A collection of aspec original characters

What's something your OC knows now, (in regards to their sexuality/orientation), that they wish they could have clarified or guided their younger self through?

How would your OC handle someone coming out to them?

For Halek? 🫪

There is Ðíúharlaes stereotype that prioritizing physicality in relationships is selfish, shallow, spiritually lazy, etc and means the relationships aren't as deep or important. this really pisses Halek off as someone for whom physical connection often actually makes his relationships deeper. (adjacent to his allosexual aromanticism.) If he were in our world, he'd really hate the stereotype of polyamorous people having problems with commitment because he is very committed to all of his relationships.

There is a stereotype that multisexual people are by default polyamorous; Halek is both multisexual and polyamorous.

He would tell his younger self that it's okay that he can't differentiate romantic and platonic attraction and he'll feel much better once he stops stressing over it as much. He would also tell himself not to do things he's not comfortable with.

6. How does your oc feel about labels? Theirs, or in general?

7. Is there something that could cause your oc to question their identity? What?

9. Are there cultural or lore specific aspects to their identity? If applicable, does their species affect it?

6. Halek tends to label himself, but vaguely. In a lot of ways he doesn’t have a consistent/strong/confident sense of self (living a triple life will do that to you. Trauma, also, might do that to you) and this may or may not be related to that. (He also might just not really feel the need to get super specific.) For instance, he describes his sexuality as “flexible;” the Ðíúharlaes don’t consider multisexuality to be outside the norm so I doubt they have as many words for it as we do and Halek doesn’t feel the need to identify with a specific subcommunity or be very definite about it. (Interestingly, Zhe’ārani might also describe her sexuality as flexible, but in her case she’s describing what we might call abrosexuality whereas Halek is vaguely pansexual.) He also thinks of himself as (in addition to a trans man) genderqueer and multigender, but he doesn’t know or describe what the other genders might be. I do think he probably identifies as specifically platoniromantic, at least to himself and people he cares to explain it to more than “alloaro-spec;” “platoniromantic” seems to me like a pretty intuitive word the Ðíúharlaes or even just Halek himself could easily come up with to describe not differentiating romantic and platonic attraction, and the lack of differentiation in his emotional attraction is important to him and relevant to how he experiences and forms relationships. (Oh! And he’s intersex, which is not seen as a “problem” in his world but is relevant to how Se-Naskans talk about gender so in some contexts it’s relevant to how he thinks about himself, and he does specifically identify as intersex.) He doesn’t have opinions about the “right” amount of labels for other people, they can be as vague or as specific as they want, he’s just pretty intermediate about his own.

7. Halek has some trouble with his sense of identity generally, but I think he’s pretty confident in his queerness. Many of his labels have wiggle room built in by design.

[ID: a pencil crayon drawing titled “Observing.” In it, Guodei is sitting in a window seat and lifting a mug to her mouth. She is a young woman with light golden-brown skin, short blue hair, and sharp silver claws. She has a prosthetic leg, scars on her arms and face, and indistinct tattoos on her hands. The lid of the cup, which has a straw attached to it, is sitting on the cushion next to her. /end ID]

Artist’s notes:

The cup is built with a straw but she doesn’t like straws so she took the lid off.

Set a few months after leaving the Temple.

Not totally sure about the shape of her nose; I’m not certain it’s consistent with the other drawing I did of her but I was sort of trying things out and tbh I think that because I’d been thinking about a different drawing I might do with Rovian who’s nose IS that shape and how I wanted to go about it slightly differently than usual I might have gotten a little mixed up. It’s not too far off what I think the shape of Guodei’s nose is but the bridge might look a little different? Not a big deal but I thought I’d point it out in case it’s inconsistent with other drawings (past or future). I did put the edges of the nostrils in this time which is what I was trying out and I think I’m satisfied.

I didn’t outline the scars in marker this time! I think that’s much better and more how real scars look.

Wearing her flower shirt, of course.

Trying out putting some more effort into shading and I think it paid off in some places and didn’t come across as well in others. This is good information for the future.

Gave her a hitchhiker’s thumb like me.

She’s so awkward and doesn’t really want to make friends, but she’s really starting to get used to being around other people and she’s interested in how “normal” people interact with each other, so she comes to the food hall a lot.

