#ANYWAY so many thoughts but i love bnha still

[seiwas]

*coughs* would just like to say ☝️ that in any moment of danger, kiri does that thing where he steps in front of you and reaches back to kind of cage you against his back while he presses a hand against your lower back to keep you close 🙂‍↕️

[jamiethebee]

You know what irks me the most about the mha ending. (Sorry I'm still on it.)

Like the early parts of the manga, there were so many grown up hero AUs in fandom (like storylines that took place when they're adults and heroes) and they're fun! A little silly!

And then we had the war arc and cities are being destroyed and everything's torn up and for over a hundred chapters, it's been oh huh I guess every AU like that will just be canon divergence lmao

And then Horikoshi basically wipes the slate clean so I guess all those AUs could technically canon compliant. There's not even much in the way of lasting physical damage! Because it's dealt with???? Immediately???? Within months?????

Which is fine! Nothing wrong with it! The AUs are fun! But, it just irks me that you could throw out half the manga because it didn't matter. Nothing majorly changed. Silly adult hero AUs for everyone I guess because the League may as well have been 2 bit villains for all the effect they had at large was. Idk. Maybe I'm bitter? Maybe my brain still trying to process the ending and the change in how AUs relate to canon? I guess - what was all the constant sprinkling in of "society has let people down" that we see from chapter 1? It meant nothing? I guess????? I mean A WAR HAPPENED. But whatever I guess heehee wasn't that soooooo silly???? That people's take on early story can be the same as post story?????

[honeycreammilkshake]

Soooooo I've read your post about your ships AND I started shipping Togachako even though I've never seen My Hero Academia LMAO

Anyways, any thoughts about the last episode? i had 0 context about anything but Ochako saying "the cutest girl in the whole world" made my cry😭

my first ask about togachako! thank you so much, anon <3

i am not going to lie. i almost screamed out loud while watching this. i had read the manga ending previously but seeing it on screen really almost wrecked me.

love stories are fun... until the love story is one of you dies saving the life of the only one who fully understood you and loved you for who you really were.

i think the biggest reason why togachako is my favorite bnha ship is because of the parallels between ochaco and toga, especially in how they perceive and express their love.

toga had previously assumed that the only person who could truly love her would have to be pretty much the same as her. this came from her own experience with her parents and everyone around her, who saw her only as a monster and tried to repress her inner feelings and thoughts, which made her all the more bloodthirsty after such a long time of being literally and metaphorically starved.

she was treated as an unredeemable demon that couldn't be loved by anyone "normal."

this belief of hers that love can only come from someone like herself also correlates with her quirk, as she often tries to drink the blood of and "become one" with those she likes or wants to be closer to, similar to how she drained her first crush of all his blood as both a kind of love confession and as the emergence of her true self.

throughout the series you can see this kind of behavior of hers to try and relate to other people in order to rationalize her feelings for them. when she first fought with ochaco and tsuyu, for example, she told ochaco that they had the same scent, that they both admired deku, and that they were both trying to emulate the person of their affections. and during their fight in season 6, toga says to ochaco "i want to be like you. you're cute too, ochaco. i like you a lot."

the way toga is always comparing herself to ochaco, drawing similarities between them and openly admitting to wanting to be more like her, is the only kind of love confession she can make because she feels that someone who isn't like her couldn't possibly like her.

compare this to how ochaco sees and interprets love.

ochaco's parents loved and supported her even though they weren't very wealthy themselves, which inspired her to become a hero so she could help people like them. she was also inspired by deku, and her admiration of him led to her wanting to emulate him, something toga picked up on and related to.

it's clear that toga wants to find something to relate to in ochaco, and even though ochaco is quite different from toga, there are still many parallels between them, too.

for example, they both hid parts of themselves from other people, ochaco by denying she had feelings for deku and toga by being forced to conceal her true self all her childhood. toga wanted to connect with ochaco over this, but ochaco refused to identify with ochaco at all.

another thing i want to bring up is the symbolism of toga's smile.

when she's confronted by chitose, she's forced to reflect on how society has shunned and tried to reconfirm her, but instead of feeling miserable about it, toga instead says she is happy because she finally has a clear goal in mind: to get closer to someone she loves.

she then uses the blood she has left to turn into ochaco, which chitose believes is only so toga can die while looking cute, but toga realizes in that moment that she wants to be close to someone like how toga is close to deku.

she wants to be just like ochaco.

in short, drinking ochaco's blood returned toga's will to live, as she was able to find what she wanted in life and even uncover a new side to her powers she didn't realize she had before. she even says that living as someone like ochaco, a cute high school girl that others enjoy the company of and that life treats "easier" is the goal she wants to achieve.

by briefly experiencing what life was like for ochaco, someone who could be close to the person she loved and even get them to trust her (something toga was denied over and over in her childhood), toga realizes that she wants to be more like ochaco. in fact, she might even love ochaco.

