#grey ace xie lian

[yea-baiyi]

ok but like imagine being hua cheng. and when you were a teenager you were trapped in a cave with your god when he got hit with sex pollen and you already felt ugly and unlovable but he stabbed himself through the gut rather than touch you and you saw him shirtless and horrifyingly that’s how you found out you were gay

and then you meet him again centuries later when you’ve grown up and become comfortable in your own skin, and you think you might be in love with him except a part of you still feels terrified that he’ll look at you and find you hideous again. but you want to trust him so you show him your real face. and. turns out he finds your adult self so hot that you make him horny for the first time in his life and he keeps doing and saying absolutely deranged things because he does not know how to cope. he panics and tries to give you, a ghost, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and while you’re lying there trying not to freak out he is beside you acting out his one man humiliation-style comedy show because he has never wanted to kiss someone before let alone fuck. he agrees to get locked in a coffin together because he never even considered the possibility that he might pop a boner except he does pop a boner and now you are stuck under him while he squirms and you are trying very hard not to think about your own boner

i don’t know how to end this post i just think that’s so funny. and they live happily ever after and have lots of gay sex. hua cheng keeps winning. slay king

[therubyjailcell]

me, staring at my fav lil blorbos:

me:

me: they're on the aro and ace spectrum :) they might also be trans, and also be nd :)

[web-novel-polls]

Aroace-spec Character Winners' Tournament

[Please vote for who you believe is the most aroace-spec character, not the most popular. It will never be acceptable to post "anti-propaganda" in this tournament or invalidate a suggested identity because "they're not aroace enough." You will be blocked unless it's clearly a genuine mistake / misphrasing.]

Propaganda underneath the cut

Xie Lian from Heaven Official’s Blessing

Submission 1: Demisexual

He's heavily demi coded. Man has no interest in sex what so ever for 800 years and then makes a strong personal connection to one (1) person and is shocked when he's suddenly interested

Submission 2: Demisexual

I think he is demisexual. He was canonically celibate for 800+ years and doesn’t seem to have too much of a problem with it, until he meets and binds with the love interest. Suddenly this whole celibacy thing becomes difficult. Seeing a character similar to me was an amazing experience and I think he deserves all the love!

Liu Qingge from Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Submission 1: Gay Grayace

He spends most of his life with one interest and that's fighting and then when he falls for a man he's confused by it and proceeds to flirt in the most awkward way possible. Also he has the grey-white-sometimes purple colour scheme

Submission 2: Aroace

The idea of him being asexual is presented right there on the page and you can't take that away from me. Yes I think he is in love with sqq yes I also think he is aroace. He can be both!

Submission 3: Asexual/Ace-spec

I think he’s sex repulsed given his icy or horrified reactions when sexual topics are discussed. He was also once forcibly aroused when hit by an aphrodisiac, and he responded in a way that implied he had never experienced that before. Additionally, his instinct was not to do anything sexual, but to commit acts of violence.

Mod Propaganda

Canonically not interested in romance by word of God

MXTX: “[Liu Qingge] isn't interested in Shen Qingqiu. He isn't interested in anyone. He's only interested in fighting. He wants to be the strongest and the best.” (Source)

Canonically had no clue he was sexually aroused in the Succubi Extra / interpreted it as “wanting to fight” (which isn’t the same as not experiencing sexual attraction, but that’s also not a trademark of allosexuality)

Speaking of, he never specifically seems interested in Shen Qingqiu romantically or sexually - he’s usually shipped with him bc of his devotion, not a clear desire for romance. Though that’s pretty much just up for personal interpretation

[kaz3313]

Dating Sim AU TGCF (concept) Part One

(Piccrew link in replies!).

