[ID: One anime screenshot and various manga panels from Tokyo Ghoul with screenshots of tumblr posts edited onto them. Each tumblr post has a light blue border around it, except for the last one which is instead violet. All the images feature either Kaneki Ken, a young adult man with white hair or his other identity as Sasaki Haise, who has white hair with black roots.
Image 1: Haise dressed for his promotion. He’s wearing a formal CCG uniform and his hair is nicely slicked back. The tumblr screenshot is from @/equus-swift, and reads: “I’m what the kids call... Ace-thetically pleasing.”
Image 2: A zoomed-in screenshot from the anime. Haise is sitting on the couch, reading a book. His shirt is purple with black accents. On the front of the shirt, reads “Hi” in pink letters, with the dot of the “i” taking the form on a star. The tumblr screenshot is from @/DemisexualSafeSpace, and reads: “When you’re so ace you dress in ace colors without realizing it.”
Image 3: Kaneki is standing facing the camera. His right hand is held upright, showing him cracking his finger, and his kagune is activated behind him. He looks tense and ready to fight. The tumblr screenshot is from @/GrayWardentAbris, and reads: “The only lust I have is bloodlust.”
Image 4: Two manga panels edited to be side by side. On the left, Kaneki is sitting at a picnic table across from Tsukiyama. On the left, Kaneki is laying on the floor shirtless, sitting up. Straddling him, is Touka, who is also shirtless. The tumblr screenshot is from @/Five-FlatsBlogIFollowFrom, and reads: “As a biromantic asexual, I’m sex indifferent and sex indifferent.” The first phrase “sex indifferent” is bolded, and the second italicized.
Image 5: Kaneki and Touka sitting side by side. Kaneki is looking blankly off into space, and Touka is smirking slightly. The tumblr screenshot is from an anon submission to @/ FuckYeahAsexual, and reads: “My biromantic asexual boyfriend is the best person on Earth, but I guess you could say I have a bi-ace (bias).” END ID.]
“Yosuke is so hot! I wanna ask him out!” Hide whispered.
Kaneki chuckled. “He sure is attractive.”
Now that Hide and Kaneki were out to each other, Hide gossiped about people of all genders he found attractive, and always wanted Kaneki’s opinion on them.
Yosuke, they both agreed, was perfect. He was nice and thoughtful. He was a cute dork, but he was also insanely hot. Kaneki and Hide’s hearts were both fluttering. They were both in love with this man. They wanted him to know they existed, to know that they wanted him, and for him to want them back. They wanted to embrace him, and kiss him, maybe make out. They wanted some things that went a little farther, too. The point was, they had fallen hard for this man.
---
Kaneki turned the corner, only to bump into something. No. Someone.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!”
“Uh.” Kaneki stammered, looking up into Yosuke’s beautiful eyes as the man held Kaneki’s shoulders to steady him.
Kaneki’s heart still fluttered. He would love for Yosuke to bend down and kiss him, or squeeze his shoulder affectionately, or give him a comforting hug.
But anything sexual with the man suddenly felt wrong.
Why would Kaneki want to have sex with a stranger? Why did he want that yesterday? Was he just really horny? Kaneki didn’t know what his sexuality was doing.
Kaneki thought back to when he had sexual feelings for Yosuke. Kaneki had felt this way for other people before, too. At least, he thought he did. It was difficult to remember clearly now how he used to feel, as his current desire dropped down to nothing.
---
That’s it! Hide thought as he laid back in bed. I’ll ask him out tomorrow!
A fellow club member of Hide’s was friends with Yosuke, and so in order to help Hide win his heart, he invited Hide into their friend group.
Hide and Yosuke both laughed at his friend’s jokes, and Hide discreetly glanced at the man.
Hide still thought he was attractive and hot, but romance? No thanks. Hide shivered at the thought of a stranger embracing him or whispering sweet nothings into his ear. They hardly knew each other. Why would they love each other that way?
But you wanted all that yesterday, didn’t you? Hide thought, and his brows furrowed.
He did. He did want to be in a romantic relationship with him yesterday. And he had for other people in his past too. But not currently. His crushes on people never seemed to last. They would come and go. Hide had always blown it off, since for the longest time he hadn’t felt ready to date anyway. He had done his best to simply ignore those pesky romantic feelings, and it was usually quite easy for him.
---
“Alright, I gotta ask.” Hide said during lunch one day.
“Okay. What is it?” Kaneki asked.
“When you love someone, do you love them everyday?”
