The First Leaves that Fall

A puzzleshipping AU by @c-l-y-d-e 🍃

[the-first-leaves-that-fall]

The First Leaves that Fall

Welcome to @c-l-y-d-e’s sideblog for her puzzleshipping au fanfiction, the First Leaves that Fall. Updates are slow but the brainrot is all-consuming. Come, let’s get lost together 🍃

Summary:

When Yugi arrives in Yubari to settle the last of his grandfather’s affairs, he finds a mountain village in quiet decline. Most people have left for the city, buildings are crumbling, and nature grows dense and wild against its outskirts. But among those who remain, superstition abounds, and they all offer the same advice: Stay out of the forest. Yugi, however, is intrigued. By the puzzle of its shifting paths. The riddle of a wind that speaks, if he listens. And, perhaps most of all, by the stranger who always shows him the way out before dark.

Read on AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38247871/chapters/95564083

Note: All my fics are locked for AO3 users only. You will need to be logged into your account to read.

Status:

In progress -- 14/19 chapters posted.

Tags for navigation:

#asks : ask box is always open and anon is on! Come scream at me 💕

#fanart : i have no artistic talent but others do asdhfjkl

#updates : the latest news or my general shouting into the void; sometimes reblogs from my main

#research : background stuff or lore or otherwise pointless brain dumping

#vibes : aesthetic reblogs

#tfltf : shorthand for "the first leaves that fall". idk this is anything else that doesn't really fit above

[externalmemorycomic]

I'm posting a shit tonne of comics on patreon this month, great time to sign up! 750+ pages!

[rainie-is-seasonchange]

Same place different time.

Wakayama, Japan.

[funeral]

Many places have a "forest that shouldn't be entered." Even people who are used to working in the mountains feel there is something there. They are suddenly overcome with fear and it becomes the custom to avoid certain places. These places exist. I don't know what is there, but I think they are real . . . The world is more than we can fathom with our five senses. The world doesn't exist just for humans. So I think it is all right to have such things. This is why I think it's a mistake to think about nature from the idea of efficiency, that forests should be preserved because they are essential for human beings . . . I am concerned, because for me the deep forest is connected in some way to the darkness deep in my heart. I feel that if it is erased, then the darkness inside my heart would also disappear, and my existence would grow shallow.

Hayao Miyazaki, “Totoro Was Not Made as a Nostalgia Piece” in Starting Point: 1979-1996

[unfamiliarsculptures]

A little cat forest spirit. I love painting the botanical details on all of these pieces. This one will be available tomorrow, July 17th at 8pm Eastern time.

[c-l-y-d-e]

It's been so long since I last posted an update, I don't really know what to say except that there is, at long last, an update:

The First Leaves that Fall, Chapter 14:

In which the spirit introduces himself to the local priest and (somehow) fails to make a good first impression.

[shinayashipper]

HIGHLIGHT OF THIS CHAPTER IS RYOU GOING THRU IT 😭😭😂😂

I'm so in Love with our hard-working kannushi <3 I'm sorry Yugi is giving you The Headache of All Time <3

[businesshag-deactivated20160606]

who wants to give up on society and go live in a treehouse with me

[the-first-leaves-that-fall]

It has been two years since the last update???? Wow, time really does fly. It thought it was like idk a year or something. Anyway, looking forward to reading this story again when it updates^^

Hard to believe, eh? I posted an update earlier this week, but prior to that it was September 2024! 🙃 Time sure does fly, but I was absolutely agonizing over it every single day

[the-first-leaves-that-fall]

Hi, just wanted to say that I'm so happy seeing you post your writing again!! I think i already wrote you privately about how much i loved ktls, that it's definitely was one of all time favourites in my time on ao3! Cannot wait to reread tfltf! Like genuinely I'm so happyyyy

The nearly two year hiatus was absolutely not planned, and I'm happy to be writing again. It's also been really reassuring to hear from people who've been waiting all this time for an update :') So thank you, I hope the story so far stands the test of time as you revisit it!

