Things

You wanna ship canonically aspec characters because “aro/ace people can still date/have sex”? Okay, then. LET’S DO IT.  I wanna see an aromantic character with an alloromantic love interest. I wanna see that confession of undying love and the moment when the aro character says they will never feel the same way—not romantically.

I wanna see the asexual character with their allosexual partner. I wanna see that moment when the ace characters tries sex with their partner for the first time because they want to make them happy only to realize that they are 100% sex repulsed.

I wanna see the two demiromantics who don’t even know if what they feel is romantic attraction, but they adore each other and just want to make healthy snacks together and destroy each other at Mario Kart.

I wanna see the two aces who love sensual affection and are figuring out what they define as sexual or not.

I wanna see the romance + sex neutral aroace who happily and consensually does whatever makes their partner happy…but their partner still struggles with feeling undesired. 

So, uh...*pulls collar nervously* I actually publish stories like this? I'm the author of a YA horror-fantasy series called The Stormwatch Diaries. Long story short, I'm republishing the first three books to fully explore my main characters' asexuality and aromanticism.

So if you're looking for an aspec relationship dynamic that involves:

Being in love with your best friend

It's mutual

You're both ace

And aro? Demiromantic?? Qoiromantic??? WHO KNOWS

You're a bonded pair and cannot be adopted separately

Oh, and there's graveyard cuddle time

At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

we get asked this sometimes. well...turns out y'all show us exactly how, every day.

you've submitted nearly 100 of your own "it gets better" stories in our asks so far this year alone. most of them aren't referencing a big political win or huge moment of cultural change. more often than not, it's about the little things. you've told us how things got better for you after:

-finding a label that suits your identity

-coming out to a friend, family member, or even just yourself

-moving to a new place or school

-hearing your voice after starting hrt

-finally fitting in with a chosen family

-finding a style that makes you feel confident

-someone in your life learning to accept you

-receiving your first binder or a new haircut

-getting your first apartment or going to college and feeling free

-being in a loving, accepting relationship or partnership

this is what "better" often looks like - small moments of queer joy or positive change, a little bit at a time, that give you hope and propel you forward. this is what we work for.

eyes hit serious diminishing returns wrt resource costs vs vision quality as they get bigger, so the question became: what the FUCK do giant (and colossal) squid need to see so badly that they couldn't see with swordfish-sized eyes that's justifying that massive energy cost? that nothing else in the deep ocean needs to see so fucking badly??

turns out the one strength eyes that big really have over much smaller eyes is: seeing large glowing objects in water deeper than 500 meters from an appreciable distance.

sperm whales are the primary predator of giant squid. sperm whales don't glow. BUT! water that deep is full of bioluminescent creatures-- these creatures light up when bumped into. something a sperm whale's size is continuously bumping into those critters, it's just surrounded by a glowing field all the time when it's swimming at those depths, visible from a distance-- if you have the right eyes-- as a massive glowing shape. so basically the only reason to have eyes the size of soccer balls is if you live in the deep ocean and your life depends on having a heads up when a hungry sperm whale lurking around

4 year old me: why must we do this

Fantastic old woman in the leopard print coat: "Why yes, my tooth IS real silver! Nobody ever asks me that. Do you like cats?"

Tempted to actually put this on spotify so I can secretly stream it at work...

Tempted to actually put this on spotify so I can secretly stream it at work...