Apathetic Echidna

our brains are like a multi-million sided rubiks cubes, so take all my comments as slightly thought about brain farts. I'm just glad you thought it was interesting. As for the finding out how prevalent it is I'll see if I can interest any of my psychology friends to work out an effective survey or something

I remember answering in the other poll where I said Australian. I do believe the Dreamtime stories, they explain the land I live in quite well. But I also accept that much is unknowable at the present time so generally I say I am agnostic (which also help me avoid the vapid racist who think ecological spiritual values are limited by bloodlines).

I know my aversions are mainly from romantic coding (or sexual coding and I'm not willing to do anything of a sexual nature with them). Sometimes my sense of love will get skewed and I will be repulsed by some platonic affectionate actions from individual people. Luckily I do know other people who have aversions, and they are very allo/allo people. One is touch averse, especially in public, she seems slightly more accepting in private, but only slightly. Another has a thing about her hands, she won't even high-5. As for why we are like this.......I have no clue. For some there might be some buried childhood trauma. Simply being forced to hug and kiss a decrepit elderly relative never met before can be horrifying to a small child - I know my disdain of washcloths is linked to a particularly bad visit to a nursing home when I was about 6. Really, one bad experience in formative years can leave the weirdest scars and influence attitudes in the future. It would be interesting to know how prevalent touch aversion is in the population and how it might correlate to different orientations

A liquid ruler Light-globes made entirely from recycled cardboard A bean-bag coffee table

I have been less tolerant of romance recently and that made me discover some things, most notably the movie Cellular ! it is an action movie from the 2000s with some marginal scenes of a married couple, but most of that is worry about keeping everyone alive. certainly no gushy romantic stuff. Jackpot! I found a stylish action movie with male and female characters and absolutely 0% romance: Hitman: Agent 47 The first Hitman movie also has little romance, but he touches her tattoo a few too many times for comfort, plus there is the whole sex slave thing where they refer to the master/slave relationship in terms of boyfriend/girlfriend/mistress.

The section on how love is like cocaine just reminded me of Twilight where they refer to each other as a personal supply of heroin (or some other highly addictive substance). They are all literally love junkies. So if most people are love junkies, us aros who ship it but don't partake are like casual users? ? well at least not partaking means we won't be ruined in a messy divorce or dead a la Romeo

I wear panties 100% of the time (bath/showering excluded), going comando/full monty just feels wrong to me. If I am comfortable with people I am okay showing them more skin than I would in public but I wouldn't be naked and lounging around. There have been a few times when my neighbours have caught me walking around the house in my underwear and they have made it really awkward, so that is not something I want to repeat, but darn it, it is my place! so I still walk around in my underwear and just hope they are more wary or will react as the non-event that it is.

I've decided that procreation is a demographic so this should go here. My situation: When I was very small I decided I didn't want kids, which is something fairly common in my family so it was easily accepted. However at the beginning of the year I was almost overwhelmed by a sort of genetic guilt. On one side of my family I have a few distant cousins, but basically I am it, the last of the line. What really puts a point on it is my family technically is titled, so when we are gone the title has to go back 4 generations then down their descendants to find the next title holder. It isn't like I, or any kids I might have would hold the title anyway, but the fact that there is no one closer. I look at family portraits and think I am the end, it stops with me, and I feel so bad. But the reality of babies and toddlers freaks me out. I do like kids 8+, when they have conversations and intelligent understanding and aren't nearly so dependant. Ultimately I just wish the possibility was taken away so I wouldn't have these conflicting feelings which scare me more than anything. I am terrified my genetic guilt might overwhelm me and I do something stupid because it would only end badly. I know, sadly from experience with other families that the worst thing you can do is breed when you aren't sure. So these are my currently conflicting feelings but I am wondering if anyone else has felt something similar? is genetic guilt a real phenomena other people get? or maybe you have never been conflicted, I would love to know.

She was the most confusing character for me but towards the end of season 2, wow, she can surprise. I seriously didn't presume to think she would even contemplate acting the way she did in the last few episodes. The work that 'cracked' pre-birth Serena for me was this one https://archiveofourown.org/works/13806678 but once the baby was there things definitely shifted with all the female characters. I sort of friendship-ship Serena and June but I know that all the earlier feelings will arise again now the baby is no longer between them as a bond. Though watching all the series 2 season final has forced me to re-evaluate other mother characters, specifically the characters in Grimm. I always thought they were a bit off or shallow but now I can't stand Adalind and I have no time for people who ship her. So one show has tainted me for another show with less believable characters and made me intolerant of it's shippers!

Yay! I forgot to mention this one in my own post as for many many years, way before knowing about aromanticism, I would tell everyone that it was my favourite romantic movie. Technically it is still my favourite romantic* movie. *romantic in this way being used in the way that that Asexual gets quoted about saying that Tron is the most erotic film. So not at all in the common understanding, but still a deeply effecting movie. on the same sort of early 2000s UK splash gore with interesting premise is the soldier vs werewolf movie Dog Soldiers (also 2002). It has been awhile since I watched it, and there is a token female character dropped into a platoon of men who are assumed to be quite starved for life outside of their duties so there might be some noticeable undertones in some interactions, but from what I remember they are more scared/bravado/sexual/hate sort of thing rather than possibly romantic. EDIT: so I went and watched the movie again (it is awesome ?) and the first 2 minutes 30 seconds does have a couple on a camping adventure, but it is not overtly romantic and it doesn't take long for the screaming to start - and really you can skip those first few minutes even though it does introduce a sort of key point you can still understand the story without it. As for later in the movie there are some very overt sarcastic comments but they are definitely not romantic (definitely the scared/bravado/sexual/hate sort of thing)

A car dust cover storage and cleaning service, for all those times you take the car out and don't know what to do with your dusty dust cover.

