It's June, motherfuckers, and you know what that means! Apart from firing a few rent-lowering shots to filter out the chuds from my following, it's probably also a good time to post a reminder that there are many strange ways to be queer, and this is one of them.
video transcript below the cut, may be slightly inaccurate, I tend to ad-lib when reading my scripts into voiceover
It's Pride Month, so if you'll forgive me I'm taking a two minute break from the One Piece, League of Legends, Marvel Rivals, Final Fantasy and Pokémon shorts to tell you… Sylveon is trans, Taliyah is trans, everyone on the Straw Hats is queer, there are no words to describe how queer superheroes are as a concept let alone how queer they all are individually, and here's a fun fact for you: Cloud Strife's story gets ten times better when you understand it as an allegory for a trans coming out experience.
As for me, well, I'm not trans, but I do occupy my own little space in the rainbow flags which looks like this. I am aromantic.
We are generally not as visible as many of our queer siblings, probably at least partly because it's kind of a difficult identity to even discover in yourself, you basically have to prove a negative.
But what is this thing, "aromantic"? Well… okay, let's say you're a straight guy, right. You know the way you feel romantically about other men? I feel exactly the same way, and then I also feel that way about women, and then also the same way about all of the other genders.
Now, aromantic often goes along with asexual, there's a lot of co-occurrence of the two, but not always, and that is my situation. Yes to sex, no to romance, which being a man, yes, I know, that just makes me the same as 90% of the men you match on Hinge. "Ha ha ha didn't realize "fuccboi" was an orientation now," I know. I get it. I understand. I have had all the same thoughts myself, especially when I was questioning.
Which is the difficulty with being aromantic, because in order to figure out that that's what you are, you have to prove a negative. I have never been in love, and I have no reason to think I ever will be… but what if someday I meet The One??? What if there's a special divinely designated perfect soulmate out there, just waiting for me, and one day our eyes will meet across the room and it will be love at first sight forever?
And like. I can't prove that won't happen, anymore than I can prove that there isn't a flowery pink teapot currently hiding somewhere in the orbit of Saturn. And frankly, if it did happen, I wouldn't be mad. Why would I be? I would have a soulmate! That's a pretty big W, I think.
But… I've had over thirty years to encounter someone—anyone—who can spark my romantic interest, and thus far, every challenger of every gender has failed. So either I am aromantic, or else you people have a skill issue.
Anyway, like anything to do with queerness, aromantic is a sprawling and diverse spectrum. You got your aroaces, aroallos, aroflux, arospikes, demiromantics, frayromantics, grayromantics, cupioromantics, there's a whole world of different experiences present under this umbrella. For me, though, just "aromantic" is fine. That's the broad label, that's the one I fall under, that's the identity I take pride in. Happy June!
if i had a dick i would love to have a disappointing orgasm in the shower while thinking of something or someone that i felt i should not be thinking about & then stand under the water with my forehead against a wall watching the proof of my guilt & shame go down the drain
Antony Crowley had a bizarre dream; a medley of images that no longer made sense after he woke up. The daily routine quickly pulled him away from the memory of it, but as he was walking home back from the university later that day, he thought of it again. He rarely had such vivid dreams, let alone so fantastical...
Lost in thought, he turned right one street further than his usual route. That's how he spotted the bookshop, really. He stepped in, not thinking much of it, and was greeted by a kind and handsome face.
Funny, that it should happen that way.
It was a nice day.
A piece on destiny, chance and love that transcends universes. If you want more on my process drawing this, pop under the readmore 💗
I'm an absolute sucker for soulmates so good they find each other in every universe.
I really wanted to play with the idea of Aziraphale and Crowley's love being so powerful it imprinted on the new world, the seeds of it lying dormant for millennia until it blooms again.
I also love thinking about how a single choice can change one's life. Had he not taken the next turn right, Crowley would've never met Asa. Now, if one believes in the supernatural, perhaps someone gave him a nudge ;)
Details:
The piece transitions from purples and pinks to earthy tones. I tend to draw the celestials with sort of a soap-bubble/oil slick palette that gives it this ethereal feeling; For Tony and Asa I wanted to move towards earthy tones.
My goal for the dream panel was to make it feel almost like you are in a primordial space: twisting dark scales, suggestions of things, fragments. The essence of an angel and a demon like rich soil for things to grow from.
Had lots of fun drawing this, it was almost meditative.
origamiaround
theartofmadeline
areudirty
gummygunk
prguitarman
vaporwave
romaincrisis
