At this point in time, we’ve embraced — either whole-heartedly or grudgingly — the cold, hard, warm and gooey fact that Venom is sexy.

The symbiote’s sex appeal isn’t something new, nor was it ushered in by Tom Hardy’s attachment to the character. The first trailer for 2018’s Venom had all of the internet freaking out about how horny they were for Venom’s tongue, but the creature’s comic past has always been pretty sexy, if probably not intentionally so.

Of course, when the movie came out, fan artists created renditions of very sexy Venom to fulfill their deepest desires. And it’s not just Venom featured in these lewd versions. Very often, the symbiote is tangled up with Eddie Brock.

The bond between symbiote and human is strong throughout the movie, so creating a sexual relationship out of that is the natural progression of internet denizens. But many are taking this a step further: Not only are Eddie and the Venom Symbiote entangled in heated, passionate trysts, they are also in in a loving, romantic relationship.

And thus, the cutsey fan art of “Symbrock” (Symbiote + Brock) was born.

Eddie and the symbiote certainly bond in the movie, even making out at one point (yeah, yeah, the symbiote is technically occupying Anne Weying at the time, but who’s really in control?). Mike Costa’s recent run on Venom also depicts man and symbiote in a sort of romantic relationship, albeit emotionally co-dependent and certainly unhealthy. (They also have a kid together — congrats on being dads!) [Comics editor’s note: It grew up very fast, bonded with the corpse of its parent’s Kree ex-boyfriend, and left for space).]

So it’s not a far stretch to take the existing facets of this complex relationship and mold it into something sweet and wholesome, but still with that extraterrestrial kick. Many fans are dubbing Venom a “gay alien rom com” instead of the gritty antihero movie it’s marketing itself. And those fans are taking to their pencils, tablets and keyboards to express the sensitive side of Eddie and the symbiote’s relationship.

They look at memes together.

Venom worries about Eddie catching a cold.

And symbiotes give the best, most encompassing hugs ever.

The relationship between Eddie and Venom motivated this subset of fans to go see the movie and celebrate this queer interspecies relationship. After all, their relationship convinced Venom not to destroy the Earth. That’s a pretty powerful relationship force, the kind usually equated to true love in most media.

And isn’t love something to celebrate?