As the title suggests- Started to make the concept of a Dating Sim AU. I’d like to make some fake screenshots (with my own drawings ^^)

(Notes)

* Agender Xie Lian (forgot a pin)

*Ace Yin Yu (forgot a pin)

*Genderfluid SQX (didn’t forget a pin, didn’t add them because didn’t look good with her outfit/could barely see cause of his hands)

*MQ and LW both have grey/silver hair but that wasn’t an option ^^

*HC also has pointy teeth, but the smile (and the red) made him look like a vampire. Then again, thats probably accurate

*SW has long hair, but it didn’t look good on him/tried him w/ short hair.

*Dialogue may change when I make my fake screenshots- But some of it might stay the same or have similar phrasing 😊

*Haven’t decided whether HX is going to go by “Ming Yi” as an alias or just as He Xuan.

[yea-baiyi]

people on twitter are discoursing about whether xie lian’s chastity-based cultivation is a form of abuse (?????) which is so backward to me like huh???? yes jun wu’s thing about xie lian being a virgin is fucking creepy and weird and part of his overall obsession and desire to control him. but did they just completely miss the part where xie lian chose this method of cultivation bc the abstinence wasn’t an issue for him? he got hit by sex pollen and never once thought of sex? he didn’t even cultivate for 700 years and just never had sex because he never wanted to and as soon as he found a guy he wanted to fuck he just went for it? literally didn’t even pause to consider the cultivation thing at any point. if this were any other character it might have been used against him but the whole point is xie lian once again perfectly dodging jun wu’s manipulation attacks by just being a weird little guy with autism

[yea-baiyi]

xie lian really is living the ultimate grey-ace fantasy though, because imagine you’ve gone 800 years not being attracted to anyone and you’ve been totally fine keeping a vow of abstinence you have no obligation to keep —

and then one day you run into this guy and your brain goes “he’d be a great husband” and suddenly you’re thinking about how he’s so tall and fixating on his hairline and his bone structure and wow his hands are so big, sure wouldn’t wanna be choked by him, and you’re a huge embarrassing mess around him. but turns out he is equally as embarrassing towards you and you end up liking him a lot and you guys flirt and joke around when you’re together and it’s great except you have massive walls up because of all of your centuries of trauma —

and THEN you find out that this guy has known you nearly your whole life, was actually the person beside you at all your lowest points, someone who has already been tested and come out fighting. he’s not nice and he’s seen some shit but he has literally crawled his way out from hell and proven himself to be good, and most of all already proven that he will stand with you and be by your side in every way that matters. all that before you guys even started dating, before you guys even MET in this lifetime. just the perfect alignment of a) attractiveness, b) compatibility, c) resilience as a life partner — and he came over and started talking to YOU.

maybe it’s just me but i’m chewing on the walls????

[yea-baiyi]

I'm yet to read the novel fully, but I wanted to ask you something. Is Xie Lian gay? Or more bi/demi or something else?

At some point isn't he enticed by things taking the form of women to arouse him or something like that? But the same thing knew to take Xie Lian's form to entice Hua Cheng away from guarding him?

….this is from almost a year ago but once again i have zero memory of ever seeing this ask. i am so sorry

anyway xie lian is grey-ace imo. he’s hua cheng-sexual. before meeting hua cheng he demonstrates exactly ZERO attraction to anyone of any gender. and then he acts extremely horny towards hua cheng but also with the utter unhinged panic of someone who has never experienced sexual attraction in their life. which is why his reactions to hua cheng are so batshit despite him being scarily calm in most other situations

the sex pollen scene is hilarious and totally validates my point because there’s all these sex pollen demons trying to seduce him and tempt him. and he’s backed into a cave, alone with a fifteen year old with a massive crush on him. but his fucking reaction to the sex pollen is “i don’t experience sexual lust, the only lust i feel from this pollen is BLOODLUST so i gotta get this kid out of here immediately before i kill him—”

[web-novel-polls]

Next Tournament

We're nearing the end of the Danmei Character Tournament, so the next tournament will start within a week of the end (July 26th, 2023). Two tournament submissions are currently open: the Baihe Character Tournament and the Aroace-spec Web Novel Character Tournament.

