#yamagi gilmerton

[mystei]

[lilenui]

Just some stitches of Yamagi in his natural habitat, that is Shino's lap. Although he might insist this couldn't be further from the case.

[littlechisa]

[wordsandrobots]

Seasoned

Series: Wishing on Space Hardware [extra]

Fandom: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Rating: T

Pairings: Yamagi/Shino

Summary: Sometime after the events of Wishing on Space Hardware, Yamagi and Shino see in the new year.

Notes: As promised, here's a short ficlet for the end of 2024! It references events in one of the audio plays (which @lilenui put me on to a couple of years back -- thank you!): my own interpretation of how Yamagi ended up a mechanic didn't quite square with the play, but it's close enough to fudge.

May you all survive and thrive in 2025. Make art. Enjoy art. Be who you are and wish to be. And stay safe.

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It's Dwindling Season, which means everything is cold and dark and mornings basically aren't happening, and if there's a better argument for hibernation, Yamagi has yet to hear it. When he wakes to see not a single chink of light coming through the shutters, his first instinct is to bury himself back under the bed-covers and take full advantage of the on-site heating.

The problem is, where Shino ought to be there's only a chilly, cover-less patch of mattress.

Whining at the betrayal, Yamagi rolls the other way and checks the clock. Disgustingly, it is in fact a reasonable hour to be out of bed, even if the weekend means it isn't currently required. He pulls the pillow over his head, just to be dramatic, then checks Shino's side more closely. Must have been gone a while. But there's no sound from the bathroom, or the rest of the apartment…

Maybe he went for a jog? Even if the idea of exercising outside during Dwindling Season is appalling, Shino has different standards and also the capacity for radiating heat that makes his current absence so frustrating. He'd probably have fun, running up a sweat in the middle of winter, just to prove he could.

Yamagi curls into a ball, shuddering, and that's when the second thoughts come worming in. Because of course his nightmares these days are all about Shino not being there come the morning. As if the last five years might just puff out of existence at a second's notice. As if bringing him home was the dream and hard reality is waiting to wrench it away.

Which is dumb. Yamagi only has to turn on the light and he'll see Shino's clothes scattered around the room, the extra side-table by the bed, the posters pinned on the wall 'so we'll have something cool to look at while we make out' – said with the biggest, goofiest grin that was begging to be kissed stupid, and was, as a reminder of where attention ought to be focused…

Breathing deep, he sticks out his arm, groping for the switch. It clicks and there the signs of their life together are, present and correct. Still no noise or other clues, though. The only way he's finding out where Shino went is by getting up to check.

All things considered, he thinks he's very restrained, only swearing every other step as he jitters his way across the floor to the door and the massive, thick robe hanging there. Technically, it belongs to Shino – a gift from Merribit, who found something similar for Yukinojo at a sale and discovered that it came in bright pink as well. It's Shino-sized, without a doubt, and swamps Yamagi entirely as a result, which is why he wears it on days like this.

Suitably armoured, he opens the door. This instantly dispels any lingering fears because Shino is sitting on the sofa, large as life and twice as beautiful, a mug of tea in hand. He's staring into space. Whatever he's thinking, it's occupying him enough to dull his sense of his surroundings. Yamagi has padded right over to him before he stirs, big brown eyes lighting up. “Hey there, sleepy-head! Happy New Year.”

“Mn,” Yamagi agrees, dropping down beside him.

“Didn't wake you, did I?”

“Nh.” Leaning against Shino's shoulder, he surrenders to a jaw-cracking yawn. “You a'right?”

Nightmares are not a limited resources in this household and Shino deliberately taking himself away from other people to think isn't usually a good sign.

“Yeah! I just…”

“Mm?”

Shino swigs some tea, gaze roaming the room, settling eventually on the shelves they put up next to the vid screen and the lovingly-painted model Shiden perched there. He sighs. “I'm going to be thirty this year. Or I already am.”

Huh.

