#go forth and write that self-indulgent fanfiction you funky lil soul you

[titaniumshortcake]

Adding to this, as someone in their thirties and leaning toward the sex-repulsed side of the ace spectrum: We've always existed, no matter how hard people try to sell that sex is a must for a healthy relationship.

You can be an avid consumer of smut or porn and not all that interested in physically participating in sex. You can spend twenty years or more not understanding the appeal of sex and then meet that one person where it clicks and you Get It. You can want the romance and the casual intimacy without having an interest in sex. You can change your mind and decide you want to try sex with someone, and you might decide it's still not for you. You can be entirely uninterested in all of it and completely content with your life.

Asexuality takes a lot of different shapes. A lot of the time, that shape is fluid or changes depending on where we're at in our lives.

With Lucanis, specifically: He is a work-oriented man. If he's not busy on a contract, he's looking for some other job to do (i.e. taking over as the primary cook). Intimacy is not a priority of his, even if it might be something he wants. Add to that the fact that this man is a wallflower who does everything he can to avoid being the center of attention. He prefers to blend in and keep his head down, because there's a kind of safety in avoiding the notice of others.

Social cues are not his forte. He misses the fact that Rook is flirting half the time, and is genuinely taken aback when he realizes Rook is interested in him. It's not rejection when he pulls away from that near-kiss.

It's panic.

His body language during that exchange is stiff; if you watch his face as Rook leans in, his smile drops. Lucanis is trying to take the lead in the way that Crows are taught to seduce a mark. He's probably watched Illario do it a thousand times, is probably jacking his lines straight from one of the romances that he's read, and he doesn't know what to do with the realization that he wants to take that step. It's all new to him. All he knows is that Rook shouldn't be treated like a mark, but he doesn't know what that looks like.

Most of us have been there for our first crushes; wanting to get it right, terrified of screwing up something good. And that's before we even factor in how Caterina raised Lucanis, and the year of torture that he's bottling up for most of the game, and his struggles with Spite.

For all of Veilguard's flaws, and the fact that I don't think that the game handles its depictions of trauma consistently, when it gets things right...it gets them right.

A portion of people within this fandom are really letting their discomfort with asexual people and virginity show.

I hate to break it to you, but there are people who make it to adulthood as virgins (and it isn't inherently tied to being religious.).

I need you guys to breathe and be realistic for 5 minutes, and also realize the implications of your exclamation about how impossible you find Lucanis being a virgin is. Maybe it's not within your scope of focus, but yes, it happens.

No, I don't care that he's a Crow. He specifically tells you that seduction is Illario's thing.

Yes, you can read romance and be in love with the idea (and even long for it for yourself!) and still not take that jump.

Sex is not casual for everyone. Casual sex is not for everyone.

Please sit with that before you guffaw and call it impossible.