#whether platonic or otherwise

[patchwork-crow-writes]

Thinking about Susie teaching Ralsei about sarcasm, and realising that it's more than just a funny "haha let's corrupt the little cinnamon bun" bit.

See, Susie never quite says what she means - everything's couched in casual insults and performative frustration. And yet, because we can read between the lines, we know exactly how she feels about her friends and the situations she finds herself in.

Her teaching Ralsei about sarcasm - saying one thing and meaning another - could actually be seen as her attempting to teach him about the way she specifically interacts with the world... teaching him to look further than the surface detail of what people say and interpret the deeper meaning hiding in plain sight.

By doing this, perhaps what Susie is really trying to do is to let Ralsei into her world, so that he can understand her better... so that they can be better friends.

And oh, isn't that just the sweetest thing ever?

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Ignore all logistical considerations of "would they ever meet each other under these circumstances". If you don't think Jules Bashir would have chosen to join Starfleet, imagine he is on the station for some other reason, or they meet in some other location.

I wanted to make this poll because I've seen various fics where Garak reassures Julian that far from being upset over him being augmented, Garak is grateful for it, either explicitly because (he thinks) they wouldn't be able to have their usual conversations if it weren't for the augmentations, or simply because he likes Julian "just the way he is" and wouldn't want him to be "different". I disagree that Garak would think like this (or at the very least, I think Julian would react negatively if he did, rather than be reassured), so I wanted to hear everyone else's thoughts.

[pyro-madder]

i've been headcanoning for fun that gascoigne's (younger) daughter had has ridiculously high insight for no reason, and now i'm thinking. what if it came from viola

[tracfone]

any portal character, OTP

Uhhh oh boy that is a lot of options, ok alright--

Going to be predictable here and go with glados, and of course chelldos. Even if theoretically I shipped them with anyone else I'd still have to include the other party in the mix because they are just a package deal to me. Glados is just so obsessed with chell that I think in any other romantic relationship she would have, she would STILL not shut up about her. It makes me too sad to completely leave her out of chell's life and vice versa :[

[nellasbookplanet]

I'm so sorry but I'm going to talk about supernatural in the year of our lord 2023, because I just finished good omens season 2 and the way these shows occupy a very similar space in fandom attitudes is driving me insane.

In so many ways, good omens feels like what supernatural could have been, had they actually committed and not flailed around with like 15 seasons of queerbaiting and the most unintentionally funny ending imaginable. You have the demons and the angels, armageddon, team free will vs god's master plan, years of pining and repression and no personal space and small declarations of love. But good omens does it with genuine vulnerability and comittment, not as bait or comic relief or last minute bury you gays. But, because it’s big and well-known and allows itself time and nuance to get where it’s going, so many people really treated it horribly before the drop of season 2 for not immediatelyand explicitly giving them what they wanted.

Like, after the end of season 1 you could really feel the way spn damaged viewers treated them as the same thing. It’s like people were so prepared to be tricked that they came in highly on guard and defensive. Thing is, this manifested as taking anything other than the most bland, on the nose and immediate gay rep as the creators queerbaiting and trying to worm their way out of committing to 'real' queer rep. Gaiman refuses to confirm your 'they are gay men' headcanons? Clearly him being a coward and not the characters, explicitly, being neither gay nor men. Characters have a very close relationship but no kiss? Clearly queerbaiting and not an affirmation of ace/aro relationships, queerplatonic relationships, or even plain old platonic relationships.

There is so much hurt from years of stereotypes and queerbaiting and bury your gays that any attempt to tell a complex queer story - one where relationships take time, or where they don’t always happen, or where horror or tragedy strikes, become nigh on impossible. It becomes hard to distinguish subtext used to be genuine and subtle and queer-friendly from subtext used to queerbait and make fun, and rather than making the effort to tell them apart and giving stories a chance (and taking the risk of getting hurt) all rep must be distilled into the epitome of 'gay' before it’s accepted as good, because that way you cannot be tricked. Hell, just the way it’s referred to as 'rep' rather than 'characters' is telling.