“Well, not forever. Eventually your crush will fade away. But, yeah. Whenever I have a crush, I’m in love with them every day and I can’t stop myself from thinking about them.”
“Really? That’s not an exaggeration?”
“Maybe a little, but not a lot. Why? You don’t?”
Hide shook his head. “No. It’s there one day, and gone the next. Sometimes it stays for weeks, and then disappears. Sometimes it disappears for weeks, sometimes days before it comes back. Sometimes it even changes between hours!”
Kaneki’s eyes widened. “That sounds like my sexuality!”
“I thought you just said yours stayed?”
“My crushes do, but not my— what’s it called— the sexual part of a crush.”
“The sexual part fluctuates?”
“Fluctuates! That’s exactly it!”
“Wait.” Hide pointed at Kaneki. “Sexual.” He pointed at himself. “Romantic.” He glanced back up at Kaneki. “Maybe we’re aspec!”
“Aspec?” Kaneki asked.
“Asexual and Aromantic! I’ve heard they’re both spectrums!”
“Asexual...” Kaneki repeated in a whisper. “Aromantic...”
“Let’s go to my queer club! I know an asexual there! We can ask them! Okay? Please?”
“Sure. I’m curious now.”
“Yay!”
Hide grabbed Kaneki’s hand and ran off.
---
“Alright, Kaneki, this is Haru, they’re X-gender and Asexual.”
“Yo.” Haru waved their hand in greeting.
“Uh, hi.” Kaneki waved back awkwardly. He wasn’t too good at being social.
“We wanted to know about the a-spectrums.” Hide said.
“Alright, like what?”
“Can you start with definitions?” Kaneki asked.
“Sure!” Haru smiled. “Asexual means little to no sexual attraction. We don’t look at people and think, “I wanna tap that!” for example. Or if we do, it’s conditional or rare. Oh! This is our flag.” Haru tapped a pin on their shirt with black, grey, white, and purple stripes.
“People really think that regularly?” Kaneki asked.
“I’m asexual, so you’re asking the wrong person.” Haru chuckled.
“I’m not asexual,” Hide began, “and yeah, I do.”
“Ready for aromantics? Or do you have any questions about asexuality?”
“Not yet. You can continue.”
Haru nodded. “Aromantic means little to no romantic attraction. They don’t get crushes on people — the typical butterflies and cutesy daydreams and romantic infatuation. Or if they do, it’s again, conditional or rare.” Haru walked over to one of the tables, and stuck their hand in a bowl. Hide and Kaneki heard metal clinking as Haru searched for something, and when they returned, they were holding a pin with dark green, light green, white, grey, and black stripes. “And this is the aromantic flag.”
“There’s people that don’t get crushes?” Kaneki asked.
Haru nodded. “Yup. People can be aromantic, or asexual, or both. As for me, I’m asexual but not aromantic. And there’s also aromantics who aren’t asexual. We don’t have any aros here in our club, but I know plenty through the internet. I’m not an expert on aromanticism, though.” Haru looked at Hide. “You’re the one questioning being aro, right?”
“That’s right.”
Haru handed Hide the aromantic pin, and Hide grinned as he took it.
Haru then smiled at Kaneki, and went to fetch him an ace pin.
“But I’m not sure if I’m asexual!” Kaneki floundered as Haru returned and held out the pin for him.
Haru shrugged. “You’re allowed to question. You’re allowed to test it out. If you don’t want it or turn out to not be ace, you can just give it back.”
“But—”
“Just hold it while we’re here talking, okay?” Hide asked, hooking his arm around Kaneki, and with his other hand holding out his aro pin to show Kaneki.
“Alright...”
“So what did you two want to know?”
“The spectrum. There’s labels for all the conditional attraction identities, right?”
“You’re free to identify as aromantic and asexual no matter where you fall on the spectrums, but yes, there’s more labels. Demi- and Grey- are the most common, but there’s plenty more.”
“What are those again?”
“Demi is feeling attraction only after a bond is formed. Grey is rare or conditional attraction, such as people who’ve only ever felt attraction once or twice. Grey is also sometimes used as an umbrella term for anyone in the grey area of the spectrum.”
“So I guess we could both be grey. Me aro, and you ace.”
“If I’m asexual.” Kaneki added.
“Does there happen to be a term where attraction comes and goes?” Hide asked Haru.
“Quite a few. In what sense? Demi is where it comes after a bond. Fray and Lith are where it fades. Aroflux and Aceflux are where it fluctuates.”
