Being On The Aro-ace Spectrum Is So Strange Because You Can Go Years Without So Much As A Crush And Then

“Sparrows in Space” took roughly 5 hours to both sketch and color :P https://www.instagram.com/p/CiGqvB9uqnf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Saw the airbag jeans

Trans man Bella Swan

trans boy swan who still wears a lot of his old clothes because he doesn’t really know what other style he’d like

tboy swan wearing his skinny jeans with one of Charlie’s shirts because his dad noticed how the form-fitting Pinterest girl clothes make him uncomfortable. Then later him wearing Edward’s hoodies on a regular basis.

tboy swan who gets along with Jacob because Jacob had a gender crisis a while back before understanding that he’s most comfortable as a man. The two are inseparable, literally “brother from another mother” behavior. Edward is forced to get along with Jacob despite the fact that Jacob behaves like a feral little brother when Edward comes around.

Tboy Swan who gets along the best with his female friends simply because they don’t see him as “the trans classmate” and only see him as their boy swan. Sure, he likes his male friends, but they’re more interested in getting him to join the basketball team and he doesn’t vibe with sports.

Tboy swan who takes a good while to figure out what he wants to be called. Sure he knows the basics: he/him, boy, but he couldn’t for the life of him pick a name so he just goes by “swan” in school. It takes him being in a relationship with Edward for him to finally decide on a name.

Bowen Swan who decides on a name and then nonchalantly brings it up to Charlie that night as if it’s no big deal (like father like son) and then Charlie buys Bo a cake to celebrate (maybe he even invites Edward over with the condition that they keep the door open, the same rule Charlie applies to all of Bo’s friends)

Bo Swan who buys his first binder with Alice’s help (she needs this boy to stop wearing the most middle-aged man clothes ever) and then they go shopping afterwards for new clothes, which, to Alice’s utter dismay, match Charlie’s style still.

The brainworms struck. Trans man! Bella swan.

He probably figures it out before moving back to Forks and has a moment where he chops off all his hair in a mental break down and his mom (parentification Queen over here omg) doesn’t know how to handle being the one doing the comforting for a change, so that’s part of the reason she sends him away. She’s supportive, but only from a distance.

Then there’s Charlie. He probably feels so guilty at first for being so happy he finally has a son that he doesn’t really know how to interact with his newly-minted son, without even beginning to address the fact that this child has grown so much since he’s last seen him. Like there’s already so much going on in the way of “oh we don’t really know each other as parent and child” that Charlie takes maybe about two to three weeks to even begin to address his son’s very obvious mental issues caused by his ex-wife, let alone the way his son’s life crumbled and re-built itself when he realized he was trans. I think it’d culminate in Charlie taking his son fishing, only for both of them to accept that this is not a good bonding activity and for them to spend the time having an impromptu picnic instead

oh and you know Carlisle had him clocked the minute he walked in. Like sure Forks is a small town but Carlisle’s been a doctor long enough for him to write prescriptions for HRT like. He knew. And he was fully ready to just.. give him a prescription for testosterone if he asked. I get the feeling that Esme would be one of those allies who just.. straight up don’t see trans people as anything other than what they identify as. Like, as in, she doesn’t think about the fact that t-boy swan here would still have periods and have to bind. She overhears swan asking for a pad from Alice and for a full day she gushes about how sweet the swan boy is, that he looks out for his female friends by getting them tampons, then it hits her in the middle of like doing the dishes.

Edward is a curious case. I feel like on one hand he’d be a little confused (sheltered white boy from the 1800s) but then on the other I just don’t think he’d like.. ask? Like he fully accepts his boyfriend as a man but the first time they have sex he just pauses for a split second after they get their clothes off and then immediately resumes. Like he would probably just accept that the discrepancy between swan’s presentation and genitals is just something that happens to modern people now. Like with “oops all berries” cereal or the happy accident that made a lot of modern baked goods so good. Idk I just… t-boy swan…

NOBODY TALK TO ME YET. I JUST FOUND OUT THE SECOND SEASON OF ARCANE COMES OUT TODAY. IM NOT READY!!!!!!!!

the stars like to sing ^^

I am but a cockatiel spouting relevant information about the latest controversy.

ignoring the conversation about tori woods being arrested because there’s more to talk about than just that,

I hope people (specifically dark romance lovers and defenders specifically) start to see just why others have such a hard time swallowing dark romance being mainstream. Because all the rest of us see is a race to the bottom with no care about HOW to present these topics to a wide audience.

it’s not just her dad’s friend, it’s her dads older friend in his thirties ;) no no wait it’s not her dad’s friend it’s her uncle!! And she’s barely legal!! No wait!!! It’s her cousin AND her uncle and they act possessive! No it’s a stalker! And he doesn’t care about her consent! It’s her step brother!! And she’s underage!! No wait-

She was groomed. She was assaulted. She was abused.

I fully understand the point of using this sort of fiction to cope with painful trauma, I’ve even done the same thing. But after a point it is reckless to contribute to the romanticism of abuse, especially to young girls and to a wider extent AFABs and feminine presenting people. You may be gaining a helpful perspective or healing but what happens when another abuser gets their hands on this material and uses it to manipulate another victim? What happens when someone impressionable (young and impressionable are not the same, elders are often impressionable, stop muddying the conversation by bringing up that “teens shouldn’t be reading this anyway” because it doesn’t matter) reads this and it only reassures them that their current abusive situation is okay? Hell, booktok had been openly listing over a REAL 16 year old boy and suggested he read a book with romanticized rape in it.

this issue goes beyond dark romance but it is most prevalent in dark romance because everyone for it and against it has a trigger finger for attacking anyone who says something they don’t like. I’m hoping that this doesn’t fall on deaf ears and this can help a conversation to be had. Because this conversation has needed to happen but everyone has been too stubborn to even begin.

So as a brain worm for you to think about because I can’t find my own answers to these questions yet:

What dark romance is good? Does the genre require more restriction? What is a respectful way to portray the topics often used in dark romance? At what point should the publishers/publishing company be held responsible for any harm done by the book? Does the use for survivors to cope outweigh the possibility victims created by romanticized abuse?

Friendly reminders to cis fanfic writers that afab≠woman

Afab means assigned female at birth so this includes/can include cis women, trans men, transmasc people, nonbinary people, and intersex people.

If you’re making a fic where the reader is a woman, uses she/her, wears feminine clothing, etc. tag it as fem reader instead.

I’ve been smacked in the face as a trans man by reading fics tagged afab thinking it will be gender neutral, but the reader is actually a woman and I’m disappointed because I was ready for a fic I thought would apply to me.

Have fun writing and make sure you’re tagging your fics properly, ty <3

I don't think the "pay artists website is upset about having to pay artists" argument for Watcher is a very good. argument. They had a Patreon, people were literally already paying the artists. Adding another subscription service into an already saturated market full of overpriced subscription services is just. A bad business move. It's career suicide.

Everyone is struggling right now and I understand that that includes everyone at Watcher, but there had to have been a better idea than "lets start our own subscription service"

I seriously wish Ryan, Shane, and Steven the best but this is seriously gonna come back and bite them in the ass.