[santa-ana-winds]

[c-l-y-d-e]

It's been so long since I last posted an update, I don't really know what to say except that there is, at long last, an update:

The First Leaves that Fall, Chapter 14:

In which the spirit introduces himself to the local priest and (somehow) fails to make a good first impression.

[c-l-y-d-e]

its about that time of year again where i start rereading The First Leaves That Fall!

i just wanted to pop in your inbox and say thank you so much for writing that fic. i know ive left plenty of comments to back this up, but its absolutely one of my favorite fics ever =:)

Thank you so much! It's also that time of year where I come back around to working on it :') I really want to finish it, and have just been struggling with some scenes in the next chapter which has held me up for... actually don't look at how long it's been since my last update. But I just want to reassure you it is still very much in progress and haunts my every waking moment <3

[justsomeguycore]

horror movie showing a child’s drawing of the monster or ghost or whatever but instead of a little kid and crayons they’re like a preteen and it’s manga style

[uroko]

松の木にねこさんが登っていました。

[klaasje]

my kitty cat was wandering around going ‘mrrph?” so i was like “in here!” he goes “mrrph!” shoves open my bedroom door with his big round head and FLOPS on me. as in hard enough that he made a little “oof” noise when he did it. followed by a category five purring event. there’s good in this world mr frodo etc

[tenjin-no-shinja]

Notes from "Why Do Japanese Revere Mountains?" by Spiritual Japan Journal

"...Mount Fuji, Tateyama, and Hakusan have been known as the Three Sacred Mountains of Japan...

In Japan, mountains have been understood not only as beautiful natural landscapes, but also as presences that produce water, nurture forests, irrigate fields, and support people’s lives. Mountains bring blessings. At times, they also show a severity beyond human control, through snow, storms, and landslides. People have directed both gratitude and awe toward that immense power...called sangaku shinkō（山岳信仰）, or mountain worship, in Japanese."

"The mountain holds snow, produces water, grows crops, especially rice, and sustains human life. At the root of Hakusan worship is this cycle.

At the center of the worship of Hakusan as a sacred mountain stands Shirayama Hime Shrine（白山比咩神社）in Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture...

A shintaizan is a mountain revered as a sacred presence in itself. The faith does not end with the shrine buildings at the foot of the mountain. The mountain behind them is itself at the center of worship."

X

"...Shirayama Hime Ōkami refers to Kukurihime no Mikoto（菊理媛尊）. At Shirayama Hime Shrine, Kukurihime no Mikoto is enshrined together with Izanagi no Mikoto（伊弉諾尊）and Izanami no Mikoto（伊弉冉尊）...

Kukurihime no Mikoto is... said to have appeared in the scene where Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto faced each other at the boundary of Yomi... acted as a mediator between the two deities. At Shirayama Hime Shrine, this Kukurihime no Mikoto has been enshrined as Shirayama Hime Ōkami...read as Kukurihime no Mikoto, and because kukuri is connected with the word kukuru, meaning “to bind” or “to bring together,” she is also revered today as a deity of harmony and good relationships."

"Shrines also have their own shaden（社伝）, or shrine traditions. These are the histories and traditions handed down within each shrine. They describe the enshrined deities, the origins of the shrine, its relationship with the land, and how people have worshipped its gods.

For this reason, understanding Japanese deities requires reading not only the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, but also fudoki, shrine traditions, and regional legends together."

X

"...a monk from Echizen named Taichō is said to have climbed Hakusan. According to the shrine’s tradition, the following year he enshrined the Okumiya at the summit.

This tradition shows Hakusan as a sacred mountain revered from its foothills, while also becoming a mountain that people entered on foot in order to climb and pray. Worship from afar and worship through ascent came to overlap within Hakusan faith. In the traditions of ancient shrines, verifiable history and stories preserved within faith often overlap."

[singing-bowl]

thinking about how ursula k leguin said "what goes too long unchanged destroys itself. The forest is forever because it dies and dies and so lives" and how everyday i wake up slightly different and i can feel myself shed the skin of who i used to be slowly, slowly, until i look back and can scarcely recognise who i was... but also she is still a part of me, part of the leaf litter and the humus, supporting me as i send new roots down and new leaves stretching up to the sunlight