#more qprs in fanworks please!!!!

[comfied-chriterature]

Sometimes I forget about qprs and then I remember and I'm like OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[polyamships]

Polyamships is hosting #MultiamoryMarch2024

[Image description in ALT. Prompts in plain text under the cut.]

Once again we gather to celebrate polyamory in all its forms: OT3s, OT4s, OT8s, V-relationships, QPRs, sedoretus, and any configuration you can think of. In the spirit of this month, we invite you to create works in any medium using the prompts above if you need a little inspiration. You can also create freely or even use one of our prompts from past years we’d still love to see fanworks for if they inspire you better. If you use a prompt, please make sure to let us know which prompt you’re creating for somewhere on your post.

At us @polyamships and use the tags #MultiamoryMarch and #MultiamoryMarch2024 in the first five tags so we can hopefully see it. If you don’t see us reblog your post within a few days feel free to send us an ask to let us know, or submit it via our googleform here, in case we’ve missed your post or the tags/notifications are being weird.

All ratings are welcome but anything nsfw/triggery should be warned for and behind a read more, as should very long tumblr fic.

We also have an AO3 collection for the event that can be found here and the collection name is ‘multiamory_march_works’.

We can’t wait to see what you create for the month, and please do spread the word about the event. ❤️♾️

Over the next month or two, we will also be doing a number of posts with expanded ideas for each prompt for anyone who needs a little more inspiration than just the one or two word style.

Under the cut you can find the prompts in written form:

March 1st - Kiss March 2nd - Hope March 3rd - Negotiations March 4th - Misunderstanding March 5th - Online March 6th - Gifs March 7th - Allies March 8th - Hurt March 9th - Acting March 10th - Neighbors March 11th - Double March 12th - Struggling March 13th - Fantasy March 14th - Mentor March 15th - Caring March 16th - Fiction March 17th - Comet March 18th - Team-up March 19th - Break March 20th - Journey March 21st - Wonder March 22nd - Pirate March 23rd - Begging March 24th - Night March 25th - Commitment March 26th - Matchmaker March 27th - Steal March 28th - Swap March 29th - Blade March 30th - Touch March 31st - Co-living

[daka-d3monb0y]

1- What's the name of your AU if there is one? If no official name what would you call it?

Time Variant Authority/ Time Travel AU

2- What is the most prominent differing factor between your AU and the original source Material?

Time travel was discovered by The Creator, though he deemed it too powerful and catastrophic to use. Eclipse got his grubby little hands on it and just had it. Monty discovers it and is the first to use it.

3- What is your favorite character in the source material and who's your favorite character within your AU?

In canon I Miku is my favorite character xD, I just like the chaos she brings. In this AU my favorite character in this is Eclipse. He's more of an evil Solar actually and that's what's interesting to me.

4- Are any of the characters in a relationship (QPR, Romantic, Emotional, ect.)? If so what are the most defined ones you've built so far, and within the universe how did their bond come along?

There are canon romantic relationships. But I go into Eclipse's relationship with Puppet a lot, we see how they fell apart by his actions when he's time travelling. Monty and Moon's relationship is vital to the story, Moon is a kind of key character to the universe itself.

5-What 'fanfic tropes/fanfic tags' does your AU use?

Uhhhhhh I have no clue.

6-Do any characters within your AU have any disabilities (mental or physical)?

Monty has ADHD, Sun has anxiety and OCD, Moon is "eccentric", Eclipse is a sociopath, and Puppet has PTSD. Uhh idk what else.

7- Do any characters have familial bond amongst eachother? If so how strong are their bonds, and how did they come about?

The family bond is very important to this story. Eclipse is Lunar's father in this so their relationship is important. As the AU progresses Eclipse becomes addicted to time travel and the power he has being able to change time itself, he ends up isolating himself from Lunar and the rest of his family.

Sun and Moon were made by Creator, separating made Eclipse, he made Lunar, Earth is made by Creator. Bloodmoon and KC were never made/born, instead Moon, Eclipse, and Lunar have parts of the homicide code.

8- What are the ages of the characters in your au? Or are the ageless/immortal?

Robots (for the main variant of this AU). Everyone is adults except Lunar.

9- what's the general world like? Is it futuristic, modern, apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, does it take place mainly in a coffee shop or something of the sort?

Starts out in the Pizzaplex, they're just doing their jobs. Moon dies actually, Monty time travels Eclipse follows him. Eclipse keeps doing it, changing the dimension as he pleases.

[Moon never invented portal travel, or doesn't until later. So nobody knew there were other dimensions, it was kinda just a theory Moon had.]

10 - are you working on any fanworks (fanfic, askblogs, rp blogs, animation, comics, ect.) about this au? If so link them!

I'd like to make a comic-type thing for this, but it will mostly be written out and released on Wattpad and AO3.

11 - What is the worst thing(s) that happened to a character(s)? Did they have a tough life, a loss, or anything of the sort? If so what? How did it affect them?

It starts out "happy". In the way of there isn't the craziness and adventures the canon has. There's just the Pizzaplex. I'll explain later in the story how the homicide code was an important thing earlier but is no longer as much anymore. Moon never fully trusts Eclipse, especially around people.

12 - what's the best thing(s) that happened to a character(s)? How did it affect them?

Uhhhh July 16th never happened. So yay. Maybe I'll add an adult Evelien. Creator doesn't appear as bad as he is in canon.

13 - Did you take any unique design choices for any of the characters? If so describe or show them off!

I plan to draw but for now have Gacha designs (the designs can/ might change)

14 - What character(s) in the AU have been worked on and built up the most and what are they like?

Eclipse is the main character, and kind of the villain in the story. I go into Lunar a lot too.

15 - What is your least favorite character in the source material, and what's your least favorite character in your au?

Vegeta. I love him, but I hate him. He's so cringe. Probably in the AU too, because I need some chaos.

16- Is there any major personality changes you made to the characters?

Lunar mostly. He's considered a kid but he matures a lot throughout the story. He's a lot more like his dad than he should be.

17 - What is the most 'out of character' thing in your AU?

Idk I try to keep them pretty close to the original scouse material?

18 - How long have you been working on this AU?

A few days tbh xD.

19 - Is there any OC's or self-inserts? If so what are they like and how do they affect the story?

I don't use OCs in fanfiction media.

20 - What inspired this AU?

There's somewhere in an Astral Spiff video (I think in a few) where he explains when doing tasks out of order in SB you have to be careful to not skip one of Moon's segments or he jumpscares you. That's been called TVA Moon, and the inspiration for this AU.

21 - Has your AU steered off of your original plan for it at all? If so do you like how its changed? If it stayed the same what's the base idea for it exactly?

I accidentally started writing it as a Human AU variant, so throughout the story you see two parallel dimensions. Both the Eclipses will technically meet.

22 - Do you have any variations of this specific AU? If you do how do they differ amongst eachother?

Oh. Well, yeah, the human variant. And later when you're at the TVA you see hundreds of people time travelling.

23 - Does this AU bring you comfort/was it made for comfort?

No. It's very angst heavy. It starts with Moon's death, there is nothing comforting about this.

24 - Is this your only TSBS AU or do you have any other ones? If other ones is this one your favorite?

I have a bunch. I mostly write for my Main Human AU. I enjoyed working on it.

25 - What parts of the AU are you proudest of?

The reveal of TVA Moon. He just throws Eclipse on the ground and drags him through a portal. It's really funny, and the whole AU has always been about him even tho we follow Eclipse.

26 - Do you keep this AU mostly private to yourself? If so why?

No. I just have only been working on this for a few days lol.

27 - would you consider this AU to be dark, light, fluffy, or what would it fall under and why?

