#bobby will just wander off and do a puzzle or some other equally autistic activity

[rikebe]

Hi! I was wondering as to why you think Akihiro would be more dependent on attention than Bobby (based on your ship meme)? Anyway I really love your x-men art! /gen /pos

OOOH this is a fun one!

as you can see i put akihiro so far on the left he almost falls of. i just really see him as someone who really, really needs positive attention. pretty easy to understand why too, since textually he essentially didn't have any positive relationships with anyone after he was a small child (and even before that his adoptive mother couldn't stand being around him because of his mutation and he got bullied for being mixed), and you can really see the way he, even if he'd never say it, craves positive attention by the way he interacts with the handful of people he has kind feelings for.

he builds a relationship with johnny and becomes his friend, presumably for ulterior motives but he sticks around for much longer than he needs to, talks to him on the phone and is just like.. his pal for a while. he didn't need to do that, and since it's pretty clear to me he had romantic feelings for johnny of some sort it it's pretty obvious why he'd be eager to spend more time with him. what's also of note is that akihiro pretends to be a much nicer, more sympathetic version of himself around johnny. yes, to manipulate him, but also because that is a version of him that johnny could easy like or even love. he's essentially roleplaying the fantasy of being the kind of person nice old johnny could love, and he keeps coming back to that well of positive attention.

the other standout to me is his relationship with donna, the cop lady he fixates on in D:DW. akihiro becomes obsessed with the idea that donna is "like him", someone unsympathetic and cold to the idea of killing, and he latches onto her in the hope that she could be that person who loves and understands him as he is. it's also pretty telling to me that he's aware of this "difference" between him and other people, and that he obviously feels that there's a wall between him and "normal" people.

then there's his relationship with his sisters, people he sticks around for without standing to gain anything from it other than... well, people he loves and who love him. laura and gabby are the only people that love akihiro unconditionally, that keep him around fully aware of all the dark nasty ugly parts of his past, who can relate to him due to their similar upbringings. he craves this love and attention from them, and that's why he seems to mellow out when he's around them. their love is a motivator to be better, rather than to pretend that he's better.

so while i don't think akihiro is necessarily super clingy or even always acts on this, because it's mostly a subconscious thing for him, he definitely deeply desires attention and love and acceptance, since he's, you know, human, and was abnormally deprived of all of these things most of his childhood and adult live. bobby is also someone who knows what kind of a nasty boy he is/used to be (i don't see a reality where they date without akihiro having worked through a lot of his baggage) and still chooses to love him and accept him, and i just think he'd really relish in positive attention from a partner where the cards are fully on the table. no lying and no manipulation, just the reality of who both of them are.

as for bobby i definitely think he really LIKES attention as he's very insecure about a lot of things, and he also really struggles with accepting himself as he is and presenting a false version of himself, it's just not as extreme as akihiro.

on a less analytical note akihiro is just a massive diva and loves being the center of attention. remember when he died that one (no, the first time, not that other time) time and made it all of new york's problem? yeah. bobby's just a lot less vain so he can handle not having the spotlight better LMFAO