#me: this anime is cool maybe I'll try reading the light novel

[midground]

I started reading the Ascendance of a Bookworm light novel series on June 12th, and as of 10 minutes ago, I am caught up to the latest Pre-Pub part on J-novel club. This series hasn't just had me by the throat, I've been fucking POSSESSED by it for a month and a half. I'm genuinely glad to be caught up so that I can get my life back in order. Here's looking forward to one part per week until we reach the end!

[nonsensemanna]

inbox stuff

i had quite a few of these piled up so i figured it might be better if i answer them in one post instead of spamming. Also i'll start tagging these so theyre easier to find (ill go and tag the old ones too)

sure.

i havent, but it looks cool. Nowadays i dont really like watching anime but i might read the manga if its any good (i dont think the light novels have been translated?)

thank you! Art is really the only way i feel like i can express myself well. Im autistic so processing emotions and self expression in general is difficult for me. Even with more recent art i dont feel like i was able capture my real feelings as well as i wish i could. But i try my best, and i get closer every time! Having people look at something ive made and going "hey, ive felt like this too!" really means a lot to me. It makes me feel less like an alien. I was kind of thinking about this yesterday when I was in bed. I memorize everything in colors (e.g weekdays and months), emotions have set colors (happiness is orange&lime green, dissociation is shock blue&white, etc) so art feels like a natural outlet for all of my thoughts and feelings. Its also why i focus way more on colors instead of the technical mumbo jumbo.

scary compliment, thank you ^q^ Most of my art is kind of depressing though so maybe drink a cup of coffee instead? And eat a good breakfast.

thank you both so much ;w;

Sorry for the late answers! I have been more depressed than usual so i havent been looking at social media a lot. Ive been reading subahibi, and ff14 will get an update in a few days so im excited! I hope and pray that the world would be a little kinder to us all. Stay safe out there, everyone.

[recurring-polynya]

I'm sorry if this comes off weird, but I wanted to ask why you seem to not want to know about Can't Fear Your Own World? Do you dislike it, or it's nature as a post-series work?

So I've read a couple of the light novels and they simply do not spark joy. The plots sort of wander around, the characterization has very little to say, and they are full of what I'll call "lore dumps", where there will be a paragraph of exposition that's not integrated into the story in any sort of natural way and is frequently of the "thanks, I hate it" variety. Even though they may be "Kubo approved", or include stuff that he came up with, they completely lack his storytelling skill or the charm of his character voices. There are usually about 3-5 bits that I find charming per light novel, and about five to ten times as many that I find aggravating or off-putting (or just plain tedious or boring).

I think that a big part of it for me is that I read a lot of fanfiction and while there is an awful lot of mediocre fanfic, I have also read a lot of brilliant stories written by people who have given a ton of thought to the characters and the worldbuilding and out-of-canon adventures that these characters might go on. To me, the light novels I have read feel like finding a story on AO3 that has all my favorite tags and a cool story description, and then it turns out that I absolutely hate the writing style and direction. It feels like adding insult to injury that on top of that, I am somehow obligated to consider them canon.

To address CFYOW specifically, it does not contain any of the characters I care about. I mean, I like Shuuhei, but what I like about Shuuhei is his relationship with Izuru, Momo, and Renji. I like his job at the Seireitei Communication. I like his guitar playing and boring cooking and the goofy outfits he wears in splash pages. I could not care less about him getting bankai. I've said this before, but I would like relatively very few characters to get bankai, and he is not on my shortlist. It feels very shoehorned to me.

The plot sounds convoluted and tedious as hell. I already found the Fullbringers tedious enough when I had to read about them in the manga, I do not want to spend one more minute of my life thinking about Fullbringers.

Tokinada seems mildly interesting, but I'm pretty sure I got as much as I care to know about him from reading thru some BBS screenshots.

I hate literally every piece of Soul King-related lore I have heard come out of CFYOW. It makes me literally enjoy Bleach less.

