#kind of aspec you were if you wanted to

[contagious-watermelon]

it's kind of like insanely isolating that literally every aspec or "ace & aro" space I've found has been in actuality, solely for aces. perhaps arospec aces or aroaces who entirely prioritize their asexuality could also find company there, but even as an aromantic person who is also asexual, they're really not intended for me. so I can only imagine how isolating it must be if you're aromantic and allosexual

[fountainpenguin]

I need to make a whole post sometime about Timmy's Mom and the things she is and isn't tolerant of... Doesn't want to go out for her own anniversary, turned off by her own husband, goes on defensive when people are nice to her (or Timmy, technically)... Fascinating.

She loves holding kittens despite being allergic to cat hair. I'm guessing her defining childhood trait was that she wouldn't question anything, hence why she was chill with "Timmy's Dad" (Timmy) talking to her in the past about how she would one day grow up to marry him and that her new task was to gaslight him into believing he had run a race... ok.

[astriiformes]

Understand that this is coming from someone who is decidedly romance-averse and has been active in the aro & ace headcanon and fanwork sphere longer than many people have even been on tumblr, so I get it, the frustration with shipping culture is real, I have the text posts I've been harassed over to prove it.

But also. If you are so focused on the lens other fans will choose to apply to certain scenes that it totally poisons your ability to enjoy any close, affectionate interactions between two characters you otherwise like, you are.... also kind of falling prey to "This is your brain on amatonormativity" and I promise you there are other options.

Embrace ambiguity. Have fun with ace and aro headcanons on various parts of the spectrum or imagine characters having messy and complicated relationships with aspec identity. Interpret canon queerplatonically. Ignore the voices of people who insist the "only" way to make sense of an interaction is if two characters are involved romantically and instead do a cool high-five with the ones who like the ship but also like letting you do your thing and can respect someone else who loves the same relationship they do, just in a different flavor. Not only is it less exhausting, but it's decidedly more radical and relationship anarchist than saying "These two characters held hands, so I guess they're basically dating.... sigh"

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Sea Of Broken Glass

fantasy

two sisters who live on a floating village in a shallow ocean are exiled when one develops magic and can’t hide it like her sister does

they travel to the land, trying to survive searching for their mother who was exiled 20 years ago, through the wilderness and magical caves

crystal/mineral magic, magical creatures, sister relationships

[eyesoftxmorrow]

i wish i could love in a way that matters

[ceilidhtransing]

I've cropped out the username because I have absolutely no desire to start drama or make a personal “callout” or have people go harass someone or anything like that (and if you take this kind of thing as an opportunity to go and be horrible to another Tumblr user then that is terrible and you should stop), but wow, I have never seen such a clanging example of amatonormativity. I don't think OP necessarily meant it this way, I don't think they meant any harm, I don't think they're consciously arophobic or something - it's far more likely that they're simply unfamiliar with aspec issues, and I always prefer to assume good faith - but I want to talk about this post anyway because it provides a really good and explicit example of the way society just sort of... asserts the centrality of romantic attraction and entirely forgets aromantic people exist.

I do want to first say that I actually agree with the initial point this post is making. Romance as a genre is unfairly derided as some kind of “lesser” form of art, and this derision very frequently comes with generous helpings of misogyny. I totally agree that romance is not at all an unintellectual or superficial thing to write about, and it's bad that it gets treated that way and that readers and writers of romance get so often mocked and condemned. Romance is a totally valid genre and enjoying it doesn't make you vain or stupid or superficial.

HOWEVER. As an aromantic person I find the rest of the post just... I don't know, it's just so perfect as a probably unwitting expression of baked-in cultural amatonormativity. It's brilliant. It's so funny to me. I can almost do a line-by-line breakdown of the way it so completely forgets the existence of aromantic people. In fact, let's do that.

It is so fundamental to us. The issue here should be pretty obvious. The assumption that romance is some integral part of The Human Experience and that it's fundamental to All People is pretty much amatonormativity 101. It reinforces the idea that people who don't experience romantic attraction are “lacking”, forever sitting apart from The Human Experience, and possibly in some way not quite fully human, since we don't experience the thing that is apparently so fundamental to humans.