He's never let them make a fuss over his birthday, on top of nobody being sure the date in his ID record is close to accurate to begin with, so it's a bit hard to keep track. But, yes, give or take, that must be about right. “It's only a number. You don't need to feel bad just because –”

“I don't! I don't feel bad. That's kinda what I was… I like it? I like that I'm gonna be old.”

“Oh.” The part of Yamagi concerned with practicalities and accuracy even when the rest of him is changing gear mid-conversation has him add, “I don't think thirty counts as 'old'.”

“Older than I ever thought I'd get.” Shino rests his mug on his knee, tilting it slightly to one side. “I mean, most of the First Group guys weren't thirty, were they?”

Honestly, it's hard to remember. Maruba aside, they tend to blur together, lacking any personal details beyond 'bigger' and 'meaner'. “I guess.”

“Seemed like forever away. And I, um…”

We could have all died tomorrow. Why waste today on wishing when I could be having fun?

Looking back, Yamagi suspects he was guilty of thinking that way too, in his own pessimistic fashion. Not that Shino's version was especially optimistic, boiled down to its core. Another of those things they shared without realising.

He can remember – it was early on. He'd been reading maintenance manuals as fast as humanly possible, skipping meals and cutting sleep for the sake of an education. Shino caught him napping, exhausted, curled around an ammo case. For a second, he thought he was in big trouble. Only, of course Shino bubbled with enthusiasm at the idea of him learning be a proper mechanic. And not to repay Yukinojo for taking pity, oh no. Yamagi needed to aim higher, to fight alongside everyone, like the Old Man did, keeping each weapon in perfect condition. Then, one day, when Shino got his own mobile suit, they'd be a perfect team!

Ridiculous, as was standard for Shino's out-sized encouragement. The CGS had one mobile suit and it hadn't moved for years. Still, at the time, those words meant the world. Someone believed in Yamagi, in his potential as something other than an infantry drop-out. If he'd not already been half in love with Shino, he certainly would have been after that.

But there's something painful about realising how narrow their horizons were, that 'aiming high' meant nothing more than becoming better fighters.

“Sorry,” Shino murmurs. “I don't want to talk about miserable shit I'm over and make you sad too.”

Yamagi elbows him. “That isn't a reason not to tell me if something's bothering you. I was just thinking about when you got me to stop calling you 'Mister' all the time.”

“Oh, shit, yeah! Geez, it really was all the time. Mr Shino this, Mr Shino that, yes Mr Shino, definitely Mr Shino.”

“Hey, I wasn't that bad.”

“No. But I was glad I got you to stop.”

“Me too.” The change felt both wrong and surprisingly easy, thanks to how Shino had beamed at him. He's always found it desperately hard to say no to that smile. “I'm glad you're happy.”

“I am!” Shino puts his mug down at his feet and slings his arm around Yamagi. “I'm gonna get old and I get to do it with you and Eugene and everyone. Isn't that great?”

“Yeah. It is.” More than great. The highest they could possibly aim.

Oh, that's so incredibly soppy. If Yamagi weren't so incredibly comfortable, squashed against the great, warm mass of Shino's body, he might break the moment from pure embarrassment.

Then again Shino has a habit of making embarrassment feel like a colossal waste of time.

“I think… maybe… I'd like to have a birthday party this year.” Smiling at Yamagi, he gestures with his other arm, which would certainly be throwing out a hand to encompass the whole of their family if he had his prosthetic on. “Get everyone together, have a big cake. What do you think?”

Yamagi snorts. “You expect me to say anything except 'yes'?”

“Hey, I still gotta ask!”

“How about I wrap myself in ribbons this time? Will that make it clear?”

“…am I supposed to say 'no'?”

They sit there a while, daydreaming, pressed together snug as rats in a nest.

Then Shino asks, “You don't mind, do you?”

“Mind?”

“Me getting old. What if I start getting wrinkly? What if I get a beer gut?”

Smothering another yawn, Yamagi rolls his eyes. “You barely drink any more. And so what if you did? Are you planning on giving up exercise?”

“No?”

“Then I don't see what the problem is.”