[Current Submissions for both under the cut - CW for vague talks about sex]

Aroace Spectrum Character Tournament

(15 submissions)

Jiang Cheng from The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

3 Submissions

Submission 1: romantic and sex indifferent aroace - "I love that guy, he’s the most aroace guy I’ve ever met. and his outfit is literally the ace flag plus he’s like wearing a ring that looks a lot like wearing a ring that looks a lot like the ace ring. and the fact that he has no canon love interest and is never shown to want a romantic or sexual relationship. he gives me very “romance is something other people do, I just don’t care for it, I got other things to do” you get me??"

Submission 2: Aroace - "Despite people trying to convince him to get married/get an heir, in 13 years he never finds someone. His list of bride qualities is absurd to the point of "no one like this exists so I'll never have to get married". Is grossed out by displays of sexual attraction. Purple"

Submission 3: Aroace - "No spouse. Wears ace colors. Case closed."

Xie Lian from Heaven Official's Blessing

2 Submissions

Submission 1: Demisexual - "He's heavily demi coded. Man has no interest in sex what so ever for 800 years and then makes a strong personal connection to one (1) person and is shocked when he's suddenly interested"

Wen Qing from The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Submission: Lesbian Asexual - "She just has the vibe. Trust me, I'm ace"

Wen Ning from The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Submission: Aromantic ("A Good Aro Boi") - "He never shows any kind of romantic interest in anyone. He's definitely in a QPR with Wei Wuxian and tangentially Lan Wangji though."

Feng Xin from Heaven Official's Blessing

Submission: Sex Averse Asexual and Aromantic - "He had a sexual relationship with one (1) woman and had such a bad time he developed a fear of women in general. Also, he's a very good archer, so he has to be an aroace lolgetit?"

Cheng Qian from Liu Yao

Submission: Sex Favorable Asexual - "He has the Vibes"

Liu Qingge from Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

2 Submissions

Submission 1: Gay Grayace - "He spends most of his life with one interest and that's fighting and then when he falls for a man he's confused by it and proceeds to flirt in the most awkward way possible. Also he has the grey-white-sometimes purple colour scheme"

Submission 2: Aroace - "The idea of him being asexual is presented right there on the page and you can't take that away from me. Yes I think he is in love with sqq yes I also think he is aroace. He can be both!"

Wenren È from Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Submission: Asexual - "I haven't actually read this book yet but I've heard it's ace as hell and I wanted to make sure he was submitted"

I've read part of the book & can confirm: ace (and aro) as hell

Yin Hanjiang from Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Submission: Asexual - "I haven't read this book yet but I heard it was ace as hell and I wanted to make sure he got into the poll"

I've read part of the book & can confirm: ace (and aro) as hell

Kim Dokja from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

Submission: demiromantic graysexual, romance/sex indifferent - "bc yoohankim is the most qpr qpr to ever qpr"

Song Lan from The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Submission: Asexual or Demisexual - "I love whenever I'm reading fic where he is ace-spec it feels very correct"

Baihe Character Tournament

(9 Submissions)

Qi Yan from JWQS / Clear and Muddy Loss of Love

Reason for Submitting: she 💗💗 character of all time 

Nangong Jingnu from JWQS / Clear and Muddy Loss of Love

Reason for Submitting: I love her dearly

Li Yanru from JWQS / Clear and Muddy Loss of Love

Nagsi Jiya from JWQS / Clear and Muddy Loss of Love

Yun An from Matrilocal Marriage

Reason for Submitting: She’s a massive lesbian duh

Lin Wanyue from Female General and Eldest Princess

Li Xian from Female General and Eldest Princess

Li Shiyi from Wen Guan / Reading the Remnants

Yu Rubing from She is the Protagonist

Reason for Submitting: Staying silly :3

[yea-baiyi]

If you like acespec Xie Lian I must recommend beesinspades's fics, they have a bunch of different ones (SFW and NSFW) and they're so good ! It's mostly ace Xie Lian but I think there's a couple of grey ace Xie Lian fics too. It's so cool to see these ace interpretations of Xie Lian talked about more. We need that kind of representation !!

xie lian is so incredibly a-spec it is so inspiring

thank u for the rec!!!

