#also I tried to look up stuff about aro relationships and stuff

[mantisgodsdomain]

Winning a prize personally by being someone's "well, this trope isn't usually my style, but i know this author is Really Good at writing so i'll check it out anyways" author

[oddishblossom]

recommending hirano to kagiura (the holy grail of slow burns) to other people is hard because how do i say “ok so there’s this really good slice of life roommates to best friends to lovers slow burn. chapter 1 technically starts on volume 2 of this other manga called sasaki to miyano. well, if you count the prequel it actually starts as a spin-off light novel. anyway, the manga yes, it’s called sasaki to miyano go to the extra bonus chapters at the end of the volumes that’s where hirano to kagiura’s story starts. after you’ve read all the bonus chapters you can start the spin-off manga called hirano to kagiura.

it updates every 2-3 months. we’ve already had a confession scene and they’re still not together. one of the leads straight up turned down the other guy but they’re in some schrodinger’s cat kind of relationship. they hold hands and hug and stuff but only for 10 seconds per day. kagiura is a giant basketball guy with big puppy dog “good boy” energy. a bit of a brat. teensy bit stubborn and possessive. he can ask for whatever he wants because he’s special and he knows it. and then there’s hirano. don’t even get me started on that pretty boy. kagiura was doomed to fall in love with hirano the day they met and this scary blond boy started calling him “kagi-kun”.

look at this aro/ace king. he’s never had a crush in his life. hirano is a walking contradiction. he’s a “former bad boy” who’s now a member of the disciplinary committee club. a grumpy boy with straight A’s, earrings, bleached hair and a soft spot for his roommate. calls him cute nicknames and dotes on him (ie: wakes him up every day, eats the food he doesn’t want, goes to his basketball games, tutors him, compliments him all the time, gets mad at him when he tries to create distance, has the biggest smile around only him, can never say no to him). except he can say no to him because of course he turned the guy down and yet. he is still willing to… try. a little trial relationship of sorts. because it’s kagiura. his roomie and his bestie. and i just

what the hell is this indeed.

watching them discover love in the slowest of slow burns is not only agonizing but also amazing and sweet and the best thing ever and i need more people to know about them. they’re also hilarious and have a huge height difference. hirano’s not even short kagiura’s just a titan (6'3"/190cm)”

[cottonraincoat]

okay the time has come I cannot procrastinate this any longer:

Obikin Big Bang beta: help needed!!

tl;dr: I'm writing a big bang fic about Obi-Wan and Anakin figure skating, they're also respectively aromantic and asexual, it'll probably end up ~60k, I would be suuuper grateful if someone could help me look through the final-ish draft, for grammar and spelling, over the next two-ish months.

ALTERNATIVELY if anyone is happy to just chat about either figure skating, or the disaster aro/aceness of these boys, I would also love that very much please hmu!!!

--- more stuff under the cut ---

working title: figure skating?? (as it's called in the docs)

rating: T

wc: 60k (12 * 5k chapters- a rough estimate)

some tags: Alternate Universe- Modern AU, Asexual Anakin Skywalker, Aromantic Obi-Wan Kenobi, Internalized Aphobia, Getting Together, Queerplatonic Relationships, Slow Burn, Angst and Fluff, Inspired by Yuri On Ice (sort of)

This is my first big bang, I've not written with a beta before, and I've certainly not tried to finish anything this long before. so, whew: leaning curve! I'm at the point where I'm producing chapter drafts which are close to their final versions, but also debating the details of some scenes and descriptions. And so, I'd like some help with the following things:

good old grammar and spelling! (I changed the whole thing from past to present tense at some point so there may be slip ups) this will be hopefully just a final pass of a version of the draft that won't change very much, a draft I'll hopefully produce at some point, incrementally, between now and the end of september :'D

skating stuff: I am a casual fan of the sport, so between a pandemic-years-old youtube rabbit hole and tearing my hair out trying to read ISU documentation, I'm still trying to figure out "how skate". (I thought I was in pretty deep but iceberg always goes deeper.) I'd sleep a lot easier if anyone who knows more than me about skating would be willing to give the skating descriptions (up to 10k max) a read through to check for realism.

aroace stuff: this is a big one. It's arguably even more important to me to get this right than the skating. In addition to being a disaster aspec myself, I've been trying to read up a bit, but that still leaves some gaps between my knowledge/experience and the experiences of these characters in the fic. Which is why I would really really like a second pair of eyes on some of the scenes and characterisations.

60k is like, a lot of words and I am still slowly being forced out of denial about it so I know that even a spag check is a big ask. But honestly, anything is appreciated, whether you could help me with Obi-Wan's aro-allo-ness, or figure out how to people three whole Grand Prix events. As for contact, here, or discord, or anywhere you know me will be fine!

Now let's call it at that, before this post gets any longer. If you've read till here- thank you already!

[aspecpplarebeautiful]

Hey! I’m kinda struggling to understand myself at the moment so I was hoping someone else might have experience with this.

I am ace and possibly aro and about two months ago I was in a very brief relationship with a good friend of mine. We had tried to go out before but I didn’t know her that well back then so I always got scared and backed away from any kind of physical touch and we decided to just stay friends.

Now, at the time of the second attempt, we had been friends for almost two years and I felt something towards her that I would have thought were romantic feelings. I got jealous whenever she mentioned another potential girl she liked, imagined how nice it would be to live life together and stuff like that. So I asked her out and we started dating.

Only for me to find out that nothing had changed. It was as if someone had flipped a switch. The second we called each other girlfriends, I felt like I was stuck in a fight or flight situation and I wanted to avoid her desperately. So we went back to being friends.

But now, two months after that, I lie awake at night thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have called it off so quickly. I feel like she is the only one I know that really gets me and that I could see myself with in the future.

This is all so contradictory and confusing to me, so maybe if someone has experienced something similar at some point I would greatly appreciate some advice! <3

It does sound like you might be experiencing romance repulsion. Romance repulsion is negative feelings that appear in certain romantic situations (what situations depend on the person), and feelings like anxiety, fight or flight, wanting to hide from the other person, etc. are all common romance repulsion feelings.

It is possible to experience romance repulsion to someone you are also romantically attraction to, which can be confusing and hard to navigate. It's possible to experience romantic attraction up until you are actually in a relationship with that person and then have the attraction fade or disappear (if someone thinks this is happening, I always recommend looking into frayromantic, lith/akoiromantic and aegoromantic labels if the person is interested in looking more into things).

It's hard to say 100% if you were to stay in the relationship if the repulsion would have faded, repulsion can be hard to predict. But it's not something I'd recommend trying for very long because when you try and push through repulsion it usually gets worse, not better.

What does tend to work is to see if there's any way to have a relationship that doesn't set off the repulsion. For example some people might be more comfortable in a QPR (which is a catchall term for any relationship that can't be easily categorized as romantic or friendship, and tend to be heavily tailored to the people in the relationship), and then defining the relationship as platonic. So for example you can still have a committed relationship and do things you want in a relationship but leave out anything that sets off your replusion.

This doesn't work for everyone, so don't feel pressured if it's not right for you, but don't be afraid to try different things and see how they go. Remember there's no rules in what a relationship can look like and what it can involve so long as it's not harming anyone and the people in it are happy with it. Hopefully you do eventually find something that works for you.

All the best, Anon! Good luck!

[lucithekingofhell]

Good afternoon your greatness! Hello Zoe! How y'all doin’? How's your loveable red-headed deer doing?….. I didn't break him already did I? Hope not. Not till LATER🤪🤣🤣

Luci, quick query do you know what the terms Aromantic and asexual, more commonly called aro and ace, are? It is highly suspected by fans(it is confirmed I know but for his sake) that Alastor is ace if you don't already know then I can tell you. Oh and with the Al suspicions, I also advise learning the term Queer-Platonic Relationship or QPR for short, another term for it is Queer-Platonic Partnership (QPP) which I can also teach you or you can ask someone at the hotel or look it up idk lol!

Now onto some other stuff!

I have a good bonding exercise for Charlie you can recommend! Partner Dancing! (iykyk🤭😏 I expect it to be a VERY entertaining story to tell LOL)

I think Imma end it off now!

JOKE OF THE DAY FIRST!!!

I think today I will tell you my favorite and most used joke!

