pheidippidestriesthings

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Nonace aro week 2025 day 4: Hargrave Proudclaw ft. Amber from Armello (can you tell he's my blorbo)

Nothing says intergenerational support like a young person telling an older person "There's a word for that. You're not alone." and an old person telling a younger person "If anyone thinks they can hurt you, they'll have to go through me."

Rambling related to prompt below the cut

Hargrave is not young. Not in canon, and never in any of the stories I come up with. He was young once, of course, but regardless of the AU, I count him as part of an older generation that didn't have the specific language that we have now. When he was young, he was "heartless" or "shallow" or "eccentric", but as he works through his shit and starts forming relationships that aren't negative, any young queers in his life would be able to clock him IMMEDIATELY. And in a story where he is at all close with any of them, they would be the ones to give him the real word for his experience. He isn't any of the insults that he was called before, he's aromantic. And that's a NORMAL THING TO BE even if it isn't exactly common.

As older folk tend to be, I imagine Hargrave to be the type to brush it off and say he doesn't really care about labels of any sort. Not for his sexuality, or for his stance on relationships. But in a world where he were able to have long thoughtful conversations with a young queer in his life, he'd probably at least agree to don the colors in mutual solidarity for a Pride event.

Of course shout out to my trans Amber headcanon. My favorite AU of these two is a universe in which they're related and both the black sheeps of the family, so despite starting off disliking each other, they quickly bond over being each other's only decent family member. Amber teaches Hargrave the words he doesn't know and shows him the acceptance he never had, and Hargrave lends his years of combat experience and general intimidating presence to escorting her in public such that she feels safe.

[pheidippidestriesthings]

NonAce Aro Week 2025 day 2: yeah I know D&D isn't a fandom but give me a break my little guy fits this prompt too well.

rambling related to prompt below the cut

This is a moment directly from our campaign epilogue, where my friend had his character (dragonborn she/her, left) ask my character (kobold he/him, right) to be her partner without prior discussion. I don't remember much about it besides that it happened, because my friend fully took my hands and acted it out and I (aroace) bluescreened. Fully froze, couldn't meet his eyes, no words head empty. When I had no response, my friends around the table were observant enough to move on to the next scene, but my real life reaction became canon.

I had never thought much about my kobold's stance on romance, besides that he came from a tense kobold colony that couldn't spare the time or attention for romance, and my guy has been too busy surviving to worry about romance since he left. I should have known that making a rather queer (aromantic) society would result in a queer (aromantic) character. What would have otherwise been subtext simply became explicit text.

That he is allosexual was already confirmed, but in a moment of intense character bleed, he became canonically aromantic. I simply can't make a character that is both allosexual and alloromantic.

Yahoo for my little alloaro guy!

[pheidippidestriesthings]

NonAce Aro Week 2025 day 2 ft. Hargrave Proudclaw from Armello

Rambling related to the prompt as well, below the cut

In every AU I have conceived featuring Hargrave, one thing is always certain in my mind: Though he doesn't have the word for it, he has always known he has no interest in romance or love. This goes hand in hand with my projection onto him of being a social outcast for the entirety of his pre-adult years. Of course he doesn't believe in love- for the most part, he struggles as it is to believe in friendship and goodwill between strangers. In every story, this is challenged by a meeting and increasing closeness with a good-natured idealist and romantic-at-heart Horace. This fundamental contrast between them shines best in situations where they're otherwise the most similar people to each other (relics of a bygone era who are now largely overlooked and on the verge of irrelevance), and as such drift together due to being the only ones who understand each other. They very often become something queerplatonic, but without fail, Hargrave is the instigator- he knows what he wants and where he draws the line, and from a history of being called heartless or unfeeling in past relationships, he is upfront about what is and isn't on the table. Of course Horace challenges these boundaries, but all through their negotiations, Hargrave is up front and clear: he will try to tolerate a little romance if he must, but all romance ends when his patience runs out and under NO circumstances will he tolerate the "L-word".

To summarize my headcanons for Hargrave's aversion to romantic realtionshps:

Lifelong aro from an old-fashioned era when someone who didn't partner was simply considered eccentric. Because he knew from youth that he has a distaste for romance, he has only ever engaged in relationships that were physical, with a preference for something that wouldn't require trust or emotional vulnerability, until he has his first real friend who challenges him to genuinely trust someone for the first time, whereupon he concedes to a relationship that is essentially long-term committed fwb to live out their twilight years in mutual support and understanding.

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Non-Ace Aro Fanwork Week 2025

ever notice the devastating lack of fanworks that involve aromanticism without asexuality? so have i, so after a brief contemplation period i’ve decided to host a fanwork event specifically centred around non-asexual aromanticism. this is kind of spur of the moment and i’m still sorting a few things out, but, i’m confident enough in my planning to start the blog today and post up a spread of how it’s gonna go down!

but first, a little bit about your host. i am Ace (as in, thats my name), but i alternatively go by Ivory. my pronouns are it/its and neopronouns. where i fall on the aromantic spectrum is still to be determined, where i fall between strict asexuality and strict allosexuality is even less determined.

schedule

prompt submission: May 4th to May 10th prompt voting: May 11th to May 17th prompts posted: May 18th (probably wont have fancy formatting) downtime to pre-write/pre-draw: May 19th to May 31st posting week: June 1st to June 7th

guidelines

1: anyone can participate! whether you’re non-ace aro or otherwise, so long as you create works that focus on aromanticism without asexuality then you’re welcome!