Nox is aromantic (aroace) - that's quite integral to their story, and in fact was part of the very first concept for that story i came up with. it's the reason they're immune to the mind control that the Big Bad is using to take over the world

Ross (Ooze) is aromantic, though they haven't really thought about it for the most part - it simply has not come up and they have bigger things to worry about, like the team of wannabe supervillains that know their name and address

Topaz Morgan is aromantic (acearo, aplatonic, afamilial - loveless) and strictly nonpartnering, which is why they were living (happily) alone in an apartment before moving into their late aunt and uncle's house to take care of their much younger cousins (which for some reason was specified in their aunt's and uncle's wills, even though everyone knows they can't handle kids? anything's better than letting topaz's mom attempt to parent more kids, they suppose)

Merry might well be aromantic - they're not really sure

Lucille is definitely aromantic, though she didn't have a word for it till she'd been dead for nearly 80 years (hey, there are some benefits to haunting)

Grey is aromantic (aroallo), though they live with a bunch of their friends, which is both fortunate (the horrors seem to subside when Poet is nearby) and unfortunate (all their friends are starting to notice the concerning noises at odd hours and the fact that Grey's cat Jackson doesn't seem to move right or even to be mortal any longer)

Poet is also aromantic. He is too full of wonder and whimsy at the world for any of that romance nonsense. He considers his housemates his queerplatonic polycule, which they might reciprocate if he literally ever used those words instead of waxing poetic about how all of them are like stars in a constellation on a journey through time

Augden is aromantic! Or greyromantic, at least. He can't quite tell between platonic and romantic - his platonic love is just so strong! He's pretty worried about Grey. They have been acting so strangely recently and he wonders if it's because he offhandedly told them he loved them (he meant it platonically but maybe they think he was coming on to them?) (they didn't even hear him, they were too busy running off to fight the horrors)

Jay would probably call themself aromantic if they weren't so distracted all the time. Not really by their story so much as they are very scatterbrained

most of the rest of my OCs that i have put any amount of myself into are also aromantic in some capacity - i just cannot fathom being fully alloromantic, so i just sort of hit everybody with the aromantic beam so i don't have to think about it...

anyway, happy aromantic visibility day!!!

The most well-known fact since I talk about it all the time is probably the fact that she’s trans! She started her transition very early in life with the support of her mother and best friend. Growing out her hair is one of the first ways she started transitioning, so she’s awfully fond of it.

She’s very serious about her career as a ballerina, to the point she sometimes needs to be told when to take a break. At first her mother had refused to teach her anything because of an injury Giry (Meg’s mother) suffered in the past, but Meg was rather persistent and now she’s one of the best ballerinas on stage.

One of her biggest hobbies is reading. She loves a good mystery novel and is always recommending new books to her best friend Christophe. The two of them love theorizing what’s going to happen next in their books together.

Another hobby of hers which is a rather practical one is embroidery. Sometimes costumes get ripped and the person who made them isn’t always available to fix them, so most people (but especially the ballerinas) have picked up a few sewing skills.

(This is especially helpful considering the particular theater she works at may or may not be going bankrupt, and hiring the costume designers again for repairs the following year is a lot when the people actually wearing the costumes could just- fix them themselves).

She’s also very protective of her loved ones and will go out of her way to make sure they’re safe. Even if it may hurt herself, or them.

Ty :) yay <3 yay

1. How sheltered was your OC from the idea of LGBTQ+ relationships when they were younger? How has it impacted their relationship with themselves?

🫵 good question

My aspec boys! I don't usually add alt text, but I did it this time since I'm tagging @aspec-ocs (just FYI there's 1 mention of sex in the paragraph below)

Grady Bell (right) is the reincarnation of the demon of pride (here called Asmodeus) and he's cishet, BUT aplatonic. He's one of the only sins who still has some loyalty to the queen of hell (mostly because they're banging, but shhhh don't let her hear that), but of course, he always puts himself first. He's a college student, majoring in costume design, but he prefers styling hair.

Ethan Elliot Scott (left) is acearo and the reincarnation of wrath demon Satan. He's an up-and-coming rock artist. Does he have any interest in alt music or fashion? Nooo... But he gets to rage and scream (and maybe even beat up some neo nazis) so he continues doing gigs.

(As this project now encompasses twenty stories, I thought I'd celebrate with a master post.)

Is it "aay-romantic" or "arrow-mantic"? What if she hears "I’m a romantic" instead of "I’m aromantic"? What if she says "isn’t that just friendship" or "that can’t be real" or, worst of all, "I’m looking for something more"?