I read a fan translation of the first couple of chapters when they came out and it barely kept my attention. I briefly considered that maybe the professional translation might be a little more readable (I say this with all love and respect for the translation I read, which was trying to keep it very close to the original), but then I have heard that Viz butchered the translation, so I feel like there's no winning there.

It's just not for me. If it were a fanfiction, I would look at the tags and description and simply keep scrolling. I wish peace and love on planet Earth to everyone who enjoyed it and any of the other light novels, but it's not something I wish to spend my time and energy on. There are so many parts and pieces of Bleach--the manga, the anime, the movies, the filler arcs, the novels, databooks, random facts Kubo spills in interviews, fanworks, etc, and I've always been of the opinion that as fans, we all have the right to pick and choose which ones we want to consume and what we want to include in our own personal canons. Further, because CFYOW is post-canon, it literally affects nothing if I ignore it. Yeah, there are a few interesting crumbs in there, like the stuff about Ikkaku and his sister and I think there's an off-hand mention of the Six Hearts gang going to the beach, but it's simply not worth it to me to read through over a thousand pages of something that I am otherwise just not interested in.

[flyingcookierambles]

I kinda wanna get more into trying to read things in either Chinese or Japanese again....

My skill level is too low for anything more age appropriate for me tho so I'm kinda stuck at reading children's books....

I really wanna be motivated by reading things that would actually interest me like light novels at least aimed at high schoolers or college students that have easy language hence the light novel part but it's too low for that...

Guess I'll stick with my ebooks of doraemon...

It have some yotsuba manga too plus some more ordered from Tokyo Otaku mode that I think are on special order or something that's im waiting to ship

But for Chinese things I'm kinda at a loss...

Like. I know japanese manga series for kids but Chinese ones? I know how to get bilibili webtoons and access Chinese language things but I just don't have much knowledge of what's popular for Chinese kids. Even if I did try something like Chinese doraemon, I think it'd be a vit awkward bc it's going to be going from Japanese to Chinese to English. Maybe I should look up on the Chinese language learning subreddit for simple Chinese books for kids. I know that project Gutenberg has Chinese language classic literature but obviously it's likely an olden language aimed at adults etc. Maybe they have like a Chinese myths for kids book somewhere??? Hmmmm

(Yes this is bc my friend is super into danmei and I kinda want to try reading click link or something that's a webtoon)

edit: THERES A GOOD YOUTUBE VIDEO THATS LIKE CHINA LACKS SOFT POWER BC WHENEVER COOL ARTISTIC THINGS TRY TO HAPPEN THAT HAVE POTENTIAL TO BECOME HUGE MAINSTREAM THINGS IE DANMEI WAVE LIKE THE HALLYU KPOP WAVE OF KOREA OR THE ANIME WAVE OF JAPAN THE CCP CENSORS IT TO FIT THEIR RIGID ARTISTIC STANDARDS. BRUH WHEN IM HOME ILL LINK IT

[sanctus-ingenium]

another one of these posts lol... sketches vs final. not much changed for these ones, i kind of went into them with a very solid mental image already in my head. all of these were done start to finish in procreate

thoughts below the cut

horse fight .... this is based off a really really beautiful sky i saw while driving home one evening. i'm really proud of getting the colours i saw exactly right, this kind of greenish yellow fading to dark blue and with grey clouds low over it that looked very dark against the yellow by the horizon, but very pale against the dark blue.

i thought it would be a cool backdrop to draw a scene i've been thinking about for a while. The little cartoony horses are there to provide some tonal whiplash but also because these are two immortal shapeshifters who can fight violently without it being a huge deal. the little horses represent the actual gravity of the fight (that is, kind of a slap fight between two drama queens) which contrasts with the visuals of two animals brutally tearing at eachother. also i got the two horses at the bottom mixed up, Pascal is the one with the skinny plumed tail and Macha has a more traditional horse tail and i put them on the wrong sides.