and the way this scene was animated is just amazing.

i love the way half of ochaco's face and half of toga's face are merged together, while she gives her widest unhinged grin.

as toga said, she smiles when she's happy, and being close to someone she loves creates that feeling in her. that's what she wants in life: to love and be loved for who she truly is, to feel that deep closeness with someone. and reflecting back on her relationship with both deku and ochaco made her want to live her life, despite the pain she'd experienced before, so that she could live as she wanted to, love someone who loved her for herself. someone who accepted her normality.

and although ochaco initially rejected toga's attempts to connect with her, making toga feel like ochaco would be just another hero who would kill toga without regret, it makes it even more interesting and beautiful when ochaco reconsiders and chooses to reach out and connect with toga, despite everything.

ochaco is someone who wants to save people, who knows what pure love feels like and knows how to give it in turn. she was at first disturbed by toga's strong feelings and her teeth-bearing smiles, because to her those forms of expression went against her ideas about what love is and how people show it. but now ochaco admires toga's smile. she's even jealous of it, and at how toga so easily expresses her emotions and her love.

they were both jealous of each other. toga was jealous of ochaco for being able to have normal relationships that allowed her to get close to people, to be trusted by them, to feel cute and wanted. and ochaco was jealous of toga for being able to be so upfront and even headstrong about her feelings, to express her true self with such rawness and honesty.

and despite how toga was willing to kill ochaco, the other girl never uses her powers to harm toga.

though they both know zero gravity can be lethal and toga even used it to kill chitose and her army, ochaco is still unwilling to use it to harm her and is tender to toga throughout their entire confrontation.

this goes against everything toga feared and maybe even believed ochaco would do to her. ochaco is not willing to kill toga like the heroes killed jin, and though she won't forgive every terrible thing that toga has done, she is still willing to hear what toga has to say and to even comfort toga through it.

it's such an important detail to me that ochaco literally keeps toga tethered throughout this entire conversation. she's showing toga that it's not a matter of pity or ego that she's doing this, but she truly wants to hear toga's side of the story.

and despite how toga keeps trying to harm her, ochaco never flinches away and never stops listening.

if the manga was way too emotional already, the animated version of their last battle almost broke me, especially during this scene.

i can't get over how ochaco doesn't look away from toga the entire time. the fact that it's so important for her to let toga know she finds her smile beautiful means so much, both because of how toga wants to be found cute by someone and because toga smiles when she's happy, so ochaco is saying she values toga's happiness and that expression of her true self.

toga's smile is wide, unhinged, maybe even a little monstrous to anyone else. but to ochaco, it's wonderful. because toga is happy, free to express herself without holding back or donning anyone else's appearance to do so. her natural face, her natural personality, who she really is... that's what ochaco finds cute.

and it's so telling that when ochaco thinks about how she loves both deku and ochaco, her smile is more worried than happy. yet when ochaco confirms that toga is cute, the cutest girl in the whole world, toga's smile is pure and so wide.

ochaco made her happy, even at the very end. toga couldn't even imagine a world without ochaco in it being one worth living in, so she decided to give up her life to save ochaco's own. because ochaco's love is what gave toga happiness, and she knows that a world without happiness, without that person who makes her smile, would never feel the same.

they will forever be one of the most tragic love stories of all times, but also the cutest and sweetest... if only they'd had more time.

[deusvervewrites]

First of all: Happy Birthday Deus!

Secondly, I have more thoughts about the whole "The Villain must Die" thing. You already allude to it in your original post, but one of the reasons that people tend to dislike it is definitely the fact that, if they were to acknowledge & accept it, they feel they would also have to "blame" themselves for liking "bad" media that does not follow this "rule".

You point out Star Wars, so some people will simply read this as "If you enjoyed Star Wars, specifically Palpatine dying, YOU ARE A BAD PERSON!"

Which is not what you said, (and I assume not what you meant) but some people will just read this into things, and feel like they have failed some invisible "vibe check" or something by liking the "wrong" media, and it all starts becoming some weird purity test even if it's often only in peoples head.

Like, stop reinventing Catholicism over here, stories can have different meanings and lessons, and one single thing doesn't mean that the story is no forever tainted and everyone who ever liked it should be branded as evil or some-such nonsense.

To use an extreme example, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance very VERY much kills its villains. It also has a very strong and important message about politics and ideology and how people justify atrocities in it. It's a different kind of story with a different kind of message compared to things like BNHA. Also, it even implies itself that the protagonist might have been wrong in killing his enemies, the fact that he did so anyway and that that was the only way he could see is a flaw that the game directly points out! So good news, liking MGR doesn't make you "bad" just as liking SU or BNHA doesn't mark you as inherently "good" or "righteous".

People need to take a step back and consider that not everything is an attack on them or what they like. Good stories are allowed to have flaws. Because most of them do. Any you are still allowed to like them. That's also fine. You can even like something and criticize it anyway, that's allowed!