To want to love and be loved. The post seems to be incorrectly equating “romance” with “loving and being loved”, when in fact there are many people who don't experience romantic attraction yet absolutely love and want to be loved. (And of course loveless aros, aplatonic people, various folks who don't “want to love and be loved” also exist, and it's important to emphasise that this desire, just like romantic attraction, is also not necessarily integral to all people.) “Love” is not automatically “romantic love”, but this post seems to imply that romance is the only, or default, form in which love can exist.

If you don't think every great work of literature. philosophy. metaphysics. was ultimately about romance. I don't think you were paying enough attention. OK this is the line that elevated this post from “sigh, more casual amatonormativity to scroll past” to “I just have to respond to this”. Where to even begin with this assertion. This is a level of “assuming romance is central to everything humans ever do and ever create” that I've almost never encountered before. It feels like a manifestation of the tendency for alloromantic people to declare that, because romance is very central for them, it is thus central to Everything. And I'm homing in on “romance” because the post doesn't say “ultimately about love” - which would still be a reach, but less of a reach - it specifically says “ultimately about romance”. As an aromantic person who is an academic at heart and highly educated in the humanities and social sciences, the idea that my ability to understand literature and philosophy and metaphysics is somehow greatly hampered by the fact that I don't experience or relate to romantic attraction is just... what??? This idea is really very funny to me but also genuinely pretty insulting, even though I'm sure it wasn't meant that way. Not only does it feel like the summation of every patronising “oh, you couldn't possibly understand” directed to aromantic adults who are, in fact, entirely capable of understanding, but it also flattens the incredible breadth of human intellectual experience into “being about romance”. I sometimes find myself wishing that alloromantic people would peak outside the bubble of amatonormativity and realise that actually, there is an enormous swathe of human experience and intellect and creativity and expression that has nothing at all to do with romantic attraction and romantic relationships. And no, stating that, I don't know, the Book of Job is not actually about romance has nothing to do with our society's misogynistic denigration of romance as a genre; it has everything to do with the fact that the Book of Job is not actually about romance. (And if you aren't familiar with Job or for some reason don't consider it a “great work of literature”, replace with whatever other example you can think of; there are many.) It's insulting to imply that aro-spec and/or ace-spec people are somehow less able to participate in art and literature and philosophy etc because we might bring a perspective that doesn't include romance or sex at all and we're just not capable of understanding that Actually Romance And/Or Sex Is Central To Everything. It's genuinely absurd to argue that all the pinnacles of human intellectual achievement really, at their core, come back to romance, and it speaks to our very blinkered society's tendency to declare things like “everything is really about sex” or “everything is really about romance” or “everything is really about breakups” or whatever and then look at aro-spec and ace-spec people like we're aliens and go “but like... how do you even live?” Newsflash, there is so much more to life than romance and love and sex. You can live an entire, very fulfilling, very meaningful, very thoughtful life without these things being at all relevant to you. That's not to dismiss those things as minor or unimportant - they are indeed very central to a lot of people's lives, and they're not “dumb” or “shallow” or whatever - but they're not central to everyone's lives, and they're hardly The Only Things In The World.

And if your response is something along the lines of “well OK there's a tiny minority of people who don't engage with romance and/or sex, or relate to it in the same way most people do, but that doesn't mean that romance isn't still at the core of humanity, or that all the most important things don't still have romance at their heart”, imagine telling a woman that “well, you can focus on a career if you want, but what's really fundamental to being a woman is being a wife and mother - in fact, motherhood is the most important thing in the world, it's fundamental to women, it's what all women's literature is about”. Or, hell, telling a person of any gender that “parenthood” is the central pillar of all of humanity and that every great work of art ever produced is ultimately about parenthood and obviously parenthood is fundamental to everyone's being - forgetting that actually some people will never be parents, and implying that their childlessness makes them less able to understand The Human Experience. That might give you some small idea of what it's like to be an aspec person and be repeatedly told that feelings you don't experience and relationships you don't have and attractions you don't relate to and acts you don't engage in are somehow Fundamental To Humanity and are what lie at The Core Of Everything: how excluding that is, how alienating that is, how oppressively stifling that is.

Feeling that love and/or romance and/or sex are very important to your own life is totally valid, but I wish alloromantics and allosexuals could be more capable of opening their minds and imagining and empathising with an existence for which these things aren't central. Our lives aren't lesser, or emptier, or sadder, or shallower for lack of romance or sex. Our experiences are part of The Human Experience. Our perspectives on art and life and relationships and philosophy and humanity and everything else are just as valid. We are just as capable of profundity, of creativity, of insight - because romance and sex aren't “at the core” of any of these things. We are here, and we're tired of being forgotten, ignored, sidelined, dismissed, erased, talked over, talked past. It would be great if society at large actually remembered we exist once in a while, and that our lives are just as beautiful and important as anyone else's.

