#so. yeah. aroace who eventually would like a qpr

[lesbiansanemi]

Im curious about your thoughts on sabigiyuu and how you find them compelling, I hope you dont mind me asking

I don't mind at all! I love these types of questions. Feel free to ask me about any ships/characters/series/etc!

And yeah sure! Though to be honest, the main reason I like Sabigiyuu is due to my own really specific headcanons

The main one being that I headcanon Giyuu as aroace, and he had what would be considered a queerplatonic relationship with Sabito. Not that either one of them really have the terminology or even awareness of that.

Basically, I like it in the sense that Sabito is the first person that Giyuu got close with other than his sister, and latched onto him in a really intense way. This qpr eventually developed between them. It was a very intense relationship, something Giyuu had never experienced. It felt different from friendship, but also wasn't romantic.

Then ofc, Sabito dies.

I think Giyuu being aroace would only add to the alienation he feels from other people. Of course, he has his canonical inferiority complex, but then he can't even connect with people in a romantic or sexual way, nor does he have the terminology to really explain all of this or even understand it himself. He just thinks he doesn't fit in, and there's something wrong with him

It also makes his longing for Sabito all the more intense, because he was the one person he never felt alienated from, who he felt he was able to connect with in a genuine way. Not only is there the guilt over Sabito saving his life and dying for it, but Sabito was the only person he felt that specific connection with

So yeah! Basically! I like aroace Giyuu as a concept in general, and queerplatonic Sabigiyuu.

While ofc I like happy and fulfilled aroace characters, characters being content with being aroace, I do also like exploring the inherent loneliness that comes with being aroace at times, and Giyuu just fits that really well imo

[smolbeanie1221]

Being aroace spec can be so confusing

My first relationship was with a girl, and I kinda just went along with what she wanted to do bc I figured, well she’s enjoying it so I must be enjoying this too… I didn’t mind anything we did, I just didn’t care or think about it.

Second relationship was with a guy, and at this point my mom had made me feel incredibly guilty for having been with a girl before, joys of being afab in a religious family and the first person you date is a girl. And he was… definitely pushy. Again tho, I just went along with it bc I figured, well he wants to do this and I just have to be bi so there’s a chance I’ll be a normal girl and end up with a guy someday so I have to be enjoying this too… Yeah I definitely was feeling a lot of pressure there.

At this point, I had not felt actual sexual attraction towards anyone, and I don’t think I was ever romantically in love with either of those people.

Third relationship was with a guy who was also one of my best friends. We were kinda dating for a summer and it was a better relationship than the previous, but in the end we went back to just being friends and it was better that way.

At this point, I’m very confused, but I discover this wonderful thing called ASEXUALITY. And everything suddenly made sense. Except for one small thing.

Fourth relationship that never actually became a relationship. I was in some type of love with a different best friend, I would say demi/sapio-romantic (romantically attracted because of both an emotional and mind connection basically). But he was definitely aromantic, but allosexual. I was romantically attracted to him, but asexual… right??? For years I was confused because I wanted an actual official relationship and I would’ve been more than okay with sleeping with him. But… that can’t be sexual attraction?? I’m ace?? Right?? Ahhhhhh. Yeah so I was very confused around him. Turns out, I’m actually demi-ace, but I didn’t realize that until years later after I lost contact with him, and I’ve been too scared to reach out to him lol. Anyways I have a gf now anyways. And that’s been the only time that the demi part of my ace-ness has come out, pun intended lol.

Actual fourth relationship. Definitely romantic and completely non-sexual. Really good relationship for over a year, and that partner helped me become more comfortable with my gender identity and we both were ace and it was really good for a while. It just wasn’t a relationship that was built to grow, so eventually we drifted apart.

Fifth relationship. A non-romantic and non-sexual relationship. Lasted less than a year, but made me realize that I was also aro spec bc being in a relationship that did not have romantic or sexual expectations felt so comfortable and right.

Sixth relationship. The one that broke my heart. My other best friend in that time frame, we were incredibly close and bonded over everything, from our mental health struggles to books to sheetz runs to everything. Eventually we officially were boyfriends in a qpr. They were my number one person for so long, my life partner. There was never anything romantic or sexual, but we loved each other deeply. Until life happened and they changed and I had to break up with them and got my heart broken.

All of these took place from late middle school to early college by the way. I went from, oh I’m a girl and I like girls! To, shit I can’t like girls so I have to like boys too bc I have to be bisexual at least. To, ohhhh so I can actually not want to sleep with people and that’s normal too?? So I’m nonbinary and asexual? That makes sense. To, why why if I’m ace would I be more than okay sleeping with him??? To, huh i think I’m aro spec too. To, okay I’m definitely aro spec, probably demi-aro technically and… probably demi-ace too? Yeah that’s probably right.

At the same time, I didn’t feel as tho romantic was necessarily the right word for me. I mean I’ve experienced romantic attraction I think, but it usually felt kinda forced by either my partner’s expectations or by society’s expectations. I think that’s why my non-romantic non-sexual relationships felt so comfortable to me, bc there wasn’t any of that expectation. I have no freaking idea what romantic attraction really feels like to me. I’ve experienced it I think (??), but for several reasons including outside expectations and general-emotional-processing-issues at those times, I have a hard time knowing any emotions I was feeling at that time in my life. The “butterflies” and “spacey eyed” and “gooey lovey” feelings I felt could’ve been romantic, sure. But they could’ve also been someone who was heavily emotionally repressed all their life just being happy to have someone that they loved who loved them back and getting excited over how cute they were and enjoying their rambles and just generally being happy with someone and also liking some physical contact like hugs and cuddles bc physical touch is their love language with everyone and they like hugs with everyone they care about, and it wasn’t necessarily romantic…..

I get a similar feeling to “butterflies” when I’m nervous about something or excited to see someone in my family I haven’t seen for a while bc I love them and am excited and happy. Not necessarily a “romantic indicator”. I get “spacey eyed” all the time, and usually it’s bc I’m obsessing over my latest fanfic idea. Again, not a “romantic indicator”. I get “gooey lovey” feelings when I see an adorable animal, when someone in my family or close friend group does something really sweet for me or I’m really happy to see them or I get a hug from anyone I love. Once again, not a “romantic indicator”.

Because of all this, I have settled on alterous as my general term for the type of attraction I have with people I have or wanted to date. Alterous to me means this: “I want to be with you and talk with you and do everything with you, I just don’t care how it looks for us or how we categorize ourselves.” I would also attach romance-inclined or sex-inclined as a prefix type thing when applicable. Fourth relationship that never actually happened? Sex and romance-inclined alterous. Fourth actual relationship? Romance-inclined alterous. This doesn’t actually mean that I will feel romantic or sexual attraction or interest or desire with someone, but I may be inclined to want aspects of that type of relationship and I might have those actual feelings from time to time.

The partner that I have now, seventh relationship for those counting lol. This relationship feels stronger and better than any that I’ve had in the past. There’s no pressure or expectation about sex, and she knows that I’m on the aro spectrum, so there’s no romantic pressure either. At the same time, I love the romantic type aspects we have, but I can’t with any certainty say that my feelings are romantic, or at least not romantic all the time. But I feel about her differently than I have about anyone else. There’s several possible reasons, but one main thing I think is that I’m now in a healthier place emotionally so I can better feel and process all my emotions, including my feelings towards her.

Anyways, at this point I would say I’m aroace spec. Demi-altrose (alterous, romantic, sexual).

[arqdyke]

whatre your opinions on all the jake ships. ALL OF THEM.

hi gaz :3 under the cut bc its literally fivemillion miles long.

rosejake - ??/10 theres something there. i can see it in my minds eye. its not romantic probably(??) but i feel like they would be so insane unhinged abt each other in a really hard to describe way. this is largely bc i like smashing my faves together and having them be weird abt each other.

davejake - 8/10 hehe. i like them :3 theyre very funny & silly. i feel like neither of them have ever introspected in their entire lives w/out repressing it immediately afterwards & together they get Worse. this eventually culminates in them both having Realizations and transitioning. i think they can holding hands on purpose.

jakeroxy - 8/10 theyre so unlabeled confusing but DEEPLY intimate relationship to me. they are baring their souls to each other in a hobby lobby parking lot ^-^ theyre very important to me

dirkjake - ??/10 clutches head oh theyre oddly compelling to me actually. i think they work best as weird ex's who have sort of something going on but they dont really work in a 'proper' relationship so its awkward & confusing for everyone around them. my feelings r mixed overall though.

jakehal - 10/10 imagine the worst pitch dynamic you possibly can. now make it worse. i have several vague aus in my mind palace about them being terrible & codependent. but in actuality i think their dynamic is very interesting from a character analysis standpoint & thats a very easy way to make me ship a set of characters. also i think its funny. and jake deserves a robotboyfriend.

jakedavesprite - 5/10 ive actually thought abt this one before surprisingly but there wasnt really a lot going on with them. definitely potential though!!!

jakejasprose - 9/10 futch dyke 4 bisexual aroace and its up to you whos which. i think theyre the weirdest palerom dynamic on the earth but genuinely they are so bffs to me. bffs that kiss a little (a lot) thats jasproses emotional support [vile slur omitted]! & jakes emotional support kittycatgirl :3

davepetajake(??) - 8/10 gripping the sides of my chair. yeah im normal about these characters who i dont think have any speaking line 1on1 interactions. so normal. why do u ask? anyways yeah i think theyre kind of supersilly awesome & fun. and also *gestures vaguely * the psychological trauma is vast and fascinating 2 my fucked up mind.