This is getting long, so I want to end with another example that helped me realize how much I love villains surviving:

Fairy Tail, and the Arc of Jellal. Long Story short, when we first meet Jellal he is THE WORST. Absolute scum of the earth, sadistic maniacal supervillain that, inevitably, ends up blown up in a big anime battle.

Except, nope, ~2 arcs later, he is back, with amnesia, and involved in some other villains plot. Over the course of the arc he works with the heroes but then regains his memory and is utterly devastated to learn who he was in the past, to the point that he tries to noble suicide sacrifice himself to stop the villain. It does not stop the villain, but he still wants to go through with it to "atone", until the hero that he had hurt to most slaps him in the face and yells at him to Live and Struggle.

Because his death wont change anything. It wont heal those he hurt, or revive those he killed. He can only make up for this, only truly become better, by living.

And, spoiler, he does not sacrifice himself, but instead starts to go on a long and arduous and messy journey of atonement and it absolutely rocks. It makes him and his story a million times better than if he had died.

Anyways, sorry for the second wall of text I send you today, once again, Happy Birthday and best wishes!

One of the many things I love about Metal Gear Rising Revengeance's dialogue on the nature of violence is that, as you said, Raidon loses the moral victory at the end. When he kills Senator Armstrong, Armstrong names Raidon as the inheritor of his ideals that Might Makes Right. The entire game shows Raidon martyring himself by sacrificing his morals in an effort to save lives, implicitly comparing this to real-world warfare

[melon-fodder]

personal sappy sort of vent but not really? bnha melon origins under cut hahaha

Once upon a time at the start of the pandemic, I was getting back into writing fanfic thanks to bnha. I read some fics on this site, my introduction to ‘x reader’ and I thought to myself “ya know I have a lot of time on my hands, and these people look like they’re having a good time posting these stories, so I’m gonna try”.

And so I did. I wrote and posted a little mirio shot first, and then a shinsou shot, and then I wrote a soulmate AU for Aizawa that gained a little bit of attention followed by an endeavor fic that gained more.

And because it was the pandemic and everyone was online all the time, the engagement was high. My inbox was full of asks about those two, and I just got to talk and talk about them. I made mutuals. I made friends. I joined my first discord server. I kept writing.

@lady-lauren and I started DMing, going from writing to like life stories basically. The paragraphs we were sending back and forth lmao thinking about it makes me laugh. And she introduced me to Nyki, and we all just existed and created and consumed.

There was a lot of toxicity in the bnha fandom back then, though. I mean, there still is, but it was different back then somehow. I had my favorite characters, and Aizawa was a really big one, but I ended up sort of drifting. Or distanced myself, I guess. Because of another writer. The way that they created and interacted with fandom, with characters. It felt… weird to write for him while sharing a space.

Anyone close to me or who has been around for these almost 5 years (omg kill me) might have an inkling about what/who I’m referring to, so I do want to state that in no way was I told to stop writing for Aizawa or that I was bad at it or anything like that. That person actually liked my version of him and told me! So the whole feeling like I couldn’t write for him was entirely self-imposed.

Anyway, a lot of stuff happened that made it harder and harder to enjoy being a part of the bnha fandom on tumblr, including the passing of one of my best friends. I still found inspiration here and there, usually for nighteye, but I was mostly out of it. I even stopped keeping up with the manga after a while.

There’s just so much personal shit wrapped up in a series that’s already full of emotion. I haven’t felt equipped to deal with all of it

Until recently.

I don’t know what clicked tbh. I was at my mom’s recovering from surgery, and I just decided it was time. The epilogue was leaked or whatever and so many blogs that I used to see post every day woke up and started interacting again, even if it was just to comment on the leaks, and it got me so nostalgic and…

I don’t know. A lot of time has passed. A lot of people have come and gone. I feel like… it feels like I don’t have eyes on me anymore. For a long time when I was posting for bnha it just felt like people were watching me with less than good intentions. It’s one of the reasons I’ve switched blogs multiple times.

But I feel better now. I feel safe. I feel a lot more stable than I did back then. Those were kind of wild times on tumblr I do not think I would want to go back.

Except for in this one particular way which is to let myself fall back in love with the series that got me into anime as a whole, the series that got me writing again. The character that made me want to sit down and write again.

I have a few favorites from the series, but tbh I think Aizawa will always be the most special simply because he was my spark. He symbolizes so fucking much for me, and that sounds so dramatic, I know, but he is quite literally the character that got me on tumblr. He was my beginning, and then I felt like I couldn’t even enjoy him for years and it sucked and I just

I’m emotional. I just. Have a lot of feelings from over the span of 4 years that I’m trying to process.

tl;dr: if it wasn’t for bnha and Aizawa specifically I wouldn’t be on this site, and I am very happy to be creating for the series and his character again

[kodzucloud]

BNHA MUSIC AU

This is an au i randomly threw at my friend. It was very on the spot but also in hindsight, it was an idea i had brewing in me since i watched my first”if [character] could sing” gacha videos which feels like eons ago.

