BlackHeart Biohazards

I’m going to be brutally, bluntly honest and vulnerable for a moment.

I don’t have any positive familial connections. I don’t have any mothers or fathers, or sisters or brothers or aunts or uncles or cousins who were supportive, or caring, or loving, open or gently teasing to me.

That’s why I don’t understand at all what people are feeling when they say “I can’t ship them, they’re like siblings!” or “he’s like a father to her” etc.

I can’t look at a relationship between two characters– who are not blood related– who are supportive, caring, loving, dependable, open or gently teasing and see a relationship that somehow feels romantically taboo.

I look at a relationship that is caring, loving, open, teasing, comfortable, etc and I see romance.

I genuinely don’t have a yardstick to evaluate what people are seeing when they see a relationship like that and it makes them uncomfortable to ship because it reminds them of their family. I don’t know what that feels like.

And that’s why I ship so many things that people call “sibling coded” or “found family” etc. Because I don’t look at them and see family.

I look at them and I see the people who saved me from my family.