#and yes. these characters despite being explicitly aromantic. would still get romantic fics

[devotedlystrangewizard]

anyway if, by the time i have figured out how to code a game, we still dont have it (and i expect we wont) i WILL make an rpg with aro "love" interests. ur protagonist can be an aroallo whore now. whats love if not the thing that some people feel sometimes. some of your allies are only down to have sex with you and will reject you outright if you try to romance them. no monogamy limits outside of maybe specific actual romances. these aros would be absolutely destroyed by the potential fandom but its ok i didnt make them for you <2

#ramblings #it wont be a big rpg i mean. solo dev moment #unless i magically get some decent classmates in school willing to back me up #OR i dare to put myself out there. on the internet. and ask for help. #but for now it is a solo thing #i like games with love interests weve all seen how i talk about my 3 da boyfriends. and gale #but man i wish we had something where sex didnt eventually lead to a romantic confession #like as an aroallo person i just think maybe it would be nice. #& like. specifically aro. you can be specifically aro. some companions would be specifically aroallo #not 'im in it for the sex but you can romance me if you do your best' no i want SEX. and SEX ALONE! #as i was writing this post i remembered how aro characters are treated (will never forget 'but shes still ace in my fic') #and yes. these characters despite being explicitly aromantic. would still get romantic fics #and yes. i would hate that happening. #but also as i said. i didnt make them for you. your toys are right there. look. fwb to lovers is overdone. go play baldur #this post WAS triggered by me thinking about baldursg despite me really liking that game #i love that game but it sucks i cant just. idk. experience my specific brand of homosexuality #listen marrying el to gale was delightful but my actual self insert character was so SO alone #and withers going 'thou hast no bosom companion why' actually made me a little mad. sorry #like no ones gonna cater to aroallos except for aroallos. i know this. but it still kinda sucked

[aspecardaweek]

Code of Conduct

Index: Submission Guidelines || Organization and Tagging || Rules and Regulations

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submissions do not have to follow the prompts.

For questions on what kind of content qualifies for this event, please read our FAQ.

You can submit your content to the event in one of two ways.

Submit directly to this blog using the submit form.

Make an original post on your own blog.

If you go with the second option (most people do), there are three ways to get the attention of the blog:

Tag your post with #aspecardaweek in the first 20 tags.

@mention this blog in the body of your post.

Send your post to the mod or the blog directly via DM. (Please do not do this unless you have done both of the other things and received no response within 24 hours.)

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Tagging guidelines:

This is NOT a guideline for how to tag so we see your post (that’s the section above), and it is also NOT a guide for how I will be tagging things on this blog. Rather, this is a guideline for how to indicate if your fanwork includes content that needs to be tagged for.

We accept content for a wide variety of themes, including works with sexual or romantic elements. I understand that not everyone wants to see that - and that some people will be looking for that kind of content specifically! - so the best way for me to deal with those competing access needs is to tag for those and other sensitive topics. This allows for blacklisting as well as a more streamlined search process.

Thus, I would very much appreciate if you indicated if your work includes any of the following:

romance

background romance

sexual themes

implied sex

NSFW/explicit sexual content

genderbending

All of these types of content are allowed, but as they are all sensitive topics to varying degrees, I want people to be able to filter these subjects in or out at their leisure. This is not a moral judgement on any of these topics, simply an organization and accessibility request.

How should I indicate if my work includes these themes? Put a brief note at the top of your post, or in the tags of your post (after tagging the blog, of course!). If you don’t indicate it, we will still accept your submission, but it might take the mod longer to queue your post since they would have to figure out if your work includes those topics or not. This applies primarily to written content, which generally takes more time and focus to absorb than visual content.  However, if your visual content isn’t explicitly clear about if it includes anything like this but you did imply it, tagging for that or mentioning it in a caption would be very helpful as well.

What are the distinctions between “sexual themes,” “implied sex,” and “explicit sexual content”? This is admittedly kind of nebulous, but in my mind I distinguish them like this: “sexual themes” is discussion of sex, thinly veiled metaphors about sex, a work that is about sex without depicting it (for example, an M-rated fic on AO3); “implied sex” would be a “fade to black” moment or a minor joke about sex (like a T-rated fic on AO3); and “explicit sexual content” is actual depictions of sex (like an E-rated fic on AO3). Use your best judgement!

Additionally, please indicate if your work includes possibly triggering content, such as the topics under the “trigger warnings” section of the Organization and Tagging part of this page.

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Headcanon submission guidelines (expanded from the FAQ): All aspec headcanons are welcome, with or without art/fic/graphics/etc to accompany them. However, please give at least one sentence of description to the headcanon rather than just stating it. For example:

Not quite:

“Fíli is aromantic.”

“my hc is that Fíli is aro”

“Fíli is aro and there’s nothing you can do about it”

Yes, absolutely:

“I headcanon Fíli as aromantic because he doesn’t have any romantic interactions with anyone at all despite being an important character in the Hobbit movies.”

“Fíli being aro is really important to me because his relationship with his family is so central to his character and fulfilling to him.”

“Fíli is aromantic and there’s nothing you can do about it! He dotes on Kíli and Tauriel’s kids and is the best supporter to Thorin. He’s one of the first openly aro princes in Erebor’s history and he inspires other aro dwarves to be more confident in themselves.”

