I feel like tsukishima and yamaguchi are both terrible at communicating in different ways. I know tsukishima is one that’s usually considered bad at communicating (and I can totally see how) but please consider that yamaguchi…
has yet to share his internal turmoil about not being a starter with anyone
went off the team to an outside, rather unaffiliated adult for help instead of to his upperclassmen or teachers
shares more about tsukishima than he does about himself and subconsciously uses tsukishima as a social shield
clams up after losing to seijoh
held off on talking to tsukishima about real ass things that bothered him until his emotions boiled over and he ended up just screaming his emotions to his best friend in the middle of the night in a rather public place
(and as it turns out, tsukishima actually had no problems accepting yamaguchi’s words and heard him out with minimal resistance so all of yamaguchi’s internal reasons for not speaking up sooner just kind of flew out the window)
will 100% say nothing is wrong when everything is going to shit
has never ever verbalized his emotions in any serious context to any of his teammates
won’t talk to his best friend about Important Things™ sometimes because he’s afraid it’ll annoy him enough and he’ll presumably stop being friends with him despite not having any evidence supporting that theory
is super competitive but rarely shows it
is the kind of guy that you look back and realize you know very little about personally
is the kind of guy who blows up at people for not knowing things he didn’t actually communicate or suddenly bursts with boiled-over frustration and leaves you going “um where did that come from?”
apologizes the next day and insists you forget about it and that he’s just fine and nothing is wrong haha dw about it
has really only cracked jokes with tsukishima and (very recently) hinata
tends to dance around topics or questions that he doesn’t want to answer
sucks at communicating despite being so bubbly and talkative
Don’t get me wrong, tsukishima has his own issues with communication to be sure, but they’re different. Tsukishima simply refuses to communicate on important things 90% of the time, especially if the issue really bothers him because that’s getting into emotions and that’s not what he’s here for. He’s embarrassed and a bit awkward about sharing so he cages off instead, and he doesn’t do well with approaching people who don’t approach him first. But on the flip side, he seems to own his lack of skill better and has less hang ups about it. At the very least he doesn’t seem bothered when people don’t know much about him because no duh, how could they understand him or his feelings if he doesn’t share? That’s tsukishima’s take on it and he’s got it on the nose there. Also, when directly confronted or when he actually decides to open up by himself, tsukishima’s words are very honest and blunt and they invite little room for misunderstandings.
Yamaguchi’s communication problems stem from a different place. He’s a great communicator… to an extent. Whereas tsukishima’s hang up is just that he’s a very private person who feels uncomfortable opening up, yamaguchi’s stems from the fact that he wants to but is simultaneously too embarrassed or afraid to. He’d like to both communicate how he’s feeling and keep his cards close to his chest, and since he can’t actually have it both ways his emotions end up being turned into some sort of ticking time bomb. He holds anything he feels is too important to share at bay until that’s no longer an option and he blows up at someone or something very suddenly. Like he kinda wants people to know about things but my god he doesn’t want to have to tell them. And even when he is opening up he’ll often stall or dance around the issue a bit. Yamaguchi is a good talker and he’s more of an extrovert than tsukishima, but that doesn’t make him a master communicator by any stretch of the imagination.