In this au, i havent decided if Yuuei/ UA is a music school of sorts or if music is just a new way to promote the heroes (PR stunt or something). Anyways, here are my headcannons for this AU, I might write a fanfic based on this, but that’s neither here nor there.

Jirou Kyoka

her parents were already musicians so she doesn’t have to the class if she doesn’t want to but i think she’d take it as an excuse to make more music and even help out her classmates. She’s probably one of, of not the best songwriter, and producer in the class and even though she’s already really good at singing cause her mom gave her lessons, she takes classes and helps out the others alot. she definitely thought about just being a music artist in stead of a hero but she decided she was gonna be both so she is

Momo Yaoyurozu

She already had voice lessons as a kid and is a “piano prodigy” and went to many competitions and won her fair share of trophies/ medallions. Helps with lyrics and coming ip with melodies mostly cuz she had perfect pitch and is such a music teacher that she is constantly helping Jirou help the others when they dont get it or just need help creating something.

Toru Hagekure

She doesn’t particularly care for this but ended up loving it as a hobby. She is lyntook the class cuz her friends took the class. i domt have much hc for her cuz she probably has the least amount of screen-time than all the girls in 1A. she definitely makes pop music- like. bubblegum pop, electra pop, and she’s definitely be an icon in pop. she probably has the least experience with signing and making songs but she dances a lot with Mina so she has that as her talent.

Mina Aishido

She is a dancer so if she ever preforms live she would probably dances more cuz she also doesn’t make much experience in singing or music making. She does help with production tho when people are trying to make music that’s considered “pop” since a big part of pop is catchy-ness, dance-ability of a song probably helps a lot with making it mainstream. She’d duet with Kirishima alot tho and ik that this seems a little stereotypical cuz i hc her as black but raised in japan, but she definitely would rap. she wouldnt be the only female rapper in the class but she’d probably be the best one. she’s definitely the one people go to for a feature.

Ochaco Uraraka

She was one of the first to do this cause it would help her gain money for her family (cuz she’s canonically poor) and definitely had no experience with music, singing, or dancing so she was one of the ones that worked really really hard to get where they are at now. She’d be the type of artist to just crank out music as much as possible, take a fee month break then get back on her grind. her strongest is definitely lyricism and vocal range. she’d be like the poster child of underground artists and definitely gets popular randomly during the year.

Tsuyu Asui

She’s definitely insecure in her voice but her voice is very angelic (like genuinely). she’s been producing beats for a while as a hobby so she’s the one to help Jirou and will song background vocals for literally anyone as long as they dont credit her for it. her own songs are very indie tho, like bedroom pop and what not ( not much for her)

all the girls are close and i think they would collab often and even go on tours, they might as well be a group

Shouta Aizawa

He has a lot of talent in the music industry because thats how he mainly promoted himself. His lyrics and vocals are definitely something that catches people’s ears and his rather unique sound made him an underground favorite, and like ururaka, he’ll randomly get popular- and an album he dropped was very popular and got him kinda in the mainstream but people still consider him underground. He only kept doing music cause of Hazashi and eneded up enjoying making music. if he’s not sleeping or being a teacher, he’s probably messing sround with lyrics and instrumentals till inspo hits him.

Hazashi Yamada

He’s the most popular hero music wise. he’s the type of person to be behind almost every top hit songs. he’s a massively successful producer and his sings are very popular as well. he has too much power yall- stop this man. he spends alot of time writing lyrics as well since he is an english teacher (or just language in general, idk). he’s like The weeknd when it comes to how his music sounds.

Shinsou Hitoshi

He was bullied as a kid for his voice (and quirk) so he resorted to just being a producer and even a backup dancer for others till he met Jirou when making a song and she had him sing and that whole experience led him to find his voice again. he uses to sing a lot as kid. He another popular underground artist, and i kinda see him being quite active in the Korean part of the music industry, idk if thats cuz he’s Korean or part korean or just grew up there and people just really liked his stuff. He and a few other students just have a flash drive but him and todoroki are ties for first with the mist amount of songs saved in their flash drives cuz its a coping mechanism for them. Shinsou definitely struggles to make friends cuz of his past with bullying and is so used to not having them he’s really awkward with people, but he gets along with jirou and todoroki the most as teens because of music and their incredible ability to produce (they’ve been nominated for best young producers and even won a few times- so much so they became the equivalent of 3racha in skz)