“Fíli is aromantic, and in this essay I will…” Headcanons in this meme format are fine, as long as you follow up with an “essay” in a reblog. In this circumstance, please tag this blog in that reblog rather than just the first part of the post.

Basically, have some substance to your headcanon beyond the bare bones statement of it.

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TAGGING

This section is probably more for my own benefit than yours, but here’s some information on how tagging will work on this blog.

I like to keep my blogs organized, especially my event blogs. On this blog, I will tag for the following as a baseline:

#character (using the most common name)

#ship (if applicable; in #character x character format, alphabetically)**

#group (if applicable; examples: #feanorians, #kidnap dads, #fellowship of the ring)

#medium (fic, art, graphic, etc)

#creator (url of the creator and ao3 handle if applicable)

#prompt (if one is used)

#identity (if applicable; examples: #aromantic, #demisexual, #lithromantic)

#day (if the content is submitted for a certain day of the event)

#year (the year of the event)

None of my tags use diacritics.

**I will tag for romantic, sexual, and queerplatonic ships. There will also be an additional tag indicating what kind of relationship the ship is. In that case I will use the portmanteau version of the ship name (if it has one) just for brevity.

Examples:

a fanmix for Legolas and Gimli in a queerplatonic relationship would be tagged as #gimli x legolas, #queerplatonic, #qp gigolas, #fanmix, #music

a drawing where Fëanor and Nerdanel are in a romantic relationship and depicted in the colors of the ace flag would be tagged as #feanor x nerdanel, #romance, #romo feanel, #asexual, #art

a text post about OP’s headcanon of Arwen and Éowyn being aro friends with benefits would be tagged as #arwen x eowyn, #sexual themes, #fwb arwen x eowyn, #aromantic, #txt, #headcanon

a fic where Maedhros and Fingon are in a queerplatonic relationship and experimenting with sex would be tagged as #fingon x maedhros, #queerplatonic, #nsft, #qp russingon, #fic

Relationships that are gen, platonic, and/or familial will not be tagged for outside of their character tags.

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In addition to these base tags, I will also tag for the following:

#romance

#background romance

#sexual themes

#implied sex

#nsft (for explicit sexual content; this is the same as “nsfw” but filtered as “not safe for tumblr” rather than “not safe for work” to avoid tumblr hiding the post in searches)

#genderbending

All of the above tags are used for organizational purposes. As for trigger warnings, I currently tag for:

#spiders /

#blood /

#gore /

#body horror /

#kincest (for incest pairings of the sibling or parent-child variety, though as per fandoms norms cousin incest will not be tagged for; I don’t expect this to come up in this event, but if it does, I will use this tag for it; I use “kincest” rather than “incest” to avoid tumblr hiding the post in searches)

If you would like certain content tagged, whether for organizational or trigger reasons, please message the blog or the mod, and I will consider adding it.

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RULES

The following is a list of rules for participating in the event. Don’t be intimidated; they basically boil down to “don’t be mean” and “respect other people.” But in case you want more information on what we mean by that, here we go.

Do not repost content by other creators without their explicit permission. This includes using fanart in graphics without credit and consent from the original artist.

Respect other people’s headcanons and interpretations. Tolkien’s work has no confirmed, explicit queerness; therefore, EVERY interpretation of a character or relationship is valid. Implicit queerness can be argued to be present, but an individual’s reading of a given relationship as platonic rather than gay is still valid and is not an attack on the validity of that ship - nor is it necessarily removing queerness from the story. A platonic reading of a ship/character still allows for queerness in the form of aspec or trans identities.

Do not use this event as an excuse to be homophobic about same-gender ships. It is perfectly acceptable to be excited for an opportunity to share your platonic headcanons about 2+ characters of the same gender, but this is not a space for you to be negative about sexual or romantic content, especially when that content is about a same-gender ship.

No content or creators endorsing the following prejudices will be allowed to participate:

Homophobia

Transphobia, including nbphobia/exorsexism

Racism of any kind

Biphobia, panphobia, and other sentiments against m-spec people and identities

Polyphobia/sentiment against polyamorous people or people in relationships with more than one person

Fatphobia and body shaming

Ableism, including sentiments against neurodivergent and mentally ill people

Rhetoric against self-identification/self-labeling, including anti-microlabel sentiment

Queerphobia, including the rhetoric that “queer is a slur”

Sex negativity (distinct from personal sex repulsion/indifference) and anti-sex worker sentiment

Radical feminism in any form

Ship bashing, purity politics, condemnation of creators interested in “problematic” or sensitive content; self-described anti-shippers may participate so long as you do not bring that discourse into the event

Harassment of any kind

Fascism and alt-right politics

and of course:

Aphobia, including aspec exclusionism

Acephobia, including sentiments against sex-favorable aces

Arophobia, including sentiments against allosexual aromantic, aplatonic aromantics, or queerplatonic relationships

You may depict these things in your fanworks if you choose to, so long as they are properly warned for, but any fanwork that is bigoted in its messaging is not allowed.

Violation of these rules will result in you being blocked.

#aaw21 #coc #code of conduct