I was digging in my garden when I found a chest full of gold coins! I wanted to run straight inside and tell my partner about it.

Then I remembered why I was digging in my garden.

Don't get it? I'll tell you later! Well hope you and your boyfriend (?) have a good day! Bye, Zoe! Bye, Your Majesty!👋😊

"good afternoon!"

//Zoe: hi!

"we are doing pretty good, .... he's ok I guess...

//Zoe: he tried reading everything you just said and he had a malfunction, his little brain still can't understand, he will be back in a sec wait

"ok I'm back, if I try to read that again I think I may faint or something of the sorts, so just to answer all that I'll say no. Moving on, oh that does sound like a good bonding exercise! I'll inform her of it! Yes, my favorite part! HAHAHA, I DID GET IT!....Wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN BOYFRI-"

//Zoe: BYE!

[madschiavelique]

Hello! May I please request Miguel head cannons with an asexual! Reader. Both romantic and platonic. I don’t feel like reader needs any specific pronouns so they/them are fine. Thank you so much!

HI ANON

I took more time to write this one because i wanted to make sure i would give correct representation ! i talked to my bestie @gollygothgal so that she might help me on this and tried my very best ! i also tried to learn more on the subject with this video right here

PLEASE if you are ace and you feel like you have not been represented properly in this i beg you to tell me, misrepresenting you is the last thing in the world i would ever wish for

word count : 757 words (without vocabulary)

headcanons : Miguel x asexual!reader

Platonic :

when you came out to him, you had to properly explain to him what this meant

because although this man is very understanding, he also doesn’t know much about sexuality and gender (you also had to explain to him about gender, be patient with him because he’s trying very hard to understand)

the man made EXTENSIVE research on the matter, asking Lyla about articles and historical events as well as chemical explanation just to be sure to understand you and respect your orientation

once he understood what it was exactly, he bought you an ace bracelet so that you could go around the society without being bothered, but also so that you could be sure that you were in a safe environment that respected your sexuality and identity

you might’ve gotten anxious about the possibility that he would’ve looked at you in a different way when coming out to him, but this man just dearly wants you to be honest with him so that he can be sure to never ever make you feel uncomfortable in any sort of way

at this point he knows everything about the subject, to the extent that he might even know more than you on it

if you’re (aro)ace, he might try and strangle any person that annoys you the slightiest bit on the subject of your sexuality

someone actually once compared your sexuality as “just being single” and Miguel was so about to braid their veins

“yea I’m just like you I don’t want to have sex this year” ← the person who said this ended up to the hospital

he heard about a sort of inside joke in the community of asexuals about them loving cake, so he buys you some occasionally

he is curious though about how your life works with that, but will only ask questions if you assure him you’re comfortable on this subject

romantic :

first of all, he is very respective of your sexual orientation

once, you felt bad about not being able to satisfy him sexually, and wanted to at least try to do something for him

but it made you way too uncomfortable and had to stop

Miguel was not disappointed at all, far from it, because you had tried your best and he loved you no matter what

he spent his whole time after that event comforting telling you how it is okay

because this man is grown alright

he knows that love is not only about sex, and that sex is just a part of love. things like trust, respect and communication are much more important to him than carnal stuff

he knows that you love him, and that’s all that matters to him

one of this man’s love languages is touch, and whenever he touches you, he has to hear from your own words that you are okay with him touching you even if it’s on regular places of the body like the waist for instance

once he accidentally touched your butt = the man apologised and felt bad for the entire day because of this no matter how you told it’s okay

you were worried that miguel would want to stop dating you as soon as he learned you were asexual, but not at all, because you had not built your relationship around sex, you had built your relationship around each other, and that’s what mattered to him the most

if you do like cuddling though and maybe are heteroromantic, this man will never get his hands off of you (he will also kiss you at every given moment because kisses are the “I love you”s of he body after all)

if you’re a grey asexual/sex positive asexual, he really wants to be sure before doing any move that he has your written consent

if you’re a repulsed asexual, he is completely understanding

if you’re demi-sexual and bond enough with him to have sexual attraction developing towards him, he’ll fly through the roof

if you’re autosexual, he is completely okay with that and gives you room and space for this (will even leave the house/quarters to make sure you can have this time for yourself)

if you’re acespike, he’ll waste NO TIME like- he’ll really be there on the minute for whatever you want to do

if you’re quoisexual he will be incredibly patient and of course understanding. He knows it can be hard sometimes to identify your own identity and will support you no matter what

if you’re caedsexual, and you tell him how and why, he might cry and never let go off you because he feels extremely honoured that you felt trusting enough towards him to tell him your story

vocabulary :

gray asexual : they experience some sexual attraction though it may be rare or mild, inconsistent or irregular

demisexual : they experience sexual attraction only after a very close emotional bond is formed

autosexual : they feel sexual attraction to themselves as opposed to other people (like preferring masturbation to sexual activity with a partner)

ace spike : will usually experience no sexual attraction but may sometimes have sudden very intense spikes of sexual attraction (these usually last for short periods of time before returning to feeling no sexual attraction)

quoisexual : describes a little bit of uncertainty or confusion as to your identity on the asexual spectrum/can describe someone who doesn’t really understand sex or sexual orientation as it relates to themselves – they also sometimes don’t see the importance in defying it

caedsexual – describes someone who once had sexual attraction and no longer does, especially people that have had negative sexual experiences in the past or ptsd that contributes to their lost of attraction

[enteringdullsville]

A seasonally appropriate updated version of the old relationship chart.

EDIT: I just want to give advice for some other aspiring writers out there who want to write for pairings but aren’t necessarily writing romance stories.

If you want people to take your pairings seriously (and I don’t mean people who don’t ship them, but rather people with their high and mighty “this pairing shouldn’t be canon” perspectives), you need to be able to justify why they’re with someone and not somebody else. People have types; for example, Crimson (who isn’t pictured) is looking for someone who’s down to earth, sensible, mature, and dependable. That is to say, nobody in the core cast.

And on that note, if any of you are experimenting with bigger core casts, don’t feel compelled to pair everyone up with another member of said core cast. I don’t mean that in an aromantic way (although that certainly helps), but it certainly feels less forced and makes romantic plot lines come off as less suffocating. What you see here is 2/3 of my main cast. I’m also a firm believer in not changing orientations in characters that have set-in-stone canon ones, regardless of what they are, so I just make everyone who isn’t aro swing every way, no matter how camp or butch they seem. That should at least take the edge off of shipping wars.

Lastly, if you feel a pairing comes off as “boring”, congratulations on writing a healthy relationship! Much more to the point, just focus on what those characters have in common. There was a point in development where Rudy/Olive felt a little too generic, so I took a closer look at previous stuff I had done for them, as well as what their respective backstories, character flaws, and motivations were to build upon their dynamic. Olive especially benefits more from this process in the long run, since I was paranoid about people viewing her as a “Satellite Love Interest”.

Looking entirely within the core cast :

Violet X Gordon/Strong Suit

Both are giant nerds who love to write creatively

Best friends since they were 8. Began dating/got married when they were 23

Violet’s demiromantic; it took her a couple extra years to realize she wanted a romantic relationship with him

Gordon was in love with her since he was 13 and was fully prepared to let it go if it meant they could stay friends

Married for 5 years with a sweet little handful daughter

Mild mannered behemoth and his vicious scarecrow wife

They’re each other’s muses

He can carry her with one arm

Rudy X Olive/Scratch Paper

Dorks, the lot of them

Rudy has the right combination of being fun but not insane; perfect for someone introverted but silly like Olive

Initially tried to dismiss her feelings as an infatuation before settling for simply pining in secret. She completely forgot that the entire series is on the internet for people, Rudy included, to see

Rudy likes her in turn because she doesn’t view him as a menace or a child. He also sees her as the cool, mysterious loner girl and that’s a massive plus for him

He knows she has it bad but is waiting for her to build confidence

She’s teaching him how to draw. He loves her surrealist works

She’s not afraid to take shots at him or call him out on his idiocy

J. X Paige/Mystery Novel

Neither talk that much and have definite social anxiety, but they ironically are very comfortable around each other

Her interest in him started off as curiosity about J.’s generally mysterious behavior