“Fluctuates!” Hide cried out. “That! That one!”
“Aroflux, then?” Haru asked.
“And Aceflux?” Hide looked at Kaneki to see what he thought.
“Is there a more descriptive definition for it?” Kaneki asked.
Haru hummed in thought. “I’m not aceflux, but from what I’ve heard... Sexual attraction that fluctuates. Some people are allosexual some days and acespec others. Or some people fluctuate between different ace identities.”
“That’s really an identity?” Kaneki asked. “That’s not just being broken, or having a mental block, or just what everyone feels?”
“Attraction doesn’t get blocked out that easily by mental will. It’ll take something much more to make it fade if you’re an allosexual. And no, you’re not broken. And if it’s fluctuating enough for you to question, I’m pretty sure it's not a regular allosexual occurrence.”
Hide nodded in confirmation. “Sexual attraction doesn’t fluctuate as much as you described.”
Kaneki looked down at the pin. “Then... I guess I’m asexual?”
“And I’m aromantic!” Hide grinned.
Haru smiled at them. “Glad to see you two figure it out.”
“Thanks so much for explaining!”
“I’m sorry if we bothered you.”
“Not at all! This is what I’m here for! Information about aspecs especially is difficult to find! And I’m always up for talking about queer identities.”
---
“Kaneki, Kaneki, Kaneki!!!” Hide cried out as he ran over.
“What are you so excited about?” Kaneki asked.
Hide threw a small plastic package, and Kaneki just barely caught it in time.
“What is this?” Kaneki gave him a look. It wasn’t close to any holidays or special occasions.
“Haru remembered our identities, and when the club ordered more pins, they ordered an aroflux and aceflux pin for us!”
“That’s so nice.” Kaneki whispered.
“So open it! Also, I’m not sure which is which. Haru said that one was the aceflux one but I don’t know how they knew—”
Kaneki checked the bottom of the package. “It says aceflux on the label.”
“...” Hide flipped his package over too, and saw the barcode and label which read 'aroflux'. “...Oh.”
Kaneki laughed as he ripped the package open. Hide tore into his too.
Kaneki pulled out a pin with 5 stripes — a gradient of pink to purple. Hide’s also had 5 stripes, and a gradient of pink to green.
“I didn’t even know what the flag looked like.” Kaneki said. “I didn’t even know there was a flag!”
Hide clipped his pin on his shirt, joining the pan and aro pins he already had. Kaneki just held his pin in his hands — he was too nervous to wear them out in public, but he kept his pride pins together in a safe spot at home to admire.
Hide wore his aroflux and aromantic pins all day. It made Kaneki happy each time he saw them — that although he and Hide both experienced attraction differently than the average person, there were others out there like them. Other a-fluxes and also other aspecs.
Kaneki put his aceflux pin with his others once he got back to his home. He still had the asexual pin from Haru, and he also had a bi and rainbow pin that Hide had gifted him a while back. Kaneki then went onto his computer, onto aspec message boards and blogs that Haru had recommended. He kept glancing at his pins and smiling as he learned more about his fellow aces and aros.
[ID: A colored manga panel from Tokyo Ghoul, showing Hide smiling with his hand on Kaneki’s shoulder, who is staring at him from behind his kakuja mask, edited onto the following a-spec pride flags: aromantic, asexual, allo-aro, aro-ace, a-spec, allo-ace, aro-spec, ace-spec. END ID]
[ID: Square edits of Ken Kaneki as a centipede from the Tokyo Ghoul 2016 Calendar (colored by @tgcalendar2016) edited against pride flags. Kaneki has white hair and is wearing a black battle suit, and has centipede antennae, a centipede tail, and red legs with white spikes. The flags are: bi, aromantic, asexual, allo-aro, aro-ace, allo-ace, larkspur gay, grey-romantic, and nebula-romantic. END ID]
[ID: Official Tokyo Ghoul art of Kaneki, Hide, and Touka edited against ace-spec flags. The art is colored in hues of blue, and shows Kaneki looking at and reading a can of coffee, and Hide at his side handing Touka a can of coffee, who is standing across from them. Hide is smiling and Touka is staring at the offered coffee. The flags are: asexual, allo-ace, and ace-spec. END ID]
[ID: A colored manga panel from Tokyo Ghoul of Touka and Kaneki back to back, ready to fight and defend themselves, edited onto pride flags: aromantic, asexual, trans, bi, polyamorous, nonbinary, allo-aro, aro-ace, and allo-ace. END ID]