Shouto Todoroki

His father was gonna make Sho go to the sane school ad him wether he hot recommended or not. This is gonna look like im making him a mary sue, but his father and ambitious so he’s a “prodigy” at things like Violin, piano— he was taught singing and music production at an early age as well and literature was one of his favorite thing so naturally he’s really good when it comes to lyrics. Kaminari was the one to teach Sho how to okay the guitar and if you pass by his room you’ll more often than not hear him playing guitar. he also does a ton of collabs with people, in and out of the school, and i hc him as part Korean. his hair in this au is either short but the bangs are long or just long hair. anyways he’s is a very successful young artist, and as much ss he wishes he could say that he was self made, his dad definitely promoted his stuff (he was trying to make up for being a terrible father)

Denki Kaminari

He started taking tbd class as a joke but ended up loving it. he’s like a Tyler The Creator and Hobo Johnson type music artist. he had hidden talents, like perfect pitch, and just as a knack for making tracks. he collabs with people but mostly to make beats or conceptualize albums and so on (not much for him)

Hanta Sero

I know everyone headcannon’s him as st least half Latino but dang i like that. he’s sound is everywhere, and he’s the one with less vocal training than the rest. nonetheless, he makes bangers and tries to collab with people outside of region. last time i made a head cannon for him i said he had a lot of piercings but i take it back. he goy his ears pierced as a baby and never got more. he has a background in contemporary dancing including and even ballet. and Sho tried teaching him how to ice skate ( Sho definitely was an ice skater for most of his life)

Katsuki Bakugou

This rich boy can sing, and when he releases music he always does it in a form of EPs and Albums (mini or not) so there’s times he doesn’t have music out which his fans have come to accept. He doesn’t sing often but he will post covers of his classmates’ songs. he also would probably take charge of promoting for the class (along with Iida, momo and aizawa). He’s currently learning how to produce so he can help the main 3 but also to shave some time off of the amount of time where he doesn’t release anything. he probably goes on the least amount of tours but he also probably sells out the fastest.

Ejirou Kirishima

Very much like Denki in the sense he was just like “eh why not” in doing music and ended up loving it. He was already vocally gifted and had some past workshop songs he had on the back burner back in his middle school days, and finally got the chance to release the better version of them in his debut album. He’s a performer so he loves doing shows and they’re always grand no matter what his budget is. DIY king over here. (Not much for him as of now im so sorry)

I have nothing for Ojirou, Shoji, Tokoyami, (im not doing mineta) Satou, Koda, Iida, Aoyama, or Midoriya yet, but i will get there. Im just posting a WIP.

[iicaru2]

omg ok so its morning sand i dont have as many thoughts as i did BUT.

i sent it to my friend group server its so fucking funnny

I ADOOORE HO WYOU WROTE TODOROKI. OH MY GOD. ITS SO FUNNY. HES SO IN CHARACTER. I LOVE YOU ITS SO FUNNY. its like. hes so blunt and up front but also like. sassy. when he asked izuku if hed kiss it better or looks amused at him OH MY GOD. genuinely this might be one of my favourite tddk fics ever like oh my god. its so good. genuienly i was up until two thirty in the morning because i love it so much

izuku constantly being flustered and frazzled at him. bro todoroki was not giving him any time to catch his breath he was always up to SOMETHING

the intro immediently setting the mood was wonderful, with todoroki just being like midoriya. be my boyfriend. and having izuku just be like HELLO WHAT WHATA THE HELL IS HAppENING

izuku cursing all over when he saw todoroki before the gala, just to realise he was talking out loud

TODOROKI WAS ALWAYS DOING SOME SHIT AND I FYCKING LOVE IT. your notes were so real, the fandom always makes him some rule following calm serene guy but like... WHO IS THAT.

oh my god the todoroki family scene. tears in my eyes. real tears in my eyes. i dont think you understand how funny that is. i wanted to start crying because i was having such a good time. i dont even know where to start with that scene the entire thing was so peak. i cant pick. i cant pick

im stil just giggling. todoroki was a fucking MENACE and i ADORE it. but at the same time he was kind of a loser. like he was a little bit of a loser and i was so here for it its so in character

izuku was put through the RINGER. that scene where todoroki was meeting his mom and they saw his baby vhotos. also the characterization of izuku not telling his mom about his allergies. thats so good and i love it

BAKUGO AND IZUKU. THE BUNNY SIGN. THE DEAF BAKUGO DONT TALK TO ME EVER. THATS SO GOOD. OH MY GOD THATS SO GOOD. DONT TALK TO ME EVER SLASH SO pOS. SO GOOD

anyway i gtg 2 lunch now but ill be back!!!!!!! im not done!!!!!!

ooOOHGH. OH MY GOD. OK ALRIGHT AND THERES MORE??? UR TRYING TO KILL ME. ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT. OK OK. (edit from after i finished this: it ended up LONG so the rest of this monstrosity is below the cut. thank you so so much for the ask and giving me the opportunity to talk nonstop <3)