They’re uncharacteristically cuddly with each other

J. very briefly used to have an unrequited crush on Peony. Paige is still a little salty if it gets brought up

Since Rudy and J. are brothers, Olive and Paige have gotten closer as friends in turn

Angie X Bryan/Sugar and Spice

Silly, flirty girl and soft, dorky guy

Angie hits on him constantly, but since she hits on a lot of people (and a lot of people hit on him) he initially doesn’t take her advances seriously

Angie wants to squeeze and hug him so badly

Bryan wishes he had her confidence; Angie wishes she had his sensibility

She can lift him over her head

Chloe X Geneva/Mad Science

Tsundere and Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Geneva thinks she’s just the cutest thing

She can easily pick Chloe up and it drives her crazy

Chloe catches feelings quickly; Geneva’s of course oblivious

No matter what Chloe invents, Geneva still thinks she’s cool

Chloe’d be more outwardly receptive to her if she weren’t so obsessed with looking mature

Lyman X Ingrid/Death Glare

A more low key “background romance”

Sprang from Ingrid’s “freaky is hot” mentality

Lyman has no fear of Ingrid, and that helps their relationship

It takes a bit for Ingrid to see beyond his cool empath powers

Ingrid is surprisingly huggy with him. Lyman’s cool with whatever

Noah X Whitney/Checkmate

Chill slacker and high-strung rule follower

They’ve been friends for years so Whitney’s not as tsundere as Chloe, but she still refuses to admit her increasingly obvious feelings

She gets insanely jealous whenever Noah flirts with someone else, which is often

Geneva calls him a “notorious cootie catcher”. He’ll flirt with any Drewman older than 20, but all Whitney has to do is raise an eyebrow and he becomes a stuttering dork

He keeps her balanced, she keeps him motivated

Tyler X Fuchsia/Tooth and Nail

You know what? Actually screw opposites attract. Let similar people be in love for once

In all seriousness, while Fuchsia’s less likely to antagonize people unprovoked, Ty’s got better people skills

Established relationship. Tyler’s the one who vouched for Fuchsia to join ICT

Fuchsia gets very easily embarrassed by PDA

Most people are terrified of her, but Tyler thinks she’s adorable

Sometimes Fuchsia comes in to work with massive marks from Tyler’s shark teeth. Don’t bring it up to her face

Amber X Aaron X Perry/Triple A

The old Archie, Betty, and Veronica schtick

Both fall for her early on and she thinks both of them are cute. It takes a long time before Amber gets tired of their rivalry and takes them both

Amber totally calls the shots in their ménage à trois. Aaron and Perry are completely whipped

Amber and Aaron are a classic cheerleader and jock matchup. Both are peppy, goofy sweethearts

Aaron and Perry are a great rivals to lovers story. Even after burying the hatchet, they still try to one up each other constantly

Perry and Amber are yet another tsundere and cinnamon roll pairing, although since Perry’s so excited for somebody to think he’s actually cool, he’s a lot more outwardly nice to her, even before getting together

Both Aaron and Amber agree Perry’s adorable. Any affection they give him leaves him a blushing mess

Aaron is the one who carries them over his shoulders to prove a point

Amber’s endgame is to expand the relationship until she achieves world domination. Her sights are on Tyler and Fuchsia next.

Landon X Alexandre/Gilded Lily

Semi-toxic yaoi. Like, not so toxic that you wouldn’t want them to get together, but enough to stop them from being glurgey

Al’s normally a pushover, but Landon’s great at pushing his buttons to tick him off

“I can fix him” vs “I can corrupt him”

Landon’s best friends with Veronica, who ping pongs between wanting him to become her brother in law and threatening Landon to get his talons out of her big brother

Landon’s very selective of his partners. Alex ticks all his boxes of being sweet, perky, and a little awkward

[aroaceconfessions]

I'm more confident in saying I am aro than I am ace. maybe fluctuating ace? I'm not sure. Anyway, I used to be very obsessed with ships and multishipping, mainly my favourite characters with anyone that they have good relationship with (includes all types of shipping, with polycules). And almost always, I get annoyed and tired after seeing so much of the popular ones, that I stop shipping them and focus on less popular ones or crackships. This would happen so often in fandoms I join: I like a ship, I consume and share content, then it's too much and overwhelming for me, I stop following the ship and maybe even block it so I just enjoy gen stuff. It doesn't have to be because of how fandom treat them either. Sometimes I happily think about certain ships in my head and then not long after I get an overwhelming feeling that makes me annoyed at them. This also applies to real life where I tried fantasizing my future love life and end up feeling so sick of it. Maybe I actually have a small tolerance on romance and I don't realise it. But after finding out about QPRs and the fact that some people would actually be partners without the whole romance/sex thing, everything makes so much sense to me. Anyway I still like shipping but it's a very queerplatonic way, so I can enjoy it a lot more in my own space and I rarely interact with ships in fandom nowadays (due to how some people feel very strongly about it, in a way I don't understand). and then finding out about aplatonics, afamilials, the accurate explanation of my feeling is just YES. YES YESSSS. i appreciate the understanding of people being able to have good interactions and meaningful bonds (sometimes deep/close, sometimes not) with one other, without some sort of requirement that they must have a certain feeling (attraction?) towards a person in order for them to act that way (sorry does what I'm explaining make sense)

I think I forgot what the original point of my confession was, but I want to say thank you thank you thank you everyone in the community for existing. I still have a lot to learn and understand, and I really look forward to it

Submitted May 20, 2023

[yardsards]

What made you realize you’re aro? An idea has been planted in my head of me being aro

i feel like for me, my thing was less about *realizing* i was aro and more about *accepting* that i was aro. (also talk abt my asexuality in here bc those two parts of my identity feel very intertwined. and some gender stuff as well)

as a little kid, i didn't have any crushes. i assumed all my classmates that said they had crushes were just lying or doing some kind of social performance that i (as an undiagnosed autistic who frequently felt left out by my peers' social rules) figured i just didn't get. i figured real crushes wouldn't happen til we were teenagers or something.

when i was like 13, i was clicking around on wikipedia, and found an article about asexuality. immediately i identified myself in it (and realized that oh, it wasn't the default). my confusion about why the girls my age always talked about finding guys hot finally made sense to me. it just clicked into place.

i read up more about asexuality. i looked at the asexual tag on tumblr. i learned about aromanticism and the split attraction model.

but i wasn't ready to accept being aromantic yet. i labelled myself a heteroromantic asexual for several months, maybe even a year. the idea of never having sex wasn't scary to me. but the idea of never falling in love was *terrifying*. so i told myself i just hadn't met the right boy yet and would grow into it. (you'd think a 13 year old would figure out their romantic orientation before their sexual orientation, cuz it's normal for sexual attraction to not be fully developed yet. but i was not coming from the most logical place here)

over time, seeing aromantics online, and unlearning heteronormativity and amatonormativity, the idea of being aromantic started to feel less scary. so i *began* to accept the fact that i could be aro and that would be okay, and started calling myself aromantic.

but a part of me still didn't *want* to be aromantic.

i tried looking for alternative explanations. i questioned if i was a lesbian: i now knew i didn't want to be any boy's girlfriend, but being a girl's girlfriend was never shoved down my throat (and didn't have heteronormative gender roles baked into it) the way dating boys was and so didn't make me so viscerally uncomfortable. and something about butch lesbians really resonated with me (hello repressed gender crisis). i found girls pretty to look at, and fun to draw.

and i had this female friend that i tended to cling to (i have always had a habit of clinging stronglyvto one best friend at a time in my younger years, as a weird autism-anxiety thing). i liked being by her side, and i wanted to hold her hand. i wanted us to be in each other's lives forever. i found myself jealous when she paid more attention to her various boyfriends and girlfriends than me. (later on i realized that she actually wasn't a very good friend and treated all of her friends like free therapy or pit stops between romantic partners. very high school.)

then i realized i was trans, and came out to some close friends.

and then two separate male-aligned friends both admitted romantic feelings towards me in a very close timespan. it made me feel warm when they told me they wanted to be with me. but i told them i didn't think i reciprocated the feelings. both of them told me they'd be okay with something queerplatonic instead of romantic. but i told them i wasn't sure about that either bc commitment like that was scary to me. and i wasn't sure that if i did want a qpr if i would want it with either of them specifically.

i started to think, maybe i was biromantic. the idea of being a boy's boyfriend didn't make my skin crawl the same way the idea of being a boy's girlfriend did. i wondered if maybe the reason i didn't say yes to being in a romantic relationship was just the same reasons i also didn't say yes to being in a queerplatonic relationship (commitment issues/not being sure if either of those particular people were right for me)

but i slowly realized that all of my feelings that i was hoping to fit into a romantic box just. weren't romantic and couldn't be forced to be romantic. it was all either just strong platonic love (i remember noting that it was roughly the same type of love i'd felt towards favorite cousins, who the idea of being romantic with obviously disgusted me). or in other cases were just me being lonely and wanting to be loved and paid attention to, and wanting any love i could get even if it were romantic. and being so afraid of being abandoned in favour of everyone getting romantic partners (because our amatonormative society says that friends should always come second to romantic partners, plus that first girl friend regularly ditching me for her partners increasing that fear) so i was hoping to be in a romantic relationship with the people i loved platonically so that i wouldn't have to worry about them leaving me behind.

idk if i explained it well, and idk if any of this is helpful to you. but yeah.

