ALL IS NOT WELL. MOST IS NOT WELL.

Aith / Chimera | they/them | tired adult In Stars and Time and Dungeon Meshi with a smattering of other things. my posts | meta | art | amvs isat meta directory check em out if you like :3

[chimerafeathers]

hi i'm Aith / Chimera (adult, they/them) and sometimes i talk a whooooole lot

watch “Sometimes,” my precanon Siffrin animatic!!! on tumblr and youtube!!

and read Drowning and Burning & Alone Together, aka my fics about Mirabelle, Siffrin, and aromanticism :)

this blog is not exclusively dedicated to In Stars and Time, but it's functionally an isat blog for the foreseeable future. you'll also see Dungeon Meshi and Murderbot, among other things.

it's also technically a sideblog (though functionally my main), so likes/follows come from aithuzah, not chimerafeathers.

i'm working on my first animatic (Siffrin and Mirabelle centric, set to Ship in a Bottle by Fin Argus) and i won't shut up about it. you can follow progress and see wips/"finished" pieces here: #adventures in animatics

PSYCH i took a break from that animatic and finished an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ANIMATIC about precanon Siffrin, set to "Sometimes" by the Noisettes. also linked above, you can watch it on tumblr or youtube, and read behind-the-scenes rambling about it here.

post hall of fame: Mirabelle FQ in Act 5 (meta) | Mirabelle's segment in the MDP fight (meta) | playful Odile (meta) | "So you should just accept it!" (art) | Siffrin under the stars + SiaB lyrics (art) | gore buddies (comic) | aromantic Siffrin and crushes (meta) (okay this one never got as much attention as the others here but it's a personal favorite alongside the Mira ones)

i've rambled a ton about isat beyond what's linked here, so i made a meta directory for easier browsing. it may or may not be up to date, but it's got the majority of it listed with brief summaries. if it's not up to date, recent stuff will be at the top of the thoughts/meta tag.

other relevant tags: all original posts | isat thoughts/meta | my art | my fanfic | adventures in fic writing | replies (asks, mentions, peer reviewed tags) | peer reviewed tags on other people's posts

YouTube - where my isat animatic will eventually be posted. i've made a bunch of AMVs for Demon Slayer and Dungeon Meshi, along with a few other miscellaneous things. i love setting images to music!!!!

NOTE: this is not really a nsfw blog, but it's also not deliberately curated for a young audience. it's just a blog run by an adult and will reflect my thoughts and interests as such. discussion or depiction of adult/heavy/sexual themes aren't super frequent, but may come up (though as far as art/depictions go, you're much more likely to see gore than anything sexually explicit). i try to tag things with major content warnings, but i can be forgetful and not super consistent about it. if you let me know that you’d like something in particular tagged, i’ll do my best to be mindful and follow through.

proceed at your own risk and unfollow/block at your own discretion.

feelings buddies userbox source!

[bytedykes]

[ID: ISAT fanart of Loop, reclining on a root of the Favor Tree. Their hands are folded in their lap. The shine of their head is filled with a transparency grid and they lack any features at all. The art is done with a pixel brush. /end ID]

main character -> stage director -> sponsor -> ?

[catdile]

Siffrin ADHD beam

[catdile]

He's just like me for real

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

People will correctly identify that heteronormativity is a problem in old historiography and then immediately turn around and insist that two people must be having sex based on transgressive social intimacy. Then say something like "because sex is a human need for fulfillment."

Ah if only there was more than one kind of normativity to keep in mind....

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

This isn't exclusive to same sex attraction or love either. Anyone who digs into Empress Elisabeth's writings enough will find pretty clear statements about being apathetic (or disinclination) to physical intimacy and fulfillment from totally separate parts of her life.

We can't assume that people's highest fulfillment comes from having sex with the people they love. I wish we could have more nuance about this.

[artairwave]

“I ran away from home once!”

[idrawgaystffs]

hey it's me, a random guy on the internet, Okay listen (or don't, but this is some info for the writers in the ISAT fandom who want to hear a nitpick I hold in my crafter heart)

Siffrin does not carve with his knife.

This one, This knife right here ^^^ the blade is made for slashing outward (the curve increases dynamics and contact during a slice) or inward (inner sharpened curves are used in agricultural purposes with further evolution into weapons) it is weaponry, they should not be carving with it!

if you want canon reference as to why he doesn't carve, he literally states they lost their carving tools before the loops!