“…so I only need to worry when I can't carry you around any more. Gotcha.”

He turns to plant a kiss on Shino's cheek. “You've nothing to worry about at all.”

“Thanks. Still need to hear that, sometimes.” The hand on Yamagi's shoulder squeezes once. “Speaking of exercise, you want to come for a jog? The streets should be clear right about now.”

Making a pained noise, Yamagi tries his best to disappear inside the robe.

“Heh. OK, OK. How about I stay here and make breakfast for my amazingly hot husband instead?”

And really, who'd want to say no to that?

[seratartt]

Timeskip Yamagi…?

[niaojirou]

My first impression of Yamagi and Mikazuki

Original

[sounds-in-the-fog]

Shino is infuriatingly clueless

[wordsandrobots]

Reblogging again to put an extra double underline under this.

(I have found exactly two[2] pieces of official art in which Yamagi is blushing, both ancillary promotional art. One features Shino dragging the poor sod into frame with a hand literally threaded through his hair. The other is him reacting to something Ride has drawn on a pad. Make of that what you will. [These are reprinted in the character art book; I sadly cannot immediately find them online, sadly]

In all other art and the series itself, he is entirely composed, with the possible exception of that Tekkadan Radio instalment where he's looking at Shino's arm around him with a 'and what am I supposed to do with this' kind of expression.)

Some YamagixShino Thoughts

In the midst of all the heartbreak I’m experiencing watching these last few episodes of Iron-Blooded Orphans… I just wanted to write an appreciation post of sorts about one of the best characters/ships in the series. 

After watching the scene where Eugene attempts to comfort Yamagi following Shino’s death… One thing really stood out to me in hindsight:

Throughout his entire time on the show, I did not see a single scene where we see Yamagi blush. 

And that’s significant to me. Because… not to call anybody out, but I’ve been spending time in the fandom both on here and on pretty much every platform where fanfiction is written, and I keep seeing people talk about how “sweet” Yamagi is. 

And I’m just over here, like, “Were we watching the same show?”

Because Yamagi was the sassiest one there, and it’s part of what endeared me to him so much. (Apart from the initial pull of a having a canonically LGBT+ character in very masculine genre, which is really, really cool to see.) I feel like there’s this quiet pull to characterize him as just the generically soft gay kid, and that’s really not who he was.

I never saw anything to suggest he was terribly insecure. And he certainly never came across as sweet to me. Just quiet. But perfectly confident and competent when he wanted his voice to be heard. And I loved that about him. 

So yeah, given how often he does get to interact with Shino, it really stood out to me that we never see him blush around his crush. He doesn’t get all flustered when he talks to Shino– he has no trouble getting distracted while working with him or reprimanding him for not taking things seriously enough or anything… And it just made that relationship feel all the more real to me. They don’t feel like character archetypes following a script.

And on that note… At what point do we get to just suck up the technicalities and start calling them a canon couple? Cause I mean…

It’s established that Shino knew Yamagi had romantic feelings for him. 

I believe there’s an interview with the creator floating around here somewhere confirming that– for all his talk about girls– Shino was bi. 

Shino is very physically affectionate with him leading up to that final battle. 

And, without coming out and saying the words exactly, he’s clearly encouraging Yamagi to make the first move and act on his feelings. At the very least, he’s blunt about wanting a private celebration with him–opposed to going out drinking with the other members of Tekkadan like usual– after this battle.

And then, of course, he doesn’t end up making it back, but…

I think we can all acknowledge that if Shino had lived, he and Yamagi would be together by now. 

[maxderats]

Inktober! I always kinda skip it or drop it after a few days, but this year not only did I tried it, I even finished it! So here are the results of my first actually completed inktober challenge. I didn't go with the list, instead my "list" was to make one gundam character a day from october 1 to october 30.