[groven4]

Markiplier Egos with an Aromantic DA / Viewer

a/n: I randomly decided I really wanna get something out for aro week, so I've got a oneshot mayhaps involving a certain adventurer in the works, but knowing me that might take a while (if I even finish it all) and these tend to be easier for me. So, that's why this exists...not that you asked.

(edit: made one for Ace hcs.)

WILFORD WARFSTACHE

He wouldn't really care, but in like a supportive way.

He may not look like it, but the guy's got some common sense.

I can't see him as the type to ask a lot of questions especially if you're visibly uncomfortable around the topic. (tho ig he might if it's for an interview, not sure)

A big part of Wil's character is just accepting shit as it is and not questioning what you can't understand because falling down that spiral is ultimately unhealthy; so if you were to come out to him as any sexuality/gender identity, he'd most likely just accept you immediately and move one.

Expect to receive a lot of aro themed stickers on pride month though.

DARKIPLIER

Also doesn't care, but it's less him being supportive (tho he is) and more: it doesn't affect him, so why should he care?

Like you do you. Your love life is none of his business.

Quite frankly, he couldn't give a shit.

Though, he might find some relatability with you.

Despite how one might interpret ADWM, I cannot see Dark as an entity with the capability to feel much of anything. (other than rage, vengefulness, etc.)

There are some vague memories of past feelings from both Celine and Damien (and possibly the house entity, idk) mostly shown through his clear favoritism for Wil.

However, I don't think he really can feel romantic feelings, nor does he want to.

Being loved sounds nice, but ultimately it would just get in the way.

So having someone around that's kind of like him in that regard is almost nice...cathartic even.

You both like to watch 'marriage gameshows' (the bachelor, love is blind, etc.) over wine and laugh about how you'll never have to deal with relationship problems. (idc if that one's ooc)

GOOGLEPLIER

He can't really feel romantic attraction himself, yk being a robot and all.

If you tried explaining aromanticism to him he'd probably just be like: "Yeah, and??".

He's supportive in a sense, that sense being: you not having a partner would mean one less meat sack he has to deal with once he manages to get admin privileges.

BINGIPLIER

Kinda stumped on this one ngl.

I just can't find a reason why he'd care whatsoever.

He'd just be like: "Oh...siiiick, brah." with total Bill and Ted energy.

ACTOR

(edit: this is pre-wkm btw. idk why I did that, it doesn't really fit with the others that way. so I probably won't do it again in future hcs. sorry ig.)

I imagine it comes up at a party.

He starts asking you about your love life.

You tell him that you've never really been interested in that kind of stuff, and you probably never will.

What does he do?

...

He calls you boring.

...

AND THEN JUST FUCKIN' WALKS AWAY- like- ????

In all seriousness, he's mostly chill about it throughout your friendship, but it's hard for me not to picture him as the type to think you're just being naive and that 'everyone has to find someone someday'. (I believe WKM takes place in the 1920s, so like, what were you expecting?)

That is until Celine cheats on him.

It was just such a world shattering thing for him, he genuinely loved her more than anything.

It's not a complete 180°, he doesn't suddenly understand your lack of attraction from this, but one night you check in with him to find him wasted in his wine cellar and he's basically like: "You had it right all along, my friend. Love...Love is not for everyone. ...Certainly not the faint of heart."

Which like, you didn't choose this, but you were more focused on making sure he was okay at the time to care.

YANCY

A part of me wants to think he'd be a little confused at first just cause the idea of having to explain aromanticism and/or asexuality to him because he's just genuinely curious is really adorable to me.

However, the rest of me refuses to believe his friend group isn't entirely comprised of both people in the lgbtq+ community and hardcore allies who would happily beat the shit out of aphobes on a daily basis.

Not to say that they think of you as child-like because of your sexuality, but it's a prison family and you're 'fresh meat' so you're their little aro-bean now whether you like it or not.

Yancy especially is protective of you in an almost older brother type way.

So if after/during coming out to them (or just him) you mention how scared you were/are because you've had a lot of bad experiences or something, he's like constantly ready to sucker punch and/or ballerina kick anyone giving you flack over just being who you are.

He's always willing to tell you how valid you are when you need to hear it, and overall is just a really great friend.

...Even with the stabbing.

ILLINOIS

In an odd way, he almost feels...relieved?

Call it a humble brag, but literally all of his past work partners had fallen in love with him at some point, and while the attention certainly feeds his ego, that kinda thing just gets tired and even annoying after a while.

So knowing that'll never happen with you is actually a nice break from what he's grown so used to.

He's never had someone around who genuinely enjoys adventuring as much as he does.

And who isn't like constantly ogling him. (I mean probably anyway, idk what it's like to be aroallo)

Having you around may also cause him to start questioning some things about himself, particularly when you're explaining your orientation.

But that's a topic we'll be getting into at another time! (*wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* *stares at empty draft*)

He's still used to trying to fluster people cause he finds it funny and in general is just the kind of person to be a bit touchy with his friends (meaning: platonic hand holding, hugs, head/back pats, standing weirdly close a lot of the time just naturally, etc.), so if you're ever uncomfortable just tell him and he'll cut it out straight away.

You're both just kinda really good friends, and he's not at all weird about it like you thought he might be.

CAPTAIN MAGNUM

Supportive Pirate Dad! 10/10!

You definitely have to explain what it means to him, but he verbally accepted you before he even asked.

Kinda like: "That's great!...What is it?-"

Would have the crew sew you a flag if it would make you happy.

They are still pirates who have been sailing across the deep blue their whole lives with presumably no contact with the mainland however.

So unless you for some fuckin reason told them what it looks like, you can expect to receive a relatively small, plain black flag with the word 'Arrowmantik.' spelled incorrectly and somehow sewn on in perfect white Helvetica.

...

You hung the flag right above your hammock.

It is your most prized possession.

HEAD ENGINEER

Might be a little discouraged at first. His crush on you was a tad obvious.

But he figures it's for the best. You are the captain after all. Pursuing that relationship wouldn't have been professional in the slightest.

It does take a bit but he gets over it eventually.

He still genuinely loves you platonically/as a person, so things don't really change all that much.

You still have a strong friendship and work really well together.

He tends to go a bit overboard now about giving you personal space cause he doesn't want to make you uncomfortable. So you may have to reassure him multiple times if it wasn't an issue.

During when pride month would be on earth he might gift you little aro themed stuff, like a patch you can't actually add to your uniform for work reasons but love and appreciate anyway.

He may not fully understand how you feel, but he never stops trying to, and either way he's always gonna support you no matter what.

Your orientation could never change how much he loves and trusts you both as a captain and as his friend.

MURDOCK

He doesn't really care since it doesn't affect what you guys do, though he is openly accepting, especially if it seemed like you needed to hear that it wasn't something that bothered him.

In a similar vein to Illinois, he's strangely grateful.

He's not sure how he would've dealt with the situation had you developed a crush on him. Such emotions tend to get in the way more often than not in his line of work.

He didn't wanna have to kill you just to make his life easier. Taking a life out of necessity isn't as much fun, plus he'd grown a tad fond of you.

I like to think he cares quite a bit about your mental health, it would make sense given the whole murder thing.

So if you often go through periods of doubt or even internalized self hatred regarding being aromantic, he's gonna be there to help you through it.

