The word allosexual is used in this chapter, and for those who don't know, an allosexual person is someone who experiences sexual attraction 'normally'. Basically, someone who isn't on the asexual spectrum.

I forget how long ago I mentioned this, but just in case it was a while ago, Aura is asexual and probably aromantic (like me, so her experience with her sexuality is my experience with my sexuality. Asexuality is a huge spectrum with lots of factors at play so keep in mind that it's not the experience of every asexual person, but it is an accurate asexual experience.)

The word allosexual is used in a somewhat judging way when Tony objectifies women. I understand that Tony is a womanizer and not every allosexual person attracted to women would stare at women's breasts for a second or two too long in a stressful situation while the women are threatened and vulnerable. Aura's disdain is towards Tony, not all allosexuals, and it's mostly disbelief that it's possible for him to notice their breasts and be interested in such a situation, not genuine judgment. I often feel alienated from allosexuals, society's habit of focusing on people's bodies, and allosexual characters like Tony who see women in an objectifying way, and a minor problem I have with asexual characters (of which there are scant few) is that their sexuality doesn't come up often and in weird ways. When it comes to society's ignorance of asexuality, it's all the little things that make you feel eternally different.

Another misconception is that a lot of asexuals feel like their asexuality is a shameful, minor part of them, it's a disorder and they're missing out. That's not an uncommon feeling, especially for people who have just realized they're asexual or who have religious/familial/societal trauma related to their sexuality. When I first realized, I totally felt like something was wrong with me and I was missing out. But coming to terms with it isn't about moving past that, it's about realizing that the main reasons you feel that way is because society is colossally ignorant of asexuality, and because society teaches that sex is incredible and important for everyone. I feel like my asexuality is a strong part of me, and couldn't imagine not being asexual. Spending so much time thinking about and having sex must be so exhausting, and letting sexual attraction influence your relationships is stupid. I still don't know how much sexual attraction influences relationships, but I've always had strong observations about what healthy relationships look like and little patience for people who let their judgment be clouded by the need to be in a relationship. I have no problems with other people having sex or sex as a general thing but the idea of me having sex with someone is absolutely repulsive, and I've never cared much for being in a relationship. Allosexuals thinking of asexuality as a disorder, embarrassment, joke, etc., and thinking of asexuals as liars, innocent idiots, people who are missing out, etc. is bullshit and allosexual hubris. Frankly, I often feel like allosexuals are the ones missing out. After the ump-hundredth stupid, tensionless kiss in a movie or the umpteenth time a book ends with two characters getting together and the idea that their relationship makes everything good and happy forever, it's hard not to feel like they're the ones who don't get what happiness looks like.

Allosxexuals also typically don't bother to learn much about asexuals. There's a difference between libido and sexual attraction. If you don't know much about asexuality, do your duty as an ally and please at least watch these two really short videos: watch?v=EsJt49Bwxzc, watch?v=lMhix4nr_0g

If you are asexual/think you might be asexual/want to learn more about asexuality, I have more video recommendations, and AVEN is always a good resource. Just be careful with older videos or videos by older people. The definition of asexuality is changing as we learn more about what sexual and romantic attraction really are and what the asexual spectrum can look like.

Some of the people's definitions of asexuality in the second video are wrong, asexuality means little to no sexual attraction, not no sexual attraction. And asexual people can still fall in love and have romantic relationships just as strongly as allosexual people. I personally am very sex-repulsed and probably aromantic, in case you were wondering. But I do find people gorgeous (like, aesthetically gorgeous. If you're not asexual it's kind of a hard concept to grasp, because it's so unlike platonic, romantic, or sexual attraction. It's based more on the vibes of the person and their facial expressions and way of carrying themself than their body, but it's pretty dang close to finding someone hot, same flutteriness and everything.)

...

Chapter 15: TwT is for Trevor Won't Stop Talking

The entryway was dimly lit and much less glamorous than the outside of the house. There was a couch in the corner with a pretty blonde woman laying on it. Her dress was short with silver sequins, her fluffy hair was messy, and she wasn't wearing shoes. She looked quite drunk, or maybe hungover, or possibly both. Near the couch was a table with a large man sitting at it playing solitaire.

"Why is it so hot in here," she whined, sitting up somewhat to face the man at the table. "I told you to put it at 68."

"My fault again," the man said passive aggressively, shuffling the cards. "Let me tell you something, sweetheart. I am not your personal-"

His reply was cut short by Aura hooking her foot around one of his chair's legs to turn his chair away from the table. She solidly punched him in the temple, knocking him out. The cards fluttered onto his lap and on the ground around Aura's feet.