If you want to carve something out of wood, you need to have tools much thinner and more precise, not to mention Sharp to make something as simple as a spoon <- in this video alone, there's: spoke shave, draw knife, hook knife, and sloyd knife

(you can substitute gouges to that list as an alternative for the hook knife & add files if you don't use spoke shaves for a clean finish, some sandpaper goes alongside woodworking always)

Now I'll acknowledge that the person in the vid I linked is specialized in carving spoons & axe handles and has the tools for that, so if you're doing more Whittling, then "carving knives" are literally named for their use and they look like this:

small blade, big handle, also known more specifically as a chip carving knife, it's the most common used for small projects that don't use a vice (in the vid the vice is a special kind called a shave horse, used for objects that need adjusting while working yada yada dw about it)

but I wanted to make A singular post addressing this inaccuracy I see so often in fics and art when they mention carving, and I hope someone sees this as an invitation to do more research

just give him a different knife for carving post canon please

[entryn17]

#smiling due to my siffrinjoy

[knife-enby]

power is out rn so i’m just drawing isat to pass the time

[alcettogo]

It feels like a million years since I've last posted art here so. Woe, old(ish) post-canon picnic doodle be upon you

[bardically-uninspired]

And fall into this reckless love!

[This video is also up on youtube, with closed captions in case you’re struggling to read the text! <3]

[theres-no-future-in-it]

In the trenches of artfight but I’ve been wanting to draw @foxyfexyll ’s librarian sif for a while so here they are!! Really love his design & lore it gives such howl vibes <333 (and I think it’s pretty clear I have a soft spot for long hair sif lol)

[do-fish-bite]

I don't know if it's possible but are you able to turn the "Hug me" animation into a looping gif? I'm so in love with it and so badly want to just see the siffrin spinning without the sadness inbetween [evil]

Spoon feeds you pure agony on a plate what EVER do you meaaaaan

Here’s a bunch of em dear god they’re all spinning so much

I still love this animation I did they’re all so cuuuuute :(

[specialagentartemis]

this isn't really the same thing as intentionally/unintentionally a-spec characters but it is interesting thinking about how intentionality does dramatically change how characters read regarding a-spec identities and themes.

So: repurposed vaguely Kinseyesque scale describing your aromantic and/or asexual protagonist's awareness of and relationship to their own aromanticism/asexuality:

Unaware That This Is A Thing People Can Be. Type specimen: Carl from Dungeon Crawler Carl. Has never once considered that "not wanting romance or sex" is a thing people could feel, let alone identify as. He is normal, which means straight. It's just a coincidence that his relationship with his girlfriend was a disaster and now he's just way too busy in this new nightmare dystopia world for any of that! Anyway!

Aware They Have These Feelings, Assumes Everyone Else Also Does. Type specimen: Doug Eiffel from Wolf 359. Firmly believes that his aro-allo experiences are universal and everybody else is just better at acting like a functional human being than he is. Being a huge movie nerd also leads him to believe that "romance" as we understand it is massively exaggerated for drama in movies and people in real life don't actually do and feel that stuff any more than they mind-meld or can use the Force. He's just a fuckup at everything; why wouldn't relationships be included in that? For most of the show if you told him about aromanticism he would NOT be comforted about it, he'd probably take it as a diagnosis that his fuckup-ness regarding relationships was innate and incurable. (This doesn't have to be negative; this is also where Andy Wheyface from Arden falls and he is having a GRAND old time.)

Aware They Have These Feelings, Realizes That It Sets Them Apart From Others, Doesn't Conceptualize It As Part Of An Identity. Type specimen: Ryland Grace from Project Hail Mary. His reaction to other people having sex is mostly "why would you do that." His single attempt at a serious romantic relationship didn't work out and he has a nagging sense that there is something in him that can't maintain serious relationships; attributes it to cowardice and fear of commitment. Ironically he does know what asexuality is. He's a middle school teacher in 2020s California, he has absolutely gotten LGBTQ+ Sensitivity Education at least in "pamphlet listing queer identities" form, he for sure has students with pride flag pins on their backpacks and pride stickers on their notebooks, and he is also not immune from the Culture War Bullshit around gender in schools. Knowing that asexuality exists did not even slightly lead him to apply this to himself.

Aware They Have These Feelings, Considers Them Significant, Attributes Them To Some Existential Feature Of Their Existence Rather Than A Personal Identity. Type specimen: Murderbot from The Murderbot Diaries. Murderbot is very confident it does not want anything to do with romance or sex, and it attributes this to Being A SecUnit, and romance and sex are Human Things SecUnits Don't Do. Has not yet realized that this is an itself thing and not a SecUnit thing. Probably willfully at this point.

