gale asks Tav to marry him, if you accept, he remarks how his mother will also be very pleased to hear the news.

This is a theme in his life. People pressuring him to find a relationship. This is also a very commonly shared experience for a-spec people of all kinds. Pressure from others to find someone. (The most toxic variation being “you haven’t met the right person yet”)

My own mother would be overjoyed if she heard I found someone to get married to, even though she knows I don’t want that. Sure, many parents are this way about their allo children as well, but that’s hardly talked about. Parents of a-spec people, whose children “finally get married” or “finally find someone” are specially invested in the outcome. Of course anyone’s supportive parent would be happy if their child got married to somebody they loved. But it’s noteworthy here, for some reason. As if his mother has, in the past, also given him some grief about it in a way that Tara does as well. If she hadn’t, why mention her at all?

Gale being pressured by those closest to him to get a relationship is thematically similar to the way ace-spec (and aro-spec) people get pressured by those closest to them. And the relationship he crafts is one based not on physical attraction, but on aesthetic attraction and romantic attraction. Gale shares physical forms of affection with his partners for the pleasurable stimulation of it. He does not exhibit the same lust or sexual attraction that the rest of the romanceable/fuckable NPCs do. All this to say that Gale is consistently sex-favorable, but does not experience sexual attraction in the same (allo) way that everyone else does. Therefore, he falls on the ace spectrum. Most likely ace or demi.

[haveievermentioned]

sending you back top 5 fic recs and top 5 fics you’re written for the ask game!! :)

Sorry this took so long! I got busy. Top Recs:

"You must fix your heart" series by @screechthemighty as much as I like Valhalla, it didn't come CLOSE to what I want from a post Ragnarok story like these fics do. They are kind of interlinked and honestly, after (Massive GoW ragnarok spoilers) this really helped me with all of that.

Angry Words by PoH. Actually anything by PoH. They are my best friend and all of their writing is fantastic. They Semi sincerely wrote fics about William Birkin having a love affair with the element fire, they wrote a GORGEOUS fic about Jack and the Little Sister's first Christmas on the surface, and a lot of great Ace Attorney and KH stuff that fill in blanks or are post series. But this is maybe the funniest ones they did (outside of William/Fire which was a sort of parody) where Xigbar gave Roxas and Xion a PS3 and a copy of Bioshock with no context and they learn about Swear words! Like "Communist!" and "Goddess!" It's great.

Dripping Diamonds (between my thighs) by @empresscirque Okay I haven't read it. But Empress is another fantastic friend and this is maybe their most popular piece. I skimmed it a bit and it's written really well. (Just not my ship, and they know that)

The Mallard Family by GreyLiliy as a MASSIVE Darkwing Duck fan I can't emphasize enough how much this completely changed how I thought of his yuppie neighbors, the muddlefoots.

Pearls of Portent by Zophaer Link/Mipha fic where Link wakes up with 7 of Mipha's eggs next to him. Link is mute, everyone is confused, it's really sweet and sad.

Okay, on to mine

As long as you should have lived - a Resident Evil post village story where Chris proposes a legally real but otherwise fake marriage to Mia in order to fulfill his promise to protect Rose. Mia agrees, and things don't go as well as they planned. Chris is a Demiromantic Asexual in here, Mia has loads of trauma to unpack from 7 and 8, and their fake honeymoon keeps running into complications, like Ethan's sister who never bought anything Chris said.

The Jecht/Maleficent series Kingdom Hearts universe, some time shortly after BBS, Maleficent mistimes a teleport and ends up on Destiny Islands, where she runs into Jecht - recently of Radiant Gardens - and falls ill. A combination of exoticism and Florence nightingale leads them to having a one night stand. After THAT it splits into 3 universes. In all of them, Jecht has promised to love her forever. In all of them, How that plays out depends on what happened right after that promise.

Italian Beef Sandwiches and Spaghetti! Introducing Chef Carmy! Look, in 2023, The Bear and Delicious Party Pretty Cure came out. Both stories had people using food to deal with dead family members. I had to smash them together, and I had a LOT of fun doing it. It was written before S2 came out so it's not exactly canon compliant even before the girls show up, but like... I had Yui and Carmy talk about food and dead relatives and Ritchie trying not to swear in front of kids.