1) genuinely u have no idea how overjoyed this makes me . waaah . yeah all of my character biases and headcanons came out with this one. i projected to hell and back all over tddk and it shows. im glad u liked it so much bc i think this is my favorite depiction of any bnha characters ive written so far :3

2) evidently. my second favorite thing to do to my favorite characters (besides putting them through unimaginable horrors) is setting them loose in an enclosure of Insane individuals that will guaranteed drive them up a wall. enter stage right one todoroki shouto dead set on patricide, getting a new boyfriend, and giving said boyfriend an anxiety attack. not necessarily in that order. this was my first time writing from izuku’s perspective in any long form capacity, so im happy general consensus agrees i did a good job :> thankfully just inflicting shouto on him for ab 25k words worked out lmao

3) IM OVERJOYED U LIKED THE INTRO BECAUSE I LOST MY MIND OVER IT. could absolutely not figure out how to open this monster of a fic for weeks and it was driving me bonkers bc i typically write in order so i was just not getting anywhere. then i got struck with the productivity beam and wrote like a madman. the whole fic may have taken me over a year to write but still i DID IT and it is glorious. when in doubt i went with whatever absurdity wld stress izuku out most and ran with it.

4) the panic swearing scene as a result of izuku’s not-boyfriend being too pretty for his brain to comprehend without a hard factory reset was one of my favorites!! it was also scary for me to write bc typically fanon interpretations (which i hate) have izuku like. allergic to swearing. which is bullshit but wtv. fanon also tends to spread to an entire fandom annoyingly fast so i was worried ppl wouldnt like my izuku and the way i write him, before i remembered i can do whatever i want forever and every time someone “uwu cinnamon roll” trope-ifys him an angel dies somewhere. so i kept it in. also i think after all The Shenanigans (ominous violin string) hes entitled to a few f-bombs.

5) oh yeah speaking of fanon interpretations dying by my blade: Todoroki Shouto. i will never in my life write him being overly polite or considerate and this is my pledge. hes a blunt, rude bitch and its funny as hell therefore it is my civic duty to inflict his behavior on everybody else. hes also autistic. why? because i am, and i said so. izuku isnt safe from projection either, as hes got some intense anxiety issues (which is basically canon) and, while i didnt get to blatantly make it clear since i couldnt find a good place to do so, hes absolutely got chronic pain from all his insane death defying injuries. do w that what you will.

6) the todoroki family were my favorite interactions to write and for good reason. clowning on endeavor is wildly therapeutic. do i support abusive people realizing theyre abusive and working to get better? yeah sure. but i dont plan on making it easy for him. hence why i mock him relentlessly throughout with shouto as my mouthpiece. hes earned an incredible amount of relentless mocking and i am going to deliver— this is why i feel hes the one character i wrote thats a bit of a caricature, or the largest detour from his timeline-accurate canon counterpart in this fic, but consider: its really fucking funny. rei, fuyumi, and natsuo are also a joy to write, because i love them. touya mightve made an appearance for shits n giggles, if i hadnt already decided the league were mostly in prison (for the sake of that everyone lives/nobody dies tag, but also so i had an excuse to not write all of this During the final war arc.)

7) shouto is ABSOLUTELY a loser menace and meant to be read as such. the kid can call the chief of police a slur to his face but not ask someone out normally. he can commit grand theft auto but can’t figure out an idiom to save his life. he orders olive garden to a gala and eats the pasta cold. he is seventeen years old. hes also me, but who would i be if i didnt project and amplify in everything i write.

8) izuku is disaster incarnate. my beautiful princess with a disorder. he has crippling anxiety and could kill you with a flick of his finger. hes prone to acts of extreme danger and violence despite his every effort to avoid them. he is the singular character in this entire fic thats actually attending therapy which suggests, yes, this is his mental state After hes worked through a ton of shit in therapy. it couldve been way worse. he either needs 15 minutes under a weighted blanket or a xanax im not sure which. but ive read enough abusive inko fics that i had to write her not Perfect by any means but still a good mom that loves him so much to balance it out :3