Considers These Feelings A Significant Aspect Of Their Selfhood, But Doesn't Name It. Type specimen: Sister Carpenter from The Silt Verses. Clearly confident in who she is and what she wants in her personal relationships, recognizes that as something that makes her different from others and out of step with what others expect from her, and is basically like, that's their problem. She knows who she is. Sometimes other people try to make it her problem but she has so many other problems that societal amatonormativity keeps getting pushed lower and lower on her list of Problems.

Recognizes Themself As Aromantic/Asexual As A Personal Identity. Type specimen: Nova NoStar from InCo. Clearly considers this part of her identity, but is allergic to talking about her feelings even at her therapy android's insistence and besides that's not anybody else's business is it?

Publicly Identifies As Asexual And Describes It With Period-Correct Sexual Orientation Language. Type specimen: Sally Grissom from ars PARADOXICA. The only character I've ever heard come out as asexual and lay out the definition in terms of sexual orientation and attraction to another character on-air that made me go "yeah she would do this, this is in character for Sally." Strongly feel like she would be an active commenter on the 2010s ace blogosphere. Would get in an argument about the correct definition of asexuality on AVEN.

X. Their Culture Conceptualizes Intimate Relationships In A Fundamentally Different Framework Than We Use. Type specimen: Breq from the Imperial Radch Trilogy. Whatever model of gender and sexuality the Radch is on it is NOT ours. Breq is still not interested though.

[specialagentartemis]

#interesting these are all scifi it makes me think there's something in the water there that allows for broader aspec theme building #probably because social norms are often imagined differently in scifi (tags via @variousqueerthings)

This is a really interesting aspect that I was definitely thinking about when I put this list together, because it began as an expansion of this post and I was freely mixing characters that are canonically and intentionally written as aro and ace, and characters who were not at all intended to come off that way but really do to me and/or a lot of people. But it's true, and I think that speaks to something about how different genre narratives prioritize things that lead to these readings!

A lot more thoughts about this under the cut:

So first off, the whole list is SFF because that's the majority of what I read/watch/listen to, lol. I could have made other choices - talked about Jean Valjean or Sherlock Holmes or Kerewin Holmes or Georgia Warr or Miles Edgeworth - but I really love 1) sci-fi and 2) audio drama podcasts so I have many more in-depth thoughts about those. (I mean not to say I don't have in-depth thoughts about Les Mis or Ace Attorney but--anyway. Also I haven't read Loveless or The Bone People so I can't actually say much meaningful about those.)(Okay I haven't read Dungeon Crawler Carl either but I'm on the library hold list. But I believe my friends lol)

But when putting together the list it was interesting to see the patterns emerge. One of the big ones is that the lower tiers of the list are consistently not-intentionally-written-as-a-spec, male, and - and this is the big one that made me think about what it means for a work to "come off as" a-spec and especially unique to a sci-fi context - the first three characters have their primary committed, emotionally intimate, important relationship be with with a non-human entity. Princess Donut (an uplifted cat), Hera (an AI whose body is the space station), and Rocky (a spiderlike rock alien), respectively, are not only non-human but non-humanoid at all in a manner that makes a sexual relationship categorically impossible, and due to amatonormativity, that presupposes that a romantic relationship is therefore also off the table. And there is something real there about such people not wanting a romantic relationship with the protagonist, due to not being human and not having that framework be their primary mode of connection, but also due to their nonhumanness, being presented as non-viable options as romantic partners for the human protagonist. (Yes I know about shipping. I'm talking about narrative framing.)(This also isn't quite as true about Eiffel and Hera - due to the audio medium, Eiffel as a human man and Hera as a disembodied voice coming from the station itself have equal "stage presence" in a way that any other medium could not have managed, which is super cool. However their actors Zach Valenti and Michaela Swee have been friends for years and were deliberately not interested in playing the relationship as romantic for "it would feel weird to be making kissy noises at my friends" way.)

So I do think sci-fi gives a lot of opportunity to (re)construct social norms, I think that's a good observation! And sci-fi also gives plenty of Plot Stuff to write if you set out just, not wanting to write a romance subplot so you don't, which I think is also going on in all of these (I mean, I know that was a conscious choice in Wolf 359!). I also genuinely think that having a protagonist who consistently prioritizes his friendship with an entity very different from himself without expecting it to turn romantic, over the possibility of other relationships that could turn romantic, is doing part of the work when I look at these characters and go "hmm I'm getting a-spec vibes."