This is noticeable in the way spn fan spaces talk about Cas, too; he’s always 'the gay angel', never the bisexual angel (despite having had female love interests) or the asexual angel (despite being largely uninterested in sex) or the nonbinary angel (despite not being human and on occassion using female vessels as well as male). Does Meg Masters mean nothing to you. Just. Please allow stories their nuance and their time and their right to not always cater to your ship in the exact way you want (or at all) without declaring them bait. It makes you look very silly when you come crawling back the moment a kiss happens.

[dnasplicers]

dont go into the tartaglia tag biggest mistake of my life

[deadwar-a]

DRABBLE / HEADCANON : S.OAP & GR.AVES / TANK.

basically, it's time i did it. so have it.

-

Graves is a hard motherfucker to kill, and even more so with a fucking tank. Soap manages his way through the training area, his shoulder is still screaming with every pull up and drop he does. He finds the C4 laying around in boxes scattered across the place, doing his best to ignore the sarcasm and threats Graves tries to make through their comms.

The bitterness that rises in the back of his throat with each remark builds, chest burning as he throws himself into overdrive. He’s running and jumping across platforms, shooting down Shadows as he does. These were his friends. Graves was his fucking friend. 

“You got a healthy disrespect for authority, Soap. I like that about you…” Graves’ voice almost sounds chipper, teasing as he rounds a corner.

“You’re Shepherd’s lapdog.” Tears prick at his eyes and he does his best to control his voice, hiding the crack of it under the guise of running. “You get paid to break the rules.”

Another C4, another detonation. This one rings his ears, arm coming up to shield his face from debris as he makes it to another setup. He grabs another piece of C4 and the few armor plates he sees, tucking them about his gear for protection as he dives back out into the open, ducking behind a wall briefly before he’s moving again.

“You’re on the short road to hell now, son. I told you to go home, but you didn’t listen.” Soap almost hears a hint of regret behind his tone, but he doesn’t let it sink in. Graves doesn’t regret a goddamn thing.  

“You’ll hang for this.” It comes out rough, graveled by the burning and disgust in his throat. He feels like throwing up.

“Knock that honor shit off, Johnny.” Oh, that does Soap in immediately. Johnny. He remembers when he let Graves call him that a few times, always rolling his eyes and telling him to shut up. But he never listened. Graves never fucking listens. “I’ll be sippin’ tequila, forgettin’ where I buried your ass in a week. That goes for both of you. Can you say the same?”

No, he can’t. He knows this is the last one. He knows that only one more pack of C4 is going to blow this thing up. He knows he has to do it. He hates him with his entire being and the Shadows have killed several of his friends, along with innocent people. Soap climbs his way up the stairs, clutching the last pack of C4 before he eyes the tank and tosses it, hitting detonation immediately. He hits the roof as it explodes, shielding his head from falling debris.

When it’s clear, he takes one look at it and suddenly the bitterness turns to bile and he’s pulling up the mask to vomit on the broken wood beside him. He coughs a few times before he hears Rudy call his name then he wipes his mouth and pulls the mask back into place, climbing down.

“You did it, Soap.”

“You and me, hermano.” He reaches over to gently tap Rudy’s shoulder, watching the flames overtake the rest of the tank and heaviness overtake his entire body. 

“Brought a gun to a tank fight…” It gets a tired, light-hearted huff from Soap.

“Yeah, we did.”

They radio in, confirming Graves’ death to both Ghost and Alejandro.

Soap and Rudy gather the Vaqueros around the area, making sure they’re safe and secure. He pushes his thoughts to the back of his mind as they do because the mission comes first. He’s been trained for this and he knows how to compartmentalize for the time being.

Suddenly, there’s a radio from Price about the missile in Chicago and they’re moving, meeting them at the airstrip as they throw Valeria in the truck and say their goodbyes.

All too quickly, they’re on the plane to Chicago and Price gives them a couple of hours to rest, to catch their breath before they move on to a new plan. He knows they need their heads for this, and it’s going to be a few hours before they’re in Chicago anyway.

Soap is uncharacteristically quiet. Having sat down in his designated unassigned seat, he breathes. He leans his head back against the cool metal of the plane and fucking breathes. It’s the first time he’s been able to since… Well, it’s been a few days. Price asks if he’s alright and all he responds with is ‘ aye ’, nothing more.