Dark probably. It's got angst, Eclipse destroying his life and dimension, hurting his family. Yeah :P

[toipandan]

First Post Test

Yup, this is just my first blog thing? I am considering to post OSC fanworks in public, mainly II and BFDI... But more II than BFDI. Introduction will be added later once I gather a confidence enough to post. My main II OTPs are Suitloon (QPR), PayJay, Knickle and Fantube. As a multishipper, I don't mind other ships as long it's not problematic /lh

Other than OSC, I will post my OCs, Genshin (i don't play anymore), HTF, Elsword and among others

P.S. Please don't ask me for other socials as a reclusive and private person myself. It takes a more time to know others. /lh /gen

And remember kids, my headcanons are personal and keep negativity to yourself! Don’t leave negative and unwanted comments such as “I like art but I hate ship” and “I don’t like HCs”. Don’t leave constructive criticism without asking me first, as I worked my art with passion and love. If you want to see my art, go to "#my art" on search tab here from my blog :D If you make art for me (including my ocs and humanized designs), please mention and credit me! I don't bite, go ahead! /lh /nf

[loverwithalittledagger]

MacGyver Kinktober 2024 / Promptober 2024

Alright - if anyone wants to join me feel free to create your own lists, join my lists, post here, post on ao3, grab them for your own blorbos and fandoms, im not picky. There two sets of lists, above the read more is the non-explicit prompt list underneath is the explicit prompts. Should be a fun time so please if you feel inclined, no need to stick to any particular days, swap them out for your own prompts, jump in in the middle, whatever makes you happy!

1 - trapped in an elevator 2 - stuck in jail 3 - crack 4 - whump 5 - neurodivergent / 6 - sickfic 7 - amnesia 8 - coffee shop au 9 - hidden relationship 10 - non-english fic \ find and boost/comment/etc on a non-english fanwork (google translate <3) 11 - cairo 12 - crossover 13 - wedding 14 - rare pair 15 - enemies to lovers 16 - song fic 17 - breaking up 18 - college au 19 - guns 20 - spin the bottle 21 - hurt/comfort 22 - 5-and-1 23 - soulmate au 24 - shoelaces 25 - corruption arc 26 - confession under the influence 27 - drabble / sketch / set a constraint 28 - QPR 29 - fake dating 30 - road trip 31 - found family

1 - Leather 2 - rough sex 3 - bootworship 4 - Costumes/dress up 5 - Spanking 6 - hate sex 7 - Mirrors 8 - Gags 9 - CNC 10 - ropes 11 - hair pulling 12 - Denial 13 - phone sex 14 - at work 15 - Collaring 16 - DP 17 - cheating 18 - against a wall 19 - gun kink 20 - bruises 21 - public 22 - aftercare 23 - Lingerie 24 - degradation 25 - toys 26 - somno 27 - Exhibitionism 28 - masks/anonymous 29 - possession/possesiveness 30 - Breath play 31 - knife play

[qprteetime]

hey! Not a request (unless you wanna run with it, lol) - I just saw you’re writing platonic & QPR stuff, and thought I’d share the one I wrote!

(It’s called “Dealing the Deck”)

Ooh wow thank you for the recommendation! Since checking your ask this morning, I've now read it and I've gotta say that I really love the way you incorporated a song into the fic. Very fitting for a Hazbin Hotel fanwork! It was quite entertaining to read so here's the link to the fic for everyone else is interested in reading it!

https://www.tumblr.com/amateurmasksmith/742341512967471104/dealing-the-deck?source=share

Thanks for sending in an ask, I hope you have an awesome day!

And for anybody curious, I am currently writing a fic in response to a different ask I've been sent and I think it's going quite well. Although it's taking a little while because I'm adding some extra story to it that I felt was necessary. So it's going to be what you asked for AND more! I appreciate your patience and please trust me that the extra time waiting will be it worth it as I try to perfect it haha. Can't wait for you guys to see it!

[a-casual-egg]

yay, ship bingo!! piratewoods for you as well, and bisonbelle, please? :D or silas/garnet, but i know this ship bingo isnt really made for QPR ships so they might not get many hits gbfjdgfjk

Piratewoods:

[Image Description: A five by five bingo board with the following spots highlighted "They keep me up at night", "I just want them to be happy, is that too much to ask?!", a drawing of a person slamming a table as they cry, "I swear to god if anything happens to them I will cry", "Aesthetically pleasing", "THEY NEED TO KISS ALREADY", "FREE SPACE", "I enjoy and or/create fanworks of them", An edited photo of Tom from Tom and Jerry holding up a sign that reads "YES!!!!!!!!", a drawing of a blushing stick figure with big eyes, there is text above them the drawing that reads "omg squeeeee sajkdfhsdljkhkfSJs dfkjlaslkdfjkaskldfj klasdklfjkasdjlf", "I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THEM (LYING)", and "They are sooooooo silly :3". End Image Description.]

Bisonbelle:

[Image Description: A five by five bingo board with the following spots highlighted "They keep me up at night", "I ship them because of canon", a drawing of a person with a smug expression doing a thumbs up, there is an arrow pointing to them and text above it that reads "deranged", "I just want them to be happy, is that too much to ask?!", a drawing of a person slamming a table as they cry, "I swear to god if anything happens to them I will cry", "Aesthetically pleasing", "THEY NEED TO KISS ALREADY", "FREE SPACE", "I enjoy and or/create fanworks of them", "OTP/OT3", An edited photo of Tom from Tom and Jerry holding up a sign that reads "YES!!!!!!!!", a drawing of a blushing stick figure with big eyes, there is text above them the drawing that reads "omg squeeeee sajkdfhsdljkhkfSJs dfkjlaslkdfjkaskldfj klasdklfjkasdjlf", "I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THEM (LYING)", and "They are sooooooo silly :3". End Image Description.]

Silas x Garnet qpr:

[Image Description: A five by five bingo board with the following spots highlighted "They keep me up at night", I just want them to be happy, is that too much to ask?!", "I ship them platonically", a drawing of a person slamming a table as they cry, "I swear to god if anything happens to them I will cry", "Aesthetically pleasing", "FREE SPACE", "I enjoy and or/create fanworks of them", "They need to bite each other harder and more often", An edited photo of Tom from Tom and Jerry holding up a sign that reads "YES!!!!!!!!", a drawing of a blushing stick figure with big eyes, there is text above them the drawing that reads "omg squeeeee sajkdfhsdljkhkfSJs dfkjlaslkdfjkaskldfj klasdklfjkasdjlf", "I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THEM (LYING)", and "They are sooooooo silly :3". End Image Description.]

[mikecrewsteacup]

I loved the new chapters of Howls! Was Jon written as autistic intentionally? As an autistic person, I find him highly relatable, especially his thoughts on reading people vs cats. I also love Gerry and Jon trying to accommodate each other's communication styles.

I also recently realized I was aro-ace. It's nice to see that representation. Once again, thanks for writing !

Hello, anon! I'm glad you're enjoying the Howls updates :) And yes - I haven't felt confident tagging it as such or even bringing attention to it in my notes, but my interpretation of Jon is informed a lot by noticing he has a lot of autistic traits, and I wanted to give them space to be noticed and worked through in the fic in some ways, just like everything else about him. I'd say chapter 16 zeroed in on that more than the others, and I'd actually even wondered if I'd ever get asked that directly as a result! I'm pleased that at least a couple people are resonating with him. And I'm really happy to hear that an autistic reader of mine finds this version of Jon relatable! Having Gerry and Jon finally get to put some concepts behind their communication issues - which til now, were mostly overshadowed by Gerry's trauma and their power imbalance - was really fun to write out and give some focus, so I'm glad that them trying to accommodate the other in these chapters was something you noticed and enjoyed!

and ahhh anon, congrats on learning that about yourself! I also realized I was ace fairly recently, and it's been really nice being in a fandom with so much ace (and even aro!) representation and warmth/acceptance of fanworks about those identities. I'm thrilled every time someone enjoys these two boys being ace in Howls :) (I also have a short series where Mike Crew & Jon are aroace and ace, respectively, and have a little bit of a QPR, in case that's anything you'd be interested in! Just as an aside.)

