#i have a lot of arospec characters

[pep-rambles]

While I can't speak for other Alastor ships (but I'll tag you all and you can weigh in). But in the RadioApple/DuckieDeer fandom a lot of those making fanwork, including the smuttier stuff, are acespec/arospec themselves so maybe learn what is actually going on in these fandoms before try to gatekeep in their tags

[feelingthedisaster]

me watching jegulus and jily shippers fight to death (if i dare to say i see them as aroace they are gonna join forces against me)

[t4tstarvingdog]

okay say what you will about "comphet" and "settling," and maybe this is my arospec-ness showing, but i don't feel any attraction to women (romantic or sexual) and would still be 100% down with being in a relationship with one and even marrying a woman. i am pretty much entirely gay when it comes to actual attraction, but mostly consider myself bi or pan when it comes to my approach to relationships, and i just? think that maybe it'd be cool if more people recognized that however other queer people approach relationships and sex when it comes to gender, it doesn't negate their identities. it doesn't mean it's comphet. it doesn't mean it's secretly harming them. sometimes people just choose to have sex, or be in a relationship, or whatever, and it might not "align" with what you think their label ought to be, but it sincerely does not matter at all. it's not your sexuality, or your romantic orientation, or your own personal understanding of yourself, it's theirs. and it doesn't make them bad at being queer, it just means that they're human and get to 1. make their own choices and 2. not conform to other people's ideas about themselves

[aroacewxs]

i say that i express my aromanticism and asexuality proudly and loudly but i still feel out of place and insecure about it, especially around my allo friends. don't get me wrong, my allo friends are super supportive and i love them so much to bits, but when the world tells you that your identity doesn't matter, isn't valid, isn't as interesting and cool as others, it's very hard to be open about it.

[starswallowingsea]

i'm so excited that aurora has posted ev3ns main story side A because oh my god. having been able to proof for them has been a lot of fun but i'm also excited to see that there's a lot of very explicit aromantic rep in everything but name with raito. my little freak (affectionate) but also posting this in the aromantic tags because i know a lot of people are looking for something meaningful when it comes to aro characters in media and i am going to try and spread the 18trip bug.

[courfee]

just went through all my ao3 fics and edited all the tags because i feel like i overtag a lot and it always bothered me. tbf the most overtagging happens in my relationship/character tags but i find it super difficult to judge who/which relationship is important. like friendships are So Important in my fics i dont feel like i cant tag less there? especially my longer fics. amtc james&sirius and black brothers are in my mind at least if not more important than literally amtc jegulus. i know its a jegulus fic but also jegulus is just the catalyst for other relationship dynamics. how do you tag that stuff

[doggaro]

[yells from the rooftops] TELL ME ABOUT CHARACTERS YOU THINK ARE ASPEC PLS PLS PLS

[aroacesafeplaceforall]

You lot really will just ship anything won’t you?

Ace allo character -> “they’re not aro tho and you can still be acespec!!”

Aro allo character-> “they’re not ace tho and you can still be arospec!!!”

Aroace character -> “aroace is a spectrum therefore I can ship them!!”

Romance repulsed aro and ace character -> “there’s always exceptions!!! You can still ship them they’re not sex repulsed!!”

Sex repulsed ace and aro character -> “there’s always exceptions!!! You can still ship them they’re not romance repulsed!!”

Sex and romance repulsed aroace character -> “there’s always exceptions!!“

Sex and romance repulsed aroace character who never will have a partner the author wrote and said that multiple times like it’s part of the plot that they don’t -> “there’s always exceptions!!“

But I bet y’all are real different when it comes to a lesbian or gay guy getting shipped with someone of the opposite gender

[archiveoftragedies]

Some other recs!

Buuza!!

Castle Swimmer

How are you supposed to feel like?

Asterion

Les Normaux

The four of them

Muted

Novae (minor character)

Here are some WEBTOONs with aro-spec rep!! Do you have any recommendations?? 💚🤍🩶🖤

[bishiglomper]

I have been reading a lot of QPR/acespec/arospec Alastor fics and lemme tell you

I am so immensely greatful y'all are truly exploring his asexuality. I've never seen fics do that. I, an ace, haven't even really done that past the foundational "Yeah that's not (for) me" speculation.

Some fics really delved into his thought process and his place in the situation and its been very enlightening. Just seeing through another's take on asexuality/aromanticism has been eye-opening. I know others have confessed to finding out some things about themselves because of Alastor fanfiction.