He can feel the weight on his chest, thoughts creeping back up, but he shoves them back down the best he can. His chest aches. It feels like it's on fire with the emotion threatening to burst it wide open. He feels the way his throat closes up, the way his leg hasn't stopped bouncing since he sat down. If he stops now, however, every bit of emotion he's worked so hard to keep back will start pouring out in waves and he doesn't know if he'd be able to make it stop.

Graves was his fucking friend. A man he clicked with those few years ago. A man he trusted with his life.

[sp00ky-scary]

today i found out that the jesus judas kiss is like an actual thing from the actual bible and im still losing my fucking mind over that

[mlchaelwheeler]

hot take: mike and el's relationship to one another is incredibly complex and wont ever be able to be boiled down to a concrete label like platonic or romantic or familial. their surface level relationship, yes, bc their whole "relationship" parallels societal norms. their real, honest relationship transcends those norms, just like they will when they stop trying to conform. putting them in a box puts those labels back on them, even if its 'just friends'. (im not saying they are romantic. im saying they are always going to be incredibly special to one another. yes, saying they aren't 'just friends' suggests they are more than that. i say that bc they are. "more than" doesn't strictly mean romantic.

i dont think i explained this well but tldr: fuck labels, they do love each other even tho they aren't in love with each other. humanity can transcend labels and be freer for it.

[fanaiceach]

me thinking about the implied pre-canon relationship between geoffrey and edgar (the insinuation that geoffrey is very familiar with the workings of the vampire panic room because he likely helped construct it. edgar saying that once upon a time geoffrey promised to give him an hour head start “for old times’ sake” if edgar ever turned. the kind of relationship they must have had for geoffrey to even joke about that. the absolute gut-wrenching betrayal geoffrey had to have felt when he figured out edgar had a hand in the epidemic, the fact that it hurt enough for geoffrey to write edgar off as a monster no better than a leech -- because priwen doesn’t kill humans but at the end of the day he did kill edgar. even if jonathan turns him geoffrey either dealt the blow or gave the order that lead to his death. either way in his mind he’s lost another person he cares about because of vampires. and it’s worse because this is someone he liked and trusted -- in spite of the animosity between priwen and the brotherhood, so possibly someone he liked and trusted against his better judgement only for it all to go to shit):

[onebigowlhouseobsession]

Gal Pals

Norma and Badyah are my favorites. Their dynamic is soooo sweet, it's going to rot my teeth out. Besties.

[austerulous]

Feeling kind of soft and squishy today about all the lovely interactions I’ve got going on, across characters and fandoms. You guys are amazing. Thanks for loving my blorbos and for letting me love yours. ♡

[omniishambles]

Considering how obsessed the rpc is with young FCs, I'm pretty proud that the majority of my muses are 40+ tbh.

[deadwar]

S.R. HEADCANON (bc im reposting from my old blog)

simon being so emotionally stunted / shut off that someone is pouring their heart out to him and he just "okay." because what is he supposed to say? he's not ... good with words regarding that and saying them makes it all so real and even if he does return those feelings , what is he supposed to do about it ??? he can't turn himself into this type of man that's going to give them the affection they need or the words they want to hear .

through trauma after trauma , he's been shaped into this type of person that's not going to be able to give someone everything they want in a relationship . he's not gonna be able to do and say all the things that other people ( normal people in his eyes ) would . he thinks it's a million times better to just push them away and not have them that close ; whether they do the same job (1.41) or not , there's just too much to him that won't allow for it .

but when if it happens , when he finally and willingly lets himself have it ... he's the most loyal person you'll ever have . he's not big on pda , the gracious amounts of affection and whatnot , but he gives it in other ways . he'll hold hands , arm around the shoulders , giving them little trinkets he picks up on his missions . little things like that are his love language . also note that unless they've seen his face before ( ghost team / certain medical personnel ) , the mask is not budging for a while . it's another one of his things . it's a trust issue that needs to be worked through .

[deciessomnia]

What’s the best way to start a thread with you!

Hello anon! The best way to start a thread with me? Well there writing a starter and tagging me in it, sending in a meme, or if you prefer plotting can always drop my DMs and we can work something out~

as for memes tag HERE. there really aren't that many under here due to me not really reblogging much when it come to it, lol.