Thanks so much for reaching out and leaving this lovely ask!

[glimbowweek]

2022 Summer Glimbang

Our recent survey indicated you did not want to wait until the Fall Glimbow Week so we're having a little 3-day mini event from June 23rd to June 25th to hold everyone over until then!

Prompts are...

June 23rd - Lyrics: Make something based on a song or lyric

June 24th - Follow Your Arrow: Celebrating Pride month Glimbow style

June 25th - Remix: Make something inspired by or based on on existing fanwork (yours or someone else's)

Please reblog to help us spread the word!

Questions? We've answered a bunch after the jump!

How do I participate?

Anyone is welcome to participate by making fanworks like fics, fanart, edits, drabbles, gifsets, AMVs, headcanon posts, moodboards or whatever else you feel like making to celebrate Glimmer and Bow's relationship! Just remember to tag us either here or on Twitter or IG so we can share whatever you make!

Why these dates?

Because June 23rd is National Pink Day and it's Pride month! Also a majority of people who answered our survey wanted at least 2 weeks to prepare and we didn't want to go any later and get too close to the main Fall Glimbow Week.

Can you explain the Follow Your Arrow prompt?

Inspired by the Kacey Musgaves song by the same name, our intention was for that prompt to give everyone a chance to celebrate Glimbow's queer identities which can include not just Glimmer and Bow as bi but also other options such as them being trans, non-binary, QPR, aro, ace, demi, poly or whatever else you'd like to explore! Could be about coming out, attending a Pride event, or just being comfortable in your own skin and coming to terms with your identity! The only limit is the focus needs to be on Glimmer and Bow's relationship.

And if you really can't think of anything Pride related and want to make it literally about arrows, go for it!

I don't vibe with these prompts but I still want to participate.

The prompts are just suggestions for you to interpret how you wish or ignore entirely, your choice! The main point is to just make more content so we're happy with whatever you come up with!

Glimbang? Really?

Listen, if you are going to make me run these events, I am going to name them whatever ridiculous thing I want and you can't stop me.

More questions? Our askbox is open!

[sparxwrites]

Gods I appreciate your contribution to the fandom it’s so nice to get a break from ‘well actually a qpr counts as shipping which is Illegal and thus should never be even thought about-‘ and see ‘yeah quackty gave technoblde a super dubious blow job and it was hot’ like yes finally a return to fandom etiquette I remember from my yogs days!

thank u anon! glad you're enjoying the usual high-quality deranged content i bring to whatever poor fandom falls under my gaze. this fandom needs more super dubious blowjobs, and they're not going to write themselves :)

the rest is under the cut bc i got salty about shit lmao

first off, i cannot believe people are still talking about queerplatonic relationships in the year of our lord 2021. wild. tumblr rlly is its own little ecosystem.

and yeah- i'm gonna sound old and grouchy here, but younger fans are so Weird bc like, when i got into fandom, people were making locked, invite-only forums so they could post their anne rice fanfic without getting sued into oblivion. people unironically posted fair-use disclaimers on every fic in the hopes it might protect them from potentially aggressive authors/corporations. it was an Unfathomably big deal when, at the height of harry potter's popularity, jkr publically said "yes i'm aware of fanfiction, no i'm not going to sue people over it". the content creators themselves were so absolutely not-involved in fandom (and not wanted in fandom!!) that the idea of considering how they might feel about fan content was laughable.

and now there's all these new fandoms where- okay, roleplay fandoms are always a little closer to feeling like rpf than books or movies, and there's always a large dollop of rpf in youtube fandoms specifically, which fuzzies things up a bit, but like. the idea of going "oh, this man on the internet doesn't want you to write x type of fanfic about his entirely fictional character, so you can't write it" is just. hilarious. like mfer can "don't like don't read" like the rest of us if he's gonna be nosying around in Our Spaces, or he can btfo, but that's a Him Issue.

i just absolutely Cannot understand fandom ppl who want content creators to notice them and pay attention to the fandom and engage with fanworks, and as a result attempt to ensure fandom is made palatable and welcoming to said creators. i genuinely cannot think of anything i would like Less than a content creator coming wandering into a fan community i was in and having opinions on the fan content i was making. like, sorry, but this is My Turf and i didn't invite you and i didn't make this for you and actually i really don't care about you at all?? please leave.

anyway, i've been doing this shit for going on fifteen years now, some minecraft man on the internet and his pack of rabid children don't get to tell me what i can and can't write about fictional characters lmao. here's to many more dubious blowjobs in minecraft, my friend.

[pigstepping]

Some thoughts on the ethics of "QPR shipping" from someone in a QPR

(I wanna start a discussion on this, because I haven't been able to find any sense of community consensus on norms for QPR boundaries in the Dream SMP fandom. Please chime in if you're inclined!)

When a content creator sets a boundary about shipping, they almost never clarify whether they specifically mean romantic shipping. But I think we can assume that's what they mean in almost all cases because frankly, I doubt most of the DSMP creators are educated enough about fan culture/queer culture to understand that other types of shipping exist.

However, I see a lot of people use this argument as a blanket justification for any type of shipping that isn't explicitly stated by the fan creator to be romantic. There's this attitude that if you slap a platonic label on it, you have carte blanche to portray any sort of interaction without fear of violating a boundary. In queer spaces, that might be accurate- queerplatonic relationships are by nature built around dismantling the delineation between platonic and romantic relationship expectations, and there are plenty of QPPs who share a bed, hold hands, kiss, cohabitate, get married, or even have sex, all while maintaining a purely platonic relationship.

But when it comes to cc boundaries, we have to remember that most content creators have no vocabulary for understanding or expressing that nuance. It seems likely to me that when a cc says "no shipping", meaning no romantic shipping, what they actually mean is closer to "no romantically coded or sexual intimacy". I suspect that if more cc's knew there was such a thing as platonic marriage, for example, then they might set boundaries around specific behaviors rather than broad relationship dynamics.

There are also arguments to be made for opt-in vs opt-out shipping ethics, and your stance on QPR shipping will likely vary depending on which view you ascribe to. If you're a firm believer that RPF shipping requires explicit consent from the subjects, then you might think QPR shipping should be entirely off-limits because no cc has explicitly given us permission for it. If, on the other hand, you think that RPF shipping is a-okay unless stated otherwise, you might see no issue writing strongly romance-coded QPRs even for cc's who dislike romantic shipping, because all the cc specified was "no romance."

Personally, I think the most important thing is interpreting and honoring the intention of the boundary as best we can. Most cc's I see who set boundaries against shipping tend to do so because they see no distinction between themselves and the character they portray. So, in the interest of honoring the "spirit" of their boundaries rather than the imprecise language they use to set those boundaries, I think best practice should be to avoid writing cc's or their characters engaging in relationship behaviors we think they'd be uncomfortable with IRL. The exception to this would be dynamics and headcanons the creator has explicitly greenlit, such as queer headcanons, family dynamic headcanons, etc, as well as behaviors that are explicitly present in canon. (A key example of this is the beeduo marriage.)

I recognize that this is an unsatisfying solution, because it leaves us with so much room for interpretation. If a cc hasn't explicitly greenlit handholding, for instance, then it's up to the fan creator to make a judgment call on whether the cc would be comfortable holding hands in a platonic relationship. Since we don't know these people in real life, it's very difficult to make judgments like that, especially when @'ing them on twitter or sending a dono to clarify might make the cc uncomfortable in and of itself. It gets even trickier when you involve situational context; maybe handholding while walking down the street is off limits, but handholding while sitting by their sickbed is not.

