#then again there is loveless

[favouritefi]

If you’re happy to, please could you drop the lore for sexual mores of the catboy AU?

And a Happy New Year!

happy new yearrrr

ok so when i first tried to write this i ended up regurgitating foucault and david halperin and rictor norton and then i was like "oh my god im not gonna write a history essay as the prelude for lore about my catboys au thats a crazy thing to do" so im just gonna assume ppl know about the established literature on victorian sexuality and the pathologization / invention of the homosexual and jump right into how i think catboys fit into that:

legally cat/dogboys cannot be prosecuted for their actions because they lack moral agency. they can't be charged with buggery, that would be like charging a horse with buggery, but on the flip side of that they can be put down without trial or just cause, you don't trial a horse for trampling someone to death, you just kill it. which is all to say that homosexual acts between cat/dogboys are generally permitted and permissible EXCEPT if it causes what humans might consider to be harm. eg. your annoying orange catboy keeps seducing my guard-dogboys and distracting them from their duties if you do not control him i will shoot him the next time he is on my property etc.

theres also a patronizing element of "aw look how cute they are trying to mimic human courting" and the idea that cat/dogpeople aren't capable of the depth of love humans are capable of so their samesex relationships aren't a threat to society because their relationships generally speaking aren't taken seriously. i mean, this is a world where you give birth to children knowing you won't get to keep them and you get studded out like a turkey baster, its fucked up to the nth degree. before you start worrying about "will they hate me for having a boyfriend" first you gotta wonder "will they acknowledge that i am capable of having sexual autonomy and forming meaningful relationships that are not based on animal instincts" (the answer is no).

[thetisming]

amatonormativity: a romantic partner should be the most important person in EVERYONE'S life

NOT amatonormativity: MY romantic partner is the most important person in MY life, but i understand this is not the same for other people

allosexnormativity: EVERYONE should have sex and sex is something EVERYONE needs/wants/should want

NOT allosexnormativity: I PERSONALLY enjoy sex and love having sex because it makes ME feel good, but other people dont feel the same and that's okay

platonormativity: having friends is important for EVERYONE and EVERYONE needs/has/should have friends

NOT platonormativity: having friends is important to ME and I PERSONALLY love having friends, but there are people who dont and theres nothing wrong with that

faminormativity (is that the word?): family is important for EVERYONE and EVERYONE needs to have their family

NOT faminormativity: family is important to ME and I PERSONALLY need my family with me, but other people dont feel the same and i understand that

lovenormativity (again, not sure if this is a word): EVERYBODY feels love and there's something wrong wiith you if you dont

NOT lovenormativity: I PERSONALLY feel love and love people, but not everyone does and that's completely okay!

NOT amatonormativity: i dont have friends/have any desire to have friends, i am happy with other relationships/no relationships at all

NOT platonormativity: i dont have any desire to be in a romantic relationships, and i am happy with my platonic relationships

NOT allosexnormativity: i like hooking up with people and having one night stands or friends with benefits

NOT faminormativity: i care about my family deeply and am close with family members

NOT lovenormativity: i feel love for people i care about

it's not normative to personally enjoy something, so long as you respect that other people simply arent like you and aren't going to like the same things as you. taking down normativity is a two way street, allos and aspecs need to do it. support your local aros, aces, apls, afams and other aspecs today! remember to challange all normativities, and to not enforce other normativity by saying how bullshit other normativities are!

nothing is universal. romance is not universal. sex is not universal. friendship is not universal. family is not universal. love is not universal. nothing is universal.

[privateolives]

This is probably because I grew up watching 24/7 animal planet, but what finally made the allo/aplatonic thing click for me were the nature's of big cats.

Lions are powerful, regal creatures who are uniquely adapted to pack life. They need these connections to live a healthy life; A lonely lion is a miserable creature indeed.

Jaguars are solitary, beautiful creatures who live happily solitary. They prowl their lush world with self-sufficient majesty. A jaguar is not lonely without a pack. In fact, forcing jaguars to share space with others they do not enjoy is just as damaging as forcing a lion to live alone.

A lion may choose to head out on it's own for the most part, but in the end must return to the pack to thrive. A jaguar can choose to trust and enjoy the company of others, but they never feel the need to form a pack.

Is a jaguar selfish for this? A psychopath, a narcissist or any other such horrid assumptions? Is it a less moral creature than a lion, who seeks others like it to thrive?

Is a lion pathetic, or needy, or selfish for wanting community? For requiring contact with others like they require water? For their inherent need to string complicated webs of relationships that may seem silly or dramatic to others?

Of course not. These are ridiculous questions to even ask.

They are simply lions and jaguars.

In fact, is a jaguar that chooses to spend time with you not as magical as a lion's love? For a creature that needs no bond to thrive to still enjoy your presence enough to share it a time? Is a lion who can prowl the night alone not impressive in its strength and resilience? Is it not awe-inspiring in its ability to conquer a life it was never wired for and reign still?

Are they not both beautiful and awe-inspiring in their own ways, without being wrong?

Alloplatonics. Aplatonics. Are we not both special and beautiful in both our bonds and self-confident happiness equal, in each our ways? Is there not unique beauty in lifelong bonded packs and magical encounters that need no perpetuity to carry life forward?