As soon as he had said the word 'sweetheart' in that godsawful tone, Aura's they-have-to-be-a-kynteros-for-me-to-assault-them meter was satisfied and she had crept over, not caring much if he saw her.

Aura picked up a gun that was lying on the table and checked the safety and amount of ammo before tossing it to Tony. Aura searched the unconscious guy for another gun as Tony pointed the gun at the woman on the couch and she pointed a finger gun at him in return, clearly very inebriated. Tony held a finger to his lips and she smiled and dropped her hand, relaxing back into the couch.

Tony headed towards the nearest door and, having found no gun, Aura followed. Tony pushed open the big double doors and strode in, holding the gun out in front of him. Aura gave the woman a thumbs-up as they left to encourage her silence and closed the door behind her.

The room had a video camera with a computer and monitors. There was filming equipment lying around, including costumes and props that looked like guns and the clothes worn in the Mandarin videos. There were lots of screens, curtain hangings, and graffitied wooden boards propped around on the floor, making the room feel larger and more closed off at the same time.

There was a king-sized bed in the far corner, mostly hidden by strategically propped wooden screens. It had dark red covers, underneath which there were two bodies.

Aura quietly walked to the far side of the bed and motioned to Tony to stand on the other side.

Tony pointed the gun at the bed and Aura grasped the covers and flipped them over, revealing the two bodies.

The bodies startled awake. They were pretty women wearing lacy black lingerie, one with black hair and one with brown hair. They looked terrified, edging closer together.

Tony lowered the gun immediately and put his hands up. "We're not here to hurt you."

Aura also saw his eyes dart to their breasts for a second or two too long. The women were beautiful, sure, but seriously? Right now? Allosexuals were insane.

Aura heard a toilet flush, and she dropped to the floor, her back to the bed with her knees hugging her chest. Tony ducked behind the big wooden headboard, his position obscured from the bathroom by a rack of clothes. He pointed the gun at the small door near the bed where the noise had come from.

The door opened. Aura heard footsteps as someone walked out of the bathroom.

"Well, I wouldn't go in there for 20 minutes, hahaha," a man's voice chuckled animatedly. He had a slight but noticeable accent, probably British or Scottish. "Now, which one of you-"

His voice cut off sharply. He had been walking around the bed to get to a wooden table, but as he glanced back towards the women on the bed he caught sight of Aura.

Aura sighed and stood up. Tony stepped out from behind the headboard and pointed his gun at the man's face. "Hey!"

The man gasped and took a step back, immediately putting his hands up. "Bloody hell. Bloody hell."

"Don't move," Tony said, stepping closer.

He was wearing red sweatpants and a black T-shirt with a design that Aura couldn't see because of the dark grey fluffy robe he wore on top of it. He had a grey beard and long, thin grey hair tied back in a tight bun.

And wait, Aura knew him. He was almost unrecognizable in the clothes he was wearing, but the man was the Mandarin from the videos that the Ten Rings hijacked news stations to show.

"I'm not moving," the Mandarin said. "You want something, take it, although the guns are all fake 'cause those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones-"

"What?" Tony asked.

"Hey, d'you fancy either of the birds?" The Mandarin said, ignoring Tony.

Birds? Aura was going to murder him. The women looked stunned, exchanging glances, and Tony wrinkled his nose a little. Aura took a sharp step forward without thinking about it, but Tony caught her eye and she stopped, crossing her arms.

"I've heard enough," Tony said, cocking the gun. "You're not him. The Mandarin. The real guy. Where?! Where's the Mandarin?! Where is he?!"

Tony was yelling now, advancing on the man with a violent gleam in his eye. He backed the Mandarin onto a lounge chair, holding the gun threateningly. Aura followed him and the man over to the chair. She'd like to know as well.

"He's here, but he's not here. He's here but he's not here," the man said, panicking.

"What do you mean?" Aura asked.

"It's complicated. Hey, it's complicated," the man said, pointing an indignant finger at Tony.

"It is," Tony said. "Uncomplicate it."

Still pointing his gun at the man, he turned to the women on the bed. "Ladies, get out. Get out of the bed, get in the bath."

Aura escorted the women into the bathroom, letting them grab items of clothing from the clothing rack as they went. She then walked back over to the lounge chair, sitting down next to the man. She sat down carefully, letting her bow and quiver hang over the other side of the chair. She had to cross her legs to move close enough to the edge.

The man didn't seem threatened. "My name's Trevor, Trevor Slattery."

"What are you?" Tony asked. "What are you, a decoy or a double, right?"

"What do you mean, like an understudy? No, absolutely not."

Tony jerked the gun, pointing it at his face.

"Don't hurt the face! I'm an actor," Trevor said, enunciating actor.

"You got a minute to live. Fill it with words."