9) ohhh u mean one of my top three favorite scenes in the whole fic? one thats not even centered around the main ship? riveting! yeah somebody (me) cried like a fucking baby at a certain apology scene the second i saw it animated. therefore this scene was necessary. it also fulfills my need to go “fuck you *disables your favorite character*” which i must do in like every fic i ever write. bakugou is also me (🚩) but thats not relevant at this time. if its not clear already, i do have a decent amt of knowledge about ASL! JSL (which theyre using in this fic. obviously) is a little harder for me— ive been learning japanese for years, but sign languages are entire languages in and of themselves. i wasnt entirely sure if JSL works the same as ASL in the case of giving people a name sign so you dont need to finger-spell their entire name out, but for the sake of my silly headcanon, lets pretend it does. as this is my blog and i do what i want— plus i promised yapping— impromptu japanese lesson with moony time: the word “deku,” as its spelled in bnha, isnt actually a word by itself. rather, its just an alternate reading of the kanji for izuku’s name. 出久 (izuku) can also be read as デク (deku, alternate kanji spelling). when written with different kanji, 木偶 (deku), short for 木偶の坊 (dekunobou) instead means “wooden doll/puppet” which is an insult for someone considered useless. uraraka says this nickname sounds similar to できる (dekiru), which directly translated means “to be able to”, but is usually translated into english as “you can do it.” ofc im not fluent, so feel free to fact check me on any of that— but ive been learning japanese for a long time, so i like to think i know what im talking about :3 its a little thing really, but its still a pet peeve of mine when people dont seem to realize this. this doesnt Technically come up in the fic beyond a couple throwaway lines, but it IS what i had in mind when i was writing that JSL scene between midoriya and bakugou, so i figured it was relevant enough to point out :>

when i said i yap forever and ever ab my special interests that was NOT an exaggeration lmao. thank you so much waaahhhh i cant WAIT to keep going insane over them 🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷 ilu ilu ilu mwah

[angy-grrr]

It saddens me how many of these yappers (i'm not calling them shippers) want so bad for a confession to happen bc to them, that is just a means to an end so they can finally be done with it.

All they want is for Izuku to get the girl already but they don't give a shit what is happening with them, or if it's a good way to end their characters. They want the girl prop to be a prop as fast as possible so they can validate a hatrated for gay shippers.

yeah, I went to the bnha Reddit and some are really… wrong. Some even don’t understand how she could cry over a murderer, and others directly are talking about her being actually Himiko transformed??? There was someone who was acting like a confession in next chapter would be groundbreaking and what “we” were looking for, but it’s just terrible to follow this up with that. It’s not about it being vanilla, or not my favorite, or underdeveloped -it makes zero sense to add a love confession and, especially, a getting together scene.

And when reading the chapter, it looks like it tried to bait you into thinking it was about that in the beginning -making you wonder “is ochako feeling hurt bc she is still hiding her feelings for izuku?”. Just so around the end, we actually see what her thoughts are about: Himiko and pretending she is happy without her smiling too. Next chapter will focus on Izuku’s side of things I believe by the tagline, or maybe will start like that with him trying to help her.

But anyways, it’s just sad how dudebros are seen as the realistic ones, as the right ones, and feel confident in a confession when the actual narration tells you a different story -many are already saying they “won” and “it’s confirmed”, but really, they don’t have anything more.

A scene between two or more characters can be ship material if you want, or even random pairings that you think are cute together even if they don’t have screen time together or aren’t in the same show even -but this sentiment of it being canon coming from some parts of the fandom? After reading Ochako’s feelings of grief? And expecting a confession next, as if they could just naturally get over it? You don’t have to see it as a togachako scene, but damn, why would this be an “izu///ocha is already canon expect a confession next”? Not as a joke but as if that’s seriously the right and only way to see this chapter??? Wtf?

[mecachrome]

fic writer questions

haiii thank u @bright-and-burning for the tag :') nobody is online so i will Reflect and return with a worse image...

how many works do you have on AO3?

20 (16 on my main account, 4 on my sports account)... and then 15 more on dreamwidth 🥲

what's your total ao3 word count?

175.5k T__T

what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

gurllll. no one needs to see my 11th grade k-pop fic like that

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

i try my best but i have a difficult relationship with my writing so i often block out that i wrote a fic at all after some time and it hinders my ability to acknowledge commenters directly ;__; and then i always feel awkward responding like 6 months late to someone so i just let it go even though i know no one actually minds... i really do appreciate every comment i get though and deeply cherish everyone's kind words and generosity!!!

what's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

i don't really write angsty endings tbh i just write vaguely bittersweet ambiguous stuff... perhaps sharl character study i wrote for a friend's birthday would be up there because the whole thing is just inelegant whump LOL

what's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

for my own birthday a couple of years ago i wrote an extremely self-indulgent k-pop fic with all of my favorite tropes and also coded elaborate interactive html/css elements with multimedia messages and notifications you could tap on and the whole thing was just sweet secret relationship toothrutting fluff 💗 anyway extremely cringe but i enjoyed myself and thought it was mostly cute

do you write crossovers?

i haven't for any fictional fandoms... the concept is fun though!

have you ever received hate on a fic?

not directly 2 my face !!!

do you write smut? if so, what kind?

i'm an ambiguous fade 2 black kind of guy even if i do try my best at times... TT i'm just too repressed 4 this life unfortunately. pwp writers have my major respect it really is sooo difficult to write cohesive compelling comprehensible porn 

have you ever had a fic stolen?

idts but i have had oomfs/people adjacent my circles turn out to be plagiarizers which is always an unpleasant surprise!

have you ever had a fic translated?

