#ace relationship

I seriously want there to be a moment where Patrick just lifts up SpongeBob by the hips or in some other way that could be interpreted as non-platonic and

A) it’s never talked about again but it’s subtly set up in a way that fans CLEARLY notice.

or B) There’s a small frame or two where SpongeBob looks down at Pat’s hands, and it’s clear he’s thinking SOMETHING about it, but who knows what.

I've seen a few deep dives for how it's an inherently only not blatantly queer story, with the having to love someone at a distance, not being able to touch the one you want to for fear of their actual life, the yearning and trying to explain to others and just not having a conventional romantic relationship.

I want to add a little thing that I, at least, haven't seen before:

Ep 8 in season 1 has the polygamist dog breeder, and Chuck starting to think that a poly relationship might be the best way for both her, but seemingly mostly Ned, to both be with each other and be fulfilled in way of physical affection. To lessen the risk of their love and care and affection getting strained and frustrated and eventually breaking apart.

And that is so accurate to how I, asexual and inherently monogamusly inclined, have aimed to bargain with myself, to make a romantic relationship with me easier to stomach. For the other person, should they not be ace too. Preparing to see myself as not anough, if physical intimacy of the sort they'd want isn't part of my package.

The episode ends with a lil speach from Ned that there are many things we Want each day, but far from all of them are neccessary for us to be Happy in life. The mening being that whilst he does want to touch and kiss (and fuck) her, he can't, and all of that is less important to his happieness than just sharing his days with her.

And this part really got to me as, like, the ideal mindset for a romantic partner. One of the most romantic and caring things they could say - and of course hopefully also mean, to the best of their self-knowledge.

It just felt so lovingly ace, and idealisticly-ish ace. To be enough, to be loved, to be wanted. Despite hugs, kisses, sex, holding hands, or even sharing a bed, not being part of the dynamic.

Well, as specified on my pinned post, I'm mostly into G1 and Skybound Thundercracker! I kind of see them as the same person considering Skybound is a reimagining of G1.

I usually ship myself with a recently defected Thundercracker who's still very out of his element among the autobots and feeling a bit like he doesn't quite fit in. One day, he found himself chatting with a human civilian (me). I explained to him that flying is something humans inherently yearn for, showing him pictures of the first "planes" humans ever attempted to make. He thought it was endearing and a little moving, so he decided to indulge me for fun and let me ride his jet mode. And thus he made his first human friend!

I help him by explaining all the questions he might have about Earth and humans. Sometimes I want to teach him some human history, cultures, pop culture, and even how Earth ecosystems and stuff works, and he's usually happy to listen.

He's not the most affectionate guy, he isn't romantic either, but he's very gentle and careful with how he handles me. He seems to like carrying me around when he's sure there's no risk of a surprise Decepticon attack, and always makes sure I'm okay every time something happens.

Surprisingly, he's pretty good at talking about his feelings. He's blunt and emotionally intelligent. Something I love.

him, an asexual: *doing nothing*

HI YALL

this post is gonna be a followup of (this post right here), but if you have no idea why I'm making this post, I'll give you the tldr!

A while back, I decided to post a survey regarding tagging queerplatonic relationships/alterous relationships on AO3. With just over 200 responses and the survey now closed, the most favored tag has been decided by popular vote: you guys!!!

I wasn't really expecting to get so much feedback! BUT, I'm proud to announce that the most favored tag for tagging queerplatonic and alterous relationships on AO3 is none other than:

Character A ~ Character B

here are the survey responses! if you'd like to see the responses for yourself, (here's a link to the survey, where you can view previous responses)!

(ID: A screenshot of a survey results page. The survey is titled, "What symbol do you think works/looks best for tagging QPR/Alterous/Ect. relationships on AO3?" It has 222 total responses. The results are as follows:

A ~ B, 102 votes, (45.9%).

A - B, 30 votes, (13.5%).

A + B, 90 votes, (40.5%).

A # B, 14 votes, (6.3%).

A ^ B, 20 votes, (9%).

A * B, 59 votes, (26.6%).

/end ID)

So What Now?

I will be contacting AO3 support with the queerplatonic/alterous tag proposal!

If you guys would like to contribute, keep reading! Since a tag has been decided by popular vote by you guys for tagging queerplatonic/alterous relationships on AO3, I say it's time to start implementing it!

If you have a queerplatonic/alterous relationship tagged on AO3 as either "A & B" or "A/B", I implore you to go in and manually replace them with "A ~ B".

What will this do? Well, the goal is to start using this tag so that AO3 can properly recognize it and give it its own category. You can't categorize something that isn't in use yet, after all!

(When tagging, I found that using spaces between the symbol and the names helped to improve readability, so just like when you're tagging "Character A & Character B", put a space in between to get "Character A ~ Character B" !)

To all who voted, thank you guys so much for your participation! I'm excited to see those of us with queerplatonic/alterous ships be able to officially tag them! Feel free to reblog this to spread the word, and I'll keep you all updated as I contact AO3!

At the end of the day we are still human, whether we developed what society says makes us human or not. When timecards are punched out and the sky turns from day to dusk, we delve back into our little dance. We toe around our needs and our lack of. We find a waltz that suits us both, and I think that is what makes us human. We try. we communicate. we do our best to not cross the lines of comfort while still trying to accommodate the wants of the other.