[crows4luna]

759 words. mature, no explicit content. gn!reader. allusions to having sex for the first time, reader identifying as aspec.

Gods, this was embarrassing.

You always berated yourself for feeling different from others, not seeing or understanding the pull of attraction that your friends ogled about. More often, that grimacing discomfort came up amid the overwhelming desires the public had over celebrities. Deep down, the detachment wasn’t from a place of malice or pure hatred.

You just… never had the explicit feel, so to speak.

Even in high school, through college, you thought of crushes as an obligatory part of your generational experiences. (For a brief moment, your mind flashes back to when you were gifted the latest album of your favorite boy band by some guy who was infatuated with you. It ended quick, lasting only for two weeks before you cut things off through text.)

Considering everything you’ve dealt with, you like to say you have refined tastes. It holds up in truth, for you were currently laying in Sylus’ lavish bed, clad in only his burgundy robe he often wore after showers. It was early morning in the N109 Zone, as much as a morning could show itself, and he had gotten up first. You couldn’t help but to let your gaze linger on his slightly sluggish form.

Sylus was everything you’d dreamt of and more, that sometimes he didn’t feel real. He knew the kind of man he was, confident of his status and power. Certainly, that played a part in how you two got off on the wrong foot when it came to your first meeting.

But now, he means everything to you. He means the world. Your heart was sated knowing the feeling was mutual.

He stretches his right arm across his chest, craning his head from side to side to even out the tensions in his shoulders. Your observation is a bit intense, but you can’t even blame yourself.

Sylus was already tall in his stature, maintaining a build that was the result of hard work and priority of physicality. The foundation of broad shoulders, followed by delicately contoured lines surrounding the center line of his back. A slim waist with slightly wider hips and defined, thick glutes. Though his back was facing you, your breath hitches knowing of the frontal plane of his abs and hardened, cushioned pecs.

He was captivating, and though his figure appeared godlike, blessed to even spare a glance, you’ve seen it in action countless times. The very same figure that protects you like a natural reflex, that trains with you to heighten your own senses and defense.

“I can feel your stare, sweetie,” his deep voice rumbles, a low, amused chuckle filling the room. “Enjoying the sight, are you?”

Quickly, you avert your gaze, curling in on yourself and now focusing on the tousled sheets of midnight silk. You clear your throat, speechless and overwhelmed that it is Sylus who dedicates himself to you. The heat that pools in your stomach makes itself evident when your cheeks warm up — then you feel a dip in the bed.

Your eyes flicker up, now face to face with those sharp, red eyes.

Sylus grins, tracing his finger over your jaw, “Don’t get shy on me, now. It’s quite alright—I like that you’re enjoying yourself.”

Damn it. Say something, you coward.

Cautiously, you lift your hand to cup his. The slow motion is familiar and tantalizing, practicing it the same way Sylus’ touch would linger on your skin. You’re perceptive to the way he inhales just slightly, anticipating your next move. The mystery of your initiation.

“I…” You begin to say, your voice nearing a whisper, “I think… I wanna try.”

He raises a brow, subtly smirking: “Try…?”

“Sylus, please. You know what I’m—it feels embarrassing to say.”

“We’re both adults, capable of voicing our thoughts and consent,” he surmises, shifting his hand away to lean into your palm. He lets his cheek rest for a second, before turning to press a soft kiss. “I told you before, I won’t make a move until you gain that confidence to tell me what you want. I want you to be honest with me, and only honest.”

Your expression softens, nodding slowly in understanding. You lean forward a bit more, now cupping his face with both hands. Your thumbs brush over the areas beneath his eyes, admiring him.

“...I want… you. To make me feel good.” You tell him, your voice firmer this time, contrary to moments ago, “I trust you. I want this, and I want you.”

He lets out a relaxed sigh, chuckling again. He nods, “Okay.”

[frisbee-equine]

I am once again exhaustedly begging aro people on Tumblr to stop using their identity as a cudgel in what is essentially fandom drama and shipping bullshit, because for the last goddamned time, fandom having a focus on shipping is *not* amatonormativity and arophobia. It is AT BEST a symptom of societal amatonormativity and arophobia, in the same way that M/M being more prevalent than F/F can be a symptom of societal misogyny, but someone wanting two fictional characters to engage in romance and not a platonic relationship is not directly fucking oppressing you.

