F -

Reblog if you recognize pan/poly/demi/gray/asexual as legitimate sexualities

feel free to add more but i’m proving a point for the less recognized people

11 Questions Meme

I was tagged by wentworthsbitch. ♥ ♡ ❤ (Third time’s the charm? A.K.A. carletoncolton reattempts the 11 Questions Meme.)

rule 1: always post the rules rule 2: answer the questions from the person who tagged you rule 3: tag 10 people and link them in your post rule 4: let them know you’ve tagged them

1. If you could be killed by any celebrity, who would it be and how would they do it? (yes they have to kill you shutup)

This one had me laughing facedown on my desk and then lying there drawing blank after blank for half the morning. Then I decided to approach this question logically and started researching celebrities with documented weapons training. After all, if I have to be murdered …

Right. So, after considering several likely candidates (Don’t read into my search history, NSA!), I settled on Lucy Liu. As a former student of kali-eskrima-silat, a traditional Filipino weapon-based system of martial arts emphasizing the use of blades, among other things, I’m confident she could have me crumpled in a pool of my own lifeblood before I could start running. And that’s really all that matters, right?

2. Whose face would you like to see on your currency besides the current old person that’s most likely on it?

Considering that only a scant few actual, non-allegorical, flesh and blood women have ever been printed/minted on US currency in all our history (and only Martha Washington on paper) … that would be a useful starting point for looking. I’d like to see Harriet Tubman on a bill, myself. Because disturbingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, there hasn’t ever been a portrait of an African American featured on US paper money either. 3. If you were ever in London, where is the first place you’d wanna go?

I know absolutely nothing about London, really - not more than your average American does, anyhow. (Which, again, is basically nothing.) But if I know me, and do I ever, I’d make straight for the nearest decent-looking restaurant. 4. It’s 1am and you unexpectedly get kicked out. If money wasn’t a problem, what hotel would you stay at?

If money wasn’t an issue, I wouldn’t stay at a hotel - not here, anyway. I live in a small town in Michigan, so all we’ve got are a few chain hotels clustered together around our exit to US94. Red Roof Inn, that sort of thing. 5. What is your favorite post on tumblr of all times?

… Ummmmm.

6. You HAVE to pick ONE president to sleep with. You HAVE to. Who would you choose? (idc if youre not american answer it)

Ahaha … well. I’m demisexual, actually, so as far as the whole casual sex bit goes, I’ll pass. Every time. Even if I were to find myself in the (enviable?) position of being propositioned by a US president. If I just had to sleep with a president, though?

Another Google search I never thought I’d be making later …

James Buchanan. As the only US president to remain a lifelong bachelor, owing to either his heartbreak over a fiance’s untimely death and subsequent choice to remain celibate, or his possible asexuality or homosexuality (the strongest case can be made for the latter), he’s really the only one I’d feel even marginally safe in bed with. Best case scenario: heartwarming homo/demi sleepover complete with all the late-night philosophizing and snacking that comes with the territory. *stubbornly ignores his politics for the duration of this questionnaire* 7. Who’s your favorite character dressed in leather?

Zoë Alleyne Washburne! 8. Are you a mouthwash user?

Yes - it’s the least tedious part of the entire process, as far as I’m concerned. 9. When was the last time you went to a party? What was it for?

This is a little embarrassing (I’m a professional party avoider - depressingly, I’ve been to more funerals than parties this year), but it was my own birthday party in April. 10. A crack ship that is literally so crack you don’t even know why you ship it you just do?

I kinda wanna see Peter Jakes kiss Endeavour Morse and NO ID ON”T WNAT to talk about it. Ahem. 11. Do you find BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ATTRACTIVE? I’M OFF AND ON ALL THE TIME, BUT I NEED TO KNOW GODDAMMIT. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

I do! Aesthetically. Though the first time I saw him, as Sherlock, I found the sort of skull-like aspect of his face … disquieting. I’m sure it has more to do with the dramatic way the production staff choose to light him for the first half-hour or so than the way he looks in life, but there was such an otherworldly, corpselike aura about him that I was genuinely worried about his health. Heh. （．＿．;)

Mother's Day

Seggesting a character might be ace.

Hey it’s ace week and you’re local ace has something to say! I’ve been out as ace for 3 years now and it’s still a big part of my identity that I’m proud of so here’s a lil something for those who need it!

