Hi! First off, just want to say I love your art! I've been following back since the Fire Emblem days (your art has grown so much since then), and I love both your Arknights and Uma art in recent times. :D
On the topic of Umamusume, do you have any headcanons for Top Road x Ayabe and/or Nakayama x Sirius? I'm curious to hear your takes on them.
Thank you ^^ As for headcanons... I have a few, so it's not super comrehensive, but:
Ayabe/Top Road
Top Road falls first, Ayabe falls harder
Ayabe never had much interest in physical intimacy, but craves it after being exposed to how direct Top Road is
Top Road's straightforwardness helps as much as it hinders, especially when it concerns Ayabe's depressive spirals. They had a few arguments before Top Road learned how to just passively Be There and Ayabe learned how to stop autopiloting Push Away
Top Road sometimes isolates herself when she's feeling down, but masks it using her class rep duties to avoid going into detail
It takes a long time for Top Road to confess to Ayabe, partly because she knows Ayabe isn't good at feelings, but also because she assumed Ayabe was into someone else and just couldn't express it
After Top Road works up the courage to confess, she actually gets turned down at first (Ayabe doesn't fully understand her own emotions and is both scared and feels undeserving to want)
For a while they just kinda awkwardly orbit each other because they can't stay away
Top Road overcorrecting herself for "selfishly imposing her own desires onto Ayabe" and Ayabe punishing herself, thinking she'll just drag Top Road down (because she's a mess and Top Road is so radiant), so they're both mutually pining idiots
Ayabe ends up having to make the second first move for them to properly get together
Ayabe "confesses" to Top Road one night underneath the stars and they spend it together in a very JRPG fade-to-black kind of way--
Sirius/Nakayama
Sirius knows savate, Nakayama can parkour. They like to "wrestle"
Sirius highkey has a petplay kink (this is why her favorite nickname for Nakayama is "Puppy")
Nakayama has a better grasp on her emotions; contrary to popular fanon belief, I do not see her getting easily flustered over Sirius. She's the Master of the Poker Face for a reason
If anything, Sirius is much more emotionally volatile and gets mad jealous and possessive over Nakayama getting close to anyone else
Nakayama can see through Sirius's posturing and honeyed words, that's why they're close and comfortable enough with each other to let down their walls
Since Nakayama is a thrill seeker, Sirius has to come up with increasingly elaborate and outrageous bets to keep her around, because she's insecure that Nakayama will eventually get bored of her
I prefer Sirius -> Nakayama than the other way around. But also, I dislike stories where it's obvious that Sirius sees Nakayama as a "replacement" for Rudolf. That doesn't jive with me, especially because Nakayama is very different from Rudolf. No plan, all YOLO. Sirius is drawn to Nakayama because of her devil-may-care attitude and approach to things
Nakayama has other legitimate choices in partner, which is why it's more interesting when she chooses Sirius, because Sirius is a very attractive "high-risk, high-reward"
"I love you because I can't control you"
They are a very BL/yaoi-coded pair and there are in-universe fujoshi who agree
