Ashe: she doesn’t deserve it, but probably needs it. cover your neck though
Markus: sure, go ahead! but fair warning, he WILL befriend you even if you break his nose
Kyr: DON’T!! DON’T FIGHT KYR!!!!! HE’S A SWEET POTATO and it might, also, accidentally set off an explosion. it’s safer for everyone to just hurt his feelings instead
Thog:
don’t bring fists to a gun fight. should it be a fist fight, don’t bring shirts
Inien: please fight inien. beware of grease spells.
Colvin: you cannot fight him with your fists. fight him with your truth
Horaven: you’re either going to die or you’re going to apologize, so maybe don’t fight him
Moren: he just want’s to live in peace and sell his artefacts, leave him alone dude!!
Xin: IGNORE CONSEQUENCES, FIGHT XIN. PLEASE JUST FRICKIN PUNCH XIN
Zalvetta: punch zalvetta in the face and dunk him in a ditch, but try not to get murdered in the process
Dao: sounds like an unhealthy way of expressing your anger man
Zeke: don’t fight zeke. fight the motherfucking bowel ripper
Kyrlos: CHALLENGE HIM TO A DEATH MATCH AND KICK HIS CROSSBOW
Narn: fight narn, but be creative about it??
Ballast McGee: eradicate him from this earth pls
Firi: challenge her to a haiku battle. you will win. avoid onhorian armwrestling.
Cha’roth: only fight if in shrimp mode. otherwise no touchy the baby
Dont: don’t
Rat: deserves to be fought, but for the safety of your body and soul it is not recommended
I think it’s really important to recognize that romantic love is not better than other types of love!! My love for pasta, for example, is very strong and pure
Far too often their covers are a picture of the bad movie adaption, their backs break, the corners bend. They get worn fast and don’t look as good on the shelves as their hardcover brethren. But this is part of their journey. The thing about paperbacks, you see, their entire point, is that they’re small enough to bring ANYWHERE. These are the books you’ll read on the bus, on the train, on the plane trip across half the earth. These are the books you’ll read under the desk at school, by the pool, while waiting in a queue, in half-sleep delirium three o’clock in the morning. You can put it in your bag, in your kangaroo sweater pocket, or just carry it around giving it a constant hug of protection.
When you begin reading a brand new paperback, you are terrified of what will happen to it. You caress the shining cover picture, stroke its back like a monster book of monsters, shuffle through the unread pages and take in the smell. Maybe you won’t read it yet, when it’s still shiny and perfect… but you do. And after a few pages of careful non-breaking of the back, you get so immerged in the story you forget. You forget you are holding a book while you look for your favourite character in a crowd of letters, or while you try not to drown along with the protagonist. And you’ll bring this book everywhere, and every time you summon the precious square of realitywarping goodness, chances are it will get a dent on the way. And every day the book changes. And then you read the last page, close the book, and put it away, eyeing its cracks of imperfection. The next book in the series is still new, shiny and glorious.
And you open your new friend, taking it with you on your next journey.
I think it’s really important to recognize that romantic love is not better than other types of love!! My love for pasta, for example, is very strong and pure
When looking at the tags of The Amatonormativity Post, you’ll find a lot of people admitting that they do indeed wish they weren’t aro sometimes, or that they constantly battle the internalized belief that they are worthless or will die alone. There has been ONE person adding tags that finding out they were aro was a relief.
It’s so messed up. It is so horrendously messed up. When it comes to asexuality, you’ll have a horde of people talking about what a relief it was. Of course not everyone, and sometimes it’s a little mixed up - but most people will get the idea that being ace is Okay. You may be ace, it may be shitty at times, but be assured that there are a lot of people like you, and it’s gonna be fine.
You don’t really get that reassurance with aromanticism. The times it were mentioned, it was often as an addition to an explanation on asexuality. Nobody really tells you being aromantic is okay. You just find out you Might Be It. And with that comes a sort of, well, despair that oh no you might actually never fall in love and you might never find meaning in life, because you had hoped, maybe you had hoped it was impossible, but it is possible and it might be you.
Finding out I was ace was a bit of a process, but I did in the end feel relief that I didn’t have to change who I was. The aro thing? I wasn’t very specific about my romantic orientation for a long time, I was mostly in the “eeeeeeeh probably aro but who knows” zone. Like, I knew I was aro. To be fair I’m probably more aro than I am ace. But I was so scared to really set it in stone, because I went around hoping maybe I’m Not That Aro after all.
Becoming comfortable with my aro identity took a lot more work than my ace identity. I told myself many times, and still do, that it’s okay to be aro. But you know what? YOU should tell me it’s okay to be aro. Stop telling people they have to wait for The Right One. Start telling people it’s okay if they never fall in love, or not want to be in love. That would make a world of difference.
(And now, a disclaimer: I’m only speaking through my own experiences and observations, so this might be a little generalized. Also apparently necessary disclaimer: LGB people experience a lot of the same feelings, because LGB people are taught their feelings are disgusting and that they’ll never find happiness, plus homophobia is scary and brutal as heck, so I can imagine finding out you’re gay, bi or pan isn’t always a relief either, and also often a process of self-acceptance. That said, we share a lot of the same experiences and battles, so if you think ace and aro people don’t belong in the mogai community, you’re being a closeminded gatekeeper and nobody likes that. Amatonormativity and heteronormativity is often intertwined and it is possible to fight both. Together. Also obligatory reminder that gay/bi/pan aromantics exist.)