i had a LOT of trouble shading this. i didn't want the horses to be too shiny but that meant a much lower contrast in shading and even with my screen brightness turned up i could barely see what i was doing. but i wanted it to read as realistic. mixed results i think. if i did it again i might try a different shading style because this one didn't really do it for me

--

spooky van!!! the post i deleted by accident (rip. i will repost it soon). this is a picture of the barrow (the field) taking a different shape - in this case a cool van. the van contains every single thing the field does (including the human victims that get lost in there...) but compressed down into a manageable shape. the void is Pascal because the field is inside him. he did this for his human bf to provide novel way to travel through the Otherworld. don't ask how this works like, spatially, because the answer is: i don't do hard magic systems in this setting

i loooove shading things with pencil hatching and i really like contrasting it with smooth colours/shading so that's mainly what i did here. it was simple enough. the van is of course heavily referenced and i wish i had been able to stylise it a little more.. maybe next time. i want to draw a kind of cutaway illustration of the van showing exterior and interior (like an old blueprint schematic), which i might use as a cover for the book/comic/whatever but that will require a very intimidating level of precision so i think i'll work up to that.

--

RUA magazine. this is my third time doing a rua magazine cover (first time posting tho). this is an in-universe magazine distributed throughout the Otherworld to an audience of fairies. in the sketch, the illustation was originally the King of Pentacles tarot card (the pentacle being the disco ball). but i decided to make a different King of Pentacles card for him instead, since I try hard to move away from symmetrical composition for the tarot cards (it's boring). so i repurposed this one into another magazine cover. like i said Pascal is a self-absorbed attention whore and has a habit of giving bullshit interviews just so that he can be on the cover as much as possible. he dresses like this all the time (the year is 2017)

the disco ball took 15 years off my life and it's not even the first disco ball i've drawn! i finished my actual king of pentacles card before i finished the rua cover sketch, so i can show u this

which is much better even if i did reference so heavily that it isn't exactly stylised. but this card needs some serious revision before i even think about posting it. i'm just not happy with his face.

original intent was for it be mysterious with emphasis on the neon lights but it ended up far more suggestive than i expected. that's life!

[herotome]

I dreamed a dreaaaam~ ^^ How cool, what an awesome way to be inspired. Do you have any specific games you really enjoy from the visual novel/otome side, and does anyone in particular inspire your writing style? Thank you again for answering my questions. <3

Hmm, I'll start with my writing style...

I have a long history of writing in a more flowery, long-winded style, and switched to a more concise, read-between-the-lines style when I started writing this game. I currently try to take after Gillian Flynn, but I was a big fan of Neil Gaiman for a long time.

.

Specific games I've enjoyed VN/otome side... Mainstream games like Ozmafia!! and Amnesia: Memories were fun enough, but left me with a lot of ideas on what not to do haha.

I did mention Mystic Messenger already, so I'll move onto indie suggestions:

EBON LIGHT: @underbliss (Creator is not active on tumblr but I've taken a lot of inspiration from how she answered her asks, so....)

Thiiis game. It's a dark adventure fantasy about being carted to a foreign land with ancient magic and suspense and allying yourself with ELVES who each have their own motivations; some less savory than others! If you've ever wanted to date a canonically EVIL elf, choo-choo, this is your stop.

This was the first VN/otome I played that had my exact preference/style of writing dialogue choices! We both write them like RPGs - both inspired by games like Dragon Age, I think. Herotome was already well underway by the time I found this game, but it was still such a pleasant surprise; I actively replay it when I need motivation.

Link: https://underbliss.itch.io/ebon-light

.

SOULSET: @nobreadstudio (They're more active on twitter, I think.)

Their story structure and use of foreshadowing is insane. It's another dark fantasy, but with more of an emphasis on solving various mysteries at the heart of the game. And lord do the mysteries blossom like goddamn flowers. It's a whole orchard of mysteries.

