"Let's Talk About Feelings"

I had multiple people ask me for pictures of Mami and Hacchi together when I had mentioned in another post that they were an item-- and although it took me a long time to get around to taking pics (I moved and changed jobs in the same month), I finally have results that I'm happy to share with you guys!

 

It isn't anything super fancy; I was really just happy to be able to have my girls out again and so having a clean and organized "set" with props wasn't my priority at the time. The desk is there more or less to help Mami stand up, but let's pretend this takes place in a classroom after school has been dismissed

 

Poor Hacchi has been waiting all day... all week... just plain too long to tell Mami something very important. It's so hard to be patient when you've been holding in a secret of this magnitude. Over and over in her head she's played out what could come of this; she's fussed for hours over how to get everything across to her clearly.

 

Mami has such a limited understanding of sign language, but writing this would just seem too impersonal and embarrassing in a way, so Hacchi decides that to make this work, she'll have to keep things simple. Tangled up in her web of thoughts, she lays in wait until Mami arrives at the classroom she had requested they meet in after school.

 

She opens with a simple statement-- simple, that was the plan:

 

["Kiss."] Signed in a rather innocent and shy manner. Too subtle for Mami, unfortunately, to even really understand that Hacchi has said anything at all. Gathering courage, she goes for a bolder phrasing:

 

["Kiss!"] As Mami watches Hacchi's fingertips move delicately from her lips to the tips of the fingers of her other hand, the penny drops, and Mami is at a loss for what to do or how to respond. She stares into space uncomfortably for a moment before murmuring a barely audible affirmative, unsure that her interpretation is correct. She hopes it is, but... where to go from here?

 

Hacchi at the same time feels that immediate flush of embarrassment and regret one might get when your feelings miss somebody. Was she wrong in expecting Mami to understand? Did she read too far into things? Was she too honest?

 

Mami senses Hacchi's feelings of early disappointment and hesitantly steps out from behind her desk. The silence weighs so heavy on them both and Mami feels it fill her lungs to the point where she chokes on the words she so desperately wants to say to reassure the girl in front of her. Is she sure enough of her actions to rely on them to give Hacchi an answer?

 

Their eyes meet, each silently discerning the intentions of the other for what feels like an eternity.

 

A timid first contact; an attempt to bridge a gap; a foray into territory both familiar and unfamiliar. An invitation.

 

 

 

 

 

A response.

Yaaaay I was one of the people who was waiting to see them together

I also am happy to see more of Hachi because her body is one of the most creative mods I’ve seen in this hobby. I also didn’t realize she had jointed hands until now.

Ahh, this is super cool! The signing is really awesome, I'm glad you were able to get the jointed hands so that you could be true to that aspect of Hacchi's character/story.

 

The pacing and camera angles also really bring out the tentative but also apprehensively tender mood of the story. I didn't notice the lack of a set at all, actually, which I think is a mark of a skillfully done photostory.

I love them both, so much. Such amazing mods, plus the way you pose them is always just GUH. So spot on. I love how emotive both of their hands are in all the shots...good for them for getting up that courage!! I can't imagine Mami had an easy time of wondering what Hacchi wanted to meet for, either.

*rolls in 20minutes late* wait wait... so because she has extra hands, she can still fidget with her clothes while saying the moe things?!?!?!

 

A+

Torino, you and sinclair both made me determined to do this and I'm glad you told me you wanted to see more of Hacchi and Mami; I'm constantly thinking about shoots I want to do, and this was kind of the extra push I needed to get off my butt and do one I had been turning over in my head for a while I got Hacchi's new hands in... June, I think? It was right before I moved-- it just seemed like the most practical thing to do, given that it'd save me some space and probably a bit of money in the long run too (originally the plan was for Hacchi to be the only one of my girls to have "normal"-sized hands). I'm okay with the jointed look since I think it appears somewhat spider-like; I was worried about blend in with her appearance at first.

 

Ie-Aster, thank you for showing me those hands in the first place! I would have had no idea they existed had you not brought them along to use with Akuroma during the last time we met up. Thank you for letting me play around with them as well to gauge their flexibility. Thank you for your compliments on the angles of the shots-- that's actually something I love to play around with to help influence the feel of my pictures

 

Raine, thank youuuuuuu!! Mami is a little harder to pose now with her mod, but no matter what it's been worth it and thank you again for encouraging me while it was in progress. I actually managed to fix one of Hacchi's posing issues while putting her back together the night I took these pictures (her hips would dislocate almost constantly), so improvement is still ongoing. I think when it comes to these sorts of things, Mami can be a little clueless, or even somewhat apathetic? Romance may not have been something she had considered worthwhile before meeting Hacchi, and even at this point she's likely to still be making up her mind on that.

 

Chise, YES!!! I really like deciding what to do with her other arms while I'm posing her, it gives me really interesting ways of amplifying her body language. It's challenging, but that's what makes it fun!

I am really really impressed with this! You and your girls are so good at conveying thoughts and feelings JUST with the photos! I'm not sure the words were even needed. It is so cool to be able to emote like that and you make it look easy.

 

BIG congrats on this! I've always liked your girls but Hacchi is AMAZING. She's very sweet and cute but has a feel to her that's not scary or creepy but more..... I don't really know how to explain it. Most spider eye mods I've seen are so overdone and plain old silly looking. Hers are more realistic and blend in to her style so well, it's like you EXPECT them to look exactly like you made them. And those arms and hands! Super expressive and cool.

 

Thanks so much for sharing this story with us!

 

 

 

Billy

baldylox, thank you! I fuss a lot over posing and camera angles, and try to make gestures look as dynamic and lively as possible when I put both of those things together. While we all know they're just dolls, I like trying to (and try very hard to) put a spark of life into my pictures of them if possible. To hear that I make it look easy is a very high compliment!!

 

As far as eye mods go, I was very drawn to some of those involving multiple openings for eyes within the head at first (they're super ambitious and I find them to be really impressive)-- but I was so worried about symmetry and having enough space to put everything that I backed out and tried something more manageable for me (which is a little ironic given what I ended up doing to her body ). I think it worked out since Hacchi is supposed to be slightly more girl than spider, especially based on the lore surrounding the type of yokai she is. Stylistically I think it works well for her character, too

 

I hope to share more of them soon-- I just got Mami a more flexible body that'll actually let her bend over enough to "kiss" Hacchi (I had to fake it for the last few photos; their height difference and the fact that they're both L busts makes it very difficult to get their faces close together )

Good gravy, this is sooo cute! I love your girls. Your mods are so unique and clever.