In fact, it waters down the actual meanings of said words and oppression. You are, again, at best making aspec people look obnoxious and like they don't have real problems if this is the most "dire" thing to complain about, at worst just spouting off homophobia in a rainbow-colored wrapper.

You know what's actually amatonormativity and arophobia? Society explicitly being organized in such a way that aspec people would be better off legally, financially, and even socially if they were in romantic relationships. That people who prefer not to be in relationships (or "worse," those who might only be interested in sexual relationships, i.e. aroallos) clearly have something wrong with them mentally or emotionally that should make them be avoided and warned about like some kind of predator.

And a healthy dash of cishetero-patriarchial misogyny on top with the implication that aspec women in particular need to "settle down" and be a Good Wife™️ to some cishet man, that their orientation is something that can and should be fixed.

It is not fucking some rando going "I think these two fictional characters should kiss and fuck nasty."

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for asking people in my GSA to cool it with the PDA?

so i (17f) am aroace and sex repulsed. i'm the only aspec person in my school's GSA. at meetings couples will hold hands, kiss, sit on each other's laps, make out, etc. it grosses me out and makes me really uncomfortable to see PDA, especially with people i'm not close to. i had been trying to ignore/look away when people would get all lovey dovey bc i know it's the one safe space for gay kids to be themselves since it's a rural area in a famously homophobic state, but it still makes me really uncomfortable. the problem happened when we were all sitting in a circle talking about fundraising ideas and a girl (i'll call her jen) started talking, so i looked at her, and she finished by saying "it was actually abby's (her gf) idea!" and kissed her cheek. i reflexively made a face and looked away but jen saw and got offended and said "what? i can't kiss my girlfriend? are you a puritan or something?" other kids started saying stuff like "yeah she got all weird when she saw me and my bf holding hands". they all KNOW i'm aroace and sex repulsed so it's not like it was a surprise. i said "well PDA makes me really uncomfortable and honestly you guys can be kind of gross sometimes" to which abby said "oh my god it's not like we were having sex in front of you! get over it!" at this point the teacher overseeing everything told us to "stop bickering" and finish the agenda for the day. at the end of every meeting we have a wrap-up where we talk about plans for the next meeting and stuff so i asked if everyone could lay off the PDA, at least during the actual meeting (not counting before/after/breaks since i can just go in the hall). everyone got really pissy and started calling me a puritan and prude and i started crying. after the meeting when i was waiting for my mom to pick me up the teacher pulled me aside and said that i shouldn't ask the other kids to "hide their affection" just bc i didn't like it especially since it's the only safe place for them to do it. i started crying again and asked wasn't this supposed to be a safe place for me too? she said she sympathized with me but i was asking a lot of the other kids. some of my ace mutuals i talked to said the other kids and teacher were being rude and i'm just as queer as they are, so they should respect my boundaries too. but i'm second guessing myself after the teacher told me i was asking them to hide their affection. i really don't want to leave the GSA bc i do love it and except for the last meeting i've gotten along really well with everyone there. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[jerthebear]

I just randomly got bored and wanted to see the percentages. Additionally is there another way to say the gender spectrum? It would be hilarious if that was actually it but that doesn’t sound right so who knows? 🤷

Side note:I’m so sorry if I messed up and you were not represented in this pole. Overall it’s a mix of the limit in the number of options I could put and also kind of incompetence on my side. Again I’m super sorry and everyone is completely valid and deserves just as much recognition. Stay safe out there💜💜💜

[redbirdandbluebird23]

Gay's Still the Word

Written for @dc-aspec-week 2024

Masterlist

Jason couldn’t quite stop the hitch in his breath as Dick buried a hand in his hair and used the grip to tip his head back so he could deepen the kiss. Jason reacted in kind and slipped the hand that had been on the back of Dick’s neck up into his hair as he tightened the arm he had around the other man’s back. Dick shifted some of his weight onto his other forearm, so he wasn’t completely crushing Jason into the bed, without breaking the kiss. 

But Jason couldn’t help but tense up as Dick ground his hips against Jason’s thigh. 

Dick pulled back, breathing slightly faster than normal through his swollen lips. “Not tonight?”