It's true, representation does matter

Don't get me wrong, I live for the smut and seeing all the different dynamics the different ships bring. Those are fun. But there do be some big feels from some of these seemingly innocuous self-indulgent drabbles.

LET ME TELL YOU

THE YEARNING I feel after some of these characters just. Accept Alastor? For who he is and what he wants/doesn't want. Who are willing to metaphorically hold his his hand and walk him through the conficting ideas he has about himself and what he wants? I have no words for how special that is. It's so damn special, y'all are truly out there doin' the lord's work. (ノ_＜。) I luff you all so much

[dropoutconfessions]

It makes me incredibly angry when people say "Riz is canonically aro/ace" and act like you're a horrible person if you ship him with people. Like. Nowhere in the show is it ever stated that he's aro/ace. The conversation people reference as him being "canonically" aro/ace is just him expressing his lack of very specifically sexual attraction, and even then the response from his dad (and by extension Brennan and the show as a whole) is that it's okay, and that it's specifically unclear whether he's ace or whether it's just not something that's happened for him in specific yet. It is intentionally vague as to whether he is ace or not, and there's genuinely zero indication in the show that he's aro other than that he doesn't have a love interest which could be completely unrelated.

Right so I'd like to share my opinion on this for a brief moment. I am still fully here to give people a voice, but this is just, an issue that kinda hits close to home since I'm demiaro.

The most annoying thing in a lot of media is when representation is shoehorned in as a list of labels and buzzwords we're given. Queer people should not have to turn to the screen and say their full identity in order for them to be canonically queer. That's what subtext is for. That's what good writing does. Is not spell it out for you when it's not necessary to do so. They do not need it to be spelt out for it to be very clear that he's ace/aro.

I am going to assume ignorance here instead of assuming malicious intent. The idea that the reason he isn't ace, is because "it's not something that's happened for him in specific yet", is an extremely common thought process behind asexual erasure. I'm sure that's not what you intended, but that is something to reflect on in general.

Both Adaine and Riz have yet to have relationships or display crushes (not counting junior year since most of the evidence comes from sophomore year) . Adaine hasn't gotten an entire nightmare sequence / arc around dealing with here friends all finding partners and leaving them alone. Adaine hasn't expressed or had conversations about any lack of sexual or romantic feels to the extent Riz has. Adaine is headcanoned as ace/aro by some people. Riz is more than that. Riz is very much canonically ace/aro if you do the slightest bit of character analysis. There's accidental coding and then there's Riz Gukgak.

List of every single Riz trait that is hella ace/aro coded

A lack of sexual and romantic attraction to other people (I'm not counting the time where he said he was kinda into Sexy Rat, that whole scene was a bit, and absolutely insane)

Making up a partner/crush in order to fit in (I have 1000% done that and so have a lot of acespec and arospec people)

A fear of being left behind by his friends because of a belief that they will find partners and move on from him, largely caused by alloromantic culture's insane emphasis on how the most important relationship is a romantic one

The fact that almost every other fantasy high pc has been in a relationship or a crush (kristen had tracker and gertie, gorgug had zelda, unit, and mary ann, fabian had aelwyn, ivy, and mazey, adaine had oisin and possibly zayn depends on your interpretation, and fig has had ayda and a string of professionals in a variety of fields across seasons 1 and 2) with only riz as a single character

The fact his sophomore year arc was entirely about his lack of sexual/romantic attraction and fear of being left alone because of it

Like not even a joke, it was that and his dad, that was the whole arc

His junior year arc was also about his obsession to stay together as a friend group, which like I mentioned above, is very clearly based in his asexuality and aromanticism

I am not going to stop people from shipping characters ever. If you want to rewrite character sexualities, that's fine by me, I'm a big believer in "Don't Like, Don't Read". I am not gonna pretend like characters are not their sexuality in canon so that people feel justified in writing their stories. People who rewrite character sexuality can do so without making everyone else assuage their guilt for them. I know I'm on the "piss on the poor" reading comprehension website, but it's not hard to tell Riz is ace/aro in canon, and pretending otherwise doesn't help your case.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

Pines Headcanons [Happy Birthday, Grunkles]

I cannot believe I just now got reminded of this- holy shit. Unfortunately, I'm not an artist so have these headcanons instead about Stan and Ford