2: please tag your works properly! smut is allowed and welcomed, but it’d be nice to have a little bit of warning when i’m scrolling through works, and feel free to tag the blog too

3: don’t worry about posting “late”! i’ll be scrolling around for things posted late through all of June, aim for posting during the week but it’s okay if ya don’t

4: any fandoms and any “ships” are allowed! this is a multifandom event, and, truthfully, the more the merrier

5: most importantly, have fun with it!

annnnnd that brings this post to a close!

i hope that this fandom week brings the non-ace aro community a little bit closer together, that it spreads awareness within fandom, and most importantly, that the people have fun with it.

arrow assets made by @aroworlds, and if anyone has any questions about it, the askbox is open!

-Ivory

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Save me cowboy vampire therapist. I know you only for a week, but I will kill go to a therapy for you

Honestly you need to go and play Vampire Therapist RIGHT NOW. Every line here is hilarious. Here are some examples out of context 👇🏻

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Art fight attack 14 (revenge) for @pheidippidestriesthings

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Started playing Vampire Therapist. The characters are very fun. I love digging into the deep psychology of people/characters, so a game about unpacking deeply ingrained psychology is right up my alley

Paper and a tiny sticky note- I find sticky notes feel more temporary and disposable than a sketchbook, and it helps me get around the desire to only do things that will look finished and good. So by embracing an even more temporary medium, I am more willing to do stuff and as such practice more and as such make things I like.

Fr tho, the game is only $15. There are times when I become aware that $15 is a fair price. But overall it is a delight, and I am the target audience.

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Art Fight Revenge on @pheidippidestriesthings, starring his Paladin Bloom!!

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Practicing animating again, a little more complex than before, with @jackzarts 's tiefling/genasi, Pyre!

The limited palette I use (which I stubbornly don't want to deviate from even a little) does NOT do this character justice- he is very vibrant! I'm more and more proud of what I'm doing, but it is also exposing the areas I really need to practice.

tw: slight flashing (blue/green faint color shifting)

[pheidippidestriesthings]

artfight attacks so far this year! had the chance to draw some lovely characters so far belonging to @pheidippidestriesthings, @metamatronic, @sivsii, and @/mini-munch on artfight!

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Ive turned into an artistic weapon this year >:D

Artfight, 2024 week 1!! GO TEAM SEAFOAM!!

art tag // commission info // fight me!

Credits (as listed on AF):

Row 1: @_zoshaa_ / @zannianator / @teaweltzer / @wildfur_ / @ultrainfinitepit / @skillerthebean2000

Row 2: @verrask_ / @tinyabbey / @leidensygdom / @stasisquo / Sapphire878 / @tealty

Row 3: @floofities / ponkle / @the-history-munarch / @emburnes / nothinbutgoop / @moersleutelart

Row 4: @r4tso / @pheidippidestriesthings / @gemshine / @crowvaarts / @midnightziege

Row 5: @tema-makes-art-sometimes / Celiegans / @nakakabaliw / @ammidemonica / @galoogamelady / knight-of-april

Row 6: @corvussei / @3venart / @almost-cryptic-art / @hannamuriel / kidminish / @quesospoon

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Revenge for revenge, @chebits 's Che! In two pixel art styles- one tiny sprite and one full body portrait. So fluffy!!

[pheidippidestriesthings]

🥺 Ohhhhh my god I am in LOVE

Revenge on artfight for @pheidippidestriesthings !

I was possessed to draw your whole party rather than anyone in particular, because I mean.. c'mon, you never split the party!!!

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Woof, slacked off all morning to get one attack with @chebits 's D&D character Tryx. She is described as knowing ASL, so I knew that was where my light-animation would be. Very pleased with how strongly the hands resemble what they are supposed to. (T-R-Y-X, she is spelling her name)

At first I hoped to do some of my first in-between frames for animation, but I went for full shading instead- and Tryx looks all the better for it!

[pheidippidestriesthings]

First of the morning. Looked up a cool D&D character, forgot that it was also friendly-fire. I'm not helping get a lot of points this year, but there are too many cool characters on Team Seafoam. This time, @baysalt 's Sunny! Very cute character!

I'm enjoying making the little animations- this should be my thing this year, dipping my toes into animation.

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Thought I was done for the day but I had one in me! Smaller, simpler, but lightly animated. Friendly-fire featuring @hay-bails 's Johnny (based on Devil Went Down to Georgia). Gave him a performer suit like Lil Nas X, and the devil's fiddle as a bright red guitar.

Lightly flashing, possible jumpscare.

[pheidippidestriesthings]

Only one today- probably the only one, and it's a two-hit combo on @pichiicake with Felix and Ray Beez! I got a kick out of how Ray Beez looked halfway through drawing him, and thought it was too funny to fix. Felix looks like such a ray of sunshine- I love me a wholehearted optimist :)