(Obviously that's not the whole of it. Among other things we point to in a-spec readings of these characters, all three of them also have failed romantic relationships in their pasts that are very easy to interpret as "failed due to putting heteronormative pressure on themselves they didn't actually want" which is a big part of what lands them in the lower numbers of this scale, and the contrast between the romantic relationship they didn't actually seem to like or want very much vs. the genuine fulfillment they feel with their nonhuman and also not male BFF is definitely fueling the aro / ace reading too! And like there is definitely some willful reading against the probably-intended implications of how straight men talk about their exes. That is also part of what's happening here. Eiffel and Grace manage not to be obnoxiously bro-y about it or blame their exes for it.)

The three characters representing higher tiers are the opposite on all three metrics: intentionally-written-as-a-spec, female, and their primary committed, emotionally intimate, important relationship are with another human (or rather, Star Trek-style humanoid alien, in Hatov's case). We don't need to read into the character's struggles with heteronormativity and freedom in platonic relationships that they feel no pressure to make romantic because that's categorically off the table - the authors are writing the characters as a-spec on purpose and are interested in how that affects their relationships with other people in a conscious way.

Murderbot right in the middle is a hinge point in a couple ways, both being agender and having a committed, emotionally intimate, important relationship with both a human and a non-human intelligence. It's also definitely leaning hard on "robot-as-metaphor-for-outsiderness" that sci-fi is really good at.

Laying out all these patterns makes it feel like this is an objective assessment of how different authors write these characters and how they fall into three particular categories, but it's not necessarily. Not really. It's in some ways an artifact of the characters I had on my mind and wanted to talk about, because the other character I was considering putting as the type specimen for Tier 2 was Katniss Everdeen.

Which of course breaks the pattern. Katniss was also not written to be intentionally a-spec, but she's female, her main relationships are with her regular human sister and best friend, and she's the center of the second most famous love triangle in YA literature. (She is still from sci-fi, though.) And she comes off as intensely aro due to her general attitude of assuming any expression of romantic interest is either a bizarre out-of-pocket non-sequitur or part of an elaborate mind game to perform Romance for the voyeuristic thrill of the crowd who she needs to keep appeasing to stay alive. So like, the "uninentional a-spec" character isn't just a "straight men writing straight men with an 'unmarked' sexuality who fail with their girlfriends because that's #relateable" thing.

But then this wraps back around to what you said: the heightened and unreal settings of sci-fi allow for scenarios that push characters - and readers - to consider the normal and the abnormal, the expected relationships and the unexpected ways to consider and choose them. And I do think sci-fi is a very productive setting for taking a closer look at what we mean when we think about romantic and sexual and relationship normativity!

[porcyworld]

furiously searching online "what do animals do out in a rainstorm" while it's raining

[porcyworld]

nobody worry too much because they all produce various oils and have different densities of fur to keep them dry and warm as well as seek out shelter under thick vegetation

[genderkoolaid]

reminder that i, as an anarchist and an agnostic, am firmly against anti-theism (the stance that religion is inherently bad and should be abolished). spirituality and religion are normal parts of humanity. they are things that we make and will continue to make. some people do really just have an innate sense/desire for Something Beyond Them and that's not just going to go away Because Marxism. if anything you are throwing away a powerful organizing force that can and has been used for leftist goals, yes, even christianity. there is no part of human society that cannot be used to harm people, there is no social system that cannot be used to exploit people, there is no social construct that cannot be used to justify that harm and exploitation.

the ways in which we think of religion as a concept have been fundamentally shaped by systems of exploitative power. that does not mean this is the only possible way to think of or engage in religion/spirituality. religion has been a major push factor for many to socialism and anarchism. im so sick and tired of y'all. it's not my revolution if i must sever a core part of how i understand myself and the world or else be named an enemy.

[faithfulunsure]

#and there is no way to abolish religion that doesnt involve genocide. people dont want to hear this but its true #<-#prev #there’s no way to abolish religion without cultural genocide too #there’s no way to do it without it getting insanely racist real fast #there’s a conception that My Experience of X Is Universal #and all Christianity in the whole world takes the form of white American evangelism #I’m not saying other forms of Christianity are all better or faultless #but I am saying they’re different and they’re practiced by different people #and you can’t be making blanket statements about Christianity when you’re talking about the specific Christian experience you had #‘but obviously I mean -‘ I don’t care SAY that then #everyone here is able to recognise that the words you use are an important part of shaping your thought process #until it’s about something you cant be arsed about via @teacupsandcyanide

[danceundersparklinglights]

i’m going to be really honest with you guys i think the tendency to read the absolute worst possible intentions into every action you don’t agree with is getting too automatic and it’s eating you from the inside out

[pompombot]

Just thinking about this precious girl with already so much anxiety, and that everyone expecting her to save everyone and bring change to a frozen country, multiplying that anxiety by 500