You start off with amnesia, locked in a house with five other people, so it's an escape room mystery, to boot.

What really sold me was the main character: the mature, sexy necromancer with the thigh high boots. I felt like games NEVER let me be the mature sexy anime lady, so this was quite the sell for me.

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/589860/SoulSet/

Link: https://nobreadstudio.itch.io/soulset

.

THIS, MY SOUL: I was OBSESSED with the writing style of this game. It's a short romantic sci-fi about being adrift in space with a doting (if surly) android.

Link: https://agashi.itch.io/thismysoul

.

CHANGELING: @steamberrystudio (the dev is actively working on a new game called Gilded Shadows!)

A high school urban fantasy about joining a club of supernatural teens and run-ins with the fae. To be honest I was just following the dev (Esh) here on tumblr and didn't even play the game until after I'd gotten to know her. I was leery of the fact that it took place in a school (felt like I was too old to enjoy high school games lol), and "ehhh isn't the whole supernatural BF shebang rather overdone?"

Then I played it. Oh. My. God. I really liked the protagonist. I got to fight with my in-game brother and I was hooked. The drama was well-paced and sensible, the characters were all interesting and well-developed, I think I stayed up late like 3 nights in a row trying to finish this game. I NEEDED to kiss them all and the bad endings were so fun.

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1010240/Changeling/

Link: https://steamberry.itch.io/changeling

.

BLOOMING PANIC: This game just came out this year and made some hella waves, maybe you guys have already heard of it? It takes place primarily in a chatroom like Mystic Messenger, but has video call segments!

The game is 100% dialogue, so rather than the writing I'm moreso inspired by how they coded an entire mock discord server in renpy, with functional individual channels. Like what??? You can do that?? Black magic. But in all seriousness the story is quite good, the characters have depth that surprised me, and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Link: https://robobarbie.itch.io/blooming-panic

.

CUPID: This one's a dark historical fantasy, and a horror, too. Mostly psychological horror?

I thiiiink the writing style was good... It certainly kept me reading, I binged the whole game in a single day. 8| Kept me on my toes and made a very interesting design choice in regarding its dialogue choices. I feel like I'm not selling this one very well, but if you enjoy horror, I do recommend going in blind. I don't like horror; I loved this.

Link: https://fervent.itch.io/cupidvn

.

PERFUMARE: @pdrrook (this VN's final chapter JUST came out!! and there's will be more to enjoy in the upcoming IF, very exciting)

Last but very much not last, a modern dark... ... perhaps by now you noticed I really love dark stories lol.

A modern dark fantasy with a heavy emphasis on crime, mystery, and romance. You get framed, accused of murdering a drug dealer! You ally yourself with one of three phenomenal romance options! You can choose your pronouns! You have mind control powers.

The writing style is superb and enviable. At first I was just kind of clicking through, not especially engaged, but once those romances kick in? Oh boy. Rook has an incredible, enviable gift for writing romance scenes and relationships, an absolute inspiration. And once I was hooked on the first romantic moment, my third eye was open and I saw how beautifully the entire game was written from start to finish.

Perfumare should probably go higher on this list since I particularly enjoy and would love to emulate its writing style, but... this wasn't actually in a specific order, I just listed games off as I remembered them;;;

Link: https://pdrr.itch.io/perfumare

.

.

Not remotely otome but enormously inspirational to my writing and game design decisions:

DISCO ELYSIUM: Hoo. I don't even know what to say. The murder! The banter! The CHOICES! This damn isometric RPG makes you fall in love with the most unlikely characters and doesn't let you date any of them. Then their official twitter account liked my comment wherein I whined about wanting to marry Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi. Jerks!!! This game drives me CRAZY, but in a good, aspirational way.

The writing style is exceptionally beautiful, the branching and variations are vast and superb.

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/

.

.