jakerisolsprite - 10/10 ok now hear me out. this was one of my first ever jakeships actually i just think the "jake/a guy who hates his guts" dynamic is supremely underrated & funny as fuck. they r like weird & messed up usually pitch vacillation nightmare girlfriends. genuinely very attached to them in a personal way.

jakearquius - ??/10 well. looks down at myself. looks back up. theyre funny? surprisingly i dont actually think abt them often.

arajake - 10/10 imagine a world so full of joy and peace. ok but fr their characters are like. intertwined in my mind. their relationship is like almost romantic...? theyre aro4aro. but very much in an 'official' relationship as well. if they knew or cared what it was they would be in a qpr but they dont. i think spending time w aradia would help jake figure out more abt himself & i think aradia would just really like spending time with him. they are marveling at each others minds.

jaketav - 3/10 unfortunately i go out of my way to not think too hard abt tavros so im gonna have to leave this one alone. in a hypothetical world they could be bffs forever!

jakesol - 10/10 deep breath. ok so actually im very very attached to the idea of pale jakesol. it shows up in my casual idle daydreams & in every au i think abt too hard. i think they can taking a nap together. i want them to sillyargue about random bullshit & infodump at each other about things the other could not give less of a shit about. clingy sleepynaptime girlfriends. neither of them has showered in weeks. also theyre so totally each others type. like look at canon for a moment and consider it.

jakekat - 7/10 idk. i think theyre sillies. they bond over cinema in the arguing way. i think jake would like to mess with him until it becomes clear that karkat doesnt actually hate everything and is just kind of Like That. i can see them being good friends and... maybe?? boygirlfriends.

jakenep - 8/10 i think she can hunting him for sport. like for actual sport they go play high stakes tag in forests for several months and come out soulbonded. also jake needs more sillycatgirls in his life & nepeta needs more chill/fun ppl to hang out with. shes being sillySTIFLED.

jakekan - 5/10 honestly i can not say ive ever though about- wait no no i thought about it once like forever ago. honestly they could be pretty good green autism besties!! idk abt romance but thats mostly bc ive just never considered it.

jakerezi - ??/10 this one is absurdly funny to me. i dont think it would ever happen but if it did it would be really really funny.

jakevris - 7/10 actually ive read several fics abt this before! it kind of appeals to me in a weird way but i prefer them as weird frenemies.

jakequius - 8/10 lays down. look. ok. so. well. i just think theres potential ok? i cant explain it. im running out of steam for this if you cant tell.

gamjake - 0/10 no thanks ?

erijake - 5/10 i dont think ive seriously thought about it but theres definitely some potential there.

thats all im doing. god bless u all.

[golisopod-mutual]

I took a (short) break away from labels bc I was driving myself nuts trying to identify and categorize my every feeling into neat little check boxes. So I stepped away and just gave myself some room to breathe, ig.

Anyway I'm identifying as just aroace now, not oriented/bi aroace.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 2

And here’s the next part of the long answer set of the day!

When will OL: N&F take place? Beginnings and Always took place during summer breaks, will now and forever take place during a fall break or will the characters be going to school at the time of the events we play through? 

It takes place over all of the fall season, so school will be happening in OL2. Some events do take place in school, though many times events only start after school is already out for the day, haha.

Hey!! I have kind of a weird question?? I’m sorry if it’s been answered before and I just haven’t seen it but is OL 2 taking place during the same years as OL 1? I’m just curious, thank you for such amazing games!!! 

It’s a similar time frame, but not 100% exactly same.

Do you have any idea when the demo for now and forever will be available? 

Hopefully this fall! But that’s not a guarantee.

Okay the crime show in Step 2: Growing up. Long blonde hair, police station, crime series? Was it The Closer? Because I’m the same age as MC and Cove and my mom was constantly watching that when I was 13. 😂 

Haha, yeah! The Closer and, to a lesser degree, Medium were the kind of shows I was referencing there. My mom also used to watch those back in the day.

Hey um this might be an odd question but if the setting of OL: N&F is  fall/autumn, what country or city will it take because my mind tells me it is either Poland or Canada. Also I can't wait for the game I am hyped 

It’s set in the USA again. We’d like to be able to have cameos and that’s easiest to do if the OL games take place in the same country.

Is it possible for the PC of OL to have non-seriously dated other people in the in between years even if they’ve had a consistent crush on Cove? 

You can causally date Baxter in Step 3 if you get his DLC and then ultimately choose Cove in Step 4. If you mean off-screen people, it doesn’t really come up, but you can certainly headcanon that. The game never says Cove is the only partner you’ve ever had.

Is there going to be a Kickstarter for Now and Forever as well? For like voiced names and stuff again? Didn’t find B&A until after it was released and I’d really love the opportunity to hear my name in the game 🥺 

Yeah, we are gonna have a Kickstarter with getting a voiced name as a reward! Though, it will be more expensive than it was for OL1. I feel bad to raise the price but we realized too late the first time around that it was being super undersold for the amount of work it took, aha.

Do you know how much the remaining DLC for OL will cost? (Step 4, Derek, Baxter) 

Step 4: Free

Wedding DLC: $2.99USD

Derek DLC: $4.99USD

 Baxter DLC: $4.99USD

Has an artist for the new position been picked yet?! I'm super excited for the new game! 

We did fill that spot. Thank you so much for taking the time to apply!

hmmm what would it take to get each of the XOXO jerk squad to feel the need to hug you? 

They’d have to first like you a fair amount, otherwise the most you’d get is maybe a pat on the shoulder. If they were attached, they might hug you if you broke down crying or if you gave them super good news.

Unless it’s Shiloh, of course. If you want a hug you only have to ask!

May i ask how the Derek DLC will work? I believe that there aren’t any memories in step 4 and doesnt derek’s dlc take place during that step? So will the dlc add memories? Thank you! 

Derek’s DLC will add five Moments to Step 2 (a new page will appear on that screen if you get the DLC). Then in Step 4 you’ll have to choose between playing the default epilogue or going through the Derek romance story.

Is the pc version on itch,io different from the steam version? Like an offline one or something? 

Steam has achievements, but that’s about it. Both can be played offline, if you prefer.

I've been wondering this for awhile, what determines if cove winds up with a ponytail in step 3? I've done multiple runs with different MCs with varying hairstyles. Or does it have to do with a particular moment in step 2? 

I’m afraid I can’t say exact choices that determine things. But generally it’s preference based options in the Step before that decide those things.

Any Floret Bond updates? 

No, the artist had to leave the project and it’s been on-hold. I’m not sure if I want to try working just with what we have or replacing it all entirely. The design is a bit too specific for us to easily find someone who could mimic it. Hopefully we’ll work things out later, though.

In step 3 is Cove's plan always to stay in sunset bird? 

Yeah. He is never ready at 18-years-old to make a big life change.

I love your content! If it's alright to ask, you answered in a previous ask about how Jeremy was too particular with what he likes his types to be romanceable with just any MC and it's sort of got me wondering.. What /are/ his types and/or preferences and such? Sorry if it's a lot! 

Jeremy likes stubborn jerks and will not date someone who’s sweet or even generally a decent person, haha.

uh, excuse me if you said this somewhere before, but how will step 4 be actually? Will it he like an actual step and have moments and dlc and all? Or will it be more like a long epilogue of some sort?

Will the step 4, the wedding and extra routes dlcs be paid too? Im just confused, sorry if im asking too much

Step 4 is only an epilogue, so it’s just a long series of scenes one after the other rather than a collection of Moments you can choose from.

The Step 4 epilogue is free, the wedding DLC, Derek DLC, and Baxter DLC cost money.

i’m not sure how much of the wedding dlc you have planned already, or if this would be to spoilery, but what kind of wedding traditions will be included? i keep thinking about how flustered cove would get over a garter toss & was wondering if we’d see a scene like that haha. obviously no worries if it’s not included, i’ll enjoy literally anything cove related 

I don’t know for sure yet, haha. Right now we’re focused on the parts before the big day. We’ll see how many scene alterations we can include for the wedding itself later on.

Hello! Firstly, thank you for creating such an amazing game like OL, and I couldn’t be more excited for OL2! Out of curiosity, are you looking for any writers to come on for OL2 or are you all pretty much set in that department? Just thought I’d shoot my shot haha but I’m still excited regardless ^^! 

We will be hiring writers for OL2 later this year! Thank you for the interest.

Will we be blessed with a spin-off Yandere Cove, like XOXO Blood Droplets? 

Sadly, no. It’s a shame but there’s not enough time to keep making OL1 bonus/spin-off content.

How is Q pronounced?

I’m afraid Q’s full name hasn’t been publicly announced yet so I can’t answer here (Q and T are the first letters of the names for the new LIs in Our Life: Now & Forever).

Question; is the steam version getting a Mac update?  I purchased the dlc there thinking it had Mac support without realizing it and just wondered if I’d need to refund it to purchase on itch.io 😭 

I’m really sorry, you will need to get a refund from Steam. We do hope to have it there for Steam eventually, but have no idea of when it’ll happen. Apple requires special notarization to be an officially accepted app for their devices. We don’t have that. Steam requires having that, Itch will let you release it as an non-notarized third party app. That’s why Itch is the only place that has the Mac version right now.

would you mind posting outfit sheets for Cove in every step? it would make things a lot easier for us artists. it would save a lot of time spent looking for references 

I think we did do the earlier steps when they were finished way back in 2019 (this game took a long time to make, aha), but we can probably repost them sometime!