Are we not but lions and jaguars? Neither wrong, neither selfish, but just different and beautiful creatures in each our ways?

That's how I've come to see it, anyway.

[myokk]

Being this close to her mother, Eloise was struck by their physical similarities. As a young girl, it had been impossible to see, but now that she was a young woman they were striking. She felt as if she were looking in a mirror, but a twisted mirror: everything that was warm about her appearance was turned cold in her mother: hazel eyes to a frigid silver, unruly brown hair to straight black; her mother’s skin was somehow even more pale than Eloise’s, as if she were cut from marble. Everything soft about Eloise was made sharp in her mother, and Eloise wondered what had made her this way. She was terrified that in twenty years’ time, the two of them would be indistinguishable.

Had Elladora Black always been like this? Eloise couldn’t imagine any time when her mother might have smiled, or even huffed in quiet laughter. No moments where she had been caught staring at her husband with love and warmth in her eyes. Eloise had only ever known her as an ambitious, cold woman who was always striving towards some goal, even if it was known only to her.

Someone couldn’t spend their whole life like that, could they? Even growing up at the manor, Eloise had always had Leo to confide in and love unconditionally. Had her mother ever had something - or someone - like that?

“Soon, we will be the family we were always meant to be,” Eloise’s mother said, causing Eloise to startle out of her thoughts and stare her mother in the eyes. They were filled with longing. They were mesmerizing. Eloise shivered under the intensity, but couldn’t tear her eyes away. “Soon, we will be back on our way to being the most prominent pureblood family in Britain, with the help of you and your brother. You can’t fail us. You can’t.”

From chapter 23 of my fic, Before It Felt Like A Sin

this post is dedicated to @elliecutte the only other person who is as crazy about Elladora Black as I am😌🙏

[friendship-test]

Happy aromantic week! Do you want to know about a game that focuses on aromanticism, aplatonicism, lovelesness and many aspec identities? Well, I present you with…

Friendship Test!

A game about a little robot (or program) that was built to be an expert on friendship, traveling a mysterious lab, meeting other programs in need of help (and friendship). But perhaps this friendprogram doesn’t really want to be a friend… is that so bad?

FT is an RPG Maker game I’ve been working on for almost a year. The demo is currently available and the full game will come out this Spring, completely for free! The demo is about 2 hours long, while the full game will be 10+ hours long.

I’m very excited to share this full story, it’s been a lot of fun to make and it means a whole lot to me. I want to see more aspec stories, specially ones focused on lovelessness and I decided to make one myself!

This week I’ll be sharing a lot of updates and previews of the game, so look forward to that!

If you want to follow FT’s development and news in other platforms:

Official youtube channel

Official bluesky account

----

music credit:

Tears Like Rain by GoldenSoundLabs from Pixabay

[angryaromantics]

Loveless, as in, am I doing this right? Am I feeling Love correctly? Am I performing Love correctly? Am I supposed to be thinking of it as a performance at all? No. <2

Lovecore, as in, my heart is still beating, and doesn't that count? I saw a thunderstorm so life-affirming, I cried. Doesn't that count? Yes. <3

Aromantic, as in I will walk this Earth alone. I will walk this Earth beside those I love. I will walk this Earth. Everything looks blue from far away, but from up close? It's all green.

[orlopsexdungeon]

my gibsonhickey hot take of the day is that while they get slotted into being a multiple breakup on-and-off relationship in fandom aus their canon breakup was a direct result of the very real risk of being publicly tortured for having gay sex and gibson would not break up with hickey without an equivalent external pressure + hickey would not break up with gibson under any circumstances

[r1ng-w0rm]

I'll be posting all of the artfight attacks I've done soon, but here's one of my faves that I've drawn

[tedcruzisthezodiackiller]

[oh2e]

Isaac’s little ‘I’m scared to be aroace’ moment in the aquarium hit me. Alice Oseman somehow* knows exactly the words to put into her characters mouths to make me feel Emotions about being aro/ace

*she’s also aro ace

[shire-ivy]

The Prophecy by Taylor Swift but it's about being Aromantic in a society where all your friend leave you for their romantic partners and you beg for someone to choose you.

[aroacepagans]

Questions for religious aros:

Does your aromantic identity impact how you conceptualize agape/ holy and divine love?

Has the idea of divine love driven you away from certain spiritual practices?

Do you find the idea of divine love comforting when considering what it means to be loved/experience love as an aro person?

How does being a loveless aro impact your understanding of divine love?

How does being a lovequeer aro impact your understanding of divine love?

[tricoufamily]

a current day nils and a 90s college student nils who's way too intense about his internship walk into a bar

[ritsukaaoyagi]

i scanned the ageswap story + character files + the ritsuka's photo album and fashion snap pages... im gonna put whatever else i scan from the fanbook in this drive. once again do whatever u want with the pix no rules

[things-that-weevils-do]

@faineant-girl hii i really like your patient girl 👉👈!!!

[jade-jupiter]

crying again finding out that tobie read loveless and highlighted bits of georgia’s own reactions and behaviors into portray those through isaac