And some additional shout-outs to these interactive fiction games that can be played right in your browser:

VAMPIRE LTD: Ok you need to listen to me please this is truly shocking, I AM LITERALLY THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS EVER PLAYED AND RATED THIS GAME??? BUT IT'S AMAZING?? Please go play it now. The writing is amazing. It is exceptionally charming and so funny, my absolute ideal sense of humor. You play as a modern vampire and you're trying to get a job at a rival vampire's company so you can sabotage him from within. You can immediately die at the start of the game by closing your umbrella and burning yourself in the sunlight.

It's a free game that doesn't even cost anything and it came out in February, how am I still the only person who has played this omg? :( You guys. Please play it, leave a rating and a nice comment, I adore it deeply. It is a text parser, so you'll have to get used to typing in commands like "go north," "take blood bag," "bite receptionist," but it really is not difficult.

Link: https://comfortcastle.itch.io/vampire-ltd

.

TAVERN CRAWLER: A very charming fantasy RPG, Discworld-esque: funny but with an enormous amount of heart and meaningful choices. The side characters are all fun, and you can date both love interests at the same time. You can be POLY! And you can drink in bars to increase your stats. What's not to love?

Premise: You get hired to kill a dragon. Problem: You were shit-faced drunk when you got the job and ddooon't totally remember where to go to get your reward.

Link: https://cogsandspanners.itch.io/tavern-crawler

.

THE PASSENGER: @the-passenger-if (... Ok so this one isn't exactly done yet, but the creator issss almost done? Actively working on the last chapters and such?)

This is a very special mention because despite being a WIP, the writing is vivid, gorgeous, and has been wildly inspirational for me. It's a 90's eldritch horror story (you play as the horror! :D), and it's... fun. It's so much fun. You can play truth or dare and then dare one of your love interests to take their pants off in the car. And they do it, they take their dang pants off and you get this whole description of their raggedy underwear. Do I need to sell it harder? I don't know what to say. This was the game that got me interested in giving the player an in-game option to be trans, because I'd never seen it as an option anywhere else before.

Link: https://dashingdon.com/play/pime/the-passenger/mygame/

.

.

So yeah, these are my inspirations!! Other than The Passenger at the very end, these games are ALL 100% RELEASED/COMPLETED and ready to be enjoyed in full. And a lot of them are FREE. $0.00! FREE!! You still ought to throw some dimes in if you can afford it, but if not -- free. $0.00. Free.

I hope you guys give them a shot if you have not played them already, because I find them all truly magnificent.

And even if you don't have time to play them at the moment, please give them a boost! Reblog!!! Who cares if you have zero followers or if it will interrupt your aesthetic posts, reblog anyway!!! These are ALL lovingly and painstakingly made by small creators and I must reiterate I AM THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD WHO HAS PLAYED AND RATED VAMPIRE LTD ON ITCH.IO AND I CANNOT STAND FOR THIS. Jiminy criminy y'all please at least go play Vampire LTD, I am begging you.

[punderfulowl]

Top 10 Anime (That I've Seen) in 2020

Well now, it has certainly been awhile. I'm currently sitting at eight months too late for posting this, but, y'know, something something life happens. More accurately, I already made this list, but wanted to try out what response I'd get from Reddit. Turns out, they're not as cool as you guys!

Anyways, as the title states, this is not a list of my favorite anime that came out during 2020, but instead my favorite anime that I just so happen to see during that year. While it's fun to have an end of the year retrospective, I find that having a list in this format not only adds variety, but also helps bring attention to anime that might have been lost in the shuffle in previous years (I also don't have enough time to stay caught up in seasonal releases).