In our life n&f, will we be able to get into qprs/will there be more options in regards to having deep platonic relationships with the love interests? Because as an aroace individual, it would be great if there could also be emphasis on platonic love so that it's more aspec inclusive. 

It’s a little hard to say at this point. There may not be things like a wedding DLC for OL2 and so the relationship for platonic and romantic feelings might not go as far as it did in the first game. We’ll kind of have to see how much we can do based on timeframe/budget constraints that will only be set near the end of the year. But we will be keeping things like that in mind at least.

hi! i really really like your game and im absolutely in love with it! i cant wait to try your other games like xoxo droplet and future OL NF :))

during the step 3 erands moment i got curious, which fudge flavor is his favorite? it seems like he likes all of them, but which 4 do you think he would like best?

also i noticed that in some playthroughs cove would let me give him a piggy back ride, and in some he wouldn't, how come?

how does your choices affect cove's interests or looks? i replayed the game without changing any choices but i got cove to look different, is it just random?

thank you!

Cove’s favorite flavors are ones with nuts and that are fruity! But he appreciates them all. Whether or not you can give him a piggyback ride depends on if your MC is fit/large enough to hold a muscular 6-foot-tall beach boy, haha.

Cove’s appearance does depend on choices and it’s generally tied to choices that are preference based rather than emotion/action based, such as which key chain you pick in Step 1.

Is it possible for cove to reject MC's proposal at the end of step 3? 

Nope. He’ll always accept.

hi! i was wondering how heavily the side characters will be featured in the our life wedding dlc? obviously it'll be cove & mc focused, but i was thinking it'd be sweet if we could take lizzie dress / suit shopping or dance with cliff at the wedding or something. 

The side characters are there about as often as they are in normal events. So, it’s clearly focused on Cove but he’s not the only person you have any meaningful moments with.

When will responses be sent out to applicants? 

I’m afraid we don’t send responses out to all applications, only ones we’re interested in offering the position to. Not everyone likes rejection emails and the amount of applications is too high to contact them all to say we’re not hiring them. We post updates on the job page when a position has news. Right now we’ve filled every role that was open.

Is there also going to be the option to keep your relationships with the love interests platonic in Our Life: Now and Forever? That's something I really appreciate in Our Life: Beginnings and Always

Yeah! OL will never force you to end up in a romantic relationship with someone.

I was wondering, in the Step 3 Happiness moment, what are the different fishes Cove can compare MC to? I got "you'd be a paradise fish, because being with you is paradise," but my friend got "you'd be an angelfish." Are there more variations? 

He says paradise fish if you’re a couple, angelfish if he’s just crushing, and then a royal dottyback/queenfish/emperor tetra (based on your gender) if he likes the MC platonicly.

Hello! So, in one of the Step 3 DLCs, Cove's arm was gone. I think it was to show him putting his arm behind his back. But if that wasn't the case, did it get yeeted? 

Thanks for letting us know. That was an error we tried to fix a little while back. When did you make the save file you were playing? If it was older that might be why it happened. Or maybe the error wasn’t fully fixed after all.

Asking for your opinion, but do you think Cove would at all be into ABBA? Because all I could imagine during the car trip in step 3 was him and the MC belting to Mamma Mia. 

Haha, yeah, there’d definitely be some ABBA songs he was into.

So throughout the game, Cove can develop different interests depending on the player’s choices; does this mean that he can have different careers in Step 4? Or his is line of work in adulthood never mentioned at all? 

He can have different career paths in Step 4!

Hi!! I'm so so sorry if this has been asked before but I just acquired knowledge about the so famous nsfw dlc for OL and nearly chocked on my bubblegum 💀💀💀 So, my real inquiry is if that specific moment will have any kind of impact at some point of the fourth step OR if it will just be treated as a side-story-ish “what if” scenario.Also, is there any chance there'll be something similar for Step 4? Haha jk,,, unless 😳Questions apart let me thank you profoundly for making the best visual novel I've ever played 😭 Really really looking forward the epilogue and OL2 💕 Have a nice day 

It’s just a bonus side story that’s fully separate from the main game.

It would be nice to have one for Step 4 too, but I sadly don’t see us having time to actually do it. I don’t know, if people are still asking for more OL1 content several months from now it might be doable and worth doing.

I'd just like to ask, when is Baxter's birthday :0 -- I'm really curious esp with their zodiac signs so ;w; 

I don’t know, haha. Maybe I’ll come up with one someday.

Please help!! I bought the Step 3 DLC but I still have no idea how to get to where you can propose to Cove - any tips? 

&

How do I get the option to propose to Cove at the end of the game?

You can click HERE for a discussion on that.

I love that Miranda and Terry are getting together! I'm curious if you have canon sexualities for them? Also just wanted to say how much I love OL and how much joy it brings me everytime I play it <3 

Terry likes ladies and Miranda likes dudes!

ngl Step 4 Terry's design reads like y'all see trans guys as their assigned gender more than you see them as men to me (a trans guy)... like maybe if he isn't heavily dysphoric, I could see it, but everything you've said about him doesn't line up with that. Even then, immediate warning bells go off in my head looking at him. I wouldn't have touched the game if I saw him ahead of time.

I’m sorry you aren’t comfortable with the way the design looks. The situation with Terry is that he’s now open about who he is, but the body he was born with is still physically the same. He only came out recently as an adult and hasn’t gone through any treatments/procedures yet (his chest is flatter because he wears a binder). However, even though his body hasn’t transitioned at the point Step 4 happens, no one treats him as anything other than the guy he is. Having a trans character who’s identity is supported/respected from the start is what we’re going for in this case. But what we’re doing with Terry isn’t the only trans content we’ve ever had/ever will have in the future.

how would baxter react to bae pyoun and vice versa? and can you please detailly explain both love interests personalities from our life 2: now and forever? i was just curious, sorry for dumb question!! 

I imagine it’d be pretty opposite experiences, haha. Bae would initially think Baxter is pushy and thoughtless, but would quickly realize, oh, he’s instead a soft, considerate boy. Very cute. Baxter would first be struck with the impression that Bae is charming and gentlemanly, but then would realize that, no, he’s a sarcastic asshole. And I’m afraid we can’t reveal the personalities for the next game yet.

Sorry if you've already answered this, but I have a question about the patreon exclusive moment you're working on. I was wondering if it's mainly going to be CGs or if it's mostly character sprites + backgrounds with some CGs.

Either way, thank you for doing the Lord's work and not only making Cove, but making this bonus moment as well 😌😌😌

It’s mostly sprites/backgrounds with two CGs!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you again for the interesting questions everyone :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[curls-cat]

I suggest: aroace Puck in a qpr with Sabrina, who is sapphic

Aw hell yeah!!! (this turned out less like a fic and more like a very long headcanon, and it's probably a mess, but it made me way less angry ty friend)

Puck and Sabrina share, in their life, two kisses. This is it, and it's the way they like it. The first, Puck tells Sabrina, was because he thought it's what she wanted--what would make her want him. And he's always needed, so desperately, to be important to someone.

The second was to save Puck, and he wasn't even awake for it, so it barely counts.

Then Puck goes away with Jake, and he comes back sometimes, and he and Sabrina stay important to each other, but they don't do anything about it. And it stays like that. They care about each other, and it's a vital sort of care, and a care that has nothing in common with the way either of them care about Daphne, but it's important. Which is what matters.

Then Sabrina kisses a girl, and it goes sideways. Because how can she feel this way about a girl and still have woken Puck up with a kiss? The way she feels about Puck hasn't changed. But this is new, and Puck is going to hate her forever, and Sabrina is terrible and she's betrayed everyone.

Puck, for his part, is certain that he's going to lose Sabrina. He'd thought things were good, that they were happy. But she's got someone else now, and she obviously wants more than what the two of them have, and he doesn't--

Puck had assumed, at first, that when he grew up, he would want that sort of thing. The kissing, and the cuddling, and the... other stuff. But he'd grown, and kept growing, and that part never kicked on. And Sabrina didn't push, so he thought it was okay, that maybe this was normal, and they just hadn't caught up yet. But then Sabrina tells him that she kissed a girl, and now-- Well now it's obvious that there's something wrong with him and he should've stayed a kid forever and let Sabrina grow up without him since he can't give her what she wants so she's gone to find it from someone else.

For a long, panicked month, they don't talk to each other. This is a change from their regular texting. Then Daphne, fed up with them both, drags them into a room together and makes them talk it out.

And then it turns out that Puck doesn't feel like Sabrina's betrayed him, he feels like he's losing her. And Sabrina doesn't feel like her relationship with Puck is missing anything. She wants a different kind of relationship with someone else, but she loves what she and Puck have. The easy camaraderie. The bickering. The shared history and the trust and the knowing each other back to front.

Daphne laughs at them both, but kindly, and makes a jab about talking to each other instead of assuming the other one hates them.

As they grow up more, Sabrina kisses more girls, and some boys too. She and Puck, eventually, get a house together. They have separate bedrooms, but sometimes they fall asleep on the couch together anyway. Sabrina has serious romantic relationships sometimes, but none of them come before Puck, who knows her first and best and is her mirror image. They raise kids together.

It's not what Daphne has with her spouse. And they like it that way.