Personally, my rules of thumb for writing relationships involving cc's with shipping boundaries are as follows:

Avoid calling a relationship "queer"platonic unless the cc is okay with people headcanoning their character as queer. (I know that non-queer people can be involved in QPRs, but I doubt cc's recognize that distinction.) Potential alternatives include platonic life partners, platonic soulmates, etc.

Intimate behaviors that can easily be interpreted as familial, such as physical and verbal expressions of affection, prioritizing each other above other relationships, etc, are always alright unless the cc states otherwise.

Avoid ambiguously romantic coded behaviors such as marriage, bed sharing between adults, holding hands, calling each other "partners", etc, unless those behaviors are non-routine/situational (see sickbed example). If the fanwork does include these types of interactions, make the platonic nature of the dynamic expressly clear in the body of the work.

Avoid strictly romantic coded/sexual behaviors such as kissing and sex altogether, regardless of platonic labeling.

Behaviors and dynamics that the creator has canonically portrayed with their character are always acceptable. As far as I'm concerned, if a cc is comfortable roleplaying a behavior, that's equivalent to giving fan creators permission to reproduce that behavior in fanworks. (Key example: Techno and Philza cohabitation.)

This code of conduct might be more (or less) restrictive than other fans would prefer, but it helps me a lot with reducing anxiety about writing something that my favorite cc's might judge or block me for. Feel free to adopt it as your own if you would benefit!

A final note: by no means am I shaming anyone who doesn't see eye to eye with me on this. The subject is a massive grey area with no clear answers, and will continue to be so until amatonormativity is dismantled enough that your standard cishet streamer can speak knowledgeably about QPRs. Honestly, it's a miracle that we've come far enough for QPR shipping to be so widespread that it merits a discussion at all.

Ultimately, I wrote this post in an attempt to get a dialogue going so that the community can establish some ethical norms, so please discuss in the tags and notes, or reach out via asks and DMs if you have any commentary! I'm very interested in hearing other people's thoughts.

[polyamships]

Polyamships is hosting #MultiamoryMarch2023 💞

We’re happy to reblog any polyam creations for the month of March from any fandom or from original works. You can use the above prompts if you need a little inspiration, or you can create something in general for a polyamorous ship of any kind. We also have plenty of prompts from past years we’d still love to see fanworks for if they inspire you better. If you use a prompt, please make sure to let us know which prompt you're creating for somewhere on your post.

At us @polyamships and use the tags #MultiamoryMarch and #MultiamoryMarch2023 in the first five tags so we can hopefully see it. If you don’t see us reblog your post within a few days feel free to send us an ask to let us know, or submit it via our googleform here, in case we’ve missed your post or the tags/notifications are being weird.

All ratings are welcome but anything nsfw/triggery should be warned for and behind a read more, as should very long tumblr fic.

We also have an AO3 collection for the event that can be found here and the collection name is 'multiamory_march_works'.

We can’t wait to see what you create for the month, and please do spread the word about the event. ❤️♾️ QPR on the graphic is the abbreviation for Queerplatonic Relationship. And Sedoretu is a poly marriage invented by Ursula K. Le Guin in her science fiction story "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea," which you can find more out about over on its Fanlore page. All the prompts can also be found as text below the read more. Over the next month or two, we will also be doing a number of posts with expanded ideas for each prompt for anyone who needs a little more inspiration than just the one or two word style we have below.

March 1st - V relationship

March 2nd - Supernatural

March 3rd - Games

March 4th - Affection

March 5th - Awakening

March 6th - Pets

March 7th - Language

March 8th - Sick

March 9th - Declarations

March 10th - Convenience

March 11th - Wedding

March 12th - Cuddling

March 13th - Sharing clothes

March 14th - Sedoretu

March 15th - Adoption

March 16th - Sleepover

March 17th - QPR (QueerPlatonic Relationship)

March 18th - Together

March 19th - Art

March 20th - Grief

March 21st - Treasure

March 22nd -Bonding

March 23rd - Forest

March 24th - Apart

March 25th - Unlikely

March 26th - Argument

March 27th - Shadow

March 28th - Teasing

March 29th - Mark

March 30th - Pining

March 31st - Polyam is the norm AU

[sazandorable]

things I wanna see in ace fanworks!

It’s Ace Week!

And there’s huge variety among the aspec community (spectrum! that’s what it means!), so here’s a post about a variety of things I’d love to see more in fanworks involving asexual characters!

(I’m especially thinking of Jon from The Magnus Archives and Zolf from Rusty Quill Gaming, but this should easily apply across fandoms!)

I’ll try not to repeat it every line but: blanket disclaimer that this is very much a “what I feel, what I want, me, personally” post. Others (including other asexual people) might feel differently, and that’s perfectly okay. That’s kind of the point of this post! This is absolutely not a “here’s the one correct way to write all ace characters that all ace people will enjoy and agree with” Rules post — on the contrary, this is partly in reaction to seeing other people say that they dislike seeing, or don’t dare create, things that I, personally… desperately want to see, actually.

CW: this post will contain references to many common sources of trauma for asexual people, such as aphobia, partner abuse and rape, as well as sex (in general and sometimes in specifics) and asexual people having sex.

So! I, personally, love and would love to see more...

Fanworks by all sorts of asexual creators

No matter what your specific experience is, it is important, and your getting to create and share art about it is important, and you deserve to get that, and there are people interested in seeing it. And the same is true for all the other aces with different experiences, too.

Variety! Room for all of us! Share your experience happily, and let other aces happily share theirs!

Fanworks by allosexual creators

I’m so happy you’re interested in asexuality and in depicting it! I do want my experience to be normalised and seen as a normal thing that anyone can find interesting and relatable, even allosexual people. If you don’t mean to be an asshole about it, if you’re generally interested in exploring asexuality and you’re doing it from the heart, thinking of asexual people as people — then I want to see it, and I want you to be able to give a try to creating or consuming whatever you want, and I do not want you to be attacked for doing it.

Of course, you might still unwittingly fuck up, and people might still get hurt, and truly hurtful things should still be pointed out in order to be improved on; but I want us as a community to help creators up instead of shouting down, and I hope you continue putting thought into creating fanworks involving ace characters.

Keep reading for some tips and suggestions of things to think about, to keep in mind and to look into to improve your representing of us and our experience of it!

Extremely specific, different, kinda weird, niche, Problematic™ content, from creators of any identity (including questioning!), who are wary about sharing it because they think that there’s no audience for it, or that they’re not allowed, or that it’s a bad and evil way to represent asexuality

I want to see that, I’d be thrilled if you did it, I hope you do it, and I want a fandom environment in which you can do that safely because you deserve to. Of course, make sure to provide good tagging and CW!

Awareness that asexuality is a wide varying spectrum of experiences and there is no One Correct or More Valid Way to depict it

Awareness that even people with the same identity, label and life experiences might want to create or consume different things

Permission for everyone to create whatever they like, so long as it’s just done earnestly

No shaming, gatekeeping, accusations of fetishising, etc.

There are newbie writers who will never learn if they’re scared away from trying; there are people who haven’t yet figured out that they are in fact ace and never will if they’re not allowed to explore it safely; there are ace people who consume ace content to feel good about themselves; there are ace people who create ace fic in order to explore complicated, hard, unpleasant experiences and feelings; there are ace people whose experiences do not match stereotypical narratives I’ve most seen brandished around, and those people are just as ace and just as allowed to create and consume whatever they want; I do not want to foster a fandom environment in which people must out themselves and offer up their experience to scrutiny in order to be “allowed” to write certain topics; etc., etc.