“Not tonight.” Jason echoed. “Sorry.”

Dick just smiled softly as he readjusted how he was lying over Jason so his hips weren’t touching him anymore. “I thought I’d already told you to stop apologising, Jay.”

Jason shrugged as Dick gently nuzzled their heads together. 

“I’m happy just doing this, or cuddling up and watching a movie or reading, little wing.” Dick said before pressing a kiss to the side of Jason’s mouth. 

Jason lent into him. “I know, it’s just…”

“I know.” Dick said quietly. 

They’d had a lot of conversations over the past eight months about sex and what it meant to them both. It took a while, but Jason was eventually in a position that he could and wanted to try. Dick was exactly as Jason thought he would be; sweet and gentle and more than willing to take charge. Jason enjoyed it, and they’d started having sex on a semi-frequent basis. But Jason had to be in the right headspace for it and he was well aware that their sexlife was… lacking compared to most normal couples. Though, as Dick kept reminding him whenever he used that word, there was really no such thing as normal . 

“Hey.” Dick said, carding a careful hand through his curls to pull his attention back to him. “I can practically hear you thinking, care to share with the class?”

“I think you already know what I’m thinking about.” Jason said with a lopsided smile as he bumped his nose against Dick’s. 

Dick hummed. “You need another reminder about how perfectly happy I am with our relationship?”

Jason shook his head. “No, I know. It’s just…”

“Brains are weird.” Dick smiled. 

“Brains are weird.” Jason agreed, matching his smile. 

“Soooo, have you decided on which of the options you want to choose for the rest of the night?” Dick asked, still smiling. 

“What were the options again?”

“We can carry on making out, or we can have a cuddle night with books or a movie?”

Jason debated each one before answering. “ Or , we could watch a boring movie that inevitably ends up with us making out anyway.”

Dick laughed. “That’s definitely something I’m onboard with.”

Read on Ao3

[macbxth-pdf]

Fish Flag

Original Flag, Inspiration, and Palette by @estrogenism (Thank you for the permission to edit this flag!)

What does Fish mean?

Fish is a black exclusive term for a femme lesbian. This label was first recorded as a counterpart the label 'Stud' in a Masters of Arts thesis titled, 'A Study of a Public Lesbian Community' by Ethel Sawyer. Black masculinity is to Stud as Black femininity is to Fish.

The Flag: Symbols and Colors

School of Black Fish: In the original flag I found on my dash, estrogenism uses an image of a tropical fish to represent the body diversity among black femmes. I decided to go with a school of fish to represent the community among black femmes. Initially, I wanted the school to look like a crescent moon to represent femininity further, but I wasn't fuckin' with it.

Colors:

The darkest purple: Womanism (a feminist school of thought centered around the black experience)

2nd darkest purple: Black sapphicism

2nd lightest purple: Black sapphic history

Lightest purple: Unity between all fish (trans, cis, intersex, aspec, arospec etc)

Lightest pink: Subversion of femininity

2nd Lightest Pink: Vulnerability (????)

Orangey-Pink: Persistence

Red: Love

Recommended Reading

Femme: Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls (Edited by Laura Harris and Elizabeth Crocker) [There are two relevant segments. Fish Tales and Fish Pond]

A Public Study of a Lesbian Community by Ethel Sawyer (This study was done by a heterosexual woman. Due to the time it is from, harmful stereotypes of both studs and fish are portrayed in this thesis. These misconceptions are incredibly dated.)

Note: Based on the reading that I have done (Including the original thesis itself), some bisexual women were involved in the lesbian bar culture and identified with the label Fish. Out of the 7 fish interviewed by Sawyer, 2 out of 7 (28%) enjoyed sex with men. That being said I don’t mind or care if black bisexual femmes use this flag. But please understand the difference between presenting femininely and femme culture within the sapphic context (specifically butchfemme/studfemme/stud-fish community) before using this label.