[transsscorpius]

"hi danny i would love to hear if you had any thoughts or headcannons abt Astoria or perhaps even Astoria and Scorpius ones?? idk i just love hearing people’s interpretations of her 🤗💕"

@grey-edges your ask got deleted somehow and i had to rewrite this i'm so sorry for the late reply but anyway. Thank you for this ask! I have Astoria headcanons i just never got the energy to write them so here is my personal interpretation of her 🥰💕

• Ok this is probably vastly different than other interpretations of Astoria i've seen, but i think she's into like pop rock/metal/grunge type of music and her her aesthetic in dressing sometimes reflects that. Sometimes her wardrobe is floral dresses and bright colors. There is no in between

• Like if you saw her in the back of the classroom with headphones on smiling softly while scribbling something down and asked her what she was listening to and it's just. Literal screaming and depressive lyrics. What the fuck

• I think she's the black sheep of the family, her family is in a 'purebloods are better' mindset and has a rocky relationship with them (her and Daphne eventually develop a better relationship with each other) so i see her sort of straying away from them slowly during her time at school

• Also family dynamics and internalized bigotry is not as easy to just throw away as jkr writes it to be and she takes time to listen and educate herself for a while to break free from that

• She's bi oriented aroace or bi ace or something along those lines but definitely aspec

• My Astoria is in ravenclaw! I am fine with other house hcs as well, i just want her to see Luna more often and have her influence in her life. Also eventually Ginny too, they'd definitely get along. Astoria+Ginny+Luna is where my mind is always

• She wears a bunch of rings on every finger and so does Draco when he starts hanging out with her after Hogwarts. Whores

• Ok but seriously, if we're going in the drastoria route, she's the one who gets him to open up bc Draco is so repressed in many ways and she's visibly free and has those 'who gives a fuck' vibes, so he feels more okay in experimenting with gender expression and whatever else when he's with her

• I made a post once that Draco and her were in a qpr and now i can't think of them in any other way sjsjjsjs like i used to genuinely ship them romantically but now i can't think of them as anything other than having qp thing going on

• Draco is also some sort of ace. Maybe demi

• Speaking of, they would tell Scorpius about them being qp and answer all his questions about that, so when Scorpius gets rejected by Rose, he doesn't try to persist on her to go out with him (what canon? idk her) and might enlighten Rose on the fact that she might be aspec after a few comments from her saying she doesn't see really herself with anybody that way. Scorose friendship basically <3

• Scorpius has Astoria's smile. I don't know how to explain it properly but i feel like it's important to know. They have the same smile :)

• The older Malfoys hated her and probably tried to sabotage her thing with Draco so she convinced Draco to sell the manor (it became his property but i seriously don't know how this stuff works so don't call me out skksksks) and Lucius nearly had a heart attack. They spent all that money on charities and on homeless people they found on the streets

• If we're going outside of canon... Ginstoria is a very very nice concept to me. I'm sort of obsessed with the ship

• Back to just Astoria, she was a bit shy, but if anyone was being cruel, she would absolutely deck them on sight

• She was part of the DA, Harry just never noticed her idk

• She's the type of person to cut her own hair. It's always a bit choppy bc she did it herself but she likes it like that so it works for her

• She has the weirdest shit in her bag. There's regular school stuff but then there's also a bottle of clay she found (she likes to make clay figures), a pair of scissors, a sharp dagger??? some pins for her hair, eyeliner, interesting looking potion vials. People walking with her to class are always really weirded out when she start pulling them out to find a book or something. Luna is never weirded out, she understands

• Luna Ginny Astoria sleepover. Pls think about it

Yeah idk haha i just like thinking about her as strange and optimistic and someone who wants to be happy so she makes sure that she is and no one can bully that away from her <3

[sign-from-god-complex]

smitten

Summary: It had been a few months since Roman had fallen for Virgil. He’d come home to Patton that first day, waxing poetic, and come home much the same way every day since.

Pairing: Queerplatonic royality and romantic prinxiety!

A/N: I did create an entire AU around this with qpr sleepxiety and long-suffering-coworker-and-best-friend Logan Sanders but who knows if I’ll ever actually write anything else for it, hahah. Also this is a contribution to my aroace Patton agenda cause it’s a Good hc that we need more of, I think.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh, gosh, they were gorgeous again today, Pat!" Roman yelled upon flinging open the door to their apartment.

His qpp poked her head out of the kitchen, giving Roman a bright grin. They were donned in a bright blue apron, paw prints marked on the front with some fabric pens the two had bought a while back. "Oh?"

In an instant Roman was running up to her, pulling them into his arms and excitedly spinning her around the lounge to the sound of her giggles. Eventually, she was returned to solid ground, moving to pat down her apron with a sweet smile.

"What was it this time, then?" Patton asked, heading back into the kitchen with Roman trailing after them.

It had been a few months since Roman had fallen for Virgil, caught up in their snark and smirks and secret sweetness (and also a little bit in their iced-coffee-making skills). He'd come home that first day singing the praises of the cutest barista he'd ever seen and since then Roman had become a regular, always returning to their apartment after his classes with a lovesick smile and a pastry for Patton.

Roman sighed, the sound like the epitome of a daydream. "They had this lovely blouse on today, all black and sheer and delicate, like a spiderweb but infinitely more goth."

"More goth than a spiderweb, hmm?" Pat hummed, not really questioning Roman's words so much as prompting him to go on.

"Oh, and their eyes! How they lit up when their coworker made them laugh, I swear I have never beheld that level of beauty!" He paused for a moment, considering. "Except for you, of course, my dear."

In response, Patton just laughed, smacking Roman on the arm before turning back to the shopping list they'd been writing out.

"And the way they blush! Every time their cheeks darken I am overtaken."

Patton rolled her eyes fondly. "Overtaken, huh?"

Roman grinned at them, bright like jewels and other things nowhere near as precious. "Entirely, my love."

Things were quiet for a moment—but quiet in that way you can only be when you know each other so wholly and love each other just as much. Patton swung her way around the kitchen, pulling items from the cupboard as she checked what needed to be restocked while Roman watched with a look of utter adoration. Occasionally, Roman would grab their hand, pulling them into a spin before letting them carry on their way and each time Patton would laugh like it was the happiest day of their life.

Eventually, the list was completed and the two had wound down, taking up entwined positions on the couch. The TV was on in the background but neither were paying it much attention, focused instead on the way they fit together and the slow set of their breathing.

"Have you ever thought about asking them out?"

Roman spluttered for a moment, seemingly trying to come up with a reason for why he hadn't already that didn't simply boil down to "I'm excruciatingly afraid of rejection".

"You're not supposed to flirt with service workers while they're on the clock, Patton!" Roman declared loudly, "I wouldn't dream of putting them in the position of being unable to turn me down."

Patton rolled her eyes. "Love, that's a weak excuse and you know it. Logan has been trying to give you their number since the second you started going by the shop. Something about being sick of the pining, I think."

Roman mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, "Oh, as if he can talk," but Pat decided to ignore it.

"I know you're worried about being turned down but you know you're not gonna be alone. I'm never gonna stop loving you. Not as long as there are stars in the sky, darling." Roman flushed at the words, ducking his head, and Patton grinned teasingly. "Every day the sun rises is another day I get a chance to love you with all that I am and I could never be more grateful for that."

Roman made a sort of high pitched squealing noise before ducking his head to hide in Patton's lap. "You're being mean."

Pat giggled. "Maybe I am but that doesn't mean I'm not also right."

Roman lifted his head, gazing up at his partner with a look that spoke of years of trust and emotional vulnerability—another gift Patton would spend the rest of her life cherishing.

"I know that I don't technically have anything to lose except access to some really good iced coffee but I just... I don't know. I keep thinking of all the ways it could go wrong."

Pat hummed, brushing a hand through Roman's hair. The action seemed to soften Roman, the corners of his lips quirking up into a soft smile.

"Okay, let's think about it this way. You like Virgil, yeah?"

Roman gave a decisive nod, his cheeks tinged a faint pink.

"So, you think they're a good person?"

He nodded again.

"Therefore, if they're a good person, they won't react negatively to you asking them out, even if they don't feel the same, right?"

There was another nod, this one marginally more hesitant than the last.

"And," Patton continued, "if they do react negatively, then they probably aren't actually a good person and their opinion doesn't matter anyway."

Roman screwed up his face a bit, seemingly thinking about that. Finally, he smiled—the expression more of a mask of confidence than a real expression of it.

"Ten out of ten logicing there. Logan would be proud."

Patton huffed a laugh. "Look, I'm not gonna pressure you but I think you should go for it. You deserve to be happy."

"I am happy," Roman protested instantly, "You make me-"

"I know, I know," they replied fondly. She cupped his face in her palm, smiling so sweet she could almost taste caramel in her mouth. "Even happier then—happier than any human being thought they could be. That's what you deserve."

"You too," Roman whispered back. His eyes had fallen shut with the sound and Patton's smile turned to an outright grin as their chest warmed. 

"Oh, don't worry, honey. I'm already there."

taglist: @mutechild @super-magical-wizard @shadowsfromthesun @teadays @sandersships @camcam774 @autism-goblin @deadlyhuggles6 @romanthestarstruckqueer @whispers-stuff-in-your-ear @in-it-for-debussy @welpweregonnadie @hold-my-hat @koifishandcherryblossoms @stop-it-anxiety @figurative-falsehood @jadedfantasies231 @idosanderssidespromptssometimes @poisonedapples @sanders-screams @another-sandersidesblog @do-not-just-see-observe @harleyquinnamiright @localtransgrape @fandomsofrandom @gattonero17 @airiervessel @ollyollyoxinfree @tired-and-probably-crying .

[thedreadvampy]

Hey Ruth! I noticed you've talked in the past about asexuality in quite a negative manner. As an ace-person (who has received backlash for it) I was wondering: do you still uphold these opinions?