Over the past two years, I’ve regularly seen a lot of yelling along the lines of “this work includes x and not x because this character is ace!” or “this fic I just read is the only valid ace fic” or “oh my god everyone look at this, this is the perfect ace fic”. A lot of it comes from a place of defensiveness and/or pride, ace people happy and proud to share something that was, finally, pinning down their experience. That’s awesome! ... For them. There are plenty of other asexual people who don’t relate to or enjoy those narratives — in fact, all the ones I’m thinking of squicked me hard, despite being made by ace creators and accurate to (an) ace experience, and I would be really unhappy if all ace fanworks was like those. Meanwhile, plenty of stuff I enjoy gets accusations of being fetishising.

So it would do a world of wonder for me and my experience of ace fanworks if those things could be internalised by the fandom as a whole!

Clear distinction between “being asexual” and “not interested in sex”, ”sex-repulsed” or “not having sex”

Those can and often do overlap, but the word “asexual” just means “experiencing little or no sexual attraction”!

In fanworks about an ace character, the two are generally linked and the reason a character doesn’t want to have sex tends to be that they’re ace, but the shorthand and immediate assumption that “being ace” automatically and always means “never having sex” or “hating the concept of sex” always feels a little weird to me.

This goes both ways — even if your aspec character is very sexually active and enjoys it, or if they’re demisexual and currently experiencing attraction to their partner, etc. — they’re still a person who experiences little to no sexual attraction in their daily life, they’re still aspec in a way that can be depicted and that I can be made to feel.

On AO3, widespread use of the tag “Canon Asexual Character”…

There are different views on the “correct” way to use that tag, in part because… what's the point of it? Should we use it in every single fic in which the Archivist appears, because he happens to be ace in the canon, even if it doesn’t come up in the fic?

IMO, it is helpful — it indicates to me that the author wrote their story with that character’s asexuality in mind, and it informed their writing of that character. Personally, I use it on fics where it feels “relevant” even if it doesn’t come up, such as a fic from Martin’s POV about Jon not being very touchy-feely (even though it doesn’t specify that that is because Jon is ace), but not a fic from Jon’s POV in which they’re happily living together but it’s not about the physical specifics of their relationship (even though in my head that relationship is non-sexual, but I could have written this specific fic the exact same way if Jon wasn’t ace).

The use or non-use of the tag can also simply help distinguish fanworks that were created and posted before that revelation, and did not depict that character as ace because the creator genuinely wasn’t aware of it.

… but also more detail than that, for instance: tagging the “shade of ace” the character is written as

A few examples:

#aroace Jon

#demisexual biromantic Jon

#greysexual nonbinary Jon

#sexually active kinky asexual Jon

#sex-positive low-libido Jon

#touch-averse Jon

#sex-uninterested ace demiromo Jon in happy QPR with Martin

#sex-repulsed sub Jon gets creative

#aspec Jon experiences sexual attraction for the first time and it’s for freaking Elias of all people oh God oh no

etc., etc.

Those are VERY different things! There’s some I’d be delighted to read, some I’m not interested in, and some that would actively squick me personally for personal reasons but I can think of some friends of mine that would be super happy to see it.

If you don’t know or aren’t sure of the exact terms, or if you wrote a relatively broad scenario and want to let people project any labels on it, you can also just describe what the situation is or how you depicted your character relating to things. That’s still very helpful. For instance:

#Jon doesn’t like kissing but cuddles good

#the struggle of NOT liking touching but craving intimacy

#Jon and Tim pointing at each other like spiderman meme, same hat?? how??

#Daisy and Basira have no idea how to explain their relationship and it’s none of your business

#Zolf is just tired and wants people to stop prying into his love life

etc., etc.

More awareness that there’s plenty of stuff about the ace experience that, while very common, can be squicky or even traumatic, and more tagging/warning about that

Here’s some other things that are common to the ace experience and commonly depicted in fanworks involving ace characters, and that can be genuinely upsetting and potentially triggering and traumatic, whether or not an ace person has encountered it in their own life (lots of CWs in this list, obviously):

encountering aphobia, even clueless and well-meaning

having internalised aphobia, aphobic thoughts, self-hatred, feeling broken or strange

social pressure to have sex or relationships, people being invasive or judgy about others’ love life, feeling disconnected from allo people

trying things out just to see

having sex

enjoying sex

forcing themself to have sex

referring to past sexual experiences as something that they didn’t enjoy

being emotionally pressured into having sex

wanting to please their partner despite not desiring sex

feeling an obligation to satisfy their partner

the prospect of romantic rejection for their asexuality

the idea that they must earn love

the idea that getting their boundaries respected is something exceptional and rare and an incredible sacrifice from their partner

being sexualised by someone else or the object of someone’s fantasies

wanting sex or experiencing sexual attraction for the first time

etc., etc.

Two concepts here that are both simultaneously true: 1) those are indeed very common to the real life experience of ace people, 2) it is possible to depict the ace experience without tackling any of that.

Of course, you can have all that! You can create content about that! That’s very relatable for a lot of people, and that last one, for instance, can in fact be an accurate and important depiction of demisexuality. But it’s also not a given that a fictional work about asexuality will/should depict it, and not a given that all ace people looking for ace content will want to see any item from that list. So please, give content warnings for all that, too.

It would be a tremendous help in curating and improving my experience if this could become a widespread habit — I have lost count of the amount of fics tagged as fluffy that I had to backbutton out because they suddenly threw in something really depressing that I, personally, didn’t want to see happen to a character I project on (while other readers found catharsis, validation and kinship in seeing their experience represented accurately!).

If it does come up, tags about what comes up

Beyond the content warnings for clearly traumatic stuff, is there “#Discussion of asexuality”? Is it “#Coming out as asexual”, or “#Jon discovers the existence of asexuality”? Is there “#Acephobia” (“#Accidental”? “#Casual”? “#Internalised”?)? Is there “#Explanation of asexuality to a clueless partner”, or “#Jon’s partner tells him about asexuality”? Is there “#Relationship negotiation”?

Since, again, not all aces have the same experience, odds are that some people will JUMP happily on content depicting a specific experience which they relate to... and inversely: again, there’s some of that which I personally do not relate to and actively do not want to read.

Detailed tagging is a huge help for me to figure out if a fic about asexuality is going to squick me and make me sad for the evening because ah I am weird after all even amongst my brethren, or if it’s going to be, finally, my heart’s desire, what I’ve been craving for, and make my entire week. (Sidenote, thanks to good tagging I did find the perfect QPR fic I’d been yearning to read last week and I’m still thinking about it right now and so, so, so happy.)

Making it clear when an ace character is going to be having sex — beyond just the ship tag and rating

Reminder that a fic rating alone does not necessarily mean sex! A fic tagged just “#JonMartin” and rated Explicit could have them in a relationship and then an explicitly detailed scene in which Jon dies a excruciatingly gruesome death, or a graphic scene of Martin having some solo fun, or even another character, or a sex scene between another tagged ship.

With smut involving an ace character as with everything else, there are lots of us that do want to see it (for a wide variety of reasons), and obviously there are lots of us that desperately want to avoid it (but might be in the Explicit tag looking for smut involving other ships, or horror or whump content, etc.) — please help us know whether to click or not click!

The normalisation of not expecting/forcing anyone to do things they don’t actively want to do

There’s a relatively common thing in heartwarming ace fic where the ace character is surprised that their allo partner is fine with dating without having sex and the partner goes, “I love you, of course I’m fine with that” and the ace character is all oh, oh, oh I am loved and respected, did not expect that. Or an allo character saying “That’s fine, I don’t make you do anything you don’t want to do,” or “I don’t want to do anything unless you’re into it!”