[web-novel-polls]

Submissions end Tuesday, August 1st, 2023, around noon CST

Friendly reminder that submissions should be web novels, not just novels, btw. Headcanons for characters are allowed, but the source material itself should be a web novel or be reasonably adjacent to a web novel. No worries if you submit something that doesn't fit the guidelines; it just probably won't be in the tournament.

Current submissions under the cut (CW for vague talks about s*x)

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED

Jiang Cheng from MDZS

Submissions: 3

romantic and sex indifferent aroace - "I love that guy, he’s the most aroace guy I’ve ever met. and his outfit is literally the ace flag plus he’s like wearing a ring that looks a lot like wearing a ring that looks a lot like the ace ring. and the fact that he has no canon love interest and is never shown to want a romantic or sexual relationship. he gives me very “romance is something other people do, I just don’t care for it, I got other things to do” you get me??"

Aroace - "Despite people trying to convince him to get married/get an heir, in 13 years he never finds someone. His list of bride qualities is absurd to the point of "no one like this exists so I'll never have to get married". Is grossed out by displays of sexual attraction. Purple"

Both - "No spouse. Wears ace colors. Case closed."

Xie Lian from TGCF

Submissions: 3

Demisexual - "He's heavily demi coded. Man has no interest in sex what so ever for 800 years and then makes a strong personal connection to one (1) person and is shocked when he's suddenly interested"

I think he is demisexual. He was canonically celibate for 800+ years and doesn’t seem to have too much of a problem with it, until he meets and binds with the love interest. Suddenly this whole celibacy thing becomes difficult.......Seeing a character similar to me was an amazing experience and I think he deserves all the love!

Wen Qing from MDZS

Submissions: 1

Lesbian Asexual - "She just has the vibe. Trust me, I'm ace"

Wen Ning from MDZS

Submissions: 1

Aromantic ("A Good Aro Boi") - "He never shows any kind of romantic interest in anyone. He's definitely in a QPR with Wei Wuxian and tangentially Lan Wangji though."

Feng Xin from TGCF

Submissions: 1

Sex Averse Asexual and Aromantic - "He had a sexual relationship with one (1) woman and had such a bad time he developed a fear of women in general. Also, he's a very good archer, so he has to be an aroace lolgetit?"

Cheng Qian from Liu Yao

Submissions: 1

Sex Favorable Asexual - "He has the Vibes"

Liu Qingge from SVSSS

Submissions: 3

Gay Grayace - "He spends most of his life with one interest and that's fighting and then when he falls for a man he's confused by it and proceeds to flirt in the most awkward way possible. Also he has the grey-white-sometimes purple colour scheme"

Aroace - "The idea of him being asexual is presented right there on the page and you can't take that away from me. Yes I think he is in love with sqq yes I also think he is aroace. He can be both!"

Asexual/Ace-spec: I think he’s sex repulsed given his icy or horrified reactions when sexual topics are discussed. He was also once forcibly aroused when hit by an aphrodisiac, and he responded in a way that implied he had never experienced that before. Additionally, his instinct was not to do anything sexual, but to commit acts of violence.

Wenren È from DVAWTK

Submissions: 2

Asexual - "I haven't actually read this book yet but I've heard it's ace as hell and I wanted to make sure he was submitted"

Asexual demiromantic - Resubmitting him because I have now read the book. And oh boy. He is not allo. He spends the whole book being confused about love and romance, and why that, specifically, would be such a huge motivator for people. He has no interest in it besides how it affects someone else and causes them problems. He falls in love by the end but he still doesn't understand how love works for other people at all

Yin Hanjiang from DVAWTK

Submissions: 2

Asexual - "I haven't read this book yet but I heard it was ace as hell and I wanted to make sure he got into the poll"

Demisexual demiromantic - Resubmitting him too because, having read the book, he is also not allo. He very clearly draws a line between love and desire, which allo people usually don't do. He spends the entire book being fairly platonically loyal to Wenren E and then when someone explains what love is and he notices that it lines up with how he feels about Wenren E, he's mad about it. Plus the aroace feeling of falling in love with someone and having that shake your entire being to the core. Also, when asked, he doesn't know what love is, but none of the characters in this book do, so.

