#itl

for @listeningtotheescalator 's fanfiction, Is This Love? on Ao3!

I love your fic, and Zoobie's got my heart.

Zooble's working today despite having taken a thousand shifts from Jax..it's tiring.(but worth it!)

Busou Keiji Cyber Cross, 1989

Hey there anon!

I have two answers to this question: one that's simple and one that's very convoluted.

The simple answer is that I recently became friends with a woman who's two years older than her husband. They're high school sweethearts! I really enjoy them both and they're the happiest, most glowing couple I know. I kinda had them in mind while I was ironing out In the Lowlight's character details.

The more lengthy reason is that women are practically always younger than their male partners in media. I work in publishing, which (if you didn't already know) has seen a massive uptick in romance books in the past five years. In the more trendy/popular releases, the women are younger - usually by two years if the book isn't using the age gap trope - like nine out of ten times, and I kind of wanted to write something that doesn't reinforce the idea that women should be, typically, or are younger by default. To be clear, if you write something with a female protagonist who's younger than her male love interest, I don't think that's bad or inherently pushing some kind of weird 'women have to be younger' message. I'm more trying to say I made an active choice to specifically challenge a pattern I've observed.

Alsooooo... in addition to the typical two years apart thing, there's often a certain kind of power dynamic in romances and x readers that I just don't love, and it's the younger/smaller/helpless girl x older/more experienced/protector male trope. Again, there's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying this kind of relationship, I think I just wanted to write an alternative, especially because they're a little harder to find. That's also part of why I chose to make the reader in itl a trained vigilante!

Anywayyyyyyy. It's not like my Jason Todd fanfiction is going to change anything, but it does feel like a small rebellion in a way. You really do gotta write what you want to read, I guess.

325: intersex to lesbian, translesbian, or transbian

[PT: 325: intersex to lesbian, translesbian, or transbian /end PT]

DEFINITION ⦂⠀A lesbian who is transitioning gender-wise to affirm one's orientation.

That doesn't mean being transgender is only because of attraction, but is linked to it.

ADDITIONAL ⦂⠀Coined on the 29th of October, 2025. While it's just a combination of the intersex and lesbian flag; I hope the second one serves as a less AGAB-centred one.

TAGGING ⦂⠀@c1rcus-of-silliness @near-nia-river @orientation-archive @radiomogai