THIS IS THE FIRST FLAG I MADE SO PLEASEEEE BE KIND

Software/Website used: Canva (Design and Assets) and Coolors (palette picking)

[goodoldfashionedengineer]

Even though I post shitty/funny billford memes, this explains perfectly what I think their relationship was like pre betrayal

As someone who is aspec myself, I love the idea of aroacespec Ford within the context of billford. *Especially* Ford grappling with a lifetime of bafflement about romantic and sexual attraction, and then feeling *some* kind of powerful emotion about Bill and getting excited about it like “this is it! This is the attraction thing that everyone always talks about! I’m finally experiencing it for someone, I’m doing ‘humaning’ correctly!!!” and maybe he’s correctly identified it, or maybe its something else, such as queerplatonic attraction, or scientific fascination, but either way, feeling something like this for someone for the first time that feels more genuine than any of his attempts to feel heteronormative love in the past for an *eldritch god* is a whole other thing for him to grapple with, like, the internal confusion of “Why am I feeling this for the first time for a non-human entity? Does that cancel out the increased normalcy of me feeling This Kind of Love? Does it outweigh feeling Love and make me even weirder??”

And maybe, with any luck, this could end with Ford realizing that it *doesn’t matter* what kind of love and/or affection and interest he and Bill have towards eachother, and it doesn’t matter how much he conforms to society’s ideals for what a human being “should be like.” It doesn’t *have* to be romantic for them to want to be together from now til the end of time. And even if sometimes their relationship might seem like it crosses into romantic and/or sexual territory, *they’re* the ones who get to define it, and the multiverse is the limit. They don’t *need* to confine the way they see their love for eachother to the human definitions and expectations for how people should feel and act within a long term relationship. And if humanity thinks that makes Ford less human, well, he doesn’t fucking care, because what has the seemingly-always-just-out-of-reach ideal of “being human” that society has pushed upon him ever done for him except make him feel intensely isolated and unworthy? It doesn’t matter if society hands him the title of “human” that they’ve cruelly dangled over his head his whole life or not. He is living the life he wants to lead, in the company of the person he cares for most, and that is all that truly matters.

[onesidedradiostatic]

On one hand I get why Mammon might be problematic aroace rep but on the other. I genuinely cannot imagine him going out of his way to form ANY kind of relationship that isn't inherently exploitative of his partner. It's just not in his nature. Like the word 'mammon' literally means money/wealth/profit 😭 there is no room for someone else with a person like that

okay anon I know you mean no ill-will with this but like… the reasons you listed is precisely why mammon as aroace rep is kindaaaa problematic (although again granted we don't know for sure AROace is the intention, but if the ace of spades asexual symbolism was intentional it seems that way)

exploiting every relationship you're in is completely independent of attraction. anyone can do that regardless of whether they are attracted to the person they are exploiting.

a character shouldn't be aro simply for the reason that they're too compassionless to have or want a partner, because that's just feeding into harmful aro stereotypes. that's kind of exactly what the "no love for the wicked" trope is.

and okay some may wonder "oh but what about alastor", admittedly even with alastor I was kind of skeptical going into hazbin since I was under the impression he was a full-on villain, but going through all of it, despite his immorality he still shows the capacity to care for others with mimzy, rosie, niffty and some extent the hotel. so he doesn't fully fall into "oh he's too evil to care of course he wouldn't feel romantic love" because he does care in certain cases, but I worry mammon falls into that category because we haven't seen any instance of him caring about anyone but himself yet

it's okay for an evil character to be aroace but they shouldn't be aroace because they're evil

also I do wonder if octavia is intended to only be ace or specifically aroace too, because unlike mammon she doesn't have the ace of spades imagery, it would be cool if she was though, she would at least balance out as being the only non-evil aroace in the hellaverse LMAO. but I also wish vivzie played around more with different type of aspecs and didn't have every ace be aro (or even GASP. include an aroallo character), honestly if it were between mammon and octavia I'd prefer for octavia to be aro over mammon, but obviously if mammon is intended to be aro I wouldn't deny him of it I'd just be… silently judging but accept it because we have so little aspec rep as it is I'll accept anything.

[acoraxia]

What's the relationship between Aluhé and Narinder as well as Jahel and Shamura? Why was Jahel chosen over Aluhé, with Aluhé going to Nari?

Aluhé and Narinder's dynamic was mutually toxic. Toxic to the point that if you tried to intervene to help them you'd end up messing up their entire arrangement and realize they were healthy for each other just not by normal standards.

Narinder, as an older god and eldritch being who did not understand the capability of mortal connections, was lonely; Aluhé, who's bloodlust for the gods and their unjust culling of their kind left them unable to put their guard down again, was willing to provide him with company if they got something in return. It worked out!