Stanley ‘Lee’ Pines

He’s bisexual. This is not up for debate (/lh). It just made sense for him 

Stanley is ambidextrous. He can write and utilize both his left and right hands. This was something he self-taught himself in after the portal accident 

On the power of ‘I said so’, Stan does have some level of book smarts but instead of math or science- it’s creative writing. He’s got the talent for it; however, he rarely - if ever - shares these stories with anyone

Stan has some form of neurodivergency. Young Stan definitely gives the impression of ADHD but also I feel he’s got dyslexia- don’t ask me why. This is canon now

He does have scars from the time he spent on the run and doing his sales. I’m not sure what they are exactly, but just know he has them 

Stan knows martial arts. Other than boxing, I feel he would’ve taught himself in other forms of fighting- like the ones done on the streets and it’s a weird mix of martial arts and free-style fighting

He can be a bit of a poet, but for the most part- Stan prefers show-and-tell as his love language. He will present his partner with gifts, and makes sure they understand he’s there for them 

He’s kind of protective over his partners, and definitely has gotten into fights in an attempt to protect their honor. It’s ill-placed sometimes but he’s not about to let some bozo mess with them

Stan always sought his father’s approval. He attempted multiple times to perfect his studying skills before the science fair accident, but apparently Old Pa Pines didn’t seem to notice and the rest, well, it was already history

He fantasized of being a pirate when he was a kid. This is where the whole thing of going on a seafaring adventure with Ford came from! Unfortunately due to canon events, this soured out but he held onto a photograph he and Ford took in front of the beach as a memoir

He’s very much not a big fan of vegetables

Stanford ‘Ford’ Pines

He’s arospec and ace!

Ford absolutely loves puzzles. Why? It just weirdly fitting for his character

He definitely has C-PTSD following the events of Weirdmaggedon

Autistic Ford? Autistic Ford. There is no way he doesn’t have it- I said what I said

Before he got involved in the strange and paranormal, one of Ford’s main interests was actually crystals and rocks! It felt weirdly fitting for his character, and here we are

Ford is more of a cat person. At one point, he rescued a cat-adjacent creature from an auction and named her ‘Nova’. Of course, it’s far from a cat but well, we’ll get to that later

He would be into LARP if it exists in the Gravity Falls canon. Like, that man is a nerd and already enjoys the show’s version of Dungeons and Dragons, there’s just no way he wouldn’t participate in LARP

He does have scars from his time in other dimensions for thirty years. He’s very secretive about them and doesn’t let anyone see- not even Stanley

Ford deals with the aftermath of a burnt-out gifted kid- like, he was the prodigal son and got all the right honors, scores, all of it but as he got older- the more he struggled, the more he felt like something was missing. As the golden child, he was brought up with the notion he would be important but then got smacked in the face when he realized none of it truly mattered

He had a lot of issues adjusting to his new life in Gravity Falls, Oregon after he was brought back from the portal. Ford’s triggered fight-or-flight response would kick in with unexpected situations- like, he’s definitely pulled a blaster/space gun

He likes hot chocolate

Ford enjoys cuddle piles, let’s be honest here. Once he gets more comfortable, he begins making nests with the rest of the Pines family

He’s protective of his family!

I’ll try and come up with new headcanons soon, but since I took too long releasing this- given I got sick unfortunately, I decided to post a smaller version 

[whatapunderfullife]

genuinely where do you get the idea that he is canon ace when that's never been implied or touched on in the show (to the level of aro/separately from the aro implications and the fact people tangle the identities together)and while dismissing the heavly implied aro identity

I'm not really sure about the harassment you are talking about. most of what I've see is people asking is fellow fans to respect that riz's greatest fear is all of his friends leaving him for a romantic/sexual relationships

people can headcannon whatever they want but you can't ignore that aro is a very marginalized identity with even less representation than asexual.

that this is something that aro fans see themselves in and have asked that people respect that and cannon events that riz struggles with romantic relationships

Hey, this is your daily reminder that Riz is not canonically Aromantic! He is implied to be, and it's totally fine to hc that, but I've seen a lot of people stating he's aromantic like it's a fact, when that has never been confirmed! He is canonically Asexual tho, you can't take that away!

[ivydbomb]

Hi Hazbin Hotel fandom 👋 it would be really cool of you all to stop shipping Alastor with every single other character possible. I’ve been getting a lot of hate for trying to explain this in the comments of a billion radioapple ship art posts and i’m sorta close to losing my mind.