[romancerepulsed]

aspec terms for beginners!

since it's trending right now, i feel like it might be helpful to clear up some basic aspec (but particularly aromantic, as we are the center of attention currently) terms. if you have absolutely any questions, i would be happy to answer, either in the replies, dms, or my inbox!

★・・・・・・★

the split attraction model (SAM): a model of human behavior that posits that, for some people, romantic and sexual attraction are not the same.

[most often this will come in the form of someone being aspec on one axis and allo (not aspec) on another. for example, a biromantic asexual may be romantically attracted to two or more genders, but sexually attracted to none. some people may even use SAM for allo identities– a bisexual lesbian may be sexually attracted to multiple genders, but only romantically attracted to women (note that this is not the only way that someone can be an mspec lesbian, just one way!). the SAM does not apply to everybody, not even all aspecs! there are non-SAM aros, for instance, who do not differentiate their aromanticism from their sexuality.]

aspec: a collection of queer spectrums centered around the lack of a certain attraction or identity. the most common spectrums under the aspec umbrella are asexual, aromantic, agender, and aplatonic, though there are many other ways to be aspec.

asexual: experiencing little to no sexual attraction.

[aces can still have sex– whether its because they experience some amount of sexual attraction or they just want to participate in sex because they find the act appealing in some other way. that being said, there are still plenty of aces who have not and will never have sex. it is a spectrum.]

aromantic: experiencing little to no romantic attraction.

[aros can still have romantic partners– whether its because they experience some amount of romantic attraction or they just find relationships appealing in some other way. that being said, there are still plenty of aros who have not and will never be in a romantic relationship. it is a spectrum.]

agender: having no gender or little relation to any gender.

aplatonic: experiencing little to no platonic attraction.

[similarly to aros and aces, apls can still form friendships if they so desire– whether its because they experience some amount of platonic attraction or they find friendships appealing in some other way.]

aroallo: combination of aromantic and allosexual– allosexual being someone who fully experiences sexual attraction. an aroallo, then, is someone who is aromantic but not asexual. aroallos often do not have a standard relationship with sex due to its romantic connotations and the stigma against loveless sex. someone having sex with someone else they do not love does not inherently make them aroallo, much in the same way that having a nonsexual relationship with a partner doesn't inherently make either participant asexual.

aroace: someone who is both aromantic and asexual. because aro and ace are both spectrums, an aroace may still experience some amount of attraction on either or both of those spectrums, or they may experience attraction of some other kind (platonic, tertiary, etc.), and that attraction may be only for a certain gender or genders– these are known as oriented aroaces.

queerplatonic relationship: a type of relationship that is defined only by the people within it. i have a post dedicated to explaining this in larger detail.

partnering: an aspec (usually aromantic) person who has and/or desires to have a partnership or multiple partnerships– romantic, queerplatonic, or otherwise.

non-partnering: an aspec (usually aromantic) person who has no desire to form a partnership of any kind.

romance/sex/plato favorable: an aspec who desires or would not reject a romantic, sexual, or platonic relationship. they are also generally not particularly bothered by seeing these relationships in their day-to-day.

romance/sex/plato repulsed: an aspec who does not desire a romantic, sexual, or platonic relationship and generally does not like seeing those relationships in their day-to-day. [x] repulsed people are not necessarily judgemental towards people who desire or participate in those relationships, they just do not desire them for themselves. repulsion often takes the form of discomfort or annoyance. [x] repulsed people are not necessarily cruel sticks-in-the-mud– they are perfectly capable of being respectful, and they very often are. repulsion does not always stem from trauma, though it certainly can.

romance/sex/plato positive: not to be confused with favorability, [x] positivity is the belief that romance, sex, and platonic relationships are human rights that should be supported and uplifted. someone can be [x] repulsed and [x] positive at the same time, because favorability/repulsion revolves around the self, and positivity/negativity extends to others.

sex/romance/plato negative: not to be confused with repulsion, [x] negativity is an inherently judgemental and harmful ideology. most commonly in the form of sex negativity, these ideologies are centered around the opposition to or personal judgement of people who engage in romance, sex, or platonic relationships. sex negativity in particular is embedded in western white supremacist societies and it is important for aspecs not to play into that.

those are the basics, but i have more information below the cut!