Honorable mentions:

Aggretsuko S3, My Hero Academia S4, Today's Menu For the Emiya Family, Interspecies Reviewers (yes, really), and I Couldn't Become a Hero So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job

10. Maid-Sama (2010)

In hindsight, I find it a bit funny that I wanted to watch something wholesome to kick off 2020. Anyway, Maid-Sama is about a high school girl that is also a no nonsense Class President and she kind of has to be at a school where, until recently, was an all boys school. While she kills it in academics and is good at shutting down any shenanigans from the male student body, her financial situation isn't the greatest and has to balance a job at a maid cafe along with her school-related responsibilities. She does her best to hide her employment there to keep up appearances, but is one day found out by one of the boys who happens to be a big flirt and, yeah, hijinks ensue. While this anime doesn't have too many surprises, our main leads bounce off each other well enough to keep me entertained. Nothing I haven't seen already in other anime Rom-Coms, but I think it has more than earned its place at the start of this list.

9. Haganai NEXT (2013)

It's a personal rule of mine when making these lists that I don't include sequels of shows that were in previous lists. While I DID see the first season of Haganai a couple of years ago, it didn't quite make it into the top ten at that time. Because of that, it meets the criteria for this year's list. While I found the characters were just as charming here as I did during the first season, the development of their relationships really took off. It's a shame that it will most likely not get a third season, but I'm happy with what ride this show gave me. But hey! At least I can read the light novels/manga to continue the story! Wait, nevermind, the Haganai fans on Reddit are saying that's a bad idea.

8. Engaged to the Unidentified (2014)

Based off of a Four Panel joke manga, Engaged to the Unidentified tells the story of a girl in high school suddenly getting some life changing news. As it turns out, her grandfather made an arranged engagement with her and the son of a family he knew. Next thing she knows, the boy in question, as well as his little sister, moves into her family's house! While the boy is unassuming at first, there may be more to him and his family than he lets on. Plain and simple, this anime has charmed me. There's a decent amount of drama and mystery despite the source material and I applaud it! Even though this also doesn't have much new to offer, even to the point where I would compare this to Maid-Sama, what made me pick this at the 8th spot were the color choices and animation quality. Give this a shot if you can!

7. Grimoire of Zero (2017)

It's a fantasy/adventure story starring a loli sorcerer and a huge, anthropomorphic white tiger man. I honestly can't say anything else. I won't be able to do it justice. That first sentence should intrigue you a lease a little bit. Read it, again. Please check it out. It's an underrated gem that no one is talking about.

6. ID: Invaded (2020)

Hey, here's something recent! Unfortunately, this is also not something I can say much about. There may not be too many deep characters and the secret bad guy isn't hard to figure out, but BOY is this anime cool! The best way to describe this series is that it's like the movie Inception, but instead of brain heists, it's brain murder mysteries.

5. Carole and Tuesday (2019)

A runaway rich girl has a fated meeting with an orphan and they decide to make music together...oh, this also takes place Mars. Joking aside, this show was something special with its music (a new song almost every episode no less), interesting setting (freaking Mars, dude), and endearing main cast. Shoot, the music itself would be top 3, maybe number 1, but what bogs it down is the show's second half. I can easily see myself watching this again someday, and maybe my opinion will lighten up, but for now, 5 is a dang good spot.

4. Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia (2019)

Part of me hesitates placing this high up on list due to this show being animated, fan service spectacle for Fate fans. However, that hesitation is overshadowed by the fact that I am a Fate fan myself and I can do whatever I want with this list. Even if you're not a Fate fan or play FGO, if you enjoy some solid fight animation, this is worth a look.

3. K-On S1 (2009)

I'll admit it, I might regret not watching the second season then putting the series on the list as a whole, but this how I've been doing these lists and I'm such a creature of habit. There's not much I can say about K-On that hasn't already been said. By itself it's an anime classic and one of Kyo-ani's biggest properties. It's a sweet and wholesome watch, but be sure to have some insulin within reach.

2. Princess Principal (2017)

Imagine you're working with a team of programmers trying to make a mobile game then all of a sudden someone asks to make a show out of it. You know, a show with different character motivations, plot, twist and turns and all that? Most might say that's just a shameless, shallow cash grab, but it turns out okay for Princess Principal. Sure, most might summarize this anime as, "cute girls doing espionage things," but with its cast, visuals, and interesting alternative timeline, it works! Apparently there's a new season or movie in the works and I am all for it!

