i didn't have "i'm broken" teenage asexual angst i had "i'm literally being the only reasonable one about this concept and the rest of you are behaving like fucking freaks" perception issues
there is something horrifically grim to it, but illustrations for gaza and palestinians tend to catch more mass attention that actual photos of people. this made me feel incredibly helpless for a long while, seeing both how people would rather look at a neat drawing of red black green and white than look a human in the eyes, and how online platforms would rather push a viral drawing while suppressing those begging for help at the same time.
a way to cope with this feeling has been taking advantage of it to directly guide people to helping palestinians.
if art gets better traction, then there’s an incredible amount of good that can be done by creating art that immediately links to fundraisers. creating art of the many images of those who are asking for help.
within hours of posting my drawing, there has been jumps in the thousands for bashar from gaza’s fundraiser. it’s a small effort in the grand scheme of things. it’s not a fix it. but it’s something good. please take care of each other and do what you can. i think this could help a lot of people if a lot of people did it.
here is bashar. i’ve drawn him, spoken to him, and known him now for a few months. any shares help, any art helps. draw who you see, draw what you see. thanks all
This is their dynamic to me. Middle aged dad with what is both his cat and his stubborn teenage daughter
labru gift art 😘
my exams are approaching and im rlly scared so i drew some stress relief killugons.... + a ss so u can see the one thats covered better....
to pretend that horrible people cannot make good art is another way to conflate beauty and talent with integrity and morality. the works of monsters are best examined with knowledge of the author in mind but art is not inherently reflective. human beings are creative, and habitual liars- it'd be stupid to pretend art must always be a portrait of its creator
I like to think that while we're seeing Hirano discover his feelings in real time, Kagi is hopefully seeing the signs, too. You can't just casually tell the person you've been half assed rejecting for months that you love them out of nowhere. Seeing is believing in every sense in this case. Kagi pays so much attention to Hirano, it'd be impossible for him not to notice something changing.
As for Hirano himself, it probably won't be big news to him like Miyano's realization. He's already starting to notice his feelings, so he's likely suspecting of it even when he isn't actively trying to figure himself out. His "aha" moment would more than likely be that moment that he realizes that romantic love can manifest as easily as a comfortable companionship as it can a heart racing tryst. That there's no right way to love someone.
Once he accepts it, sometimes it's overwhelming - after Kagi gets home from a game or practice and radiates happiness, when he pouts because there are green peppers in his dinner, when he falls asleep at his desk after dedicating himself to studying for exams - all of those times he can only think of how much he loves him. Payback for all the times he's ever made Kagi's heart race with his insane antics.
So how does Hirano deal with it?
Touch.
He starts breaking the ten second rule little by little. I mean, he's already starting to. Once Kagi realizes it's been getting progressively longer and says something, Hirano drops the rule altogether. Starts letting Kagi lay his head in his lap when he comes home from practice, petting his hair while he starts to fall asleep on his lap. But it's not enough because now he wants to hold him, too. So during lap time he starts lazily tracing messages on Kagi's face once he falls asleep.
だ-い-す-き (I really like you)
あ-い (love)
こ-い-び-と (lover)
One day when he's half asleep himself, he starts doing it out of habit without checking to make sure Kagi is asleep first. Kagi notices. So he starts staying awake to see if he does it again. And there they are, the same words. Until one day Hirano draws "I love you" on his forehead and Kagi can't keep the facade up, whispers just loud enough so Hirano can hear but quiet enough so as not to startle him, "I love you too, Hirano-san."
So, the cat's out of the bag, he guesses.
What now?