u/McTasty333

Want to start by saying that if this doesn't belong, I completely understand and will remove it if requested.

Though I lean more towards calling myself fictosexual, I prefer being here to r/fictiosexual. And it's not just because I feel a more disconnect between myself and my fantasies than what I've seen there. People don't really talk about their experiences being ficto, how it relates to their broader sense of asexuality, or anything like that. It's mostly younger people posting their crushes, how they hate "sharing" their character, or talking about how they were "discriminated" against for liking an anime character.

It really felt like a weird echo chamber where if you even implied the characters aren't real people, and therefore neither is the relationship, you'd either get downvoted into oblivion or attacked (usually both). There were times where I explicitly stated that while the character might not be real, your feelings are and I was still met with hostility. I like that I can more freely share my thoughts and opinions on my flavor asexuality here and people are more receptive to it.

TLDR: I can relate to aegos a lot more than fictos, so that's why I stick around.

When I was little, my parents worked at my uncle's dealership, and one of my mom's jobs was doing paperwork. Once a week she would go down in the basement, which was also home to our washer, dryer, our playroom, and fill out titles until bedtime.

Those nights I would bring my things over to her desk and plop down on the floor. Sometimes she had me relay a message to dad upstairs, other times I would help with laundry, but mostly I just read books and played with my toys. We barely said a word to each other, but that was fine. All I wanted was to be by her side. She would also have the TV on for background noise, but we never watched cartoons or Disney movies.

She'd watch soap operas and true crime. Most of them were of no interest to me - I don't even remember what any of them were called - except for one. Forensic Files was my favorite show. Not because of the gruesome nature, of course, it was my favorite one because of the narrator, Peter Thomas. His voice was always so soothing to me, having the same effect on as Bob Ross did. Countless nights I would doze off the floor, his narration acting as a lullaby, just to wake up in bed the next morning.

Perhaps it wasn't the most appropriate material for a five to seven year old, but we both look back on those days fondly. We still like to watch true crime together with no need for conversation, and I still pull up replays from time to time when I can't sleep.

TL; DR: Mom watched true crime and it put me to sleep, but in a good way.