1. Beastars (2019)

I was not expecting this to be number one, but with much deliberation (with myself obviously) this feels right. It tells a pretty unique story while showing itself to be the exception to the rule when it comes to 3D anime.....it being that it's actually good. While I acknowledge that shows like K-On are classics and deserves to be number one on many different lists, it didn't line up with my personal criteria like Beastars did. My biggest deciding factor is: Now that I've watched this, do I want more? It's true that while I'm excited to start K-On S2, Beastars intrigues me more and ever since season two was announced, I'm looking forward to that more.

Sorry again for this list being so late, but at least the silver lining is that the next end of the year list is about four months away (in theory)!

[hunnybel]

Eridan reading light novels to Tegiri because of a headcanon I have~ Which has manifested into a fic that can be found under the cut

It was a part of himself Tegiri was ashamed of. How could one such as himself, one whose very existence was so entangled with words and reading, have that as his biggest weakness? A burden, a flaw, something that made his already uphill climb to recognition ever more treacherous. Yes, he passed it off as slow and methodical, but few knew the truth that it wasn't him over-preparing and aiming for perfection. No; shamefully he was forced to take that time to even fully read through a passage a single time. Words and compositions had a tendency to get jumbled in his head, letters mocking him as he fought to grasp the meaning behind them. He could do it; it was a tedious effort, but he was capable. 

Whether it was related to his future work or to his all-consuming hobby, the battle with literacy was a constant. Even those who, like him, were connoisseurs of the Eastern Alternian Animated Fine Arts, had gone so far as to mock his preference for the dubbed versions of that which they loved and shared. Of course they wouldn't understand, but dubs were severely underestimated regardless of it being the only real way for him to be able to watch shows without his curse bringing him untold aggravation.

The curse which he hated to name, in fear that recognising it would give more power, more credence to it. Dyslexia.

Because of the struggle, many works he had interest in tended to fall by the wayside. The original novelizations of the shows he enjoyed being one of the prime victims. And it was only recently that he had finally found a cure for that. His struggle may have been disheartening, but it ultimately led to the opportunity he had now been presented with and was even currently taking advantage of.

His matesprit reading to him.

Sure it had taken a while for him to open up about this particular fact to Eridan, but with that vulnerability came the offer, given by Eridan himself, to have the violetblood read aloud to him. Of course he was surprised by such a thing, but he would be the last one to turn down getting to hear the other's voice and at such length. 

They were currently settled in against the futon-couch in Tegiri's hive, Eridan holding the book open in front of him as he relaxed against the back of the futon, Tegiri seated next to him, head nestled back, tilted to be able to vaguely read over Eridan's shoulder, though he wasn't actually trying to follow along that way. They were close. Close enough that Eridan didn't need to raise his voice too loudly for Tegiri to hear every word; close enough that Tegiri could feel the natural coolness of the other's body temperature radiating off him; close enough that he could feel the way the other shifted against the couch as he turned pages or adjusted his sitting position. 

It was easy to get lost in these words; nothing frustrating, just the soothing sound of Eridan's voice speaking the story that was somewhat familiar, having known the anime adapted from it already. Tegiri really was completely charmed by his voice, slight speech impediment and all; in fact, it just added to how sweet it sounded to him. The way he pronounced some words was so pleasant, it almost made Tegiri smile, refraining only because that might get noticed and called out and he would be too embarrassed if questioned about it. And he didn't know how Eridan managed to bring the right intonations and dramatic flourish to every line without having read it all before or reading ahead, but he seemed to bring life to every word as he went. Maybe that was a little strange, to make such observations, but he didn't care. Tegiri felt special, privileged, lucky to have such an intimate moment, this sort of affection shown to him.