They are both very attached to each other but they don't necessarily fit the "can't live without you" trope. it'd break them to the point where they'd get worse if either of them died but they can also just... stop.. being around each other and be emotionally stable. Currently as Aluhé tries to become a god (or something akin to it), Narinder's very much both chasing after Aluhé and letting them come to him and vice versa. They both have a strong effect on each other and abuse that very often. Match each other's freak if you will. To a dangerous level.

Jahel and Shamura are "devoted follower who wants to be god's favorite chewtoy" and "tired god who wants nothing to do with a mortal being". Jahel is a violent but strategic person. They grew up studying Shamura and all their history, indulging themselves into knowing most everything about them and wondered how it'd be to become theirs; Shamura chose Jahel because he was a willing sacrifice and because they needed a weapon to control if the time came to it (it did! and Jahel was defeated! and Shamura didn't want him to die! Strange!). Shamura's someone who is very much willing to sacrifice a few pawns to protect the king and Jahel is aware of this.

They still want to be Shamura's favorite, however, and go to great lengths to accomplish that. Shamura's both put off by it and very much indulging in the attention it gives them. Jahel's bond to Shamura was broken when Shamura died to Aluhé in Silk Cradle and he went to dig up their corpse and bring them back to life.

Mystic Seller: are you guys ok Aluhé and Jahel: [most mentally ill gay aspecs to have crossed these lands] No

[mattdevil]

Saw this discussion in the jayvik tag and wanted to wade in:

I think the larger problem with the "Viktor is ace!" "Ace people can still like sex/romance!" discourse is that the Viktor-being-ace bit hit a lot of people, myself included, as a kneejerk reaction from CL to try and kibosh any and all mention of there being ~something more~ between the two. It was treated as a "gotcha" in a way that implies CL doesn't have a good understanding of aspec identities, and I think a lot of people had very strong reactions to that; so in an attempt to counter what feels like bad faith stereotyping, the pendulum gets swung too far back the other direction with the unfortunate side effect of making it seem like everyone participating believes that ALL aspec folks can, or even should, also participate in sexual or romantic relationships. I think if he'd said "hey it's cool you see it that way, our intent was to have V be aroace with no interest in sexual or romantic relationships because that is criminally underrepresented in media" (which is true), there would have been a very different reaction. There were two missing elements: an expression or acknowledgement of deeper understanding of aspec identities, and a willingness to accept that creative intent doesn't somehow trump or disenfranchise how your audience receives it. He missed on both, so now we are here.

Yeah you're totally right.

I agree with the valid criticisms of what Linke did. I don't think he actually knows the difference between asexual and aromantic. Based on what he said, he just asked around about which orientation was underrepresented anyways and he seem to have gone into this with minimal research, which made this maybe well intentioned attempt at ace representation turn into a shitshow. Because I agree with him in viewing Jayvik as a platonic ship gives the dynamic a fresh spin. I believe he actually intended to make Viktor aroace, but it was kind of a shitty move to reveal this as a way of bashing all the other interpretations, which made a lot of people perceive it as homophobic as this was done in response to shippers.

People are also upset with the stereotypical implications Viktor being ace implies, such as making disabled characters ace which makes them seem devoid of sexuality.

That being said, I think a lot of people have lost the plot too because Linke is now being accused with being ableist, homophobic and aphobic a lot more than what's proportional. I've seen people say he only made Viktor asexual because he is disabled and "robotic", because he saw Viktor as undesirable and quite inhuman. These are bullshit takes and people are pulling them out of nowhere imo. I have never seen anything suggesting Linke viewing Viktor's disability as something negative. Calling him a robot is outright wrong too because he got merged with the arcane, he didn't robotise himself like in the games. So none of these really contribute to Viktor's "negative" representation. Also, Linke could very well be homophobic but it kinda doesn't seem quite anormal for creators to talk about the intended details in the show after the show is over, so I don't think he did that reveal at a very odd point. Which now got me wondering aside from giving the homophobic fans the excuse to bash Jayvik shippers, whether we jumped the gun on calling him homophobic too.

I also agree with how the reactions would be a lot better if Linke handled the creative intent speech a lot better, but I'm not sure if it still would've made stop everyone from saying "hey even if he is asexual he can still have sex with Jayce" because this is just what shipping culture is like. As I've talked about it on the previous ask, people LOVE shipping, and they make aspec characters a part of this phenomenon regardless of how their sexual or romantic desires are presented in the source material.

Overall I agree with what you're saying though. Thank you for your insight.