I don’t want to have to defend my aromanticism, but I feel like I will have to if I ever start coming out to people. I have been in a romantic relationship before and I know that will confuse people. They’ll want to know how I was in a romantic relationship if I don’t experience romantic attraction. They may use it to try to invalidate my aromanticism. I will have to explain. I will have to tell them that it was before I realized I was aromantic. I’ve never truly understood what romantic attraction feels like, so I got it mixed up with strong platonic attraction (for the opposite gender, because heteronormativity). Or I got it confused with queerplatonic attraction. I don’t want to feel and be invalidated. I don’t want to have to defend my identity.
Summary: Logan is not one to scroll through Tumblr. However, he's glad of the one time he did.
Word Count: 916
Logan didn’t often spend time on sites such as Tumblr, he found it pointless to waste time looking at pictures with humorous captions when he could be doing something productive. Sometimes, though, he found it necessary. Logan would often help write the scripts for Thomas’ videos. Usually, he was in charge of the research behind them but he did enjoy coming up with plot lines and ideas as well.
Today was one of those days when Logan was trying to find new video ideas for Roman, usually, this consisted of him looking online to see what the fans liked from past videos. However, one problem of him looking on social media sites was him finding things that didn’t relate to the videos. Most of the time he found it annoying, but this time he was intrigued.
The post he had found was of a photo, but not the normal ‘memes’ as Virgil liked to call them. It was of the Aromantic flag with different colored text written over the top. The text read: 'AroSpec Awareness Week Feb 16- Feb 22.' It had caught Logan’s eye because he was Aromantic or Aro as most people called it.
For the next few hours, Logan lost himself in Tumblr posts all surrounding Aro-Spec Awareness Week. He found posts of people talking about their experiences with being on the spectrum, he saw ‘memes,’ and he ever saw edits and fanart of him and his fellow sides all decked out in green.
And Logan was happy, happy that there was an entire week dedicated to the spectrum he was on. And as he scrolled through more posts Logan decided that he wanted to do something to celebrate as well.
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It took some time before Logan decided what he wanted to do, and when he did he decided that he was going to need some help. Yes, he could just summon what he wanted but Logan wasn’t the best when it came to summoning. That was Roman’s domain. So, the logical side approached the one who would be the best equipped to help him. Virgil.
Logan stood in front of the dark purple door, not bothering to hesitate as he knocked. It swung open to reveal the side he was looking for.
“Hey, Lo." Virgil said, “what’s up?”
“I need your help,” Logan said.
The anxious side stifled a yawn as he looked at him through his bangs. “Let me guess, you need my help in telling Princey off again?”
Logan chucked “no, I need your help with a project I am working on.”
“Okay, what project?”
Now, this was the moment in which the intellectual side paused “do you know what Aro-Spec Awareness Week is?”
“Yeah.” Virgil said, “what about it?"
“Well, as you are aware. I am Aromantic” Logan said, “so since there is a week dedicated to ‘Aro Pride and Awareness’ I thought I would make something to show my support.”
“And you need my help with it?” Virgil clarified.
“Yes.”
The darker aspect paused, thinking it over before nodding “okay, yeah I’ll help you.”
“Excellent.”
“Cool," Virgil said, “so why don’t you tell me what you're thinking.” Logan nodded before he began to explain his thought process.
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It had taken a couple of days to finish Logan’s Project, luckily it was still Aro-Spec Awareness Week when he did. To be honest, if it hadn’t been for Virgil’s help Logan didn’t know if he would have known where to start. Let alone finish it.
It was towards the end of the week when Logan walked downstairs to breakfast wearing his new, handmade necktie. The tie was hand-dyed in the colors of the Aromantic flag and hand sewed, two things Logan (originally) didn’t know how to do. Luckily, Virgil had some experience from when he had made his patchwork hoodie. Logan knew that Virgil had both dyed and sewn the patches unto the jacket, which was why he had come to his darker counterpart in the first place.
“Ahh, Logan!” Patton cried when he saw him, throwing his arms around the logical side “you look so good!”
“Uh thank you, Patton,” Logan said. Untangling himself from his friend’s arms and clearing his throat slightly.
“Wow Specs, only you could find a way to show pride in the nerdiest way possible,” Roman said with a smirk.
“...Thank you, Roman.” To be honest Logan didn’t understand his friends’ reactions. After all, they shouldn’t be that surprised. In Thomas’ videos, he did tend to wear the same necktie, yes, but in the Mind Place, he wore a variety of ties. Wanting to understand Logan questioned them about their reaction.
“I’m just so proud,” Patton said “you never really show off any kind of expression of your identity. Even after you came out.”
“Yeah, the rest of us have always shown off a little bit of self-expression. Roman does with his personality and Patton wears his flag’s colors on a bracelet.” Virgil gestured to the friendship bracelet that Patton wore.
“And I do it in my jacket,” Virgil continued gesturing to his black and purple jacket that they all knew was to represent his Asexuality. “But you don’t do anything.”
“Yes, I am aware,” Logan said, “however, I thought that now was the perfect time to do so.”
“Why?” Roman asked.
“It is Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week.” Logan explained “or Aro-Spec Awareness Week as I’ve found most people calling it.”