Threatening people was rather different when you were watching someone else do it. Aura felt like this had taken something of a trip off the deep end. Killing bad people was straightforward, she didn't know what the ethics were of threatening Trevor.

"It's just a role," Trevor said, talking slowly and using his hands. "'The Mandarin,' see, it's not real."

"Then how did you get here, Trevor?" Tony said.

"Uhm, well, I, um, had a little problem with, um, substances. And I ended up doing things, no two ways about it, in the street, that a man shouldn't do."

First of all, drug and alcohol addiction is a real, hard to control problem, no joke, and not something to shame someone for. Second, was Trevor saying that he had been a prostitute? This was the craziest conversation Aura had ever witnessed, and she frequently had crazy conversations.

"Next?" Tony said abruptly, moving the conversation along.

"Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs."

"What did they say, they'd get you off them?" Tony asked.

"They said they'd give me more," Trevor said, upbeat. "They gave me things. They gave me this palace. They gave me plastic surgery, they gave me things. Oh, and a lovely speedboat! And, the thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some accidental explosions."

Tony twitched the gun and sighed angrily, getting frustrated. His agitation seemed to get worse as the conversation went on.

"He?" Aura prompted.

"Killian?" Tony asked.

"Killian," Trevor said.

"He created you?"

"He created me," Trevor agreed.

"Custom-made terror threat," Tony said, walking around the lounge a bit.

"Yes!" Trevor said, pointing a finger at Tony. He stood and walked over to a mini-fridge by the wooden dresser, grabbing two diet cokes. "Yes. His think tank thinked it up. The pathology of a serial killer. The manipulation of western iconography. Blah blah blah."

He offered a diet Coke to Tony, who shook his head. He then offered it to Aura, who took it.

"Of course, it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life."

"Your performance? Where people died?" Tony asked. Aura cracked the soda open.

"No they didn't," Trevor said dismissively. "Look around you. The costumes, green screen. Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff. And when I was, it was movie magic, love."

"I'm sorry, but I got a best friend who's in a coma and he might not wake up."

Aura knew that Tony was referring to his head of security, Happy Hogan. In Harley's garage, Tony had mentioned him while talking about what he knew about the Mandarin's plan.

"So you're gonna have to answer for that. You're still going down, pal."

Aura noticed a man coming around the corner of the nearby propped-up wall, a few feet away and closing the distance rapidly. She stood up and moved to grab her bow, but not fast enough.

Tony noticed just in time for the man to grab his shoulder. He lifted the gun, but the man pressed the pressure point on his wrist, making him struggle and drop it. The man's fist glowed orange and he quickly slammed it into Tony's head, knocking him out. The whole thing took only seconds.

Aura had spent the time struggling to yank her bow off her shoulder (bows get stuck on quivers pretty easily. Anyone who's ever implied that it's easy to lift a bow off of your shoulder and around your arm extremely quickly in a stressful situation is a goddamn liar) and as soon as she finally got it the man was too close for a bow to work well, so she slung it over her back and unsheathed her sword. Sidestepping Tony's unconscious body, she swung it at the man.

He raised his glowing arm to try to block it. It probably would have melted steel, but Celestial Bronze has to take quite a beating to break or melt. He grabbed her sword arm with his glowing arm, yanking her towards him and trying to make her drop her sword.

He was probably thinking, hey, if it worked on the other guy, it'll work on the kid too.

Wrong. Even though his arm hurt like Hades and was probably giving her at least a second degree burn, Aura wasn't surprised and reacted quickly, throwing herself backwards to the floor and pulling him with her. He let go of her arm but still stumbled, unbalanced, and Aura swept his legs out from under him and threw herself at his chest, slamming him to the ground and pinning him, with her sword at his throat.

She paused for a second, and it cost her.

A heavy book came flying, smacking her in the head. She stumbled off of the man and blearily raised her sword, adopting a defensive position. The ground swayed and her head was throbbing. Everything was blinking in and out of focus.

Except for Trevor Slattery saying, "Bloody hell! Did you see that shot! Got 'er good!"

She heard that pretty well.

The man used Aura's own trick, sweeping her legs out from under her. Aura tried to come up into a roll, careful of her sword, bow, and quiver, but she was pulled down again.

Starbursts burst behind her eyes as a bright-hot fist crashed into her temple. The world faded into black.\

...

I'm traveling for winter break, and I won't have access to my computer until the Tuesday after next (I will have access to it again the 28th) so there will not be a chapter next Thursday, and it will probably have to be posted Friday instead of Thursday (the 31st), which is okay because I've been meaning to switch to a Friday schedule for a bit now.

To recap, if that was confusing:

No chapter Thursday the 23rd :(

Yes chapter Friday the 31st :)

I hope everyone has a good winter break!