#romantic ace

[ace-culture-is]

Romantic asexual culture is fearing your crush wont like you back because you dont like sex

.

[akabaka-dev]

✨️ Stardust energy ✨️

[tesseracaque]

Purple character spotted *ace beam activates*

[incompleteninny]

The ninety-seventh free, unedited chapter of my upcoming book, “The Heist at Cordia Aquarium” is now available on its website (or click https://www.kitfisto.gay/chapters/thea to read from the beginning).

An hour passes; the sun is gone. Only the moon and flickering street lamps cast away shadow. Though, the shop's flood light joins in when a large enough insect flies by. Thea and Frank crack open another beer, their firsts empty and mingling with their seconds on the gravel between them.

Bamboo bats at one of the empty bottles. It topples and rolls, glass surface tinkling like a windchime. She darts into the darkness after it.

Letting thoughts go where they will, Thea watches the cat's silhouette prance and pounce about the lot. It was just a coincidence that she was Elia's, right? What about the aquarium? Me getting out unscathed: that couldn't be coincidence, too, could it?

She shakes the thoughts away. Of course it could be. Why bother looking out for me? What would He get? Too much planning to end up with me here, still questioning everything.

"You're being awfully quiet." Frank says.

"Hmm?"

There is no intent behind the noise: just something instinctive while her thoughts drag her on. That is, until something shifts at the edge of her vision and breaks her concentration. She cocks her head to catch it.

Leaning over the arm of his chair, Frank stares at her. "You're quiet."

[...]

[kelticangel]

Been seeing lots of hopeless romantic aroace posts lately and while I really don't want to co-opt the aroace narrative and momentum, it's made me think about my own experience. So I'm gonna share a bit in hopes of sorting my own thoughts 💜 Please bear with me as this might not be fully coherent

I consider myself a hopeless romantic, and I'm asexual, but I've been vibing (a little uncomfortably) with the idemromantic and panromantic microlabels. And despite all of my recent questioning, I still feel like most of that is accurate about me. Most? Most. I think I've figured out why those microlabels weren't quite sitting right

I think they're a product of purity culture

Let me explain

As a teen, I felt like I wasn't "allowed" to make deep friendships with boys. It wasn't explicitly forbidden or anything (my parents were actually v supportive of me) but I definitely felt the social pressure to only be friends with girls because otherwise someone might think I was romantically interested and "how dare I lead someone on if I'm not wanting to date or beginning to plan for marriage." That was the feel. This was super tough for me because I've always gotten along better with guys than with girls - I just never had much in common with the giggly, makeup wearing, outfit shopping crowd

So I learned to associate all of the close connection I felt with guys with the feel of romance. Playfulness was called flirting. Wanting to spend time with someone was called crushing. Etc, etc, etc. You get the picture. And while I'm genuinely romantically attracted to masculinity, regardless of the person's gender, it so ended up that I never had much practice at being just normal friends with someone masculine

I've always felt like I suck at making good, deep, meaningful friendships. I fall into mom-friend mode with most people who have more stereotypically feminine traits, which limits how much I feel like I can be open with them. And my silly unpracticed skill at being normal around masculinity means I sometimes romanticize relationships when I'm actually trying to just be good friends. And then I scare them off with my weirdness or intensity

So, where've I landed, then?

Ace: No question. I'm not even demisexual or greyace or anything

Romantic: Hopelessly so

Panromantic: Yes ... sort of? Maybe andro-romantic is a better word? Is that even a word?

Idemromantic: Yes, but this is one that I think (for me) is the product of dysfunction and can be fixed. (Please note that I'm not saying idemromantic orientations are problematic in general)

Gonna leave this here 💜 Maybe it resonates with you, maybe not. If it does, know that you're not alone

[matrivers]

I personally think valentine’s day can be anything you want.

romantic love? platonic love? familial love? self love? just like pink, hearts, and chocolate?

do whatever you need to do and enjoy love in any way you can ♡

[shifting-motives]

Me, a romantic ace, feeling alienated from my own community every time I see yet another asexual meme about how “ace means not being attracted to anyone!!”

[m-n-v]

ace of hearts 💜