Hey! I have in the past said I don’t really...like people popping up in my ask box asking me My Opinion On Asexuality, but I do appreciate you asking me as someone I kinda know and with your face turned on, so I’m gonna aim to answer in the macro. Though I mean it depends on what the opinions...are? I have had a lot of opinions over the time I’ve had this blog and I don’t necessarily know what all of them were or which ones have concerned you. I can give you a top-level view of how I see my views, though (however, since I have been largely holding off on answering this kind of ask for Literally A Year Now this is less an answer to your specific question and more an answer to the last year of asks)

(also if I get dogpiled in my inbox for Having Bad Asexuality Opinions which I do every time I talk about asexuality regardless of what I actually say then. my phone is broken I won’t know about it :) so I feel untouchable)

I don’t think I hold a negative opinion of asexuality as an identity (I say I don’t think bc we all have blind spots)? I have a lot of very important people in my life who are asexual, aromantic or aroace and. I mean it feels pretty condescending to say ~uwu it’s valid~ bc like. ace and aro people don’t really need my input to validate their identity. but a) it seems like a pretty accurate way to describe their experience and b) I know a lot of them have had a really huge boost from finding a name and community to fit their experience and have found that really helpful, and I’ve seen that make a huge difference in people’s lives and I’m really happy to watch my friends come to understand themselves and feel comfortable and accepted in a part of themselves they had felt really alienated or stigmatised by. In a broader sense, I think there’s huge value in decentralising romance and sex in our assumptions of What Human Happiness Means and for some people that’s not the most important thing, and for some it’s just not interesting. 

So like. I find it difficult to really express these opinions in any meaningful way because my opinion on asexuals and aromantics is much like my opinion on trans people or idk like people of colour. like very obviously those people exist and very obviously those people don’t deserve to be marginalised or stigmatised but it would feel. weird and performative to just make a post saying like “Asexuality Is Good And Valid, I Am Pro It” bc again like. who needs my permission or cares about my opinion. it’s not a Good Thing To Do it’s just. a thing you are that shouldn’t be treated as a bad thing.

however. and I suspect that this is what you’re referring to. while I love and appreciate ace and aro people, I think building communities and active support for ace and aro people is valuable and needed and, as above, I think Asexuality Is Good And Valid I Am Pro It, I do take some issue with elements of how discussions around asexuality are framed online (pretty much only online, I really haven’t run into the kind of black-and-white thinking in in-person queer spaces) 

and I also. think there are some issues with people extrapolating their experience of their own sexuality onto the world in a way which. I’m just going to say a lot of the time when I talk about The Ace Discourse in a negative way it’s around people assuming that the world is split into a binary between ace and allo people, or assuming that only aspec people experience a nuanced or complex or fluid relationship to their sexuality while pigeonholing allosexuality into a pretty flat image of sex and romance focus. and I have always felt like this does a massive disservice not just to people who don’t identify with aspec labels, but also to the general hope that we could work against the expectation that there’s a Standard Amount To Value Sex/Romance - I think that the assumption that there are aspec people and then Everyone Else Has The Normal Type and Level of Attraction just. reinforces the idea that there’s a “Normal” type and level of attraction. which is ultimately pretty self-defeating and also just. observably untrue. 

and this division of the world into Aspec People and Allo People also has some other weird knockon effects - I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with identities like gray ace or demi or other aspec labels beyond asexual and aromantic, but I do think that the way those labels are used is often. unhelpful. and they’re defined in such personal, subjective ways that you get weirdnesses sometimes like people Diagnosing Each Other With Demisexual or people saying ‘you can’t talk about this experience you share because it’s an Aspec Experience’ and again. there isn’t a concrete material experience there because the whole experience of romantic and sexual attraction, what that feels like and how sharply divisible it is is very, very personal and subjective. and everyone has different experiences of those and will name those experiences differently.

there’s also. historically a minority of Big Ace Blogs that kind of sneer at allosexuality or who would hijack posts about other issues to derail them to asexuality. but I don’t think they were ever representative of the community as a whole and I certainly think that inasmuch as those blogs remain around they’re a legacy of the Long-Ago (and a lot of them are trolls imo)

but there is. an issue I take that does seem to be more currently live which is the question of allo privilege. I think personally that framing all allosexuals/alloromantics as privileged over all aspec people on the basis of feeling sexual/romantic attraction is provably untrue in a world where people, particularly queer people, are actively oppressed and marginalised for expressing non-normative sexuality. it isn’t that I don’t think asexuality and aromanticism isn’t marginalised and stigmatised, because it visibly is, but it seems pretty reductive to boil it down to a binary yes/no privilege when both sexualisation and desexualisation are so actively tied into other forms of marginalisation (this is what I was trying to express in the argument about Martin a while ago - sex and sexuality are so often disincentivised for fat, queer, disabled and neuroatypical people that it doesn’t...feel like a reclamation that those tend to be the characters that get fanonised as ace where slim, straight, able-bodied and neurotypical characters aren’t. like it’s more complex than a binary privilege equation; sex and romance are incentivised and stigmatised differently at the intersection of oppressions and. for example. in a world where gay conversion therapy and religious oppression of gay and SGA people is so often focused specifically on celibacy and on punishing the act of sexual attraction, I don’t think it’s a reasonable framing to say that a gay allosexual man has privilege over an aroace man on the basis of his attraction) 

so those are like. things I would consider myself to feel actively negative about in online discourse (and again. in online discourse. not in how I relate to asexuality or aromanticism or aspec identities in general but in the framing and approaches people take towards discussing it in a very specific bubble).

but also. um. the main criticism I have of the online discourse culture of asexuality is that there are things I don’t have experience of that I have mentioned, when asked, that I don’t personally understand the meaning of but I don’t need to understand them to appreciate that they’re useful/meaningful to others. things like 

the difference between QPRs, asexual romantic relationships and close friendships

how you know the difference between romantic attraction and friendship

the distinction between sexual attraction and a desire to have sex with someone for another reason

and I hope I’ve generally been clear that this is. honest lack of understanding and not condemnation. I personally have a very muddled sense of attraction and often have difficulty identifying the specifics of any of my own emotional needs so like. it’s a closed book for me at the moment, how you would identify the fine distinctions between types of want when I’m still at step 1: identify That You Want Something Of Some Sort, Eventually, Through Trial And Error. but I think I’ve always been explicit that this isn’t a value judgement it’s just a gap in my own knowledge and yet. every single time I’ve said anything other than enthusiastic “yes I understand this and I love it and it’s good and valid” (and again. I have not gone out of my way to talk about it I have mostly only mentioned it because people keep asking me to talk about it) I have got a massive rush of anger and accusations of aphobia and “just shut up if you don’t know what you’re talking about but also answer my 30 questions to prove you think Correct Things about asexuality” and. I understand that this comes from a place of really unpleasant and aggressive backlash towards the ace community so it’s a sensitivity with a lot of people but like. it doesn’t seem proportional.

also I feel like ever since I hit like 700 followers my Tumblr life has been a constant cycle of people asking me Are You An Ace Inclusionist Are You An Exclus Are You An Aphobe Justify Your Opinion On Asexuality which. eventually yeah I’ve got pretty snippy about the whole thing. but you know. fuck it I’m just gonna lay it out and if you or anyone else is uncomfortable following me based on those opinions then I’m sorry to hear that and I will be sad to see you not want to engage with me any more but I also think that’s absolutely your prerogative. however I will not be taking questions at this time (and not just bc my phone’s broken) - demands for an argument about this Are Going To Be Ignored so if you want to go then go.

so like the big question I reckon is Do You Think Asexuality Is Queer and

yes. no. maybe. I don’t understand the question what does it mean for an identity to be queer? 

there are spaces and conversations where any form of aromanticism or asexuality makes sense as a relevant identity. talking about hegemonic expectations of normative romance. building community. combatting the idea that heterosexual missionary married sex between a man and a woman is the only rewarding or valuable form of relationship or intimacy.

there are spaces where I think heterosexual aros/heteromantic cis aces don’t. have a more meaningful or direct experience of the issues than allo cishets. because while being aro or ace or aspec has a direct impact on those people on a personal and relational level, disclosure is largely a choice, and the world at large sees them as straight. they don’t have the lived experience of being visibly nonconforming that SGA people and aroace people do. they may still be queer but there’s a lot of conversations where they bring a lot of the baggage of being Straight People (because. even if you’re ace or aro you can still be straight in your romantic or sexual attraction and if your relationships are all outwardly straight then you don’t necessarily have an intimate personal understanding of being marginalised from mainstream society by dint of your sexuality). this doesn’t make you Not Queer in the same way that being a bi person who’s only ever been in m/f relationships is still queer, but in both cases a) you don’t magically have a personal experience of societal oppression through the transitive properties of Being Queer and b) it’s really obnoxious to talk as if you’re The Most Oppressed when other people are trying to have a conversation about their lived experience of societal oppression. and they’re within their rights to say ‘we’re talking about the experience of being marginalised for same gender/non-heterosexual attraction and you’re straight, could you butt out?’)