Hallo, Aro is a series of flash fiction stories about allosexual aromantic characters navigating friendship, sexual attraction, aromanticism and the weight of amatonormative expectation.

Contains: Dragons, a duchess's daughter, an autistic who collects pride merch, odd voyages into creative non-fiction, werewolves and gods, hunters of witches and the fae, the power in aromantic discovery, and lots of allo-aro feels and experiences.

Plus many trans, multisexual and sapphic aros!

Unspoken

How do you tell the person you like about the relationship you want when it requires a language nobody speaks?

Leaving

You leave a trail of people behind you, the cruel and curious and stubborn, until you find someone who understands the word aromantic.

Friendship

All Eliza wants is to partner a dragon’s handmaiden without risking romantic complications–but her dragon has something just as valuable to offer.

Lucky

The only way Piper can survive his workplace's fumbling attempts at aro acceptance is to make a game of it.

Attraction

Eliza can’t help fearing that her interest in another girl is best explained by a word she doesn’t wish applied to her: romance.

Existence

How do you come to terms with your path through life when nobody said the word that describes you?

Neuronormative

What does aromanticism mean to an autistic who cannot distinguish it from alloromanticism?

Loveless

When Paide ein Iteme says the words “I don’t love”, he doesn’t just refer to romantic relationships.

Monstrous

You submit, obediently, to their chains and collars … until you start to wonder what it is about your beast’s nature that requires the loving to demand such restrictions.

Pressure, Side One

When aromantics speak of the social pressures that weight our existence, sex negativity seldom comes first to mind.

Pressure, Side Two

Even in a city wrought to display our proud green, many things are shaded purple.

Abrasive

Spending Midsummer night with a pretty man shouldn’t be a problem for Suki … except for everybody else’s romantic expectations.

Question

When people ask about your love life, it demonstrates their acceptance of your queerness. What does it mean, as an aromantic, when they show no interest at all?

Antagonist

Cai likes women, casual sex and an absence of long-term relationships. None which would be a problem if said women didn’t see this as proof of his becoming the enemy...

Witch

The forest road promises you the chance of a world beyond marriage’s expectation … but the witch waiting by the roadside offers up queerer, stranger proofs of validity.

Hunter

The Citadel assumes that Prudence obediently searches for the sorcerer potentate’s missing twin … but she has her own reasons to hunt the Ring’s witches.

Pillar

When fog creeps and moon fades, the desperate seek out gods few dare name … but even gods struggle to witness the cruel consequences of their people’s amatonormativity.

Tomorrow

Stories speak of heroes’ sexual escapades on the night before they risk their lives, but Darius doesn’t dread death as much as he does the complications of surviving to see the day after tomorrow.

Steel

When a needlewoman agrees to run away with her fae lover, their fairy-tale ending has little to do with happily-ever-after.

Future

3. When did your OC realize that they may be different from other people?

7.) Which character confessed their feelings first? And how was it? What did they do? How were they feeling?

16.) What would they do to surprise one another?

(re: "I need help with writing romance." — if it refers to the genre, I'm not competent at that, but writing connection/intimacy/bonds/commitment/ship/whatever term becomes more accessible by approaching it as "write making kin.")

thank you for the questions and for the advice! I get in my head about romance even though I know a lot of it is the same as any relationship. I found a book the quote seems to be attributed to and it looks really cool im seeing if its in the library

7. Rabee unequivocally confessed first! I was thinking about it the past two days and it's the obvious answer, but it's also true. Rabee is a poet and a performer and while it was nervous about confessing in particular, that's a feelings it's used to working with rather than against. In a shockingly smooth confession it spent a while composing a poem for Safi,,, and then read it to him. The hardest thing for Rabee was probably getting to a point where the poem felt finished enough to actually read. I am debating and I think (in a move that could have gone quite badly but didn't) Rabee confessed while they were on the road together after both separately running away from home, so they had a lot of time alone. Safi got very tongue tied and essentially had to show his positive reaction by just hugging Rabee. Without other people around they kind of just,,, slowly started moving their sleeping bags (*suspenceful voice* do sw ocs get sleeping bags or will i come up with a sw-ified word) closer together and closer until they were basically snuggling every night. Once they met up with the larger group they're traveling with they gradually started doing more things to like,,, perform a romantic relationship I guess, like kissing and obvious flirting.

For Wren?

at birth bro.

It's funny to me how, completely unplanned, my two sons turned out to be at the very extreme ends of some queer spectrum...