★・・・・・・★

> how are aspecs queer?

aspecs are queer because "queer" does not only mean LGBT. queer theory is about far more than just LGBT people– though they are undeniably a large part of it– queerness is any subversion of the traditional cisheteronormative standard. this includes things that cishets may take part in/identify with, because you do not have to be LGBT to subvert those standards. cishets who are gender-nonconforming are queer, for example. a good rule of thumb is that if you have to explain what you whole deal is to cishets, you're queer. queer does mean strange, after all.

traditional cisheteronormative conceptions of attraction, gender, and relationships do not account for aspecs. it is expected that everyone will one day form a traditional partnership with one other person, and that relationship will include sex (even if only for procreation, under some dogmas). virginity past a certain age is seen as a point of shame and something indicative of a larger problem in someone– in men, a red flag even. people past 30 without a relationship are pitied. our economic structure is build for couples and families– it's near impossible for someone to live comfortably alone. romance, friendship, and love are placed on a pedestal, treated as the meaning of life, the best thing anyone could ever experience. "love is the point of everything," as many posts on this site like to claim. people who reject these ideas are undeniably queer.

> i can get behind aros and aces, but the whole "aplatonic" thing feels like a stretch to me. how is not having friends queer? "platonic attraction" isn't even real.

aplatonicism is more than just "not having friends," and many apls have friends anyway, much in the same way that aros can date and aces can have sex. someone who does not have friends is not inherently aplatonic, they only are if they identify that little-to-no platonic attraction in themselves and choose to label themselves that way (just like how virgins aren't inherently asexual). still, apls who don't have friends exist, and they are all queer. what is a greater subversion of traditional cisheteronormative relationship structures than an outright rejection of what's seen as the most basic, fundamental relationship our culture has to offer?

you may not feel that platonic attraction is a distinct phenomenon in your own experience, and that's fine! ultimately, a lot of aspec terms exist for the utility and comfort of aspecs themselves. the SAM isn't for everyone, and platonic attraction isn't for everyone either. you do not have the authority to tell people what their own experiences are, nor should you care.

> i think it's sad that you're limiting yourself with these labels. you'll find someone one day!

for the broad majority of aspecs, our identities are not self-disciplinary, nor are they necessarily permanent. all queer people are capable of misunderstanding their identity or having a fluid identity– it is not a problem unique to being aspec. that being said, a lot of us may always be aspec and completely happy with it. being aspec is not a tragedy. the only thing i don't like about being aromantic is the judgement i receive from other people about it. non-partnering aspecs are not "missing out" on anything, because we don't even want the things we're rejecting in the first place. many of us are romance/sex/plato repulsed and are far more happy engaging with the world and with other people in different ways, because there is so, so much more to life than relationships, and it's wrong to presume that relationships are universally fit for everybody. telling an aspec that they'll find "the right person" one day is no different from telling a lesbian she'll find "the right man" one day. there is no "right person" for an aspec just as there's no "right man" for a lesbian. a lesbian is not "missing out" on a heterosexual relationship just because it's culturally perceived as superior and more fulfilling.

[disclaimer before anyone tries to do a "gotcha," i'm talking about a lesbian who is fully not attracted to men in any way. it's not like homophobes know the intricacies of gender identity and nonconformity as it pertains to homosexuality anyways.]

lastly, i wanna give a special shout out to the loveless aros and the relationship anarchists.

loveless aros are those who either feel little-to-no love as they understand it, or they are someone who supports the de-centering of love. they're worthy of a whole post of their own, but in summary: the loveless experience is all about finding joy in yourself and the countless things our world has to offer that are not dependent on the vague idea of love.

relationship anarchy is another concept worthy of its own post, but in essence it's an ideology aimed at abolishing the standard hierarchy of relationships (in the USA, depending on who you ask, its typically friendship < family < romantic partnership or friendship < romantic partnership < family) and allowing everyone the autonomy to define their relationships for themselves.

if i made any mistakes, let me know! and of course i'm willing to answer any questions anyone may have. :-3 thanks for reading my long ass post!