You are not alone stand alone story in my Quadratum series, Sora figures out he's Aro Ace after being very confused by the X-files. Aya, Garrett, NieR, and Sora all have great moments, Ash gets introduced and as much as I love Xem, xeir pronouns make me frustrated (but non binary people deserve more non they/them rep) and Garrett also learns something about himself.

Welcome, Curious Friends a zine piece where Sora went to Phantom Manor and woke up looking at a ticket taker skeleton. It's got a mystery, it's got danger, it's got a LOT of catharsis for anyone who has ever wanted to punch (spoiler)

(honorable mention: Xion, the soap opera lover, Lover of the Light, The Secret Diary of Quincey Morris, Mia Goes Shopping, and Tell me it won't hurt.

[celticjade13]

I started reading IceMav after seeing Top Gun: Maverick. I didn't ship characters when I was younger, so seeing the first movie didn't trigger any IceMav feelings. (This also happened to me with Star Wars. Maybe an ace/aro thing?) So I'm new into the fandom, but y'all, I have some questions after going through fic on AO3.

Firstly, do fic authors know that DADT didn't exist until 1993? I've seen a handful of fics that address this but the policy in 1986 (the year of the first movie) was dishonorable discharge if you were caught. I see a lot of references to DADT in the 80's, and while it was absolutely a terrible policy, I can assure you the policy before it was way worse. I feel like this is linked to a lot of baby gays not knowing queer history. I posted last spring about a Target salesperson not knowing that the black t-shirt with a pink triangle saying, "Silence = death," was referencing the AIDS crisis. History isn't as far back as you think it is, kids.

Secondly, and completely unrelated to the previous thing, Tom Cruise is short. Kind of. He's actually the perfect height for a real-life fighter pilot and he's basically short compared to the absolute giants that are most other Hollywood stars. I understand fanfic's desire to want to capitalize on the size difference between Ice & Mav. But OMG, Maverick is a fighter pilot. (Naval aviator, whatever.) He's a badass. He lost Goose and he's got a rough relationship with Rooster, and I really only read fanfic where Ice lives, so we don't have to worry about that. And the Navy hasn't exactly been at the cutting edge of mental health treatment at any point in their history*, but he's really woobified in fic. I mean, I see it, fandom loves to take the small character who's been through the emotional wringer and turn it up to 11, but good goddamn, y'all, he's still Maverick. He's still arrogant and a smartass and has Tom Cruise's smile and flies fighter jets for the Navy.

So here's the crux of the matter: Are these developments from the recent influx after TG:M? Or have these been around since the first film? (I feel like anyone around during the first film knows DADT wasn't a thing because those letters in that order wouldn't even have meant anything until the early 90's.)

*A friend's parents were career officers in the Navy before retiring so she & her sister could spend all 4 years in one high school instead of moving partway through. Her mom was a nurse. One sailor came through the hospital/medical station/wherever and was given an evaluation. Sailor mentioned he slept with a weed wacker under his bed. Doctor asked why. Sailor said at night, the weed wacker came out and told him what to do the next day. Sailor was sent home very quickly after that. I asked how he even got into the Navy & my friend shrugged. This is the US military, y'all.

[the-stars-were-his]

a very late intro post

hey!! i'm luke/moony (use whichever name!) here's some things about me:

(also: don't forget your daily clicks!)

- picrew link i used is here!

- i'm aromantic! and also ace! you think that's not real or valid, get a life and get out of here.

- i'm genderfluid!

- i use they/them pronouns!

- i have high-functioning autism!

- a lot of my blog is about fandoms! mainly: marauders era (sometimes other hp stuff too), toh (WE LOVE LUMITY), riordanverse (PJO!!), osemanverse (YES HEARTSTOPPERRR), spop, and occasionally other random things, like kotlc!

- speaking of fandoms, i'm a ravenclaw!

- and i'm cabin 6! (athena)

- i make art sometimes! list is here

- i made a list of my favorite aro posts here!

- jkr can go die :D

i'm bored pretty much all the time, ask me anything!

here's a main ask game

and here's an arospec ask game

and here's a random ask game!

and here's an autumn ask game!

and here's a hp ask game!

and here's a character ask game!

and here's a weird ask game!

if you have any advice on self-harm, please consider putting it here, i would really appreciate it :)

hope you have a great day/night!! ❤️❤️