He goes with you to pride parades and if anyone tries to tell you that you don't belong there, they're immediately getting put on a black list.

He got you a nifty little keychain once while you were there.

Overall, surprisingly wholesome.

a/n: I went back and forth on whether or not I was gonna use the pronouns I hc them all as using, but in the end I just said 'fuck it, appeal to general audiences, why not at this point'. I'm really fuckin' tired, dude. Just- HAPPY ARO WEEK! ig.

[llyfrenfys]

See I'm not aro but I really appreciate the concept of amatonormativity. I'm very much alloromantic and allosexual, but amatonormativity impacts everyone.

(Heads up, this post got long. Hopefully it makes sense and I didn't make too many typos)

For example, when I was in primary school (and back then everyone treated me like a 'girl' because nobody knew I was a trans boy then) I was 'shipped' with a cis boy in my class against my will.

At that point in time, I had no desire to be in a relationship with anyone. I was just a kid doing kid stuff yanno?

Now the cis boy in my class, we'll call him F, he was speculated to be gay by many fellow kids and adults in his life. I knew of adults who would speculate on his sexuality because he wanted the princess toppers off of the top of my birthday cake one year. I still don't know if F is gay or not, but I kinda had gaydar go off with him too. But that doesn't prove anything. The bottom line is, F was assumed to be gay.

I, on the other hand, was very much not feminine and would be masculine at every opportunity. I even specifically remember seeing the tomboy in our class and thinking (paraphrased) 'I relate to that experience, but not quite' (cue impending realisation of transmasculinity). So on my end you had kids and adults in my life (correctly) picking up on my queerness and speculating about it.

So, the stage is set. I'm maybe 10ish years old. I'm still seen as a 'girl' but also assumed queer. F is seen as a boy but also assumed queer. And I don't know when or where it began but people started shipping me and F together.

I had no desire to be with F, date him or whatever. As far as I was concerned he was just another kid in my class. But adults in my life started arranging playdates and more or less forcing us to spend time with each other. I didn't enjoy F's company because he liked playing WW2 and would always pressure me into play-pretending I was a teacher during WW2 and would snap at me if I made any errors. Genuinely we just didn't get along.

But amatonormativity is a hell of a drug and once the adults started shipping me and F together, kids in class started to join in too. People in my friend group would sometimes sing Love Is In the Air whenever F was near me. I hated it and I actually ended up getting hurt running away from their singing because I slipped on a patch of black ice I hadn't seen.

Soon it was intolerable and I'd begun to feel powerless in my own life because people shipped me and F so much that eventually everyone assumed that we'd started dating. We hadn't. But eventually F began to believe it too and of course adults in our lives arranged more playdates (with the explicit goal of making them become date dates).

I was miserable with this situation- looking back I'm fairly sure that the whole situation was a mix of heteronormativity (and correcting any queerness on my or F's end) and amatonormativity. Years later, thinking about the whole situation, I'm really thankful we have terminology to describe these kinds of normativity now since those terms just straight up didn't exist at the time it was happening.

Anyway, the inevitable conclusion of the whole debacle was that I eventually had enough and tried to look for ways to put a stop to everyone's assumptions and shipping me with someone I didn't want to date. In the UK we leave primary school at age 11 after sitting exams called SATs. So one day, after we'd finished all our SATs, I invited F to my house to look at my stamp collection (yes, I collected stamps as a kid. Yes I am also nd). I knew I needed to tell my parents beforehand since they were very much pro-forcing this relationship on me. So I sheepishly told them I didn't want to date F at all and never wanted to in the first place. When they blew up at me I managed to reason that F was going to a different high school to me and that I didn't want a long-distance 'relationship'. Eventually, that reasoning worked.

F came to my house later that night and came upstairs to where I was. I didn't want to be in this relationship at all but I didn't want to be an asshole to him so I let him down gently and explained I didn't want to be in that relationship and that we were going to different schools anyway so it was more practical to break things off (and also get the adults in my life to back off about the whole thing). He seemed to take it well, until the next day at school.

In the playground he walked up to me, I was picking dandelions and making wishes. Out of nowhere he turned to me, told me to my face that I was "a waste of human life and space" and then stormed off.

I was dumbfounded- and hurt, of course. Because Jesus, talk about an overreaction. I later found out a family member of his told him to say that to me.

This post is getting long but the bottom line is- I never consented to dating F, therefore I do not count that relationship as being real. And like, the whole sorry situation could have been avoided if people weren't hell-bent on correcting queerness with forcing queer people to be in a het-appearing 'relationship'. And the pressure of amatonormativity to assume everyone always wants to be in a relationship.

TLDR: I'm very thankful to the whole aro community for their work in creating and expanding the concept of amatonormativity. It gives this alloro langauge to be able to process what happened to him as a kid and it makes me feel better for not wanting to date F because of my own boundaries.

I'm very happily in a relationship now and have been for many years. But the bottom line is that nobody should be forced to be in a relationship if they don't want to be. I'm in a relationship by choice now, but for those who don't desire relationships at all, they deserve to feel happy and unbothered by amatonormativity. Hopefully any of this ramble made sense, if I made any mistakes with terminology, please let me know.

[kusuokisser]

oomf reblogged a bunch of aro stuff and in honor of pride hour (i made it the fuck up Dont ask me any questions i dont talk to paparazzi) i want to talk about MYYY experience being arospec because it is Isolating and even if this reaches literally no one id rather at least have tried to share my feelings. Spreading love! 💝

growing up i very quickly realized that i wasnt getting crushes like the other kids were. as early as second grade i started trying to force myself to like the boys in my class. id, like, look around the classroom at the start of every new school year and look for the next boy to have a "crush" on. It sounds kind of funny looking back but like i remember how desperate i felt doing it. i remember one year i genuinely hated every boy in my class with a burning passion and, if nothing else, i remember the feeling of being wrong. i, a 4th (maybe 3rd?) grader, felt isolated and gross because i couldnt force a crush for a year.

i had known none of the other ones were really crushes, but it wasnt the romance i wanted it was the connections. i wanted to be able to join the girls talking about their crushes and i wanted to have a reason to try talking to boys; i wanted to be liked.

in 6th grade i think was the first time i didnt try to force a crush. i dont remember much from that year but i know that i didnt feel good. youd think that, as an arospec, i would have enjoyed the break from faking romance but at that point i didnt understand that my feelings werent quite real. i knew they werent like everyone elses, but i really wanted them to be even if it meant lying a bit to myself on the way. i felt wrong and weird.

in seventh grade that was when covid hit and everyone was quarentined, and also that is the year that holds my worlds most obvious example of my aromanticism ever. genuinely think back to this and go "how didnt i figure it out sooner"

i convinced myself i had a crush on my at-the-time best friend. there was no crush by the way, i judt knew i liked him more than all my other friends and to my socially deprived brain that meant it had to be romantic right? well he didnt like me back and literally i went, watched like two YouTube videos on something or other, and was over it. because the feelings were never genuine. it was never love it was a desire to be close with someone

8th grade was the first time i actually fell in love. by then i had figured out im a lesbian, and i met this girl named Jane. She was literally everything you could want in a girl and i fell HARRDDDDDDD i was so in love dont even. but I found that my capacity to love her fluxuated. the love was always there, but some days it was more platonic than anything. sometimes thr platonic periods would stretch for weeks. sometimes it would switch between platonic and romantic multiple times a day. it confused me and honestly? it scared me a lot. i distanced myself from her and eventually we broke up (for seperate reasons but this def contributed)

that really messed with me because now i was left with two understandings: i can definitely experience romantic attraction, and the romantic attraction can change at the drop of a hat.

after a lott of time and research i finally realized and accepted that im aromanticflux (will go into detail if necessary) and you know what? it didn't make me feel better. if anything it made me feel worse; i felt like such an asshole for getting in a relationship if it was always going to end.

now i am. Still coming to terms with my identity but i am learning to love and be kind to myself. the point of this whole thing is. youre never alone. there are eight billion people on earth, at least one of them is going through the exact same thing as you right now. you are not any less of a person because of your attraction or lack thereof

[the-white-soul]

*Flowey shakes his head vigorously, even though Frisk can't see it on the other side of the phone. He can't be shy! Shy people are boring and no one wants to talk to them.*

I'm not shy! I just wanted to hear you talk first. *Just to hear their voice? Is he kidding himself? That makes him sound so soft!* I just... Um… did you know you can tell the type of person someone is just by their manner of speech? I wanted to test that idea. *Phew.*

You have to stop doing stupid work stuff so you can play with us, just once! We could go in the underground for that one day so bad humans wont be there to mess everything up. Even if you did tease me about my name… hmph. Your name is just “Frisky” but dropping the “y”. But I guess it fits. You do have a lot of energy. My nickname is Buttercup because I like poison.