And I see how it sounds nice and romantic. It probably is to many people. But it can also be extremely sinister and anxiety-inducing in its implications: what if the partner didn’t love the ace character quite that much? What did the ace character expect? If this is amazing and rare, then what was the baseline expectation? If this ace character has dated before, what were their past relationships like, for this to be surprising?

I end up running into it more in fluffy fanworks about asexuality than in fanworks that aren’t. Again — you can absolutely do that, but please tag/warn for it; even if it’s just in passing, in fluff fic it’s really not something I expect from the genre. Even though I might sometimes be specifically in the mood to read an exploration of that, in dark fic or in hurt/comfort fic!

And now for more specific stuff I wanna see in stories:

This last bit is intended as both an encouragement for people who want to create these things and think there’s no audience (there is!!), and as a box of ideas for people who have no idea how to depict the asexuality of characters but want to :3 Again, this is not in any way a statement that these are The Only Correct Way, or even things that all aspec people want to see, nor is it a diss at people who create, consume or want the exact opposite of these things — for that matter, some of the items on this list are mutually exclusive. It’s just my own tastes and literally just stuff I personally would love to see (more).

Ace character being single, happy to be single, and happily ace

Asexuality being written in but a complete non-issue, not discussed, not brought up, not even to reassure the ace character that It Is Fine

Ace character being flippant and snarky about their asexuality, making jokes and memes about it

Ace character not caring about other people’s perception of them at all

Ace character feeling only pride and happiness and comfort about that label

More than one ace character! Extra love for them having some similarities and also some differences!

Intersectionality: ace character being also aro, trans, nonbinary, bi or pan, polyamorous, kinky, a drag queen, a dom or sub, neurodivergent, disabled, non-white, … ; asexuality being just one part of their identity

Asexuality being queer and belonging to the LGBT+ community in itself; a character being cis, aro or heteroromantic, and ace, and “counting” as “queer enough”

Flirty ace character

Confident, self-comfortable ace character

Ace character considering their specific experience to be perfectly normal and not unique, if not typical

Ace character enjoying something that is commonly considered to be sexy or sexual, but it isn’t for them — such as wearing makeup or lingerie, going clubbing, pole-dancing, massages…

Ace character happily dating someone who is not aspec

I like the thought that it’s possible! I personally like this more than I like fanworks about two aspec people dating. I like it when the ace character is happy to adapt to their allo partner’s requirements and I like it when the allo character is happy to adapt to their ace partner’s requirements and I like it when there are things that just do not match perfectly and that doesn’t put an end to the relationship.

Ace character having a lot of experience dating

Partner(s) already knowing about asexuality and not needing to have it explained to them

Partners just being like “*shrug* okay”, without making it a big deal that they’re “giving up” sexual intercourse

Ace character crushing and getting flustered over physical but non-sexual aspects of their love interest’s looks

Big strong hands, nice jaw, strong nose, long eyelashes, lovely profile, silky hair, lovely eye-colour, delicate wrists, muscles, long legs, collar bone, shoulder blades, squishy stomach, peek of bellybutton, freckles, moles, scars, …

Ace character daydreaming about their love interest in ways that involve zero physical attraction, thoughts about how pretty or handsome they are, or desire to touch them

Jon pining for Martin and just wanting to talk with him, have tea with him, hang out with him… not seeing how Tim is good-looking but being attracted to his humour and nerdiness… missing his relationship with Georgie because it felt nice to cook together and share clothes and watch the telly together… Zolf missing Hamid’s fiery passion or Wilde’s awful puns… being attracted to Cel’s liveliness and inventiveness… being charmed by Azu’s emotional intelligence or her unwavering certainty in her faith…

Smut involving an ace character

No shaming of fellow real living people about that

Not going to go into it again because plenty of us have been talking about that in this fandom for two years now — bottom line is there do exist plenty of asexual people that 1) do have sex IRL, 2) do want to consume smut, can we please, as a community, move past the “this is not smut because this character is ace!” passive-aggressive attacks already. (“I depict this character as not having sex because he’s ace and I’m ace and it makes me happy” is fine! Just don’t imply that that’s the only way to be ace and that other people are wrong to want something else.)

Ace character enjoying sex

Ace character being completely neutral about having or not having sex

Ace character disliking sex in the same way they dislike, idk, coffee. No, absolutely not, thank you, no concession, not for me, but also it’s nothing traumatic or moral or uncomfortable.

Sex being just a thing, not a big deal, having or not having it not being all that important

Ace character enjoying the concept of sex, abstractly. Ace character consuming porn, writing porn, being fine discussing sex with friends, having a dirty mind — just not wanting to be involved in it

Ace character having fantasies that disturb them

Ace character feeling arousal and being just *shrug* about it, not particularly disgusted, just uninterested

Arousal, libido, or masturbation as something different and separate from sexual attraction and desire to sleep with someone or to be touched

Ace character being kinky af

Ace character having multiple partners and different sorts of relationships with each!

Open relationships

Non-sexual romantic relationships

Queerplatonic relationships

COMMITTED!!! NON-SEXUAL AND NON-ROMANTIC!!! PARTNERSHIPS!!! AAAAAA [sobbing emoji]

Non-sexual physical intimacy

Hand-holding! Playing footsie! Cuddles! Hugging! Kissing! Super heavy making out and getting aroused but no sex! Sharing a bed! Lying on top of each other! Bathing or showering together! Giving each other a haircut or a shave! Massages! Non-sexual nudity!

Non-physical intimacy

Committed couple having separate beds/rooms! Getting married! Being in love and not kissing or touching! Loving long-distance relationships! QPR! Affection and closeness expressed through speech, gifts, services, time, shared activities — wearing each other’s clothes, cooking together, long emotional conversations, trust and secrets, love letters, post-it notes, “thought of you” gifts, celebrating anniversaries with a candle-lit dinner, co-parenting...!

Sexual situations with no touching

(CW bit detailed:)

Sexting, cybersex, phone sex, dirty talking, reading or watching porn (alone or together), consensual voyeurism like watching their partner masturbate or have sex with someone else, kink using toys and accessories or scenes but with no actual touching, …

Romanticised consent and boundaries

An asexual character being super firm about what they do not want and their allo partner being thrilled about that trust and communication!! An allosexual partner trusting their asexual partner about what they want without infantilising them or doubting their capacity to establish their boundaries! “Wait, you always say you don’t like [x]?” “Yes, but I feel like it right now, as I assumed would be pretty clear from the fact that I am doing [x] right now :w” “Hey, just checking, sue me :w” “Yes, thank you :w”

Specific boundaries

Cheek kisses but no lip kisses, no PDA, not having sex where they’re also going to sleep, needing a shower immediately after sex, lights off only, …

(CW more detailed:)

… not caring about feeling or seeing their partner’s hard-on but not wanting to do anything about it, penetration but no oral, bottoming but not topping, giving a blowjob but not having their head held, being fine with extreme acts but not liking fluids, pet names but no dirty talk, dirty talk but no pet names, happy to pleasure their partner but not wanting to be touched, not wanting to come, being only into sex as part of extreme kink but not interested in vanilla sex, …

Shifting boundaries and consent

Ace character likes kissing or cuddles but only on their terms — they will come give their partner a kiss sometimes but bristle at being touched. Today is not a kissing day. Today this ace character is a bit down and would like a lot of physical affection and cuddling. Certain areas are off-limits for touching because this ace character is sensitive on their thighs, ticklish in their ribs, self-conscious about their scars. This ace character considers their chest non-sexual so that’s fine but do not pat their butt.