And it was then he realised he had been so focused on how Eridan sounded, he completely missed what he’d been saying. While trying to catch a familiar word or phrase on the page, Tegiri calculated he’d spaced out for about three paragraphs worth of words while listening to his voice. And now he was faced with a dilemma. Did he tell him and have to explain himself? Or did he just have to deal with having lost that part of the story? The longer he deliberated, the more story he lost, and in a moment of panic, he said a quiet "ah-" as if to interrupt. And it seemed to have gotten Eridan's attention.

"Hm? What is it?"

"Oh, uh…" Now would be the time if he was to say something. "I just remembered how that scene played out in the animated version." So that was how this was going to go. He was lying, of course. This part hadn't been animated, so he really was just missing a whole part of the story now. 

"We should watch that together later, then." The small smile that accompanied the comment made Tegiri's pusher skip a beat. Ugh, he was going to be exposed as a liar but he couldn't say no to him.

"O-of course. When we finish the light novel series, we can watch the animated show." That seemed to satisfy Eridan and he went back to reading. Well, that had broken him out of his semi-dazed trance at least. He sat up a bit straighter to try and focus himself better. On the words this time and not just the voice saying them. 

 ーーーー

Maybe they would have to start cutting these reading sessions into shorter, more manageable snippets. Not because Tegiri got tired of listening, no, not at all. But he really was having a hard time keeping his attention on the content and words. Was he truly so hopeless that the sound of his matesprit's voice managed to entrance him more than the story that, had it been anyone else reading, would have him listening with far more than keen interest?

But he didn't want to seem unappreciative and tell Eridan to stop. He was at a bit of an impasse yet again. His determination to avoid saying or doing anything that might make Eridan feel as though he didn't love the kindness he was being given put him in a position where he didn't know what to do. 

Tegiri liked to think he was generally level headed and not at all prone to impulse. Yet another lie he told himself. So in this second burst of panic, not wanting to lose any more of the story and being too cowardly to just tell him they should take a break, he distracted him in the quickest way he knew how. Sure he was still learning how to initiate and engage in physical affection, but that didn't mean he didn't have the desire to do so. And using it as a panic-induced interruption was apparently the way it manifested. 

Pressing his lips against the soft, thin skin of the other's earfin was more pleasant than he expected. And the reaction was immediate. The reading stopped mid-word and Eridan seemed to jerk back at the sudden affection. Tegiri had a moment of fear that he had done something wrong, but the flush of violet in Eridan's cheeks and the cute way his earfin fluttered before he pressed a hand over it made the worry disappear. 

"...What are you doing?!"

"Well, you see, I… Wanted to?" There was a hesitation in his tone which earned him a skeptical frown and a scoff. 

"Were you too distracted to pay attention or somefin." Now it was Tegiri's turn to flush, his cheeks burning teal as he cleared his throat in the embarrassment of being caught. 

"That… May have been the case. Sorry, I just found myself taken by your voice and my attention was far too much on that to really…. Take in what you were saying."

He had already gotten called out, how much more embarrassing could the truth be? His voice did trail off as he spoke, though, hints of sudden uncertainty creeping in at the edges. 

"Are you serious?" It was more incredulity than annoyance in the violetblood's tone and Tegiri hoped that meant he wasn't upset. "You mean to tell me that you're too busy listenin' to my voice to pay attention to this series you've gushed about?" 

"Well, when you put it like that…" It was just as embarrassing being worded that way as the thoughts he'd had about it himself. "...Yes, that is exactly what I am saying." 

A pause. "We're just gonna have to reread it all again later then." With the book closed, it was safe to say they were done reading for the night. Tegiri still felt a bit bad, but it didn't seem as though Eridan felt any resentment for being, essentially, ignored. 

"Alright… Sorry." Tegiri hung his head a bit, eyes turned away, a bit embarrassed and slightly ashamed. At least until he felt something gently grip his chin. His eyes darted to Eridan.

"We've been interrupted already, might as well go with it. I'll give you a reason to be distracted." The accompanying smile said all he needed to know as the space between their lips vanished.