you know, I saw people shipping ash and shorter and I was like, eh I get it, they're good friends, sure I can see how people came to that, but it's mostly imagined, headcanon out of basically nowhere, just something to ship pre-eiji
And then I read Angel Eyes.....and turns out that shit is supported by the text my man Shorter is OBSESSED
okay, okay, a cute one : shorter listens to queen, a lot, and dances to it around ash, trying to imitate freddie mercury and always trying to get ash to join him. he only rarely does, he sings a bit with him too sometimes, but it nearly always gets a laugh out of him. another one bites the dust is both their favorite
Honestly the fact that I could find literally zero content for this ship made me really sad. I get that Asheiji will always be superior with heavy scenes in the anime (and possibly ending up canon??) and that’s all good but please consider... Ashter. And yes I made the ship name because since I seem to be the only one who ships this, I make all the rules.
But like, this ship has so much potential?? Give me the childhood romance. Give me pining Shorter. Give me a Shorter who after realizing his feelings vows to keep them to himself. Give me Shorter who chooses to do so because he knows what Ash has been through. A Shorter who isn’t scared of not getting his feelings reciprocated, but who is terrified of Ash looking at him and seeing him in the same light as them.Terrified of Ash suddenly becoming scared and distrustful of Shorter. He couldn’t bear that. So he keeps his feelings a secret. For months, for years. He sees Ash grow as a person and as a leader. Sees him at his highest and his lowest and is right there with him through every step of the way, all the while keeping his mouth shut.
Imagine that it continues like that until Eiji and Ibe come to America. It is Eiji who notices the way Shorter looks at Ash when he is sure that Ash is too busy to be paying attention to him. And it is Eiji who is the first one to confront him about it. They talk, and for the first time, Shorter lets himself pour out all his insecurities and reasons why he stayed silent for so long. Eiji isn’t even sure how to answer that, let alone how he could help, but he knows that he has to do something. He tries to fish out of Ash how he feels about relationships and tries to subtly break out to him that Shorter might have a crush on him. Ash, who never even considered a possibility of that, is more confused than anything by Eiji’s ministrations. Nevertheless, it stays in the back of his mind. He becomes more attentive of Shorter, slowly starting to notice the little things. Like the way Shorter would sometimes gaze at him intently when he was busy doing something only for him to jolt himself from his trance, shaking his head and redirecting his attention somewhere else. He noticed the way Shorter seemed more tense after moments like these. Suddenly the thought of Shorter having feelings for him seemed much more plausible, so Ash decides to confront him about it.
They would painfully talk it out and with a bit more dramatics, in the end, Ash would return Shorter’s feelings because, you know, I’m a sucker for happy endings and I would also protect Shorter with my life, so nothing bad can happen to him.
Damn, I didn’t mean for this to turn into a whole detailed scenario, but this was what was running around in my head as I drew this piece so I needed to let it out. Since it got so long, I’ll put it under the cut.
Finally finished! Another Shortash piece. I tried something with a proper background for once but as this is my second attempt, you can see that I still suck at them. There are still a few things that bother me in this but frankly, I don’t think I can do anything about them and I’ve already been stuck at this one for the last few days so... I’m over it.
I got so frustrated with this and some of my other WIPs that I created an art block for myself. I ended up not wanting to draw at all and just procrastinated. It wasn’t until last night when I sat down and said to myself: “No, I’m done with this. Drawing is fun. I have fun drawing.” and did some traditional sketching that I finally felt better and pushed through to finish this. Moral of the story: I can’t let myself get angry at my abilities and inabilities. Art is fun. Sometimes I just have to remind myself of that.