Today, exceptionally, this ace character is horny and feels like banging. Ace character feels like banging sometimes but is not in the mood right now, bye. Ace character feels like banging from eight to nine pm every second Thursday of the month, catch it or miss it. Couple shares a shower every morning and it’s never meant to be a sexual thing, but today the ace one is getting aroused and hey, you know what, they’d like to get off right now. This massage is fantastic but it’s getting overwhelming, so they ask to stop (but it was great!). Ace character is intrigued about this particular scenario/position/kink and wants to try it out, they do, it’s perfectly nice, but hmm, once was enough, they’re not interested in doing it again. Ace character sexts their partner all day but by the time their partner has got home, undressed and prepared and pulled out the strap, they’ve lost interest.

♠♥ Thank you for reading all this! Hope this inspires people so I get more stuff that makes me happy! ♥♠

[llampacaeatingguppy]

all of the aro fandom asks for your fav fandom?? if you don't mind

I do NOT mind at all!! A lot of the questions aren’t super fandom specific, so I’m probably gonna hop around fandoms a bit. Hopefully that’s okay!!

Favourite aro headcanon of your own?

Jack and Damian from MFB get in a pqr and have a good time 

Favourite aro headcanon you've seen someone else suggest?

I’m honestly not in many circles that pass aro headcanons around much, so none really :/

Thoughts on shipping?

I LOVE shipping! It’s fun as heck. I just wish there was more,, general content too

Any canon aro characters you know about that you like?

Canon aro characters? What are those? (All salt aside, I genuinely can’t think of one off the top of my head for any fandoms I’m in)

What fandoms are you in?

Uhhhh ajkfdksfsksdjlka I jump around everywhere but lately my brain is full of Metal Fight Beyblade and Skyrim and Breath of the Wild and Soul Eater

Is there a fandom you think is particularly aro-friendly, that you'd recommend to aros?

MFB has like no romance in the entire frikkin show and the fandom was pretty chill with me posting an aro fic, so that’s a good start? if you want something kinda old and ridiculous and for kids anyways

I think video games (esp more open world things) are a pretty fun bet a lot of times too. 

Any fandoms you've had to leave (whether from arophobia or otherwise)?

I’ve left tons, but not really for arophobia and more just loss in interest. I’m not the loudest aro on the block, so nobody really gives me trouble

What's your oldest fandom (regardless of if you're still in it)?

Uhhhhhh Lord of the Rings, probably? That’s pretty old

Favourite character from your favourite fandom?

...I have an alarming number of children all metaphorically staring at me right now and I do not want to deal with what will happen if I label one as Favorite

Do you make fanworks? (Art/fics/anything else)

Yeah! Fics, mostly. Drawing is Hard jaklfjskalfjskl but I’d like to do fanart someday

Have you ever made a fanwork that involves aromanticism? (a story with an aro character, a pride artwork, etc)

Yes! I wrote a QPR kind of thing for MFB a while ago. You can find that here if you’d like

What's one thing you think fandoms should do better to be more welcoming to aros?

Please, just... calm down. Like shipping is fun I love shipping too, but it’s not all there is

[aroworlds]

Aro-Spec Artist Profile: Signe

Today’s awesome aro-spec creator is Signe, better known to aro-spec Tumblr as @fluffyllamacorn!

Signe is a busy aroace writer, visual and textile artist! She writes for the Young Avengers, The Shadowhunter Chronicles/Shadowhunters, Hawkeye Comics and New X-Men: Academy fandoms in addition to developing diverse original fiction. You can find her growing collection of fanworks on AO3 under the name FluffyLlamacorn and her gorgeous art at @llamacorn-productions.

She also posts and reblogs fashion and accessories at @clothing-inspiration, and some of her cosplays can be seen throughout this post!

With us Signe talks about her passion for textile arts and how they allowed her to reclaim her femininity, the importance of non-romantic relationships in creative media, the difficulty of writing kissing scenes, and the need for works and discussions that celebrate our aromanticism. Her love of making, crafting and designing just shines through this post, so please let’s give her all our love, encouragement, gratitude, kudos and follows for taking the time to explore what it is to be aromantic and creative.

Can you share with us your story in being aro-spec?

I just sort of … never cared? I’ve never wanted to get married and have children, and I never really had crushes growing up. I partly figured that was because I was surrounded by assholes who weren’t worth crushing on, but even when I graduated and moved to better schools where I actually had friends, I still didn’t care. I’ve always had a lot of confidence, so I’ve never bothered feeling insecure about not dating. I spent a while identifying as a straight person “who doesn’t care about romance” before eventually identifying with the ace and then aroace identifiers after having known them for a while, but there was never any big moments in the journey that really stand out.

Currently, I see my aromanticism as more important to my identity than my asexuality – being aro is what I do, while being ace is what my body does – but I also don’t really see them as separate. It’s hard to put into words because it requires cementing some stuff that I don’t mind leaving fluid, but while my lack of attraction is a package deal, it’s the lack of romantic attraction that defines my lifestyle the most. I know which I would choose if I had to, but I prefer not having to. That’s the only good thing about the ace discourse: It’s made me very protective of my ace identity again after having let somewhat go of it after I came to identify as aro.

Can you share with us the story behind your creativity?

I’m the type of person who has a thousand different hobbies and therefore doesn’t have time to actually do any of them. The three I care most about are writing, drawing and textile work.

I’ve always told myself a lot of stories. Walking home from school, I would develop my stories, acting out scenes in my mind and developing huge universes. When I decided to share them with the world, it was initially as comics. I drew a lot, so I had developed the characters’ visual identities along with their personalities. While I’ve switched to planning my stories as books, drawing and writing is still pretty linked in my mind and I can’t imagine creating a character that I don’t know how to draw.

I got into textile work through cosplay, but have spread out into knitting, sewing, embroidery, cross stitch, weaving, crocheting, bobbin lace… Pretty much everything I can get my hands on, which is why I give it such a broad name. (This is part of my too many hobbies deal!) I love everything about textiles, from the look and feel of it, to how many different things can be created out of one simple material. Looking at clothes and knowing not just how it’s been sewn, but also how the fabric was made, is so cool. Creating things from scratch can make me feel like something akin to a god, recreating this corner of the universe as I see fit. A big part of my love for textile work is also reclaiming my femininity in a way that’s so different from the girly girl image I was taught to look down on as a girl. This is a way to enjoy being feminine that doesn’t force me to embrace things I don’t enjoy.

One thing I’ve realized recently is that I love the freedom to design my own work. My cosplays have moved further and further away from canon, from human versions to characters without a firm design or completely redesigning a canon design. On the other hand, I rarely feel the need to sew completely original things, and without the built in deadline of a con, I’m not very likely to get it done. I tend to rarely do the things I can just do whenever, but I’m getting better at that.

Are there any particular ways your aro-spec experience is expressed in your art?

It’s easy to spot in my stories. I have a lot of a-spec characters. The two main characters who were specifically designed to get most of my heart – Shizuka, the shy girl who didn’t know how to make friends, and Diana, the confident girl who’s never cared what anyone thinks of her – both ended up being a-spec even though I created them long before I started identifying as aroace. Shizuka is demi and I don’t know whether it’s sexually and/or romantically or if it even matters. Diana ended up being aroace because I was thinking about her future and my mind nope’d out of the possibility of her ever dating. I also made a conscious choice not to include much romance until I got interested in queer love stories and that sorta fell by the way side. Even then, I try to keep the love stories from being the only defining feature of the stories and the characters involved in them and never to devalue other types of relationship. You will never hear the term “just friends” in my work unless I’m trying to make a point about the person who uses it.

(This is not to pass a value judgement on anyone who uses that expression, but to help normalize language that doesn’t devalue platonic relationships.)

What challenges do you face as an aro-spec artist?

The recent anti-a-spec discourse has made me worried about posting about aromantic things too publicly, as aphobic comments and opinions seem way to commonly accepted these days.

