#THE FIGHT INSTINCT IS STRONG

[blackcatanna]

Trying not to post ANOTHER rant... Been really easily pissed off these past couple of days.

[ruporas]

wolfwood redraws (ID in alt text)

[hiirenvirna]

brighter than the sun, swifter than the wind

[kaissauce]

with every “kirby kills gods at any minor inconvenience” “kirby is a ruthless killer” “kirby is literally a god” “kirby is a complete unaware infant” joke, i write a word to my fic. that’s how i’ve been able to write so much

[frodo-of-the-nine-fingers]

i think that characters that choose not to do bad things and hurt people not because they don't want to or because it's Wrong but because they don't want to have to live with it afterwards are so sexy. like i wont kill you even though it would make things infinitely easier for me or make me feel better in the moment because i know one day I'll come to regret it or be haunted by this act of violence so i simply will not. like it doesn't even make them morally superior (often they inflict things on the other person that are arguably Worse than death or physical violence) it just makes them different

[belpheg0r-luna]

Hear me out, Beatrice and Benedick as an aries and libra couple. What do we think?

[aro-sora]

Heartless

This month's Carnival of Aros theme is "Humanity and the Non-Human" and these prompts were particularly resonant with me:

It’s been a fairly well-documented phenomenon that many aromantics tend to feel some sort of connection to some sort of fictional non-human species, whether as specific examples, or as a whole. If you relate, what are your thoughts on these characters and concepts as an aro(-spec)? Do you have any experiences in any subcultures related to non-humanity, such as Voidpunk?

So I thought I'd write something about my personal experiences.

It will come as no surprise to people who follow this blog that I am a heartless aromantic and I'm also a huge Kingdom Hearts fan. (To anyone who isn't familiar with KH, in the games there are beings of darkness called Heartless. There's a lot of designs and some are cooler than others so here are a few of my favorites:)

[ID: Various Heartless from Kingdom Heartles, in order, a Shadow, a Neoshadow, a Soldier, and a Darkling. End ID]

These beings are both literally and very much not literally (it's complicated) heartless. They are manifestations of the darkness in people's hearts and seek to steal more hearts to transform into Heartless.

(something something beings that are recognizably human but also . . . not and yet still have the instinctual desire to reclaim what was taken)

A common stereotype about aromantic people is that we are heartless and unfeeling because we don't experience romantic love. Aromanticism may influence a person's emotions and definitely impacts views on romance, but to say that all aros are cold and emotionless is hurtful and arophobic. But I also genuinely identify with the term "heartless." Not feeling romantic attractions makes me feel alienated from amatonormative society, and "heartless aro" is the best way for me to describe that feeling.

My love of Kingdom Hearts is also a huge influence on that. When I say KH rewired my brain, it's only a half joke. I was 5-6 years old when I first discovered these games and this bizarre Disney/Final Fantasy crossover was a very formative experience. "Heartless" is not just a way to describe my aromanticism, its a defining aspect.

What is it, to be Heartless? To be human, once, but now something . . . other: a being born of darkness. Darkness is a force that is often used for evil, but still KH makes a point of not making it inherently evil. Darkness exists in every heart. It can overwhelm, but it can also be accepted and mastered, like in Riku's case. To choose to become Heartless, in Sora's case, is a defining moment of humanity.

My blog url might be aro-sora (because let's be honest, he's super arospec) but the title, "My Heart Belongs to Me," is quote from Roxas, one of the best examples in KH of someone being denied humanity for supposedly not having a heart, yet being one of the most caring and emotional characters in the series. He's not an actual capital-H Heartless (that's Sora, briefly) but his story and his struggles just . . . resonate with me. "I am me! Nobody else!" I want for people to stop thinking of me as something I am not, as desiring relationships I don't want, or even being a gender I am not.

I don't have much experience with voidpunk culture (but now I want to look into it), but recently I discovered the term otherhearted: "Identifying strongly with something nonhuman and/or fictional, without literally identifying as that thing." (I'm a bit on the fence between being otherhearted and otherkin, but otherheart literally has the word "heart" in it and the KH influence is strong.) It's a very queer experience to want to change your identity and be something other than what people see you as. Sometimes I imagine that for myself—claws of darkness, eyes of burning gold. Darkness cannot exist without light, but neither can light exist without darkness. Nothing can destroy me, because I am the shadow at the very heart of the world.

I guess that would make me Heartless-hearted. An ironic term, I know, but similarly to my personal heartless aro identity I find it absolutely hilarious. So many parts of my identity are "contradictions": being bigender, being human and heartless. It fits with the lore of the Heartless themselves: some technically do possess hearts and some don't. (it's complicated)

I call myself heartless the same way I call myself queer. Bigots will use them as insults and an attempt to make me lesser and other and nonhuman, but to me these are my words. They are mine and I give them power, no one else. Someone thinks I'm "heartless" for not experiencing a certain feeling? Fuck them, I AM heartless. And I am still human because I choose to be, not because humanity is something to be given or taken away. I don't have to prove anything about myself to anyone. I define my own heart, NO ONE ELSE.

And if they still think that being heartless—being aromantic—is something "wrong" or "unnatural" or not human? I only have a warning for them:

Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it.

[faultsofyouth]

I've always had a special interest for Caucasian shepherds but I literally don't trust any article about good guard dog breeds that recommends them without a page long warning about them

[raiiny-bay]

learning a lot more about my OCs than i thought i would while writing these lil bios

[childofaura]

Oh my fucking gosh, it’s starting.