Kim Dokja from ORV

Submissions: 2

demiromantic graysexual, romance/sex indifferent - "bc yoohankim is the most qpr qpr to ever qpr"

demiromantic graysexual - "yoohankim is soo queerplatonic it makes my chest hurt. and ysa and kdj are THE qpr ever. also i read the submissions list and my jaw deadass dropped when i saw that someone else had the exact same kdj hcs as me like asjdnghfdhdbn!ksnk#**#*@*"

Song Lan from MDZS

Submissions: 1

Asexual or Demisexual - "I love whenever I'm reading fic where he is ace-spec it feels very correct"

Shen Qingqiu from SVSSS

Submissions: 2

Gay Asexual - I mean have you met the man? "Assuming you're straight because you feel nothing towards either sex but you have to be the default, right? before realizing you're romantically attracted to someone but not realizing you're romantically attracted to someone because it doesn't feel like sexual attraction which is how allos explain what love is until the romantic attraction hits you like a sledge hammer" is both a common ace experience and absolutely his story arc. Also I would have submitted him sooner but I thought he was a shoe in

Asexual, somewhere on the aro spectrum - I would have submitted him earlier but based on the tags I assumed I wouldn't need to and didn't want op to be spammed with too many submissions ;_; anyhow he's here now!

Shu Yanyan from Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Submissions: 1

Hypersexual Aromantic - She likes the sex. She loves the sex. Sex is how she does cultivation. But she states multiple times that she would never settle down with anyone, and when asked what love is she has no idea. Everyone should read this book

Chung Myung from Return of the Mount Hua Sect

Submissions: 1

Aroace - He's so aroace! to me!! He's hard on the outside, but soft on the inside, no matter what he wants us to believe. He also says it multiple times that what he loves the most is the Mount Hua sect! He clearly loved his father/older brother figure, and his best friend, and thinks of them every chapter (they have passed away). And his current friends!! I wasn't expecting them to 'found family' this hard and fast, but they did! These kids care about each other so much </3

Liu Mingyan from SVSSS

Submissions: 1

Aroacespec Liu sibs ftw! Only one of og!Binghe's wives he doesn't have sex scenes with. Writes freaky smut fanfic but has no canon love interest of her own (apart from binghe/in the svsss timeline) despite being an unparalled beauty, which is aroacespec behavior

Zhao Yue from The Bandit's Strategy / Tu Fei Gong Lue

Submissions: 1

demisexual & demiromantic - He has a whole mental monolgue about how when he was a teenager, he never experienced neither sexual nor romantic attraction, when all other boys his age around him seemed to - and how he thought this was simply something that wasn't in his fate. And that this only changed after he met, & spent a lot of time with (the other half of main couple) Wen Liunian. (This happened when Zhao Yue was in his twenties)..........To me, this felt like the closest the author could come to describing a character as demi without using the actual word.

Can be from any type of web novel - Danmei/BL, Baihe/GL, Action, Harem, etc - in any language. I just need to know (at least) the English Title

Preferably a headcanon supported by canon, but anything goes tbh. Aro-ing Harem protagonists is fun <2

The poll is based on voting for who is the MOST aroace-spec, not the most popular

Depending on submissions, the tournament may be divided into two separate tournaments - arospec character tournament and acespec character tournament - but it's unlikely. The tag is currently "#aroace spec character tournament".

Submissions will likely close around the end of the Baihe Character or Danmei Character Tournament.

