#aroworlds

Sat at an open lattice window,

A maiden lets out a desperate cry

In hopes a savior will appear

From the starry night sky.

This is a forlorn last hope

On the night before her wedding day

Of a forced marriage she cannot cope,

She dreads her world turning to gray.

There’s movement in the inky sky,

It just barely catches her eye.

A figure in the darkness

Grows with every passing moment.

Soon the maiden realized its course,

Coming straight for her lattice window,

Flying fast and full force.

The monster was thrice the size of a horse.

The maiden stumbled from her seat,

Her heart thumped and breath caught in her throat.

The monster was snake-like and sleek,

It was no other than a dragon.

The beast landed on the building’s wall,

Sending a tremble through the room.

It stretched its neck through the window

And from its nostrils came a smoky plume.

The maiden cowered in the corner

Yet dared a glance at the foreigner,

And in its eyes she saw

No malice or disdain.

Instead there was compassion,

Understanding, and maybe even

An escape. The dragon

She suddenly believed in.

The beast had heard her prayer

And beckoned her out of her lair.

This was the savior she sought after,

Freedom was right in front of her.

She climbed onto the dragon’s back

And held on for dear life.

As the dragon expanded its wings,

She kissed goodbye her role as wife.

They sprang into the ebony night

And flew to a great height.

With the full moon to guide them,

Fiction Round Up: July / August / September

You can tell my updates here have become infrequent at best: I’m using the same header title as I did for a fiction collection post spanning the same three-month period last year. I’m also posting this at the end of October…

This is, in part, what’s lead me to rework my online presence. Most of what I’m writing/creating is connected to my aromanticism, so it goes up on Aro Worlds. That’s also the…

I’ve been updating the WordPress site, so I thought I’d do a quick post about improvements I’ve made and to remind folks of what this Tumblr is about.

Content

This blog collects, discusses and celebrates creative content relating to all identities under the aromantic spectrum umbrella. I am allo-aro, so I want to be clear that I welcome content centering all sexual orientation and/or attraction identities and experiences alongside our aro-spec identities.

I ask that explicit sexual references remain under a keep reading cut and be advised for, but you are absolutely welcome to submit or link content that depicts sexual attraction and experiences as shaped by aromantic-spectrum identities.

I also ask that high romance depictions remain under a keep reading cut and be advised for, but you are absolutely welcome to submit or link content that depicts romantic attraction and experiences as shaped by aromantic-spectrum identities.

Current Links and Projects

Aro-Spec Artist Profiles: All artists now have WordPress versions of their profiles, along with new header images. If you’re after a new aro-spec creator to adore and support, please check out their profiles.

Profile Templates Page: If you’re an aro-spec creator who wants to participate, please check out this page for information, questions and the how-to of submitting. Please note that it may take me a little while to format your post, my pain and health depending, but if you’re prepared to be patient, I’m more than glad to post your profile as soon as I can do so.

(Because I’d like to get this going again with fresh participants, I’ve written out my own answers to post later this week, in the hope that this encourages other folks to join in.)

Links: I made a handy links page concerning about information and current projects. If you’re unsure what this blog is about or what’s on offer in terms of content, please check out this page.

Hallo, Aro: If you want a master page of all stories or PDF/EPUB editions of said stories for those of us who dislike reading in browsers, look here.

Prompts: Since I noticed that people are still interacting with my list of prompts for Awareness Week, I made a proper page on the WordPress site. If you’re looking for inspiration or need some guidance on what content this blog accepts, this is the place to go.

Submissions: Even when I don’t have the spoons for answering questions, the submission option is always open for folks to share their work. You absolutely cannot spam me by sharing new pieces, updates to old pieces, newest chapters or anything else that concerns the creation of aro-spec content, so please feel free to make use of this option.

Tags: I track the tags #aroworlds and #arospec creations and will reblog from both as long as these are in a post’s first five tags and the post doesn’t contain an external link. If there is a link, you can @ mention me or send me the link to the post (just break it up or give me the name of the blog and the number from the post’s URL) in an ask.

(If you’re writing allo-aro content, you may prefer to first submit over at @alloaroworlds​, but I will reblog it here as well.)

Me

About: If you want to know a little more about me or check my pronouns, I have an about page with links to my other main online spaces. (Ze/hir/hirs, please.)

Fiction: I have a post about my fiction centred on aro-spec experiences and one about my fiction with allo-aro narrating protagonists. The rest of my queer fiction can be found on my website.

Ko-fi: If you’d like to help an aro-spec creator stay alive and you have a couple of dollars spare, I’d be grateful if you’d consider shouting me a digital beverage.

The Askbox

I will only be accepting asks related to aro-spec media and aro-spec creativity, not aro-spec community, aro erasure from the ace community or aro erasure/aro antagonism generally. I’m also planning to steer away from all such conversations on here myself, unless they’re about media and representation, to focus on the aforementioned.

(If you want my thoughts on the community in terms of allo-aro experiences, please head over to @alloaroworlds.)