*He almost begins to brag about how he killed Chara’s mom and tortured their dad too, but…*

*He looks back at where Chara and the others are standing for a moment. When he turns around, they can see his cheeks seem to have been tinted a slightly darker color throughout the entire conversation, although just barely noticeable. Flowey doesn't seem to notice.*

*Even if those excuses for Chara’s parents were bad, if Frisk found how violent he was, they wouldn’t like him. Not to mention all the other times he's lost his cool, and not just when he was in control of the timeline of his world. He bites his tongue and turns forward again.*

Ah… I mean, I don't use it a lot. Or any other dumb violent stuff. Its pointless. *He thinks, then deciding again that this makes him sound weak. He can't seem to make up his mind on what first impression he should give.* Unless some idiot comes up and tries to cross me! I'm real strong.

(Frisk) "Buttercup, *Sighs* I'm not stupid. I kept this job because I'm able to tell what people feel! I know you like violence. The whole world does. Do you think I don't watch the news? You killing Chara's mom is everywhere! You are really strong I'll give you that much. One other thing. I can't tell anyone this directly out of fear of me being hurt to get info out of you but just so you know I'm Aro-Ace, I'm fine with others being in love but it just never appealed to me. I know shocking! The kid who flirts with everyone doesn't want to be in a romantic or sexual relationship. I mostly do it because it's funny. I'd love to play with you underground just nothing romantic. It's also always hard to find the time to do this. I haven't had a 'play date' in years! If you want me to get away from all these humans, that makes sense. I left for many reasons but one was just how annoying humans can be. They say things like Skibiti and Sigma. What a bunch of weirdos! Obviously, that's not the main reason, but it didn't help matters. Thoughts about humans aside, I don't know everything about the multiverse but I do know that there are millions of Frisks out there. I'm sure you can find one that matters to you. I can tell you will do anything for your friends, whether new or old. It's what separates you from most Flowey's. Oh, I'm rambling again. You probably want to say something now. Go ahead."

[cryptidtumbleweed]

Introducing... Runaway Donnie AU!

This is a new AU I recently started and am currently writing a fic for! Just wanted to share it for feedback and stuff :3

The story is that a ten-year-old Donnie, who’s nonverbal, struggles with feeling like he’s a burden to his brothers. He feels left out of the things they do and struggles with communicating with them, even though they all have learnt sign language together.

After a few particularly hard things happen, Donnie just... has enough of it all. He packs his things and leaves the sewers. He wanders the streets of New York all night, until he realizes how dumb of an idea running away is. But he’s got himself lost and he ends up falling asleep in an alleyway. The next day, he keeps trying to find his way back, but only gets more lost.

By the next evening, he’s so hungry that he can’t go on and ends up sitting in a park and crying. There he ends up meeting a young April who decides that he needs a friend. She ends up taking him home with her and lets her sleep in her treehouse for the night. The next day she introduces him to her parents and they end up letting him stay, thinking he’s just a lost child who’s parents will come looking for him soon enough.

Donnie ends up staying with her and grows up with her, leaving behind his family. He still misses them, but he feels happy where he is - he also feels like April is more understanding of his mutism.

I also have some individual notes for this AU:

Raph was always the one that put the most effort into trying to communicate with Donnie. He could tell Donnie felt left out and tried this best to include him.

When Donnie went missing, Leo, Raph and Mikey searched all over the sewers for him. They wouldn’t stop looking for him and even as years passed by, they sometimes hoped to find him on their missions.

Mikey was the one to discover Donnie was missing - when they couldn’t find him anywhere, he went to check Donnie’s secret hiding places (Donnie had showed them to him so he and Mikey could do artsy stuff and reading together)

April’s parents are well aware of Donnie not being human - they don’t mind though, because they can see how close their daughter is with him. They also care for him very much.

Donnie’s scared of leaving the house, because he worries his appearance will spook people. Thus, he’s only ever attended an online school April’s parents found for him and rarely leaves the house during the day. In the evening, though, he and April often go to the park or to an arcade.

April and Donnie develop a queer-platonic relationship. Donnie is aro/ace and April is an ace/lesbian.

April meets Sunita in school and when she meets Donnie, she gets him a cloaking brooch. Donnie is mesmerized by it and begins to use it often - he even joins April at school once he gets comfortable with leaving the house.

Donnie meets his brothers again one evening when the arcade he and April are in gets attacked. He’s in his human disguise, so they don’t recognize him. After that, April begins to ask him questions about his past and family again (Donnie never really opened up about any of that as he was ashamed to admit he ran away)

Donnie’s still very into technology - he hasn’t been able to build things as amazing as the canon Donnie, but he’s still very skilled. He’s also fascinated with astronomy, especially the stars 

I’m not quite sure how the turtles would reunite yet, I’m focusing on Donnie and April growing up together at the moment. But this AU’s definitely going to be developed and like I said, I’m writing a fic on it!

Very open to hear thoughts on this!

[cyncerity]

How did cranboo Ctubbo get to dating in the store shifter au if one of them cannot understand the other? Very enthusiastic sign language and a lot of squinting?

alright first things first i wanna use this ask to specify that Ranboo and Tubbo are in a QPR!! If you don’t know what that is, it stands for Queer Platonic Relationship, cause I headcanon C!Tubbo is on the aro spectrum and I’m aro so i feel the need to project cause i never see QPRs being talked about lmao. So that’s being added to this au. Also slightly unrelated but in this au (and another dsmp character headcanon) Ranboo is ace 💖

ok back to the actual question so y’know how in the dsmp lore Tubbo married Ranboo cause he was rich and stuff? This. Ranboo isn’t rich or anything, he’s a teenager with a retail job, but hey, any money is rich by borrower standards. Not that Tommy doesn’t buy Tubbo stuff and he doesn’t steal Dream’s stuff (Dream hasn’t met him and Foolish lives next door with Puffy), but he took way more of a liking to Ranboo than he thought he would when he asked Tommy to take him to work with him and now he needs a viable excuse to keep clinging to him. And having an extra human to give him stuff was nice too. Tubbo really looked at this ridiculously tall anxious human and said “that one.”

So anyway, he kinda just…watched him for like, a month. Ranboo would constantly complain to Tommy that he felt like he was being watched, and Tommy would just unconvincingly laugh it off. Eventually tho, Tubbo messed up and ended up stuck on a few higher shelves in the kitchen’s backrooms before closing time. Tommy was talking to Wil and the other employees had gone home, so Ranboo was the only other person near Tubbo, and he just happened to slip and almost fall into the deep fryers that Ranboo was shutting down for the night.

Thankfully Ranboo caught him, but unthankfully Ranboo immediately hid Tubbo from Tommy cause why would he think they knew each other? It took some serious charades and a solid thirty minutes for Tubbo to communicate to Ranboo that, yes, Tommy knew him and he really needed to get back to Tommy cause they live together. Once Tubbo had been returned to a very frantic and panicked looking Tommy who was concerned that Tubbo had been abducted or killed while he wasn’t looking, Tommy ended up explaining this all better and Ranboo eventually put the pieces together that Tubbo was the weird presence of always being watched that he felt at work.

After that, he did his best to communicate with Tubbo, because it seemed like Tubbo really wanted to talk to him, but he couldn’t help that he couldn’t understand him! They tried charades, but they both sucked, so eventually it just turned into Ranboo having one sided conversations that Tubbo would nod or shake his head at. And Tubbo also started bringing him things. Like, little buttons or feathers or cool rocks and leaves, and Ranboo couldn’t say that the gesture didn’t mean something to him. It reminded him of a crow, and he told Tubbo that once, who accepted the comment with pride. But it was still frustrating that they couldn’t communicate. Eventually, he started to notice that even if Tommy would talk to Tubbo normally, sometimes they talked using BSL, which he didn’t even think Tubbo knew, considering Tubbo couldn’t even write (as in, he was completely illiterate and had never even been taught the alphabet cause that’s apparently unnecessary to borrowers) and was also, according to Tommy, probably dyslexic.

