Sterling

 OVERVIEW

Gay cuddly stoner skunk that makes music with his band, Vanilla. Also the cuddliest romantic out there.

PERSONALITY

Optimistic - Romantic - Kind - Decisions based on feelings - Extraverted

Sterling is a big-hearted skunk with a lot of love to give. He is extremely affectionate. Sterling loves hugs and cuddling, especially when it comes to his boyfriends. Before his current relationship, Sterling was more or less a hopeless romantic that got nervous trying to initiate anything or asking others out. Being a sex-repulsed ace didn't help either. But thankfully, he currently has 3 loving boyfriends and a cuddle buddy. 

Sterling is modest and prefers to keep his shirt on when cuddling. He feels awkward about shirtless intimacy. Also not fond of being felt up. He is terrified of sexual intimacy, due to his sex-repulsion. One of the reasons pursuing a relationship was hard for him, prior to his current partners.

Even with friends, he's huggy and friendly. He's overall a vanilla touchy-feely guy. Sterling gets clingy with people he's close to, be it friend or lover.

Sterling's biggest passion is making music. He's a big sap that writes a lot of sweet and silly love songs, as well as his struggles as a romantic ace. Serenading songs to his partners is a love language. Sterling can both play and compose music. He also loves learning about rock n roll history.

Despite his cheery and optimistic demeanor, Sterling does have anxiety issues. As a result, has a tendency to over-explain himself and overthink a lot. He gets worried about how others perceive him and his preferences. As a result, he needs lots of reassurance. Sterling is worried about his clinginess.

Sterling is an optimist that likes to see the good in life and people. He also likes to provide emotional support and safety to the people he cares about.

Sterling has a tendency to let his feelings get in the way of judgement calls. Such as letting one of his boyfriends join his band, despite his bandmates' concern over things going sour. Sterling has jumped into relationships many times out of desperation for cuddly intimacy, and have things fall out due to his aversion to sex.

Sterling uses marijuana as a means of coping with stress, as well as a means of feeling good. Sometimes it helps with his creative process, other times it can make him paranoid. He also loves getting partners and friends involved with his smoking sessions.

HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY

Sterling was raised by a loving mother, and a stepfather that really stepped up. Sterling’s bio dad was out of the picture early into his infancy. To this day, Sterling hasn’t met him; considering the negative things his mother had to say about the man, Sterling thinks it’s for the best. Sterling was a real mama’s boy, who clung to her real hard. His first day of school was scary at the start, and Sterling bawled his eyes out having to be away from his mother.

Sterling had a fairly happy childhood. His parents were nice enough, and he was a naturally social kid that made friends quickly. Sterling loved music since he was a wee lad, and got his first guitar when he was 8. He was set up with lessons, and learned the basics of music theory and rhythm and then some. He learned what to do quickly, and as time went on, began trying to write and create his own songs.

[WIP]

Started using dating apps after graduating high school. Using Poundr was a nightmare for him; too many men were horny on main, and didn’t respect his aceness. He tried his hand at an asexual dating app, but the results were few and far between. When he did manage to land someone, some matches couldn’t handle how needy he was for physical touch. One guy didn’t even enjoy kissing. Sterling started exploring polyamory in his early 20s. He figured he would date people, but they could sleep with other people to get whatever sexual fix he couldn’t provide. Sterling had his fair share of failed attempts at dating. 

His first real success happened when he started dating Barry. Sterling had been 21, and Barry 20 when they met over a poly dating app. At the time, Barry had been primary partners with another man, who didn’t treat him well. As Sterling and Barry bonded more, said partner got jealous over Barry spending more time with the snuggly skunk. After giving Barry the “it’s either him or me” ultimatum, Barry ended up leaving the prick in favor of dating Sterling. And the two’s relationship has been going strong for 2 years.

Sterling formed Vanilla with his friend and fellow ace, Millie Stevens. Sterling sprung the idea of having an all-asexual band to Millie; they needed more representation in the field of music. The two put together an ad looking for a bassist and drummer for their band. More specifically looking for ace musicians into classic rock. Enter, Dennis, a multi-instrumentalist and music teacher. Dennis, being an ace himself, was intrigued by the concept of Vanilla and was all in. The band had a hard time nailing down a drummer. Enter, Thomas. Sterling had found Thomas on a poly dating app, and just had to have him in the band after finding out he's a drummer. This concerned his bandmates, especially Millie, who were concerned about what would happen if Sterling and Thomas had a falling out. 

At the moment, Vanilla is at local band status. They mostly play venues in Cloverdale and neighboring towns. They have yet to sign to a label. But with the help of Millie's queercore veteran mama, Donna, they were able to record songs in her makeshift basement studio and put them online.