I’m honestly indifferent to Peach herself in the Mario movie; I’m mainly gonna be there to see Mario, Luigi, and Bowser. But the same exact shit that happened to Amy Rose, where people think she isn’t a strong character or doesn’t have a personality because she’s feminine and cutesy, is happening to Peach. The millionth “This character now acts like a girlboss, she’s automatically improved!” ice cold takes we’re seeing.

Do people just ignore that Peach is a kind and mild leader, who enjoys sports on the side and even participates in fighting on the side? OG Peach would see you sitting alone at a table, ask to sit next to you, and offer you tea and delicious cake. And yet she’s canonically taken action and saved Mario and Luigi on her own.

Not to mention her hospitable personality has de-escalated situations:

I can respect people who like this incarnation of Peach but holy shit, stop pretending like she didn’t already have a personality.

[goatboard]

i cant say what do i think about Miles and Franziska having Manfred's habits. fuking. imagine being detective Badd, forced to babysit those two kids that compete with each other over something that, ethically, shouldn't be a competition and they're just a both a mirror image of their mentor, which, fucking breaks me if you consider that Franziska is 13 and Miles isn't all that older, they're both too young to act like this over two dead bodies

how many have they seen already? has Manfred ever taken Miles and Franziska to a crime scene when they were barely teens? like, man, at the end of the day it is, psychological child abuse, for the love of god

and they're a mirror image of him, they're a mirror image of a man that killed Miles' father, they're a mirror image of a man that raised his daughter to chase something so unachievable if you have any fucking moral backbone. they act and speak as him and i can't help but imagine that it just. haunts them, even after he's long gone

how do you live while knowing that the one man that fucked you up lives on through you?

[tired-biscuit]

Ki coded: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzjZUuEot3a/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

hdjsjdjdhd i imagine him becoming such a softy the moment he gets comfortable around you! you watch a sad movie and when you look at him, you can see his eyes are kind of glossy as they reflect the light from the tv, so you’re like “are you crying?”

and he’s just like “NO??!?!” but then he sniffles LOUDLY and is kind of rubbing his nose into the sleeve of his hoodie and looking away and just acting dramatic in that signature kiba fashion hahhahah (he also threatens you that he’ll kill you if you tell anyone about this)

[dutybcrne]

Smth smth, Khaenriahns having similar thing to the Ackermans in AoT

[yore-donatsu]

Une vrai tête de mule ! (He is stubborn)

Don’t forget: Theo is the @doodlesdreaming​’s OC ^^

[louisdelac]

i adore episode 1 corinthian btw. baby bird flying away from the nest for the very first time, going off to enjoy himself, only to be met with the chiding, surely fatal disapproval of his maker. and when asked why he would disobey his purpose in being created, he has nothing more to offer than "i wanted to" but he doesn't have the words for i wanted to, and so he couches his own whimsy into the only worldview he's ever had, the one that dream gave him, "you created me in your image, and i am doing this, and so you should want me to be doing this. please say you want me to be doing this". literally a child just beginning to grasp the idea that he could be autonomous from the person who birthed him, and then that autonomy nearly kills him.

[bokatan]

for the "make your ocs suffer" ask, 3, 6, 9, and 12 for reed and mercy?

[ make your OCs suffer ]

3: Do they try to prevent unnecessary suffering?

Reed: Yes, no questions asked. He doesn't enjoy killing, but it's part of what he does for a living and he wants to get it over with as quickly and cleanly as possible.

Mercy: In general, yes. There are exceptions though- if that person/affiliated faction has intentionally harmed her or a loved one and she's going after them for revenge, or if it's someone like a slaver, cult leader, abuser, etc- she's more than likely going to drag it out and let them suffer a bit.

6: How far would they go to save someone they love? Would they sacrifice themselves? Others?

Reed: He wouldn't have any issues killing someone else to save a loved one. He's typically pretty willing to sacrifice himself, too- he's been injured a handful of times from trying to protect a loved one.

Mercy: There’s some variation depending on who that someone is, but in general: she’d kill a stranger without much thought & it wouldn’t take much to push her to self-sabotage to save someone she loves. I think she could potentially be pushed to sacrifice herself for a loved one, but it’d take a lot and she’d do her best to find a different solution before going that route.

9: What do they regret the most?

Reed: He regrets not trying to get any of the squires or Ingram off the Prydwen prior to destroying it. He knows that he’s responsible for their deaths, that they were collateral damage, and that they likely could’ve been convinced to get out beforehand if he’d actually worked out a real plan rather than following a half-assed impulsive decision. He tries very hard not to acknowledge that though.

Mercy: She regrets a lot of the work that led up to her getting into the Enclave, & she regrets the work she did under them. She’s trying not to let it go to waste though- a lot of the traveling she does is with the intent to collect what she can from various research facilities and build off of it.

12: How easy is it for them to get lost in despair?

Reed: it’s actually pretty hard- he’s the type that would rather die fighting than just accepting that it’s a lost cause.

Mercy: She’s not likely to actually get lost in it. She doesn’t get volatile in the same manner that Reed does, but she also has a very strong instinct to fight and she’s much more likely to plot and wait for an opportunity than she is to just accept that there’s nothing else she can do.