Ranboo sought Tommy out to teach him BSL in secret as a surprise to Tubbo. He learned a good bit of basics and almost ever curse word before he decided to start taking online lessons. And on the six month anniversary of meeting Tubbo, he was very happy to finally be able to communicate properly with him for the first time. Of course, his signing wasn’t perfect, and Tubbo’s hands occasionally messed up (Ranboo had thought that Tommy was weird for choosing “fuck” and every iteration of the word fuck to be the first words Ranboo learned, but he was starting to appreciate that now, given that Tubbo said it constantly, especially when he messed up bad enough or had to pause and restart a sentence)(Tommy may have been right about the dyslexic thing but it really wasn’t his business), but it was a start, and it was better than they’d ever had.

As it turned out, he and Tubbo had very similar senses of humor. They talked for hours and hours on end, now that they could, and Ranboo enjoyed every second of it. Tubbo also verbally spoke when he signed and, even if Ranboo couldn’t understand it, he could hear every bit of emotion and emphasis behind the words. He didn’t need to hear the words in order to pick up on Tubbo’s attitude in every conversation they had. Tubbo was a very good story teller, he learned, and his jokes always somehow landed, even if Ranboo couldn’t hear exactly how it was said. He also learned that to borrower ears (and to Tommy), Tubbo had a british accent, and he only learned this because Tubbo made fun of him for being American damn near constantly. Ranboo also learned that he didn’t need to sign, cause Tubbo could understand English just fine, but Ranboo decided that if his hands weren’t busy, there really wasn’t a harm to it. Besides, if Tubbo had to sign to be understood, Ranboo might as well keep practicing just to make sure he didn’t forget anything (or maybe he just didn’t want to make Tubbo feel alienated when they talked, but he could have that debate with himself).

All in all, though Ranboo hadn’t really been expecting it, he couldn’t say he was shocked when the little trinkets that Tubbo would bring shifted from small knick knacks into things like flowers (which Ranboo would usually tuck behind his ear for the rest of his shift) or shiny objects that he knew he’d find pretty or occasionally jewelry he must’ve stolen from the lost and found area, though Ranboo appreciated it nonetheless.

Tubbo came to him on the one year anniversary of their meeting with an actual jewelry box, which was odd, and he opened it to find an intricately woven purple and green braid with a minecraft bee charm and an enderman charm linked on it, a running joke between the two since Tubbo and Ranboo had frequently started having sleepovers at Ranboo’s house and Tubbo had fallen in love with the bees as soon as Ranboo had booted up minecraft, and they’d gotten into an argument about which mob was better. But he also knew what that braid meant. Of course he did, cause he was already wearing one. Purple, green, and red: that was the one on his left wrist. Tommy’s was on his right, and Tubbo wore his as an anklet. They’d made them together as soon as the three had become close friends, and as soon as the cultural significance had been explained to Ranboo. But this one was just for him and Tubbo. That implied that they were something more, and Ranboo knew it. He also found he was ok with it.

Tubbo hadn’t even needed to ask it out loud. He had just been staring the entire time, until Ranboo looped the braid behind his neck and tied it in place, shooting a smile at the borrower. Tubbo grinned like an idiot, before asking Ranboo if they’d be interested in going to the park sometime later that day, just to make it official. Ranboo smiled wider as he signed “it’s a date” and carried on with work for the rest of that day as Tubbo was busy trying to find Tommy and tell him that it all went well.

and yes Tommy was aware of all of this. He bought Tubbo the little minecraft charms cause he thought it was funny as hell and also on a more serious note he’d do anything to help his practically brother at this point. He’d been the one to actually convince him to give Ranboo the necklace, cause at that point Tommy was like 98% sure Ranboo would accept it. It also helped that Tommy knew Tubbo had liked Ranboo since the very fucking beginning, a fact that not even Ranboo knew. Needless to say, he was right there with Tubbo in his excitement when he went to Tommy after the fact, and he couldn’t have been happier for his two best friends.

[stravagatefaster]

A (slightly chaotic) Stravaganza rewrite/adaptation idea

So, now that we’ve finished the 2023 Stravaganza liveblog and I’ve told you what my headcanons for the series are after its end, let’s look at how I would change the main story if I got the chance. (Thanks to @10-dutchies-12-bicycles for being the one third of the fandom that voted for this.)

This is not an outright rewrite. I’m approaching this from the point of view of “I’m a showrunner and I’m adapting Stravaganza into a tv show”. In this theoretical show there would be one season per book with ten 40-60 minute episodes in each. I can’t take credit for all the ideas I’m presenting here, some of them have been brainstormed with a friend of mine.

Most of this focuses on the last two books, but there would obviously be minor changes in the adaptation in the first seasons as well. These changes would include things like giving side characters more depth, switching the order of some events etc. Most of the main storylines will still stay the same unless stated otherwise.

Some scenes/storylines are very clear in my head, while others are still a big ????. I may fill in the blanks in the future.

Changes pre- season 5

More development on Barbara and Marco as characters.

Cesare has a crush on Luciano in season 2, but he tries his best to get rid of it when they go to university together. (It helps that Luciano gets very annoying when he’s missing Arianna.)

Ludo gets more development during season 4. Rodolfo is the one who finds out about his di Chimici side (and even sees the ring, realizing that Jacopo is Ludo’s father). Luciano only knows that Ludo’s father is some nobleman.

Alice breaks up with Sky at the end of season 4, though it is left a little unclear where they will go from there.

At the end of season 4 it’s revealed that Jago is gay and out of the closet, Matt was just very oblivious and insecure.

Season 5 (City of Ships)

The first thing I’d change in season 5 is Isabel’s character. I already laid out some possibilities for this in an earlier post, but I would probably make Charlie good at sports + STEM and Isabel good at arts + nerdy things so that her feelings of not being good enough have at least some basis in reality. Even Charlie himself sometimes thinks Isabel's interests are silly and not that important.

I would also change Isabel’s crush on Sky to be unrequited. Or (and this came to me just as I was typing this) maybe she’s ace and/or aro? I just don’t want the group to consist of couples, some people need to stay single.

On the Talian side, I would focus way more on Classe as a city. I’d give Isabel some time to get to know the city, but have some of the other characters already preparing for the upcoming battle from the start.

Filippo could just skip the part where he messes around with mosaics and go to Bellezza almost straight away, giving him and Beatrice a chance to actually develop their relationship.

I also want more pirate stuff. Don’t know how, but more pirate stuff.

I would skip the retcon that talismans can take you to different cities now. There’s not really any major plotline in book 5 that requires it anyway. Isabel can focus on Classe, and any instances where someone travels to another city that’s not their own can just be replaced with something else.

Instead Dethridge can use his thinking brain and come up with a theory that the gate between the worlds is getting weaker. That could be what replaces the city-hopping AND the time travel shenanigans.

Speaking of which, Charlie will stravagate but it’s resolved without the detour to 16th century England. We don’t need the time travel if it’s never really going to come up again.

A side effect of Isabel beginning to hang out with the Stravaganti is that Laura begins feeling very lonely. (In this version they’re not Ayesha’s friends since that’s never relevant to the plot anyway. We’re also removing the SH storyline and replacing it with this.)

Alice (who has grown distant from Georgia as well) notices Laura’s loneliness and the two become friends.

This is the point where we really mix things up: The Fortezza plotline starts while Isabel’s adventure is still going on.

Andrea’s father is who he thinks he is, and he somehow ends the story still being a pirate.

Jacopo is very sick, and it’s obvious he won’t live long. This worries Fabio, and he speaks about it with Rodolfo via the mirrors. Rodolfo, who knows about Ludo, advises Fabio to take a new talisman to England just in case. He doesn’t tell the reason, but his ~stravagante’s intuition~ tells him Ludo might make things complicated in Fortezza and wants to play things safe.

Laura buys this talisman from Mr. Goldsmith. Alice sees it and immediately knows what it is. 

