My holidays away with my parents are finished and I am back home. I did lots of exploring, got to an amazing medieval festival and a very long day in the car we finally got back home. My first day back was busier than I had planned, as we had to clean up and fix some stuff, because while qe were away it rained so much our garage flooded. Thankfully my brother got the water out before we got back, but there were more things to do, and thankfully we did everything today. I have a lot of work to do in my garden too, but that is a weekend activity as tomorrow I have work in the morning, and then I'll be spending a couple of days at a friend's place. I am also almeno done with my reread of the fellowship of the ring, which I'd like to finish in the next couple of days. I haven't decided yet if my next read is going to be the two towers or if I want to break up the reread with something short.
notes: reader's gender unspecified, however mentioned to wear make up to cover up eyebags.
Isagi Yoichi doesn't really pay attention to many things that are not soccer. But, it was hard not to notice things about his seatmate. The one who was seated a few centimeters away from him every day—
You, the star student everyone relies on.
He knew that this was a way for his teachers to scold him to pay more attention to the class. Because if not so, then there was no reason to purposely put him—a student who is mediocre at most and forgetting assignments at worst—next to a perfect record of equally perfect scores like you. But, it wasn't as if it was a bad thing.
You helped Yoichi a lot by pointing at his textbook to where the teacher was explaining whenever he blanked out, explaining some parts on breaks when he asked, and even at some point you started to teasingly remind him about the homework through text.
All in all, you were very pleasant to have.
But, it truly was hard to not notice some things about you too as time went on.
Sometimes, your shoulder sagged and you had a faraway look on your face. At other times, your laugh comes out just a bit too stilted than usual. And just recently, the eyebags you hid under a tiddly applied makeup started to show up even more often.
At some point, to him, it became so easy to tell whenever you push yourself too much.
Yoichi was not quite sure he was close enough to ask you about things like this. He is just some classmate who happened to have his seat beside you and your number saved in his phone. He was also definitely not the best at reaching out to people effortlessly without any hint of awkwardness. Yoichi's anxious heart urged him to just stay silent—and it would not be wrong. He was simply not crossing the line of 'classmates' between the two of you.
But, it also felt wrong to do that.
You are a kind person. Yoichi didn't know many things about you, but you are indeed someone who helped him even when you didn't have to. You are also the only one who cared enough to ask him about his practice and how he was doing in class—it felt wrong to just ignore everything and watch you keep up the act in silence for whatever reason you might had.
That was why, during that Friday, Yoichi braved himself to ask you, his tone shushed, even as the class started to grow emptier.
"Hey, listen, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but... are you okay? You look tired recently, so..."
And when he got a tired smile and a nervous laugh from you, let out through sagged shoulders and a long sigh with a hint of relief mixed in it, Yoichi felt so glad he chose to.
notes: isagi is an observant person, and there are some people who keep up the "mask" more than anyone else. but don't you think when you are in close proximity with someone every day, you can't really help but notice things about them? isagi is very soccer-headed, but he is kind and not an ungrateful person i think. this thing is a bit more mellow than my usual ones since the main feeling here is "ah, someone who keeps up a mask a lot of time contrasts isagi a lot. but if you think about it, isn't someone like isagi a good match for someone like that too in some degree?". also at the time when i wrote this, my feelings were a bit heavy, but in the end, i still enjoy writing even under such a feeling. I hope to come back to this idea again one day. in the tone of 'developing romance' and such, especially with isagi who seems to understand how it was to accommodate other people. i will think more about this premise again someday, it seems fun to explore more. all in all, think of it as another "more of a prologue meet cute" thing.
Hello! Random whipper snipper! Share a WIP of your work!
ooh, with pleasure. six the musical araleyn fanart? in the year 2k24? more likely than you think xDD
i realize this looks finished, but technically i'm still deciding whether to add a background or not lol. still, for the sake of sharing a proper WIP, here's a line or two from an araleyn brainworm WIP that i started reworking yesterday (mild tw for religious guilt and period-typical internalized homophobia from aragon's pov):
She remembers sharing her bed with Anne at Henry's behest, remembers the nights of tossing and turning and trying not to think about Anne asleep next to her-- remembers waking up to dark hair spilling across her pillow and the press of blood-warm bosoms against her own, softer than sin, as hot as the Devil, remembers lying still as death, mouthing prayers into the heat of Anne's neck like an act of penance.
We all know and love zutara's Hades & Persephone parallels. Complimentary opposites constantly being misunderstood as a captor/victim- badboy/goodgirl- edgy/sunshine trope despite significant nuances; being torn between familial and spousal devotion; ruling over their kingdom as equally powerful forces of nature... Good good stuff.
But may I humbly suggest that we have been woefully neglecting the sheer dramatic potential of taang x Eros & Psyche.
Otakon's AMV contest allowed VHS submissions, and I knew I just had to submit the collab I edited with @astravis this way.
I hope it's clear why!
youtube
(It uses a lot of actual VHS footage.)
And I loved putting AMVs on tape so much that I quickly ordered a bunch of blank tapes online to compile all of my anime music videos this way.
(Short reel of a few of them.)
And, like, it's definitely far from perfect. My computer doesn't have an HDMI port, so I have to use a converter for that, and it's horrible quality. While that does add to the VHS aesthetic, it also makes some of the subtitles nigh impossible to read (as especially evident in the "First Time" video above). My digitization process also isn't exactly ideal, either.
But popping in a VHS tape of my videos and seeing that on the TV? Absolutely amazing. There is no other way I want to physically compile my AMVs. 10/10. MarshmallowGoop/MarshmallowGoop.
Would like to improve my process someday, but if anyone else is curious about how to make VHS tapes out of videos on your computer, I mostly followed this guide here!
like, ultimately, spn could never actually break the cycle of abuse and familial violence, bc to truly break the cycle would've required its writers to have the radical imaginary to look beyond the status quo. the show just reifies the idea of a paternal authority over the world. god dies but he has to be replaced you see, but it's okay, it's someone better now. family is hell but now family is also heaven.
Fourteen Days of MHA | 13/14: Future, Growth, Change, Evolution
[Vague manga spoilers in the caption!! The snippet itself is all au :) ]
The aforementioned old WIP!! Not gonna lie, I've been thinking about this fic A Lot in light of recent chapters. It was originally inspired by this theory by class1akids and this post by sassypantsjaxon (which also inspired a web weave; that post hit me like a truck at the time okay? & you know what it still does!!) Anyway, I still have a lot of wildly different feelings about 'Kuroboro,' but if you want a fic rec that handles the concept in a really cool way, check out Crumbled Rooftops by Kyurilin on ao3!
Okay, that's enough links for one post. Snippet :D