#paravolleyball

[gayaest]

3rd years (updated with alt-text!)

PARAVOLLEY AU! 🏐♿️

[gayaest]

I just want to say your Paravolley AU has helped me a lot with overcoming internalized ableism, made me learn about sitting volleyball, and has also gotten me to read and watch Haikyuu again after years. I've been a volleyball person my whole life but I got a sports injury in highschool and now use a cane (and hopefully a rollator walker in the future).

Kageyama Tobio has always been my favorite character and seeing him in your AU hit me really hard. Though we don't have the same injury, I saw myself in your portrayal of him very much.

Your AU had made me re-evaluate the Haikyuu manga and anime through a disabled lense, and made me fall in love with Furudate's story all over again. Even stronger than it was before. And I adore the parallels you decided to put with your own AU.

I've since been searching up if there's sitting volleyball in my area (with little luck so far but dammit I'm going to keep looking). I'm so disappointed that it's never been brought up to me when I got injured. I'm upset that I was convinced that I'd never have a place in volleyball again. I legitimately started crying tears of joy when I learned sitting volleyball existed.

Thank you so much for your AU. I think it'll have a special place in my heart for a long time.

This is a genuinely sweet and kind-hearted message, and I have to thank you for sending it.

It means a lot that my AU brings comfort to not only myself, but other disabled people as well — the idea that my experiences, thoughts, feelings, research, etc is being put to good use to help and soothe people is more than I could ever wish to achieve or want.

I think something so important in my AU with Kageyama is that he wasn’t born disabled, he got his spinal cord injury at one of the worst points in his life, while simultaneously losing his support system (grandfather). He had no idea how to cope with becoming disabled because the people he surrounded himself with previously (MiddleSchool Volleyball Team) all turned their back on him and his drive to still want to play volleyball and feel lost without it. In turn, he turns that anger and fear and disappointment into internalized ableism, and even some outwards ableism he doesn’t even realize he needs to fix, because it’s just something most able-bodied people get told or believe. He pushes himself past his limits, hoping that he could one day be back to his old self, but that old self no longer exists, and that’s something the Karasuno Sitting Volleyball team teaches him. They teach him acceptance, support, community, etc when he didn’t even know it existed before.

I’m glad my AU can resonate with so many people, and I wish I could blab even more about it because it’s always in my head constantly, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask about it.

Furudate’s story is truly amazing, and to me, it doesn’t lose it’s charm and meaning for me as a disabled person, in fact, in makes me want to form even bigger bonds with community and other disabled people.

Thank you again for the ask, anon! It’s very sweet.

[gayaest]

Planning on redoing / redrawing some parts of my paravolley au and getting back into it ☁️♿️

[gayaest]

Third years — players ! 🏐

Paravolley AU *:･ﾟ✧

[gayaest]

Paravolley AU: Asahi Azumane 🏐🧡

Redraw from a year ago of the character introductions with disability info!

[gayaest]

Introduction to disability card for my paravolley au: DAICHI! 🏐🫶

[gayaest]

i love your para volleyball au so much it makes me so happy seeing other disabled people drawn

Thank you!

It’s been on hold a little bit just because i’ve been sick + wanting to research more and accurately before continuing ^_^

Once I’ve finished all the headcanons for the AU (intro cards on their disabilities etc) me and my boyfriend (who is also disabled) will be making a fic based around it! He’s an amazing writer and I know he is one of the only people I know that I trust to do it justice!

[gayaest]

Furudate himself acknowledged sitting volleyball during the 2020 paralympics as well!! It makes me so so happy to know haikyuus mangaka acknowledges disabled ppl playing sports too! Since his whole goal was to get people to enjoy volleyball!