He is canonically aroace. Yes aroace people can be in relationships. Absolutely they can. They can be in sexual AND romantic relationships. 100%. But PLEASE for the love of all that is holy and unholy- if you are not on the aspec, arospec, or aroaspec spectrums- do not publicly post content where he’s making out with Lucifer. Or Angel dust. Or- well- you get the point.

We get ONE character. ONE that is CANONICALLY AROACE. And I am getting absolutely torn to shreds every time I try to hold my little poor orphan boy hands out asking for little scraps of aroace representation. “Please sir, can I have some aroace?” I’m practically Oliver Twist at this point.

People are completely erasing his sexual and romantic identity and it’s really disheartening for me and I’m sure for a lot of other aroace people. This has been stated before and has been stated many times, but, IF YOU WOULD NOT SHIP A CANON GAY CHARACTER WITH THE OPPOSITE GENDER YOU SHOULDN’T SHIP A CANON AROACE CHARACTER WITHOUT PROPERLY PORTRAYING THEIR ARO OR ACE IDENTITY AS WELL.

It’s not even about the ship art it’s about the complete erasure of his aroaceness. Could people pretty please stop yelling at me for pointing that out? No I am not a hater. No Vivzipop did not say you can ship Alastor with whoever you want (as somebody told me, but has yet to show proof she said this specifically). No it is not ok to do this. I am BEGGING. You guys have an entire massive cast of characters who are of age and have interesting dynamics to ship. Leave Alastor alone unless you include his identity and an explanation as to why you think the portrayal benefits the aroace community.

It’s really simple.

[physalian]

How to Make Clean Romance Entertaining

@bananasugarwarrior ask and you shall receive

As an ace/arospec, I approach writing romance very differently than many authors and this is kind of my wish-fulfillment list more than anything.

Biggest detractor of implying anything in scenes you didn’t write: You don’t have those scenes to explore character development. I touched on this in What No One Tells You About Writing #6 and the problem I ran into a few times when writing ENNS and other works is that if you fade to black, you can’t continue important conversation or an exploration of boundaries, or fluffy new emotions, if they’d otherwise be in those missing scenes. Sex scenes are, unfortunately, prime real estate for some rich character development.

So you have to work all that rich character development around it. It’s up to you where you want to draw the line of “use your imagination” but everything up to the missing smut, and after, remains more prime real estate. You have loads of other options to explore clean intimacy and some I borrowed from this list that I reblogged about ways to show non-sexual intimacy between characters.

There’s more to a relationship to explore between your characters than just how good each other is in the bedroom. Here’s a few suggestions:

Tragic Backstory stuff and emotional boundaries

One teaching the other a niche or important skill to succeed/survive

A common physical threat, like monetary problems, job insecurity, sickness, or an actual challenge/quest/adventure/mission

A common emotional threat, like a lack of communication, or exercising an anxiety or phobia, or issues over speaking their minds

A common goal: Marriage, children, a new car or home, competing for joint acceptance into a team/group/club/prize competition

There’s also plenty for your love interests to think about their significant others aside from how sexy they are and how badly they want to get in their pants.

Introvert A can love how much B is an extrovert, or vice versa

A loves that B is good with animals, or children, the elderly, etc

A can love B’s skill and passion for their hobbies or a movement they believe in, or their stances on morality and the actions they take to back it up

A can love B’s skill as a teacher, their patience, kindness, and understanding

A can love B’s relationships with their friends and family, their maturity (or lack thereof), their work ethic

A can love B’s quirks and tics, like how they organize things or if they sing in the shower or how they dance when they’re listening to headphones

Point being:

And take this with a grain of biased salt because I’m ace and think sex is superfluous anyway: If you can’t write your characters in love with each other without sex, I won’t believe they’re in love with sex. Fiction, for me, that takes the narrative shortcut of “these two are the main couple of course they’re going to get together, I don’t have to do any work on writing why they’re in love you just came here for sex” annoy me, and quite a lot of other people, too, if the amount of gay ships that ignore the canon hetero couple are anything to go by.

The arc of their relationship doesn’t have to culminate in sex. Their arc should be specific to what these two characters want to achieve out of a romantic relationship. For a lot of people, that’s sex, but for others, maybe it’s just someone to cuddle on the couch with and watch movies, or someone they can finally trust and let in and be emotionally vulnerable with. Someone they can explore the town with, or travel, or take to dinner. Someone who doesn’t belittle them or laugh at them or disregard their interests.