(I very much object to the assumption coming from a lot of exclus that “cishet ace” is a term that can reasonably be applied to non-orientated aroace people though. het is not a default it really extremely doesn’t make sense to treat people who feel no attraction as Straight By Default. when I were a lad I feel like we mostly understood “asexual” to mean that identity - non-orientated aroace - and while I think it’s obvious that a lot of people do find value in using a more split-model because. well. some people are both gay/straight/bi and aro/ace, and it’s good that language reflects that. but I do think it’s left a gap in the language to simply refer to non-attracted people. this isn’t a criticism of anything in particular - there’s a constant balancing act in language between specificity and adaptability and sometimes a gain for one is a loss for the other)

some queer conversations and spaces just. aren’t built with aces in mind. and that isn’t a flaw. some spaces aren’t built with men in mind, but that doesn’t mean men can’t be queer. some conversations are about Black experiences of queerness but that doesn’t mean non-Black people can’t be queer. not all queer spaces will focus on ace needs but that doesn’t mean asexuality isn’t queer, or that queerness is opposed to aceness - sex, sexuality, romance and dating are all really important things to a lot of queer people, especially those whose sexuality and romantic relationships are often stigmatised or violently suppressed in wider society. there should be gay bars, hookup apps, gay and trans friendly sex education, making out at Pride, leather parades and topless dyke marches and porn made by and for queer people, romantic representation in media of young and old gay, bi and trans couples kissing and snuggling and getting married and saying sloppy romantic things. and there should be non-sexual queer spaces, there should be discussions around queerness that don’t suppose that a monogamous romantic relationship is what everyone’s fighting for, sex ed should be ace inclusive, etc. 

I think the whole question of inclusionism vs exclusionism is based on a weird underlying assumption that If An Identity Is Queer All Queer Spaces Should Directly Cater To That. like. aspec identities can be queer and it can be totally reasonable for there to be queer spaces that revolve around being sexual and romantic and there can be conversations it’s not appropriate or productive to centre asexuality and aspec experiences in and we can recognise that not all queer people do prioritise or have any interest in sex or romance. in the same way that there’s value in centring binary trans experiences sometimes and nonbinary experiences at other times but both of those conversations should recognise that neither binary or nonbinary gender identity is a Universal Queer Experience.

anyway that one probably isn’t one of the opinions you were asking about but I have been wanting to find a way to express it for a while so you’re getting it: the Ruth Thedreadvampy Inclusionism Take.

uh. it’s 1:30 on a work night so I have been typing too long. if there was an opinion you were specifically thinking of that I haven’t mentioned, chuck me another ask specifically pointing to what you want me to clarify my thinking on. sometimes I gotta be honest I’ve just been kind of careless in my framing (thinking of the Martin Fucks debacle where I spent ages insisting I didn’t say Martin couldn’t be aroace then read back like two days later and realised that I had said “he’s not aroace” bc I had written the post at 2am without proofreading and had meant to say “unless you think he’s aroace”) so I May Well Not Stand By Some Posts or might Stand By Them With Clarification

[falling-chandeliers]

this is unprompted but are you willing to share your lgbt headcanons for lok characters? 👀

👀👀👀

oh geez, not gonna lie i don’t really have my own, but i just agree with most of the fandom on theirs :/ @agenderbumi and @lesbiankya have some great ones though !!

so i guess these aren’t really mine but these are ones i believe in sorry :/

- demiboy meelo. a lot of people don’t see this bc of his young boy men-are-better attitude, but i really think they could question their gender later on in the show !!

- when meelo comes out to tenzin they’re a bit confused but supportive, bc tenzin mainly understands the male female & nonbinary genders, not really anything in between

- but then after some time and effort tenzin comes to understand and eventually starts questioning their own gender (i’m a firm believer in non-binary tenzin!!)

- tRANS LIN. i am a FIRM believer in trans lin. she suffered from internalized transphobia for a while, because she thought that all girls had to act very feminine and, well, girly. i also believe that kya helped her through her gender crisis, and helped lin realize that no, not all girls are feminine.

- demigirl kya. i don’t really know how to explain this but,,,,,, demigirl kya.

- i also feel like lin would be bi oriented aroace. like, she would def be in a QPR with kya, but for the longest time she thought she was broken for not wanting a “normal” romantic relationship am i projecting onto lin? you’ll never know

- bigender wu !! wu has two gender identities, one that is male and one that is non-binary, although they tend to stick to he/they pronouns. 

- i really love the idea of panromantic ace bolin & genderfluid opal!! similar to the demiboy meelo hc, bolin first doesn’t really understand opal’s gender identity, but after a lot of explaining he ends up getting a general grasp on the concept. he wakes opal up every day w good morning kisses & then asks them for their pronouns. also along the way, bolin realized that oh shit, i am not just attracted to girls why is everyone so amazing

- bolin is definitely a major “I LOVE MY SPOUSE” husband, whether you hc opal as cis or not dsfjsfsdf and we love him for that

- everyone on team avatar is bi with the exception of bolin, who is a raging panromantic. asami has a preference for girls, korra for strong people in general (you can fight me on this), and mako has just recently discovered that yes, he is allowed to be attracted to boys. i hc him as a very deeply repressed bi, and that was partly why his earlier relationships were so awkward bc emotions??? he knows them, just doesn’t understand them.

sdkjfhjsdkf yeah anyways i lied i just came up with all of these ones rn (except for the last one) but if i accidentally stole someone hc i’m sorry :(

[kalinara]

I've seen the term queerplatonic relationship a lot but I don't know what it means. Is that like a platonic relationship between two people who live and have kids and dogs... Well, pets, together? Only minus the romantic and sexual relationship?

Kind of, yeah.  It’s a term primarily used by aroace people when they’re in committed relationships that extend beyond what would primarily happen in a friendship.

Raising kids would definitely be a good example of that.  I like to use “have a mortgage together” because while you might see adult friends being roommates, it rarely extends to the point of owning a house and entering into significant financial debt together.

Basically if you see people doing the kinds of things you would normally associate with a long term romantic relationship, but they’re not romantically involved, that’d be a QPR.

I think that alloromantic allosexual people can be in a QPR with other alloromantic, allosexual people, but usually that involves some element that would prevent a romantic or sexual relationship.  Like Will and Grace.  Or perhaps two straight people of the same gender.

I’m not sure where I fall on the idea of a cisgender straight individual having a QPR with another cisgender straight individual of the opposite gender*.  I’ve slept on the question, and I think it IS possible but it’s so rare that we probably don’t need to fuss about the issue or terminology yet.

I’m not completely comfortable with the idea of using the term QPR under these circumstances, though I suppose it’s rare and out of the ordinary enough to possibly fall under the original definition of “queer” (i.e. strange and unusual), but that’s a pretty big stretch.  At this time I don’t have an alternate term that gets the idea across.

Concepts evolve though, and it’s likely that eventually we’ll end up inventing a term that incorporates the idea of  a “friendship beyond friendship” or “life partners without benefits” without the assumption that one or both people involved are queer themselves.  Something that’s not “squish” because I’m not a teenager and I refuse to use it.  I think we’re still working on that.

(* Normally I try not to use language like opposite gender, but non-binary people, being queer already, would not fit into the hypothetical, where we’re specifically talking about cis men and cis women.)

[margaretcroftwrites]

11/11/11 Tag Game

I was tagged by @necros-writings a while back (thank you!!!) and finally remembered that I still hadn’t done it.

1. Did you have alternate ideas for a wip that eventually didn’t make it in the story or were exchanged with a better scene or sth? If yes, tell us one or a few that you left out (could be just a character too, or a name)  

I’ve not even finished the first draft yet but, yeah. I originally imagined Crow Calls as a portal fantasy caught somewhere between Narnia and Grimgar. This was scrapped around the same time I hit upon the idea of the Nightbird because I couldn’t come up with a cohesive plot for it.There were also some nameless characters who were later absorbed by other characters, and some varieties of elemental magic I dropped because it didn’t fit the mythos I’d established at the time.

2. do you have a specific audience in mind for your wip?

For the time being, me. I’m the target audience. When I get to future drafts though, I’m aiming to appeal to an adult audience.

3. is it important to you that your wip has a moral or a message?

Nope. I’m not so great at writing those things in consciously, so I don’t. If it has one at the end, awesome! If not, meh.

4. what kinds of relationships do you like writing the most (romantic, platonic, familial, etc)?

*sighs happily in aroace* I have a definite preference for writing platonic relationships, and I’m really excited to try my hand at writing a QPR! Besides, those, though, I’m kinda tied for familial and romantic relationships. I like writing them, just not quite as much.

5. what kind of research have you done for your wip? what have you learned?

Very little. I know me, and if I start to do that before I get out the full rough draft, I will never stop. I have gone out and bought some books on things I want to figure out eventually, like language invention and cartography.

6. if your wip became very successful, would you want to make a movie adaptation? why or why not?

Probably not? I think I’d have trouble getting excited over a movie adaptation for a lot of reasons, the least of which being a lot of things getting left out to fit time constraints.

7. did you have any alternate title ideas for your wip? if so, what are they?

Originally I was going to use the series title, Shadows of Birds, as the title for the first book. I ended up not liking it so much and replaced it early on with Crow Calls.

8. what has been the hardest part about writing your wip so far?

Figuring out the pacing. Something always feels just a bit off where that’s concerned, and it bugs me enough that moving on is really difficult.

9. do you prefer writing action or description?

That kind of depends on the day. Some days I would rather write that action scene or describe a city/character, etc, and other days I’d sooner eat my own fingers than write whatever happens to come next.

10. what do you want your readers to come away with after reading your story?

More than anything, I’d like them to come away satisfied with the story.

11. what’s your favorite part about your wip? what makes you excited to write it?

Without spoiling anything, my favourite part would be exploring the intersection of all of the characters motivations.