Day 1-2 : Suletta Mercury & Miorine Rembran (Gundam : The Witch From Mercury) Day 3 : Nika Nanaura (G-Witch) Day 4 : Ojelo Gabel (G-Witch) Day 5-6 : Guel Jeturk & Felsi Rollo (G-Witch)

Day 7 : Feldt Grace (Gundam 00) Day 8 : Atra Mixta (Gundam : Iron-Blooded Orphans) Day 9-10 : Takaki Uno, Aston Altland and Fuka Uno, they're watching Ratatouille (GIBO) Day 11-12 : Kati Manneqin & Patrick Colasour, they're doing the Frieren dance (G00)

Day 13-14 : Norba Shino & Yamagi Gilmerton, yes that one frame wasn't gay enough for me (GIBO) Day 15 : Sabina Fardin (G-Witch) Day 16 : Azee Gurumin (GIBO) Day 17-18 : Norea du Noc & Sophie Pulone (G-Witch)

For the next page, I did characters from other mech shows just as a way to change a little bit of air. Day 19 : Rui Kanoya (Re:Creators) Day 20 : Lio (Promare) Day 21-22 : Asuka & EVA-02 in one of the gorgeous redesign JB/Gunbusted did Day 23 : Rossiu (Gurren Lagann) Day 24 : Flame (Synduality Noir)

As we were coming closer to the end of the month, the theme for the last page was halloween costumes! Day 25-26 : Orga Itsuka & Mikazuki Augus (GIBO) Day 27-28 : Suletta & Miorine again (G-Witch) Day 29 : Tieria Erde (G00) Day 30 : Chuchu/Chuatury Panluch (G-Witch)

I had a lot of fun doing it and will for sure try it again, though maybe not in october specifically? Still many characters I wanna do, more Turbines and Grassleys, Merribit, Cracker & Cookie, Elan, more 00 characters... Having such a closed theme really helped getting into it every day without thinking too much about what to draw.

[mobiledolls]

in the same vein as the last poll, i'm going to list my favorite overall gundam characters from the series i've watched (limited to two max per series) and if you see this, vote for your personal favorite out of this list! (yes a lot of these are repeats. i love women)

my special request for this one is that if you have only seen one of these series to refrain from voting and hit "results" instead, because if you've only seen the one series then of course you're going to vote for the only character(s) you know. thank you!

[mystei]

[lilenui]

Shino and Yamagi in their Wishing on Space Hardware pilot suits, a more basic representation.

[littlechisa]

[wordsandrobots]

Falling for a fool: #20

You live. You break a little more, feeling each new loss as keenly as the last, despite whatever chunks of your soul have already been cored out. But you do live.

You are not alone. Your family limps on, to new futures, kinder ones than you dared imagine from inside the trap of your old existence. That is victory, of a sort.

You grow up. You decide to be more like him, to seize what the world has to offer and never let it forget you're there. You doubt you will ever be as loud or brave as he was, but you think he might have been proud of you, for making his armour your own.

You remain the fool who longed for a shooting star, thinking it the sun.

But that's OK. Even fools may find someone to fall for them, eventually.

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Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, episode #50

Previous

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And that's all she wrote, as far as Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans goes. If you've enjoyed this bout of vaguely poetic riffing on the visuals of Yamagi and Shino's relationship throughout the series, may I direct your attention to more of my fanfic, namely the IBO sequel series I have been writing in a haze of creative energy since I finished watching the anime.

(I fix one [1] thing and go ham with the consequences.)

[drpsyche]

[anime-of-the-day]

LGBT+ Character of the Day: Yamagi Gilmerton

Anime From: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans

Yamagi is an extremely easy character to overlook; however, I’d like to mark him as a shift in mainstream male focused anime. Yamagi is clearly in love with Shino, a male Gundam pilot. We get clues to this through the first season and validation of this in the second season. Yamagi blatantly tells Shino that he loves him and Shino’s response is basically an “I know” kind of thing. Shino has known for a very long time that Yamagi likes him, but he didn’t let that change his relationship with him. Nor does this change the relationship between anyone else on the ship with Yamagi. Tekkadan, the group Yamagi is a part of, is a family and it doesn’t isolate or reject Yamagi because of his feelings. They accept him no matter what.