[yea-baiyi]

I will be honest here (and please let me know if you think I am reaching) but I think mxtx herself has been working through an gray or demi ace thing through her stories. Because like. Shen Yuan? That guy reads as someone who has no idea what love or attraction is even supposed to be. Wei Wuxian (while flirting with quite a few people) has Lan Wangji as his one and only romantic love of both lifetimes. And Xie Lian- as you've stated- is definitely experiencing all these new romantic and sexual feelings for the first time and is overwhelmed.

Now, I have ventured outside of mxtx (not...a lot, but still) and I havent seen anything to suggest that this is a genre convention?? For example, Chu Wanning or Zhou Zishu do not give me this vibe. Maybe I am reading the wrong books haha, but I have started to get the feeling she was definitely working through something (authors always put more of themselves in their work than they think)

hi anon, sorry this took me so long (i’m honestly still marinating in my own possibly grey-aroace revelation and so this ask sent me into a spiral of sorts). i think you have a point — idk about mxtx herself, but all 3 of her protagonists can be read as different types of grey/demi/aroace narratives.

what they all have in common is this particular total obliviousness to the romantic situation unfolding. not that they’re blind to what is happening, but it’s as if they have zero frame of reference for what that they are feeling. they don’t think, oh it’s a crush, i’m having romantic feelings for this person. instead the reaction is more like, ?????? suddenly i want to kiss???? why do i like them so much???????

off the top of my head, wwx’s blossoming feelings for lwj are a good example here. in the novel, he genuinely doesn’t have romantic feelings towards lwj at first — he may have had a bit of a crush back in cloud recesses, but he never perceived his interest in lwj as romantic. he slowly falls for lwj over the course of the novel. how it happens is (imo) a very demi-aroace process: it goes from > hanguang-jun is so good looking and admirable > omg he is so funny and great > i like him so much idk why??? > wtf i want to kiss him > i wanna jump on that dick

that strikes me as very non-allo?? it’s not that he’s in denial about how he feels, more that he has no idea what these feelings mean, which sounds very much like someone who has hardly, if ever, experienced sexual or romantic attraction before. iirc we never see wwx express any sort of specifically sexual attraction to lwj before developing feelings for him (literally sleeping in that guys arms seems a perfect recipe for unfortunate boner hijinks and yet it never seemed to happen?) — compelling argument for demi reading imo.

and it’s the same for sqq and xie lian, though their journeys are slightly different to wwx’s. i can’t imagine that this sort of narrative is at all common in the genre? i can’t speak to other c-novels but zhou zishu certainly doesn’t read that way, and from my general knowledge of BL/danmei, it doesn’t seem like a common romantic trope. i absolutely love it though, now you’ve pointed it out it makes sense why i connect so strongly with these stories. and certainly if mxtx managed to work this into all 3 of her stories, i’d want to know how she feels about it herself.

now excuse me i’m going down an a-spec analysis spiral for mxtx novels

[yea-baiyi]

anyway grey-ace adhd xie lian. happy pride

[jayktoralldaylong]

This is perfection XD

ok but like imagine being hua cheng. and when you were a teenager you were trapped in a cave with your god when he got hit with sex pollen and you already felt ugly and unlovable but he stabbed himself through the gut rather than touch you and you saw him shirtless and horrifyingly that’s how you found out you were gay

and then you meet him again centuries later when you’ve grown up and become comfortable in your own skin, and you think you might be in love with him except a part of you still feels terrified that he’ll look at you and find you hideous again. but you want to trust him so you show him your real face. and. turns out he finds your adult self so hot that you make him horny for the first time in his life and he keeps doing and saying absolutely deranged things because he does not know how to cope. he panics and tries to give you, a ghost, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and while you’re lying there trying not to freak out he is beside you acting out his one man humiliation-style comedy show because he has never wanted to kiss someone before let alone fuck. he agrees to get locked in a coffin together because he never even considered the possibility that he might pop a boner except he does pop a boner and now you are stuck under him while he squirms and you are trying very hard not to think about your own boner

i don’t know how to end this post i just think that’s so funny. and they live happily ever after and have lots of gay sex. hua cheng keeps winning. slay king