I don’t know that I have 11 people to tag, but I’m tagging @livvywrites, @crowswritetoo, @reeseweston, @astro-writing, @hell-yeah-fantasy, @wilde-writing, and @inkpot-dreamer  Your questions are:

1. What was the inspiration behind your current wip?

2. Who is your favourite OC to write about?

3. Describe your writing style!

4. Is there a character archetype you find you write a lot?

5. Worldbuilding or character development?

6. How has your WIP changed from its inception to now?

7. How do you come up with names (of characters, places, things, etc) for your WIP?

8. What are your OCs nervous habits?

9. What is your ideal writing environment?

10. Given the choice: hardcover, paperback, or e-book?

11. Last book you read?

[draw-you-coward]

[ask sent in that i’m unnaming for the sender’s privacy, considering the info involved. posted with permission!]

“I think I figured out why I love the ikael series so much, and it's just like... honest and genuine and scathing writing of being neurodivergent and in relationships and dynamics and all the good and bad things that happen because of it? I'm allistic but have other things going on but Ikael is so hugely relatable? Every chapter it's like, oh, fuck, I do that, I've been there??? (1/2?)

And it's so inexplicably healing and cathartic to read that and then have it come to a happy resolution bc the people involved are in healthy and supportive and nonnormative relationships (I can't express in words how much I love Thancred and Ikael's qpr and their cohabitation/co-parenting ish and the whole family dynamics of the scions and all) bc like, in my experiences, these things have been very negative and traumatizing and like, (2/3)

...I haven't had ppl in my life who really know how to support me in the specific ways I need when I'm like nonverbal or shutting down or having a panic attack or whatever? It's just, so good to read queer neurodivergent characters fucking being human and flawed and also like being in healthy relationships and supporting each other with things I've given up on other people being able to support me on? (3/3″

~*~ (reply below the cut)

Honestly, that’s why I started to write what I did.

I started ikael off as a sort of joke character, and when i wanted to write something with thancred, i substituted my woL for him because oddly i found he had a lot more chemistry? ikael was sort of there for when i wanted to write about something i found the game writing didn’t resolve properly, or i wanted to explore more. eventually, as his character began to take shape, i started to find him... really cathartic, and started to make the series about him instead of just being named after him (which i do for all my characters because it’s simple and to the point lol).

I was hesitant to make ikael autistic, because it was just in the wake of myself finding out I was autistic, and i didn’t want to do it wrong (and frankly there was a mote of internalized ableism and denial there too spun from a lifetime of misinformation) and i had mostly been writing him as “well i do this lol/it doesn’t have to have a label”. but since i have - there’s a turning point somewhere early ikael.series where you can sort of tell it happens - i’ve found it astonishingly easy to relate to him, much more than i ever have with allistic characters! i’ve since received similar responses from other people, and it warms my heart ;w;

i actually hesitated to even make him openly gay at first! (he always was by design lol) which sounds wild . but the fandom, minus aymeric/estinien shippers, was pretty heteronormative! especially with ikael being a “catboy”, and myself being unfamiliar with anime tropes like that and the final fantasy genre in general. i didnt know how it would be received, or whether people would think i was “just another cis girl fetishizing gay men” (nevermind that im,, nb and not even attracted to men :p) making him aro was weirdly a little harder for me to decide. i’m aroace. there’s always been an element of “well people mock aros and/or aces” and i still see posts on my dash making fun of qprs and telling people “those are just friendships lmao jfc people go outside”. so once again i didn’t know how it’d be received

ok i’ve waaay gone off topic sorry! but yeah man at the bottom of the line, if we can’t have it, and if this world won’t allow it, i want to create a space where it exists. it’s one of the biggest reasons why i never create any conflict related to identity or relationships (homophobia, transphobia, everything listed above) in my canon. we already have that to a frankly staggering extent. what we don’t have is resources for autistic people, for neurodivergent people, we don’t have the common understanding and acceptance for mental health that should frankly be universal . i’m writing mostly for myself and people like me (in whatever way that is), yes. im also writing for people who don’t have an understanding of these things so they can develop a healthy one. i’ve said this before but i’m never going to purposefully write a conflict that’s unresolved, or resolved in an unhealthy way. im not going to hurt the characters without healing them. i dont write unresolved angst or trauma. at the very most, i take my time with long term trauma, because that can’t be fixed in 3k words! again, ive said this before: people do what i dont, and that’s great! im not attacking it; i even like reading it sometimes. but that’s not the purpose of my writing.

thanks for sending in your thoughts! <3

[personshapedsplder]

How did u discover you were aroace? Have you ever been in a relationship/would you ever? Like how do you feel about it all? (I don’t mean that in a “did you ever TRY dating” type way btw it’s a genuine q bc my friend is ace and she’s dated a lot and is currently dating someone and I’m trying to like figure out my own sexuality bc I don’t know myself but I don’t feel “normal” :/ and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, I hope this ask doesn’t make you uncomfortable!) -M

hi M!

so the way i realized i was aroace is sort of unusual. id heard abt asexuality and aromanticism in high school and it sort of seemed familiar to me, but i refused to let myself rly consider it? so for years and years and years, i told myself i was straight bc i just couldn’t handle letting myself realize that i was queer. it was too painful to think abt. but then, when i was around 21, i was talking abt relationships with a friend, trying to give her advice, and it was just so hard for me to understand what she was going through and i finally just made this offhand joke like ‘im sorry i cant help you much im like practically aromantic LOL’ and i expected her to be like ‘oh haha yeah arent we all!!’ or something LOL but my friend was like :o what rly??? and then i realized. it hit me like a ton of BRICKS like i literally had to sit down where i stood because it shook me so hard. like, i sort of just realized that i WAS different from my friend and that i finally had to actually face this, i had to accept it. and it was super super painful for me but i was finally able to come to terms and learn to love myself how i am!

ik this is an unusual story most people it seems spend a long time thinking abt it and being uncertain and kind of shakily coming to terms slowly, but me, i sort of knew for a long time and forced myself to ignore it and then it sort of all blew up in my face LOL so your story might be different from mine but thats ok!!

so i HAVE been in a relationship. I dated a guy rly long distance all through high school and my first year of college. It was a really, really weird experience for me LOL. we’d met in real life once and became friends and i thought because i had something of a “friend crush” on him at the time that that meant I was in love with him. spoiler alert, i was not LOL so it was rly convenient for my denial through hs bc i could say ‘oh im not attracted to anyone bc i have a BOYFRIEND’ LOL but i never had to see him or touch him or barely even talk to him bc he lived so far away and that’s the only reason it lasted so long at all. our relationship, from my end at least, was the emptiest relationship of my life. we were barely even friends, but he would keep sending me all this gushy stuff and it would make me uncomfortable, but i thought i was just shy. it was like i couldn’t connect with him, he was on some sort of other planet and i think part of that was bc he was trying to connect w me on a romantic level and i just couldn’t do that. eventually, i dumped him when I was like, 19 or so, bc i couldn’t stand it anymore. i dont think i would ever be in another romantic relationship ever. i would consider a QPR maybe, but it’s also not something im looking for rn. ive sort of decided that my life will be partner-less but thats ok bc i have so many beautiful friends who i love! i dont feel the need to have an official partner. lots of asexuals and aromantics do, like your friend, and they’re totally cool and rad and valid, that’s just not me is all!

HOWEVER all that being said, my experiences are just my experiences!! Every asexual and aromantic has a different life! also, of course, i can’t fit all my experiences and thoughts abt being aroace into just one ask bc my experiences are my whole entire life, being aroace is a huge part of how ive identified w the world around me ever since i was born. that being said, there’s so much more i could share that might be helpful to you. if you have any more questions, or want me to clarify something, pls send me more asks! or even DM me!! id love to tell you more and answer your questions!

if you wanted advice abt figuring out your sexuality, i’d say just follow your gut. if you get the feeling you’re asexual or aromantic or some part of you relates to that, even if you’re not 100% certain, follow your gut!! it’s probably right! i spent a long time trying to figure out i was nb too, and it might have been a shorter journey for me if id been ok w just following my intuition.

i hope i helped any!! send me more questions if theres anything else i can do at all or if youd like me to clarify abt something!!

[go1ng-gh0st]

Am I aroace because of trauma or am I aroace because I'm aroace? And other questions we will never be able to answer.

Ok but its honestly so confusing. I've never felt attraction before really but I want to be in a relationship? I want to take care of someone so badly?? I want to be able to feel safe around someone? But I just can't and the idea of dating someone I'm not attracted to feels cruel to me. I don't actually know if it is? The only relationships I've been in have been with people I'm not standardly attracted too but its not obvious. Thankfully all of them had been ace up to that point.

Some people have used this against me and have basically told me they could "fix" me or that I was lying to myself and that it was wrong of me to do that to them. Worst part is, we weren't even dating when they'd say shit like that and that's what the problem for them was. I hate myself for this but I started going along with it and when shit got abusive I told myself I deserved it and that this is what people want and that eventually I would also want it. I started seeking out abusive relationships after that one ended. I just wanted someone to destroy me past the point of no return.

I want to move on, I really do. I want a healthy relationship with someone now but after years of being stuck in cycles of abuse, I don't know if I'm even capable of relating to people like that. I don't know if I'm capable of being a healthy person to be in a relationship with let alone someone that anyone would even want to be with. Who the hell wants to be with someone that isn't attracted to them romantically or sexually and never will be?

And yeah, I know what a QPR is and I was in one for ~3 years but it wasn't what I was looking for. Tbf, the guy was also very problematic as well so maybe it just wasn't the right person?