I saw this magazine in a grocery store and I immediately started freaking out. I have no idea what the article is about, because I was leaving checkout and had to rush out of there, but just knowing that asexuals are spotlighted in one that’s carried in stores makes me very happy.

asexual ravenclaw moodboard ☁

Because I love you guys with the burning passion of a thousand gallons of Kaiju Blue, I have put together this fabulous giveaway as thanks for following and putting up with my Burn Gorman gif shenanigans.

First. The Prizes.

GRAND PRIZE: A personalized autograph from Burn...

Parvati Holcomb: The Unaccountably Happy Face of the Unreliable

The Outer Worlds, the new space RPG courtesy of Obsidian, helpfully provides your player character with exactly the sort of ragtag gang of misfits which you are probably expecting in such a game. Today, we’re going to talk about the most important of them. 

Parvati Holcomb, likely the first companion you meet and definitely the first companion you can recruit, is a well-written female-character. Her talents for engineering and her incredibly positive and cheerful outlook quickly draw comparison with the character of Kaylee from Firefly (allegedly one of the main inspirations for the character), but there is one very clear difference between the two. 

Parvati Holcomb is an asexual character. 

While the term “asexual” is never actually used in the game, Parvati’s experiences and worries were so obviously born form the real-life experiences of asexual people that I was not the least bit surprised that she had been written by an asexual woman: 

I was, however, properly delighted that Parvati had always been intended to be an asexual character, even before an asexual woman took over as Parvati’s writer; Chris L’Etoile, the original writer, explicitly made the decision to create a warm and loving character, someone who could see the beauty and hope in a failing colony, who could express all the wonder they wanted their players to feel, and then he decided to make her asexual as well. 

The stereotypical ‘link’’ between asexuality and ‘coldness’ is even explicitly referenced by Parvati herself, when she explains her fears about starting a new relationship: “I’m not much interested in… physical stuff. Never have been. Leastways not like other folk seem to be. It’s not that I can’t. I just don’t care for it. It’s been a problem, in the past. The folk who wanted to be with me, back in the Vale? They didn’t - They said I was cold.”

The first response offered to players? “You’re about the warmest person I ever met. To hell with them.” 

Indeed, The Outer Worlds is a game which, over and over again, tells us that Parvati is not cold or unfeeling. This is a young woman who names a robot the moment she fixes it, who worries if the Captain calls the ship’s computer “it”, who checks in with crew members and, in a game with a reputation system (rather than a Mass Effect style morality system), acts as the world’s most adorable conscience. 

And, while Parvati does find her relationship with Junlei complicated, those complications have very little to do with her sexuality and far more to do with her being a young woman, away from home for the first time, and experiencing possibly the first great love of her life. There are miscommunications, a night of drowning sorrows, endless over-analysing of each other’s words and actions, and the need to go to four different worlds just to plan a date. As the player character can say: 

PC: “If you two marry, you’ll be saying, ‘Haha, just kidding. Unless you’re not.’” Parvati: “I resent you saying such, on account of it being uncomfortably likely.”

But once Parvati has worked up the courage to tell Junlei who she is, the relationship works well. Well enough for Parvati to find a new home with Junlei once the fight is over: 

Now, I always expect an Obsidian game to have some awareness of the wider spectrum of human sexuality - Fallout New Vegas included some same-sex relationships, and the player character could be played as straight, gay or bisexual, depending on which perks you picked. But I wasn’t expecting the only great romance subplot in an entire game to include an asexual woman actively pursuing another woman. Were this just one relationship among many, it would still be beautiful, but for it to take centre-stage and not have to share that space with anything else? It’s phenomenal. 

And, just when I think that The Outer Worlds couldn’t get any more lovely, it did this: 

Yep, that’s the option to identify your character explicitly as asexual. There’s even the option just afterwards to clarify your character as aromantic as well, which Parvati takes perfectly in her stride with a nice little nod to the player’s strong relationships with their friends. Either revelation is meant with the same response from Parvati: 

“So we’re… we’re kin-like. That makes me, well - unaccountably happy, Captain. It’s a lonely thing, being different like this.” 

Judging from that reaction, the Captain is likely the first fellow asexual who Parvati has met, and the relief in her voice was such a punch to the gut. Because Parvati’s right - the loneliness of feeling “other” sinks in fast and there’s nothing quite like the relief when you finally feel like maybe you’re not alone after all. 

And the idea that this game and this character might give that moment of relief to someone out there, well, that just makes me unaccountably happy as well.