There is always the classic Cujo, but I think it is more than a little bit of horror (though it is so dated the horror is minimised)...and the ending is standardly disappointing as they didn't follow the book. Paranormal Activity series is low on the romance (none in 3, and a bit of teen mush as a sideline in 4). Urban Legends series is another one low on the romance, the first one probably has the least....just a few scenes at the beginning showing couples before they all start dying off (though the murderer could be said to be driven by love/revenge, so it depends how sensitive you are to supposed romantic-obsessive-dedication murder motivations....I guess you could put Cry Wolf in the same 'twisted love motivations that are sort of fake' category too). I don't remember there being any romance in The Haunting in Connecticut. A sort of cheesy horror is Jeepers Creepers (the first one) has no romance as the story is about a brother and sister. The sequel Jeepers Creepers 2 (how imaginative a name...) has a like one couple, so a teensy bit of couple stuff, and a lot of homophobic semi-naked men, so homophobic jokes and slurs are present. If you want to get strange there is Upstream Color which can be viewed as a story about human connection, but I know some people who watched it were convinced some of the scenes were romantic (but I think they are just some very allo people reacting to a very weird movie). I'll post more if I think of them, but I am trying to give you the at least semi-decent ones, unlike Keanu Reeves' honestly fairly bad serial killer flick 'The Watcher' which has no romance, but also a sad lack of good editing which really detracts from the wooden performances.

@eatingcroutons I got into the fandom to read character studies of Serena Joy because I didn't get her in the show so I wanted to find some other perspectives of her. Well, those were intense and crazy. I sort of love fanfics that draw out a disastrous personality or scenario, its like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I hadn't seen that quote before but I remember a similar one from a scriptwriter (I'm terrible at remembering names). I'll have to see if I can find it again. I completely agree with the last two lines, which is why I am all for no censorship in art. People should be able to get stuff out so they can be better in life.

@starstuff I understand that. It is terror at a concept. Which really is what a lot of good Sci-fi books try doing, a sort of This is the world but not as you know it..... The movie I mentioned, The Invisible (2002), is a sort of concept horror. To be able to see and hear and travel but not interact with people or objects, while the only way to get free is to die but you can't do anything about it yourself. scary stuff.

The water pipes on my place are semi-external and not insulated so....in summer the temperature option is very hot water coming from the cold water setting, and almost boiling water from the hot water setting. The pipes eventually clear to cool water but it takes like 8-12 minutes, and not worth waiting for. In winter the water is chilly...everything is chilly, so I take warm to hot showers all year round, whether I use the hot setting or not. I do do cold rinses of my hair, especially in summer (basically the sun effected water runs out suddenly), and as for worries about drying out skin...well the water supply here can cause water itch (an invisible itching irritation or if you have it really bad, an itching red rash that last about 2 hours after exposure to the water) especially in summer when they try to keep the algal blooms down by adding many more chemicals to the water supplies so I am always going to be using lotions, creams and oils anyway.

'Permanently Free-Range' as in 'you never gonna cage me!'

I think question one missed out on an aromantic answer it should have had. Something along the lines of 'Yes I have had a relationship but it was short and fairly uncomfortable for everyone involved' my results sort of surprised demiromantic was so high (typo alert as they seem to use demisexual/demiromantic interchangeably). I guess it is because I am open to having close relationships

YMBAI you think that when a friend starts dating someone new and shows you/sends you a picture it is so that you can visually identify the person to blame in the future when they have a fight. YMBAI you don't understand the other friend who sees the picture and gives their opinion/approval in a blatantly shallow way.

after seeing all those phones bursting into flames on the News has made me a bit paranoid of my phone being near me when I sleep. I still sleep on a small single bed, but I think I can get away with it indefinitely because it is a fancy iron frame with bed-knobs. The harsh truth is I will probably always have more tender feelings towards my overly fancy bed than anyone who might want to share a bed with me.

I have a ship right now that I kind of feel dirty about. It is fictional characters from a tv show/book and technically it started in cannon, so it fits my general requirements for a ship. However it feels just so wrong to ship anything from The Handmaid's Tale. It doesn't help that f/f sexual/romantic relationships are so not my thing, which sort of seems to make any m/f ship in that fandom seem more exploitative. Maybe that is part of the allure for me, the well written non-fluff fanfics at least, make it a tangled illicit powerplay as well as a shipped relationship.

Just pretend you know what is going on and run with it thats what I did

@Star Girl In cannon Rainier is gay but I totally read that as homosexual aromantic. He is attracted to men but he never partners off. And once he joins court he certainly has the status and chance to form a relationship with someone who would not be intimidated by his caste or power, even if his wound does really knock his self-worth. Also. Yes. Karla. Definitely.

"I love you like I love the weather" (Though I guess this doesn't work if the person has some weird kink for weather...I'm sure there is a kink for that. There is a kink for everything)