I’m happy for folks to send me asks about aro-friendly media, media with aro-spec rep, your thoughts on aro-spec rep, works and pieces you’re creating--anything to do with the intersection of aromantic-spectrum identities and creative media, including issues of representation and challenges in making content, is welcomed in my inbox. I’m just shifting away from conversations that aren’t related to creativity or representation.

That’s it for the moment! Thank you for reading, and I look forward to seeing your work on this blog.

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When Shizuka moved to a new town, her main concerns were learning how to make friends and avoiding more bullies. She was not expecting the demons hiding in the forest or their plans to take over the world. 

Taken By a Demon is an original fiction book I’ve been working on for a while. It’s a combination of slice of life and fantasy. The slice of life stories center on Shizuka, Diana and their classmates as they deal with growing up and learning how to be who they want to be. The fantasy stories deal with the magic and demons hidden in the surrounding forest and the battles Shizuka and her allies must fight to keep the unknowing public safe.

I see the book more as a collection of related short stories than a collection of chapters, though some, including the first one, are long enough to have chapters. As short stories, the focus can jump more freely between the large ensemble cast of the slice of life stories and the more focused cast of the fantasy stories. While romance is not a main focus of the book, it will eventually become apparent that most of the cast is queer in some way.

So far I’ve uploaded the prologue and the first chapter of the first story. I plan to upload a chapter every Friday, though I may take a Friday off once in a while to post chapters of other stories.

Me: Let’s start an aro-spec fiction writers’ collective! Anyone interested?

Don’t get me wrong: I need something like this to exist. I just seem to have ideas and motivation when I am least able to do the thing...

It seems to me, on an aro media blog, that the best way to celebrate pride month is to make more aro-spec media. Pride/visual media isn’t as difficult to find here on Tumblr, but written or narrative media, especially written and narrative media from a range of aro-spec voices, is more of a challenge. I reckon we can do something to change this.

So, for June, this blog is taking original fic prompts from aro-spec folks in want of aro-spec-centred and aro-friendly stories. Hopefully, one of our followers can take your idea and give us a short story, poem, narrative comic, character study or ficlet I can reblog here.

(It says “fiction” in the header, but any kind of media that conveys narrative is more than acceptable as a prompt response.)

If you’re a first-time writer, if commas baffle you, if you’re unsure about your craft, it doesn’t matter. Please answer the prompt that’s calling to you, because we need more aro-spec storytelling. This is solely about a community gathering together and supporting each other in our identities via artistic expression. I’d really love to see prompts and pieces from folks who are less-well-known in the aro-spec community, prompts and pieces that cover aro-spectrum or intersecting identities, or prompts and pieces that veer away from common depictions of aro experiences. This is about making sure that as many aro-specs as possible get to be part of aro-spec storytelling.

I’m not assigning prompts--I’ll simply be tagging and posting the asks and letting people respond to them as they will.

For Prompters:

What I want from you are prompts designed to direct the stories to all corners of the aro umbrella. Send an ask to this blog answering the following questions (if you don’t have a preference for any one of them, leave it blank) and I’ll post your ask for someone here to fill:

Aromantic identity: what identity under the aromantic umbrella you wish the story to focus on. Aroflux, akoiromantic, aroace, aro wlw, alloaro, etc!

Genre: what genre you wish the piece to be. Fantasy, science fiction, mystery, contemporary, comedy, etc.

Romantic content preference: indicate if you don’t mind romantic content (either in aro-spec protagonists or side characters) or don’t wish to see it at all.

Mood: the mood or emotional undercurrent of the story. Serious, humorous, conversational, happy, lighthearted, identity-focused, etc.

Plot: keep this simple, as we’re going for short pieces. Suggestions like “coming out” or “exploration of identity” or “coffee shop conversation” work best. Ideas like “Jessie comes out as greyromantic while casing an art gallery with Keiko” are great (and I kind of want to write this).

Optional additional identities or elements: If there’s anything else you want to see, mention it here, but keep in mind that this section is going to be optional.

Please note that responses to your prompt may not be quite what you have in mind. This isn’t about commissioning a story. This is about giving creative folks ideas that they can run with in deepening the aro literary canon.

For Writers:

I want you to submit or @ mention this blog in a Tumblr post so I can reblog your finished piece. You can absolutely host it on AO3, Wattpad or your own website and just link us if this is easiest for you (especially given Tumblr’s formatting issues).

Please respond to a prompt that has already been filled. If a prompt calls to your fandom, please feel free to give us a fanwork in answer. I’m just asking for original fic prompts to give more options to more storytellers; answering with fanworks is more than acceptable.

(If you’d rather make or fill fandom prompts, please check out @crimsonsquare‘s Gen and Aro Prompt Meme on AO3!)

Please keep in mind the acceptable and unacceptable content sections on our about page, because they will still apply to filled prompts. The templates page may help you in formatting your pieces.

Good luck! I’m looking forward to seeing the prompts you’ll send in!

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