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

could I nab an aro/ace jim? going along w/ life before it hits him that crushes?? exist?? because I personally never realised that this was a thing people experienced, and realising my experiences weren't the norm. I thought I was bi for the longest time because I felt the same towards everyone. perhaps his 'crush' on claire is a squish, or becoming qpps with toby? or maybe something else if you feel you've got a rad idea :o

Ace of Spades

When Jim found out about being aromantic and asexual, it was because of a set of pride flags he stumbled across online.  He knew what some of them were.  He’d spent months trying to figure out if any of those ones fit him.  Then realizing they didn’t.  Not really.  The only one that came close was bisexual.  Still, it felt like there was something different about him.  Something that didn’t quite fit with the bi label.  Something that was it’s own thing entirely.

Mom said he could be a late bloomer.  That he’d figure out romance in his own time.  There was no rush.  She’d always be there for him if he wanted to talk or if he needed help in getting resources.  Jim never took her up on that.  

What if that supposed magic moment where he’d figure romance out never happened?  He asked himself on occasion.  Did he really want it to?  Jim wasn’t sure.  He’d never considered himself different from anyone else.  He always thought the way he felt was the norm.  That the “romance” he saw in media was something exaggerated by Hollywood to sell all the movies they could.

The fact that he was apparently the different one felt strange to Jim.  He didn’t know what to make of the feeling.  He’d gone through life without really thinking about romance as A Thing.  He honestly didn’t want to start now.

So, seeing those pride flags and learning of the aro and ace labels felt nice.  Like the beginning of an answer to a question Jim didn’t know he needed to ask.  “Aroace” rolled off the tongue in a pleasant way.  It was a secure feeling, to know he didn’t have to be anything else but what he already was.

In the coming days, Jim learned more words, an entirely new vocabulary.  Squish.  Queerplatonic relationship.  Zucchini.  That last one made him smile when he used one of the vegetable for dinner one night.

An entire world he didn’t know existed, one that felt right, had been opened up to him.

And something, for once, felt comfortable.

Jim soon found it was hard to deal with everyone else.  Before learning of being aroace, he hadn’t realized (noticed) how much everyone else around him seemed to be obsessed with romance.  Now that he did, it was grating.  Just a little bit.

Jim didn’t mind that romance existed or that people were interested in it necessarily.  It just, it wasn’t something he was interested in.  Not really.  Sometimes it was downright frustrating when everyone assumed he wanted or would want it.  Eventually.

His mom, in particular, seemed to be waiting for that “eventually”, given her regular comments that “girls” were a natural part of high school that he should be worried about.  Jim generally avoided talking to her about it if he could.  He loved her, but there were times when Mom could be pushy when she thought she was being helpful (when she was really not).

Jim still hadn’t figured out how to talk to her about that one yet.

Toby was easier.

“So aroace, huh?  Sounds like you’re some cool archer dude.  Like you’re an ace ninja with a bow and have like a bajillion arrows that you can shoot with deadly accuracy and you’re going to become a superhero—wait, hang on, I gotta look this up.”  Toby whipped out his phone and started typing.  “There’s gotta be some cool aroace superhero already.”

Jim laughed.  “Only you, Tobes, would react by thinking of some hero thing.”

“Laugh now, Jimbo, but one of these days I’m going to be right.  Just you wait.”  Toby paused.  “Anyway, you good?”  He turned to face Jim.  “How do you feel?  Like are you “I just came out to my best friend and I’m totally awesome sauce cause I know we’re awesome sauce forever” or “I just came out to my best friend and I’m kinda panicky about it?”

“The first one.  Mostly.”  Jim shrugged.  “I wouldn’t put it exactly like that, but yeah.  “We’re good, Tobes.”  He took a cookie off the plate Nana had given them and lay back on Toby’s bed.  He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding in.

“Master Jim, I must apologize.  For I assumed you and Tobias were already in a partnership.”  Blinky spoke in an uncertain tone.

“Wait, you thought we were dating?  Like gay?”  Jim clenched his hands arounds his knees.  This conversation was not going how he’d expect it to.  After talking to Toby about it, he’d decided to come out to Blinky too (and ARRRGGGHHH!!! depending on how the conversation with Blinky went).  So far, he’d made it past telling Blinky that he was aroace.  That had gone well.  Blinky had accepted his explanation of the labels.  But now they’d gotten here, where Blinky apparently assumed he and Toby were an Item.

Blinky spoke up again,  “I would not put it like that necessarily.  Not too many years ago, while scavenging on the surface, I overhead a set of humans talk of what they called a ‘queerplatonic relationship’.  From what they said, I gathered it must be a meaningful sort of relationship that exists independent of the usual trappings or symbolism of traditional romance.  Since then, ARRRGGGHHH!!! and myself have found it a wonderfully useful term to define what we are to each other.  We are something that is both strong and deeply emotional.  Somedays there are no words to eloquently put how I feel about him nor him about me.  For us, queerplatonic fit what other words could not possibly hope to describe.”  Blinky paused.  “Ah, my train of thought seems to have gotten away from me.  But my assumption was that you and Tobias share a similar relationship.  That you are, I believe the right term is zucchini?  Partners?”

“Oh, um no.  We’re just friends.”  Jim’s grip tightened on his knees.  He hadn’t thought about being anything with Tobes.  Not yet.  He was still adjusting to his identity.  That was what this conversation was supposed to be about.  His identity.  “Blinky, I’m…I may never want a relationship.  Of any kind.  I haven’t really so far.  Like I haven’t gotten crushes or anything ever.  I didn’t even think they were real for the longest time, but according to Toby they are.”  He sighed.  “I just…I don’t know.”  He threw up his arms.  “I’m ok with the possibility of a queerplatonic relationship, but I don’t want you guys to just assume I’m going to do that.  Or anything else.  Because I don’t even know what I’m going to do yet.  I’m still figuring this out!”  He paced around with his fists clenched.  “Just…don’t say I can still have relationships despite my identity.  Cause being aroace?  Is really important to me.  It’s a part of me.”  He spun and glared at Blinky.  “Not something that needs to be overcome.”

Blinky approached him slowly.  “I deeply apologize, Jim.”  He cautiously put his hands on Jim’s shoulders.  “It was not my intention to convey that that needs to happen.  It does not.”

“Thanks, Blink.  I…I kinda like the idea of a qpr?  Just not right now.  Or yet.  Or something.”  Jim inhaled.  “For now, I want to be just me.”  He paused.  “But, can you tell me more about them anyway?  Just so I know?”

“Of course.”

Jim backed up a step, away from the classroom door.  “Are you sure I can be here? I mean, I don’t know, they may—”

“Dude, chill.”  Toby grabbed his shoulder.  “It’s going to be totally awesome sauce.  Trust me.  I got you’re back.  Worst case scenario, we run out of there and become school legends.”

“Really, Tobes?  Running out of a GSA meeting will make us legends?”  Jim sighed.  Ran his hand through his hair.  “This was a bad idea.  We should—”

Toby interrupted him.  “No buts!  Trust in your wingman.  When have I ever led you astray?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

“Good point.  But I’m right about this, Jimbo.”  Toby faced him.  “I know you read some stupid stuff online, but this isn’t the Internet where anyone can say anything.  I know everyone on the other side of that door and I can say with certainty, you belong with us and they’ll think so too.”

Jim sighed.  “Fine.  Let’s do this.”  Worst case scenario, he activated the Amulet of Daylight so he could break through the classroom window as an escape and then have to deal with the fallout of revealing magic to a bunch of high school kids.

Toby opened the door with a flourish. “I hereby welcome you to the Gay-Straight Alliance of Arcadia Oaks High!” He led Jim into the classroom.  “Where we have doughnuts, friends, and on special occasions, Miss Janeth’s dramatic interpretations of other teachers!”  In a quieter tone, he added, “You should hear her Strickler.  It’s hilarious, dude.”

“I heard that, Mr. Domzalski.”  Miss Janeth spoke from where she was hanging up a poster on the board.  “And welcome, Mr. Lake, we were just about to get started.”  She turned to address the entire group in the classroom, which included Eli Pepperjack, Shannon Longhannon, Mary Wang, Darci Scott, Claire Nunez, and even the new students Aja and Krel, as well as others Jim didn’t recognize immediately on sight.  “As many of you know, the club fair is coming up and I’d like us to have a station.”  Miss Janeth went on.  “We’ll have signups for those of you who want to help man the table and, like last year, Señor Uhl has agreed to maintain a ‘security presence’.  Now, Ms. Wang has submitted the idea that we get mini pride flags to put on the table, so everyone, especially if they’re still in the closet, knows they’re welcome with us.  She’s volunteered to acquire the flags and start a list so we don’t miss anyone’s labels…”

As the meeting went on, Jim relaxed.  No one asked him to come out or prove why he should be there.  He was welcomed easily into the conversation.  He was ok.

Jim set up the mini pride flags along the front edge of the GSA’s fair table.  It had taken then a while to find them all, but in the end they’d been successful.  He set both the aromantic and asexual flags down next in the lineup after the genderfluid and agender flags.

A part of him regretted letting Toby talk him into helping today, but a part of him really wanted to be there too.

“Ah, they look lively!” Aja bounced into the chair next to him. “It is so exciting!  We will educate the people of the municipality of Arcadia all about the wonderful identities they don’t know they can have or they know they have and don’t know that have support for!”  She spun around in her seat.  “Either way it will be a totally legal day!”

“Arcadia’s a city and we’re only manning the table for the school’s club fair.  I don’t think that many people are going to show up.”  Jim was quick to reply.  The idea of a huge number of people showing up made him nervous.

“Yes, but some will still come  That is exciting!”  Aja playfully punched his arm.  “We will help people!  Toby told me you’re an archer ninja.  Between your mad skills and my…errmm…also mad skills, we will do good for the next two hours!”

Jim couldn’t help but smile.  Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.