Dating Advice for an Absolute Beginner?

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru had spent a good part of the day freerunning. With the American Ninja Warrior qualifiers coming up soon back home, he needed all the training he could get. But really, he did parkour because he loved it. It helped him clear his mind.

Usually, it helped him clear his mind. But not today.

He arrived in the plaza, just as frazzled as he left it hours earlier. He slumped down (upside down) on one of the benches.

“I give up! Does anybody know how dating works?!?”

Because Minoru now had a koibito... err... girlfriend... and a first date he wanted to do something really special for. And the absolute beginner had absolutely no idea where to start.

Comments

[itmeanstruth]

Even from the awkward upside down angle on the bench, he could see the pair of giant robots clearly.

“Yeah. Talking about Ziggy.” He confirmed. The phrase, while it made him happy deep inside his heart, still didn’t roll off the tongue very easily. “We’re... dating...”

[dontpetmeibite]

"I'd gathered." Ravage curled his tail, rather smugly, around both his aft and Soundwave's wrist. "Darling, you leave this to me," he told Soundwave.

"So, if being married for humans is the counterpart to being conjunx, what's the counterpart to being amicae? Because that's what it's called if you're courting someone and don't want to have sex... unless you're Megatron, who always wants to have sex with people he likes."

[itmeanstruth]

“Uh... for Antheans, there isn’t a word. At least I don’t think there is. For people, it’s... complicated?”

Ziggy had told Minoru that there were really only three choices for Antheans - single, married or betrothed. So essentially, Ziggy could be both dating someone and be single at the same time. For an endangered species, procreation was important. Which left human words. And humans were just fond of having sex, apparentlu.

“Boyfriend and girlfriend... I guess... It just sounded... um... like sex was still expected...” he blushed. “We decided on koibito instead. For both of us. It’s Japanese. It fit better. It didn’t have specific genders attached. And didn’t feel as... awkward?”

Dating. It’s awkward when you’ve literally never had to think about these things before.

[dontpetmeibite]

"Okay, I'm going with amica, because I told you what it means," says Ravage. "I don't speak Japanese, although Glit and Rosanna do. Anyhow, courting someone to be amica and courting someone to be conjunx are usually a little different. For an amica, I would suggest activities that you know the other person enjoys that make them feel wholly themselves, that you want to share with them. And not the things that everybody knows they like to do. So not singing or playing with glitter. To be amica, you know the other person's deep self. What does Ziggy love the most but not tell everyone? Do not tell me. But that's where you should be going."

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru was still pretty impressed that there was a word for asexual dating in a Transformer vocabulary. He was going to need to remember that one!

"Wholly themselves..." Minoru repeated, his mind starting to wander past the concerts, the drugs and the parties, to the times where Ziggy just curled up in Minoru's arms clinging to feelings of safety, security, love and acceptance. That wasn't exactly something he liked to do, though. It was the opposite, actually. But it spoke to the fact that in his world, he had to hide so much of himself. The Anthean side of himself. The female side of himself.

It did get Minoru thinking, though.

"...okay..."

[dontpetmeibite]

It's actually a word for a platonic partnership, but Ravage, unlike Soundwave, can't read Minoru's mind.

And Soundwave has all of his headgear on and isn't paying attention to anything but the piece of music he's composing in the back of his mind.

"The point of having an amica is someone who knows you and sees and acknowledges your light, but does not have to merge with it," Ravage says. "Someone who sees the things you don't show everyone else. The things you're not always sure other people will accept, not because they're necessarily bad, but because they make you self-conscious and knock you out of the image you like to present to the world."

[itmeanstruth]

Finding words that actually fit their relationship was quite the challenge. But Minoru really liked where this was going, even if it was supposed to be platonic.

"That makes a lot of sense, actually." he nodded. "Gives me a few ideas too!"

[dontpetmeibite]

"Good! I'm glad I could help." Ravage grins.

[itmeanstruth]

“Yeah! Thanks a lot!” Minoru grinned, bouncing off the bench.

He had some things to do now!

[dontpetmeibite]

"Have fun!"