Also, writing kissing scenes. What the hell. “And then their mouths squished together for a little while, which apparently made fireworks go off in their brains.” Like. What? Why does society think this is the epitome of every relationship?

How do you connect to the aro-spec and a-spec communities as an aro-spec person?

Building communities about a lack of something is always hard. Once you’ve written the first story about being aro, it can be hard to write the next one, unless you consciously try to write about a different way of being aro-spec. It’s also a hard orientation to include quickly as being single isn’t as clear an indicator as having a romantic partner of the same gender. While I follow a bunch of aro-blogs and I have a bunch of a-spec friends, I wouldn’t say I’m strongly integrated in the a-spec communities on Tumblr.

Part of it is that most content I see is validations that every sort of aro is alright. I see a lot of content aimed at people who feel bad. That’s important, definitely, but I don’t need it. I’ve always known I’m amazing, both independently of and intersecting with my aromantic identity. I’m interested in work that celebrates being aro, work that doesn’t say I’ll be happy “even though” I’m aro, but “while” I’m aro, maybe even “because” I’m aro and don’t need to waste my life on amatonormativity. At the very least, work that spends more than a sentence on reassuring me. I see a lot of content that implies the basic state of an aro-spec person is sad, and I object to that idea.

I have also recently seen a whole lot of posts about QPRs and that’s really cool! I’m happy to see they’re becoming more and more accepted, at least in some circles. I’m less happy to see them become so prominent and so expected that they start feeling like a new shape of amatonormativity. It’s not that bad right now, but I definitely got allo aces saying “at least we can still feel love” vibes from some QPR posts earlier this year. Because here’s the thing: I’m aroace. I won the lottery. I don’t need to define myself by relationships to other people.* I refuse to take another label that sounds like I don’t want friends because of people pushing QPRs to be the new norm. Again, I’m super happy QPRs seem to have become more accepted, just please don’t present them as something every aro-spec person is interested in unless we specifically opt out.

There’s also the question of what kind of aro stories should be told. I mean, as many as possible, obviously, but that’s going to take a while. But the whole deal with being aro-spec is to have less interest in romance, so too many stories that focus on the lack of it become … counterproductive? I think the Jughead comics are pretty perfect in that regard. The main character is aroace and there are several stories that’s hella important to, but mainly it’s just about him going on adventures with his friends.

(P.S. I hate Riverdale. I’ve seen two different Jughead cosplays these last two weekends, but I didn’t dare fangirl, because what if they were based on the wrong version?)

Honestly, my main way of interacting with the a-spec community is befriending people at random and later finding out they’re a-spec. It’s … almost a superpower? It’s pretty great.

* No one needs to define themselves by relationships to other people, but I imagine it’s much easier when you don’t feel the desire to.

How do you connect to your creative community as an aro-spec person?

I don’t feel very connected to creative communities, but that’s more because I’m not very good at reaching out and promoting myself unless I know I have exactly what’s being asked for. I mainly stick to one or two people I can bounce ideas off of for my different projects before I post it and hope it finds an audience. It might also be because I’m juggling so many things and don’t spend enough time on the social connections needed to connect with a community.

How can the aro-spec community best help you as a creative?

Feedback, feedback, feedback! I love it! I live on it! Telling me you like X or Y part of my work can keep me floating for days and makes me so much more motivated to keep arting! So please, check out my art and leave a comment and/or share it with your friends/followers, if you like it.

(Also, if anyone has good tips on how to reach a larger audience, let me know.)

Can you share with us something about your current project?

I just finished my newest cosplay, which is Lup from The Adventure Zone in her lich form! I had a lot of fun designing her – the podcast doesn’t have very specific descriptions and the creators encourage fans to come up with their own designs – and got a lot of positive reactions at the con last weekend. I went for a very non-human design, including hiding my face, and added a bunch of fire details to reflect her evocation magic. I would have added more, but then my sewing machine broke in the last second, and I had to finish everything by hand, so I just aimed for the basic version. I’ll be updating her for the next con and will have much more fire with me then. I have yet to finish editing the pictures, but they should be up soon.

Have you any forthcoming works we should look forward to?

My next project, one I’ve alluded to a couple of times in this profile already, in fact combines all three of my passions. I was considering cosplaying Pixie, one of the underrated students from X-Men, relegated to the background since their series ended, but I kept bumping up against the problem that her uniform was just too … generic to be fun. Besides, what’s the point of cosplaying the pink girl, and then not getting to work with pink fabric?

So I just redesigned her and gave her an individual outfit. And then I decided to redesign all of her teammates. I wanted them all to go together, but still keep an individual feeling, and I achieved that by giving them a rainbow theme when they’re together. Obviously, the next stop was figuring out a story for that to take place in, of which I’ve posted the first chapter. The idea is that they get out in their bright colors and visibly help everyday people with everyday problems to stop people from hating and fearing mutants and maybe actually making a positive change, unlike all of the superhero battles that don’t get anyone anywhere.

The project has three parts: Individual drawings for every member where I develop their outfits further, chapters of fic describing their adventures and a cosplay that I aim to finish for Genki in August, the next big con in Denmark.

[ephemeral-afterlight]

god i could say so much about this but moceit is probably my least favourite patton ship? for multiple reasons actually.

from most tolerable to least tolerable, it'd probably be royality, logicality, moxiety, remus/patton (rempat???? lmfao), then moceit. which sucks because a lot of the ships involving patton have the cutest names? like logicality is v creative and moxiety sounds adorable? but some of the ships themselves are a No from me. the only ships that i actually like involving patton are lamp/dlamp with non-abusive (sympathetic) patton.

tbh royality isn't too bad, it doesn't have a ton of substance but their dynamic isn't terrible i guess? i don't really have much to say about it

logicality is kinda iffy for me because i can definitely see where the dynamic would come in (and it's an objectively pleasing dynamic as well) and does have roots in canon, but it feels like it's the obligatory big fandom ship rather than one that has a lot of substance behind it in fanworks especially.

moxiety is also one that i'm very mixed about because like. on one hand they seem more like a dad/son dynamic so shipping is uncomfortable af??? but if you think about it from an unsympathetic standpoint, they ARE the two who are always sort of together in their "problematic-ness" i guess, so who knows. serial killer couple?

i have no idea what a remus/patton ship name is and to be honest i like. never wanna see it! but i'm going for rempat for this. i personally don't like any remus ships, but that's just me; he just doesn't come off as someone who would be romantically involved with any other side (and i also do enjoy the hc that he's aro, and even then, i don't see him in a qpr relationship either). as for patton specifically, though, that seems like it would be a very volatile relationship? and that ain't really my thing

now. Now. moceit. okay Listen. i don't mind moceit interactions in cute fluffy dlamp fics that are removed from any unsympathetic sides discourse, that takes place in a world where i don't see patton as somewhat manipulative. but as a mono relationship, i don't think i'll ever like it. it seems like every time i see moceit content, it portrays dee as this abusive toxic guy who has the poor sweet innocent patton in his clutches and. Ew??? i don't like reading about abusive/manipulative relationships in general, but honestly, with how i've been liking patton less and less and noticing more and more kinda fucked up things patton does, it feels like their actual dynamic as a couple would be VERY different. to me, i see it as patton being consistently hostile towards dee, belittling him and admonishing him for very insignificant things. the sort of manipulation where you secretly sabotage the person's efforts to make things better, then get on their case about not being about to change said things. he'd be the type to hold literally EVERY KIND THING he does for dee over his head, fucking with dee to the point where he'd start to believe that patton does way more for him that he actually does. to me, moceit is an abusive relationship, no matter how i look at it, which is why it has stayed as my least favourite patton ship out of all of them.

patton ships make me uncomfortable hhhhhh

A lot of patton ships make me uncomfy too tbh