Shades Of A 096
Back from my holiday which means livestreams are now the regular schedule of Monday 9am and 8pm, Thursday 9am and Friday 9am. See many of you in a couple of hours!
You may have missed some updates while I was away, have fun checking back and seeing what you missed. : D
What the fuck Anwar?! that scene really traumatised him… This can’t be good.
Raise your hand if you freaked out when you first saw this page and thought that Tab didn’t understand how cars worked (but it turned out that you were just a stupid American). *raises hand* xD
I just thought it was a new camera angle.
Guilty as charged, Your Honor.
Yeah, that was me.
My com[lete lack of directional intuition saved me the trama I just know third or fourth read later and after reading this mesagwe figured out the seats ae in inverted order to my part of the world.
Oh Anwar (seem to be saying that a lot recently)… When I saw this I kept thinking that he proposes this to not lose Chris the same way he lost JD.. And how will Chris handle this (aah the suspense!)..
That keeps throwing me off, for an asexual Anwar seems to propose sex an awful lot.
Well, he’s a super insecure asexual. It might surprise you, but a lot of sexual folks aren’t cool with the “no sex” thing, even if they say that they are. Anwar just wants to keep Chris.
Also, there are many asexuals who are completely indifferent to sex and have no problem with having sex if that’s what their partner wants. Anwar seems to be one of these. But a lot of problems can still come out of being indifferent: their partner might not think they really love them or can connect with them emotionally, the asexual themself might be insecure and feel like they can’t know if they’re doing something right or wrong, they might feel like they’re being used if their partner is always initiating or if they think they have to have sex to keep their partner happy, the list goes on.
Anwar seems to think allosexuals need sex, so he offers it because that’s what he thinks is expected of him.
*nods* chris may in fact need sex, but anwar doesn’t seem to credit that chris may not need or want sex **with anwar** in order for them to have this relationship work out.
i kinda thought they’d negotiated that explicitly already, but maybe anwar doesn’t trust in that?
I think you are right, he doesn’t trust that. He looks so sad and proposes sex at the same time.. Where else would that be coming from than the fear of not being enough, or Chris dumping him or some such idea..
I’m not sold. I think part of it is his feeling that his lack of sex with JD is what screwed it up (or perhaps his poor performance) and so he’s trying to give Chris what Anwar thinks he needs in order to keep him.
Yep. Maggie, RoL, and everyone else in this comment thread hit the hammer on the head of the nail. Anwar is still in that mindset of doing what he thinks the other person wants. And after seeing JD tonight with hir subs, he’s probably feeling really insecure and wants to take some action to make sure that Chris stays with him.
I hope Chris can notice there’s a pattern growing here! JD speaking about his new fuck buddies prompted Anwar to break down in the mens toilet and call Chris to vent about not being “normal”… then when Chris takes him back to his house, Anwar assumes they’re going to have sex.
Now, JD has came into the picture again, only now, Anwar has seen a glimpse of how …well, happy (I guess?) JD is with his new partners. Anwar, no doubt, feels devastated. I’ve been where he’s been, so I completely understand how shitty he feels. But he is proposing sex from a place of insecurity, not a place of …erm, romantic feelings. I have no doubt Chris will get to the bottom of it and reassure Anwar that he doesn’t need to propose sex – only when he’s ready and when it “feels right”…?
I identify as homo-romantic asexual but I’ve never thought about the possibility of having sex intensified by romantic attraction as opposed to sexual attraction. Is that even possible..? Would it even feel good?
D: Taaaab, such thought-provoking characters and stories you write!
I identify as homo-romantic asexual as well, though only since I started reading tab’s comics (I tended to just go ‘gay with low sex drive’ before that). I’ve had sex with all my exes and with only one of them (the one for whom I had the strongest romantic attraction too) was the sex, on my end, any better than what I can serve up solo.
So, for me, romantic attraction can most definately heighten orgamsm, or perhaps my perception of it. Either way it works.
But thats me. Everyone is different. My ideal date is still snuggled up which a good film, or playing a game (card or board or just made up) full of wit and banter.
I’m surprised to hear about your exes, it was the same way with me. Many of them, I never felt a thing romantically (forget about sexually!). It was only the intense romantic attraction I had to my last ex that made me realize she was “the one” because I had never felt that way with anyone before. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. As the relationship progressed, she repeatedly shrugged off my asexuality and she gave me absolute hell for being an openly feminine transguy – *trigger warning – coercion into sex* she would verbally abuse me and get angry if I did not initiate sex “like a man would” – then she would wonder why I would clam up at the mention of sex or become unresponsive during the act and after. (I have had been coerced into sex once before, this was similar, hence… my discomfort.) *end trigger warning* I’m very very glad I’m no longer with her anymore. It has made me learn to stand up for myself and build more confidence, to make sure if I ever get into another relationship, to lay down some boundaries long before things even progress to the bedroom.
Your ideal dates sounds great! I love cuddles and just relaxing with another person. It’d be pleasantly nice to have dates where there isn’t any expectations of sex afterwards or during. >.<;;
Valid points, but JD is a ‘they’ and a ‘them’, not a ‘he’. They identifies with neutral pronouns, so could we use these in future, please?
Yes, using ‘they’ with a singular conjugation might be a bit awkward at first, but it works perfectly fine, since the ‘they’ pronoun is correctly both singular and plural.
Thank you~
Oh no! I’m sorry! To be honest, I completely forget that JD identifies with neutral pronouns. I have not met many gender neutral individuals before so I haven’t had the experience to remind myself.
I will make sure I refer to JD as ‘they’ and ‘them’ from now on. Thank you so much for reminding me! ^3^
Okay, a complete derailment of this whole (actually very fascinating) train of comments for a completely irrelevant point:
With the use of singular “they” as a pronoun, do you place the verb in the… well, singular (eg. is, has, plays), or plural (eg. “are, have, play)? In a completely unfeeling grammatical sense, when used in a generic “that person over there” kind of way, you would tend to still use the… plural form (eg. “See that person over there, don’t you think they are tall?” or whatever you are going to say). So I would have thought that this would be the case with the specific use of singular “they”. (eg. “Who is that over there?” “Oh, they are JD.”), since it is still correct English…
Apologies for the complete derailment, I am just a grammar aficionado haha
I’m relieved with this comment, since I had the same doubt while reading the comic.
Well, I think we can safely assume that ‘they’ should still be used with the plural form of the verbs based on the fact that ‘you’ kept the plural forms when it became singular too (remember, in the past ‘you’ was the plural for ‘thou’, that had a completely different conjugation). So in the same way we don’t say “you art”, we shouldn’t say “they is”.
You would say “they are tall.” You’re using they and them say you would normally. No one came up with a new word or reinvented one. It’s the same word, just used for a only slightly different purpose.
It’s okay, Razorstain~ Practice makes perfect.
:(
Poor Anwar. You don’t need to do that. Really you don’t.
…I just want to hug him!
Yeahh, Chris is a decent human bean. He’s gonna take one look at Anwar, realize he doesn’t look the least bit happy about trying it and go for the maybe later.
I’m curious, does Anwar expect sexual fedelity from a romantic partner? He’s already agreed to let Chris be with a Dom, is sex a part of that? (I know it’s not always a part of BDSM, I’m just wondering if it is in this case.)