Alice fears that if Laura stravagates accidentally, she’ll end up just like the others and Alice will lose her as well. So instead she tells Laura about Talia, explaining that the whole thing is the reason why the others don’t care about them anymore. She even says that if Laura wants, she can show the talisman to the others and they’ll accept her into the group, but that it will be the only reason why they do.

Laura decides to stravagate, but insists that Alice sleeps over while she does. Before Fabio can see her, Laura slips away into the city and steals some clothes for herself. (Laura and Alice plan this all beforehand)

Fabio remains unaware that the new Stravagante has arrived.

While all of this is going on, Isabel’s adventure continues. None of the English Stravaganti notice anything wrong with Laura or Alice, since they no longer hang out together.

The season ends with Jacopo dying and Ludo arriving in Fortezza.

Season 6 (City of Swords)

The other Stravaganti have moved on with their lives, going back to normal life after Isabel’s adventure ended. Laura, however, has continued going to Fortezza. There she meets Ludo, who is now demanding the throne of Fortezza for himself. Laura finds herself crushing in Ludo, and supports him against Lucia.

Alice and Laura’s relationship continues to be slightly toxic and codependent. They both fear losing each other, but Laura doesn’t want to stop stravagating because she also wants to spend time with Ludo.

In this version Ludo does not return Laura’s feelings and is in fact quite oblivious to her feelings.

Fabio expresses his worry about Fortezza’s state to Rodolfo. They’re both a bit confused about why the talisman hasn’t brought in a new Stravagante.

Fabio even returns to Mr. Goldsmith’s shop to find out that the talisman has indeed been sold. He relays this information to Rodolfo, who stravagates to meet the English Stravaganti. He tells them about the new talisman and asks them to keep an eye out for the talisman. (They only have a very vague description of who bought it.)

The events in Talia continue largely as they did in the book. During the siege, Ludo’s side does something (I haven’t yet figured out what) which Laura does not approve of and she becomes disillusioned. She begins rethinking her crush on Ludo. This something is dangerous, and Laura ends up stabbed in her side.

Laura wanders around the streets of Fortezza, bleeding heavily and looking for a safe place to stravagate home. She finds an alley where she can lean against the wall, but just as she’s about to stravagate, she sees all the blood she’s losing and faints, the talisman slipping out of her hand.

Laura has asked Alice to stay over as often as she can, because the whole stravagating thing makes her nervous. (A big part of this is that she doesn’t have a mentor in Talia.) Laura’s parents are out on this particular night, leaving the girls to have a sleepover by themselves.

In the middle of the night Alice gets up to go use the toilet. When she gets back to Laura’s room, she sees the pool of blood on the sheets. Pulling back the covers, she sees the wound on her side. Alice remembers how Matt was beaten up when his talisman was taken from him, and she fears something similar might have happened to Laura. With one hand putting pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding, Alice reaches for her phone.

Georgia wakes up in the middle of the night to her phone ringing. She answers it, and it takes her a moment to understand what Alice is telling her. Georgia wants to ask a million questions, but from the panic in Alice’s voice she hears that this is serious and that there is no time to be wasted.

Georgia stravagates to Remora, and through a game of telephone the Stravaganti get a message to Fabio.

Fabio sets out to find Laura. It takes him a while before he finds her passed out in the alley, her talisman next to her. He wakes her up for just long enough to help her hold her talisman.

Meanwhile Alice has just been panicking. She eventually gives in and calls an ambulance. As soon as the ambulance pulls up in front of the house, Laura wakes up.

Alice makes up a lie that the girls were hungry and went to the kitchen to make sandwiches, and a knife left on the counter slipped and hit Laura. The paramedics barely believe this but they’re too busy to question it too much.

The next day Alice explains everything to Georgia. She blames herself for what happened to Laura – if she hadn’t been selfish and scared of losing Laura, this wouldn’t have happened.

After hearing Alice and Laura’s story, everyone else realizes that they treated them badly and that perhaps Talia was taking up too much space in their lives.

The others insist that Laura has to stravagate and finish her mission, but she doesn’t want to do it. Even seeing Ludo again is not enough for her to go back. Alice, feeling guilty, convinces Laura to finish her mission. Laura agrees, but insists that Alice has to stay with her whenever she stravagates.

Laura returns to Fortezza and is properly introduced to Fabio. She has now fully realized that Ludo’s cause is not worth it, and agrees to deliver messages to the castle.

Meanwhile Ludo too is beginning to see that he has gone too far. He feels especially guilty about betraying his Manoush roots. He even has a dream about his mother, and eventually he decides to surrender before more people die because of him.

There’s a lot of ?????? here that I haven’t figured out. There’s a bit of logistics that needs sorting out in regards to a few characters.

In this season Dethridge has his theory that the gate between the worlds is becoming unstable (the dates are no longer matching up in the two worlds) because of the amount of active talismans. He fears that one more talisman or translation may make the whole thing collapse. (Listen, if the books can do the city-hopping retcon, I can do this)

This ties into the way everyone gets to the wedding. Luciano goes to England and explains to everyone that they can come to the wedding, but they must give up their talismans. They’ll get temporary talismans that they’ll have to destroy later. He gives everyone a day or two to think about it.

Everyone agrees to do it, though the decision is especially hard on Georgia and Nick. Luciano says that if they can get the gate stable again, they might be able to bring over new talismans.

The temporary talismans are pages from Luciano’s original notebook. Both Vicky and David also get a talisman, with Vicky getting the leftover pages and covers.

Again, there’s a bit of ???? in regards to order of events and logistics here. But Ludo doesn’t die – instead he ends up becoming a pirate with Andrea

Ludo doesn’t die, instead he ends up in Classe and becomes a gay pirate with Andrea.

Instead, the person who dies is Cesare (listen! listen! put the tomatoes down! trust me!). I’m not exactly sure how he dies, but it happens after the Stravaganti have gone back to England after the wedding. Nick and Georgia try to stay behind to be with him as he dies, but Cesare tells them to go home. He makes Luciano promise to tell his family that he loves them. Luciano and Getano stay with Cesare as he passes.

Seriously, this whole ending is full of ????. Cesare’s death will mean more than Ludo’s to the audience, but I want the rest of the ending to feel satisfying.

The series ends with a montage of first Talia, then England. In the Talian montage, we see the people we met along the way going on with their lives (we don’t see Luciano and Arianna yet).

Then we get a scene where the English Stravaganti (plus Vicky and David) burning Luciano’s notebook in a fire. Alice shows up as well and burns her talisman. They all watch the fire die out. Alice grabs Laura’s hand and the two leave together. We start the English montage by seeing Alice and Laura happy together. Isabel is going to the movies with Charlie, who happily listens to his sister talk about whatever she’s passionate about, having learned to appreciate her interests. Matt and Ayesha go on a ride in Matt’s car. Sky hugs his mother goodbye at the airport as he leaves for the US. Georgia and Nick are at the Mulhollands’ living room, where Vicky brings them tea.

The montage ends, and we get one final scene of Luciano and Arianna watching the fireworks from their balcony in Bellezza.

Roll credits.

Jk, there’s a mid-credit scene.

A café in London. Text on the screen says: Five years later. The café is full of people. Jago Jones, now a successful author, sits by himself in a corner, working on his laptop and drinking coffee. Someone walks over to him and points at the seat opposite him. “Is this seat free?” a familiar voice asks. Jago looks up at the stranger. “Sure,” he says with a smile. The camera pans out and Cesare, dressed in regular 21st century clothes, sits opposite Jago.

Continue credits. The end.

Ok so I feel like I owe you a bit of an explanation for that last scene so I’ll rewind.

Very early in season 2, Georgia will give Cesare… something. Maybe it’s another one of her piercings or something. It’s done in a way that will not draw attention to the fact that this is a potential talisman. Cesare continues to wear this object around his neck the entire series, and no attention is ever drawn to it. But attentive viewers will know that this is one big Chekov’s gun.

There will be other small things that foreshadow Cesare’s stravagating sprinkled through the series.

Before Cesare dies, Georgia somehow ends up speaking about her home in an attempt to comfort him. As he dies, Cesare holds his talisman in his hand, though again, no special attention is drawn to it. It’s one of those things you’ll catch on your second viewing.

There we go – my changes for a possible Stravaganza TV show. There are a lot of other minor details my friend and I have planned, but those are the most coherent and important changes I would make.