Substitute relationship climaxes other than sex:

A finally trusts B with a secret they’ve been hiding for fear of ridicule, and B accepts them wholeheartedly (not Liar Revealed)

A and B finally perfect some routine they’ve been slaving over for months (like a dance or if they’re combat partners, a difficult maneuver)

A has been in love, but in doubt, and finally understands that B is The One when B is the only one to show up for A’s big speech/recital/presentation/gallery that no one else cares about

A has never let themselves be in love and it’s something wholly unspectacular that completely bowls them over with an epiphany

A is touch-averse and their biggest leap into physical intimacy is a huge hug, and B can’t be prouder of them

A and B narrowly survive some dangerous situation and have a serious realignment of priorities and newfound mad respect for each other

Actually, circling back to the whole “gay ships that ignore the canon hetero couple” thing:

This has been said before but if you’re looking for how to write a romantic relationship without sex, look no further than the male leads of many mainstream pieces of pop culture. Here, the presumption of romance isn’t built in, thus the writer has to actually put in effort to make these two characters like and respect each other, and give them things to talk about that isn’t just flirting. That’s what makes them feel more believable than the main man’s relationship with the cardboard lady lead.

[nekropsii]

Atomic Ask Bomb 3!!

We got a shorter one this time around! I hope everyone's evening is going well!

Content Warning: Long-ish, Discussions of Ableism + Queerphobia, Weird Cronus Moment™.

Same. I'd read a fanventure about that, I think.

Like, I don't personally believe WV would be allergic to being a mentor or something of a father figure, but I do have to wonder the level to which he was wigged out by the way that Dave and Karkat treat him, because Dave in particular imprints on him in a way that is... Kind of strange.

The later portions of Homestuck really baby WV. It's upsetting.

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Easy. The actual things wrong with them.

A lot of the discourse surrounding them is fabricated, or has such poor priorities it might as well be fabricated. Most critical conversations about them surrounds things people just made up over the course of years of mythologizing their #Problematicness.

For Example: Most of the discourse surrounding why Horuss had problematic writing had to do with how he was "Bad Otherkin Representation", when the real issue was the fact that Hussie was conflating Being Otherkin with having a Dissociative Disorder, and in turn saying both of them are the exact same level of Fake And Gay for the exact same reason, because to Hussie they were the same thing. To this day, people get startled every time I point out that Horuss is canonically a System despite him bringing it up just as regularly as he does being Therian. Those are totally wack priorities.

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...That's scary... I don't even have words...

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LOL. The Lost Weeaboos was a Grade A bit. Thank you Aranea, very cool.

Honestly, I don't even count Cronus as a "facade character", because it's not like he's making any efforts to hide jack shit. It's been... Interesting, watching several people refer to "his facade" lately, when, like... What are they talking about, honestly? He's pretty bold-faced about his whole deal. This isn't really a Dave situation where you could be capable of falling for it when you're younger, because Cronus couldn't be doing a worse job at "hiding" how awful he is. He's not even trying, because he knows he can get away with it. What are the other Alphas gonna do? Leave?

Hope you're having a good time!! The Alpha Trolls may be a Trash Heap, but they are my Trash Heap.

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There comes a point where it's almost comedic how unaware people are of it... Like, what do you mean you know he's a Horse Therian but not that he's a System? He literally calls himself the Host of a System and talks about Switching. IN THOSE TERMS. He's not even obfuscating it by using some esoteric Troll terminology, he is LITERALLY using the words "Host", "System", and "Switching".

It's painful. I know this is a moment befitting of an XKCD comic, but... Jeez. You'd think these things would both be on the same level of common knowledge, considering how they're traits that are directly related to each other and given equal amounts of screen time, but nope!

Unfortunately, it is a situation where this is relevant. Sad!

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All characters will become AroSpec and/or ASpec with the help of my Beam Attack.

... Except for Cronus. It's just not funny when it's him. Due to The Themes. It's not fun to headcanon a character as any minority when a huge part of their character is that they pretend to be minorities for Pity Points to eventually cash in for Sex. Ew. Making him literally anything other than Just Cronus plays directly into so many vile Queer stereotypes it's insane. Those are stereotypes that have gotten people actually genuinely killed. Just... Ew. Gross.

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