This sort of thing never usually goes over well. It's often interpreted as a complete lack of interest or something else entirely. Worst case scenario, Daniel gets all sorts of awkward, unwanted questions that range from isn't that a disease? to what the fuck is wrong with you? It's why it took him two months to bring it up to Sarah, and by then their relationship was well on its way to the crash-and-burn state it hit once that discussion was over. And it isn't just people being unable to fully understand it because Daniel doesn't quite get it himself, he just knows that it's a thing that is somehow, weirdly, how he feels about that level of intimacy.
And public eye perceptions aside, well. Daniel can't even remember how many anthropology courses and humanities courses and sociology courses he's taken by now, ones that posit a basic instinctual need for sex and put forth an emphasis on sex, on the human necessity for sex (not ever preference, not ever), on sex as a biological function and not just a thing that people do if they feel like it, on sex as some sort of fundamental piece of what it is to be a sentient being, and that just makes everything - snap into place, horribly, because no wonder Daniel can't maintain a single romantic attachment or just operate normally on a day-to-day basis if that's supposedly one of the fundamental requirements for being a person.
This kind of patient, earnest response to that intensely awkward tumble of confessions is extremely new.
The hand is nice, it's a welcome polar opposite of the usual shuffling away and mumbling and weird sidelong looks he might get in any other situation, so Daniel answers with a light increase in pressure to signal that yes, touching is fine. Touching is more than fine.
"Yeah, that. That about covers it." He's feeling vaguely light-headed at the admission and how well it's gone over with Seth, because it never goes over well with anyone. "It's just - it's not exclusive to, to anyone. It's just. Yeah. A thing."
A thing. A thing that Daniel has no phrasing or definition or explanation for which is utterly infuriating from a linguistic perspective, but Seth is - is taking it. And processing it. And he seems to be...okay with it, even? Is that a fair assessment? Or is Daniel just wildly projecting his too-often trampled optimism in all the wrong ways?
tw: discussion of acephobia
This sort of thing never usually goes over well. It's often interpreted as a complete lack of interest or something else entirely. Worst case scenario, Daniel gets all sorts of awkward, unwanted questions that range from isn't that a disease? to what the fuck is wrong with you? It's why it took him two months to bring it up to Sarah, and by then their relationship was well on its way to the crash-and-burn state it hit once that discussion was over. And it isn't just people being unable to fully understand it because Daniel doesn't quite get it himself, he just knows that it's a thing that is somehow, weirdly, how he feels about that level of intimacy.
And public eye perceptions aside, well. Daniel can't even remember how many anthropology courses and humanities courses and sociology courses he's taken by now, ones that posit a basic instinctual need for sex and put forth an emphasis on sex, on the human necessity for sex (not ever preference, not ever), on sex as a biological function and not just a thing that people do if they feel like it, on sex as some sort of fundamental piece of what it is to be a sentient being, and that just makes everything - snap into place, horribly, because no wonder Daniel can't maintain a single romantic attachment or just operate normally on a day-to-day basis if that's supposedly one of the fundamental requirements for being a person.
This kind of patient, earnest response to that intensely awkward tumble of confessions is extremely new.
The hand is nice, it's a welcome polar opposite of the usual shuffling away and mumbling and weird sidelong looks he might get in any other situation, so Daniel answers with a light increase in pressure to signal that yes, touching is fine. Touching is more than fine.
"Yeah, that. That about covers it." He's feeling vaguely light-headed at the admission and how well it's gone over with Seth, because it never goes over well with anyone. "It's just - it's not exclusive to, to anyone. It's just. Yeah. A thing."
A thing. A thing that Daniel has no phrasing or definition or explanation for which is utterly infuriating from a linguistic perspective, but Seth is - is taking it. And processing it. And he seems to be...okay with it, even? Is that a fair assessment? Or is Daniel just wildly projecting his too-often trampled optimism in all the wrong ways?