yasss shoutout to anyone who has translated my random fics to russian or spanish 🧡

have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes ! i wrote a bnha au for a k-pop ship with my friend once lol she wrote most of it and i kind of just contributed a scene and the concept but it was still really fun, she's a much better writer than i could ever hope to be... also helped friend finish a fic for a fest once because it was overdue and she tapped out so i was up until 6am filling in scenes randomly for her. oh to be 18 again <3

what's your all-time favorite ship?

unfortunately in f1 it is simply landoscar... all-time i don't know!!! actually i do but i don't want to say it. nvm

what's a wip that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

arghhh... all of my 814 wips at the moment honestly. especially my kidfic verse that i'm deeply attached to but tragically incapable of working on TT and the jb81 that i totally gave up on!!!

what are your writing strengths?

this is an oxymoron.... i have never written anything good in my entire life. i love to beta read other people's fic for grammar though that's always fun

what are your writing weaknesses?

poor/stiff dialogue, horrible romantic development, inconsistent scene lengths, completely flat plot, no concept of good writing practices in general, a horrible tendency to purple prose, inability to write any actual conflict, i could go on

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

ehmmm i had a lot of strong opinions on this in k-pop fandom LOL and then it was funny to see the same thing happening in f1 but just with different languages (so much random french/german dialogue...) but i think there are untranslatable or commonly recognized words that can be sprinkled in verbatim, like in k-pop it makes sense to use certain honorifics that don't have english equivalents but i draw the line at not translating existing terms like "mom" lol... but i have a lot of thoughts on how languages are communicated in fic in general (perhaps too many), like i also overthink how to communicate grammatical structure - so if i'm writing a french character speaking french but presenting the dialogue in english or same with korean in k-pop fic i usually try to make it flow in a way that is as grammatically reasonable as possible, which goes beyond simple semantics but into the actual logic of syntax + verb order... ok i'll stop actually

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

i was writing crasy fanfiction in middle school 🧡 earliest i remember though is probably naruto circa 6th/7th grade... honestly hard to say because i purged a lot of my ffdotnet output out of shame in 8th grade lmfao

what's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I Forgor...

what's your favorite fic you've written?

for my sports fics i'm partial to my latest 814 fic because i feel like it's just generally inoffensive and not plainly awful 🤔 in general though i'm attached to some of my like most niche audience_of_2 dw fic that i've written for nugu boy groups with literally 0 fans. like a level of total nobodyness few can comprehend........... we were in the trenches

no pressure tagging @piastrisms @chelemlem @miamimaiden @liamlawsonlesbian if it would be of any interest ! 🥰

[zaiban2989]

BNHA S3 EP1 or the Pool Ep

Honestly, I've watched that ep at least 6 times in the last two weeks, just didn't have a chance to pause and talk about it until now lol That post gonna be long again 😭🤣

It's not "that much" of an important episode when you think of it, but it's still one of my favourites. Our cinnamon roll Izuku is just the cutest in this one, being manipulated by Denki & Mineta to use the pool so those pervs can spy on the girls lmao the whole thing is hilarious and cute af - I mean look at this cute baby being all fired up for training! 👇

Our little green bean is so cute and friendly and nice he even texted everyone to come and join them lmao Which is raising so many questions: did everyone in class 1-A share their numbers with each other? Does that mean that Kacchan actually gave it to everyone else, even Deku? Or is Kacchan the only one Izuku didn't text because, you know, fucked up relationship and all that, and it's only because Kirishima got the message that Kacchan came (like his bro definitely has his number and told him about the training)? Or do they all just have a group chat with the whole class so Izuku texted there so everyone, including Kacchan, saw it? I WANT ANSWERS!!!!

But considering the timing of how late Kirishima and Katsuki came to meet with them, I feel like the closest answer is that Kiri got Izuku's text and then texted Katsuki or even went to his house to drag him out or something... Kiri did say that it took him a while to get Katsuki to come, so that's probably it. The thought that Izuku can't even text Kacchan, or didn't even think he could, makes me so sad honestly 😭 (like imagine class A really does have a group chat and those two idiots are in there but never interact with each other's texts and secretly did save each other's numbers but yeah there's no way in hell they'd go and text the other because "Kacchan probably doesn't wanna talk to me", "why the heck should I text the nerd, I'm better than him!" *siiiiiiigh* I want a fic about this now lol)

Anyway, back to the episode... Iida, class rep, always at the ready to order people around lol It's so funny how everyone just listens to him though, I love it 💙

AND THEN THE BEST PART OF IT ALL HARKLZERLKRZEKDE - What happened? Iida and Izuku are having a little moment together (reminiscing what happened in s1 & s2) and Izuku says that he got here with the help of many others and that he needs to work that much harder and WHO yells a loud "OF COURSE!" to that?! Fucking Kacchan! 🧡💚seriously I can't, man! I have so many fucking thoughts on that scene alone, it's ridiculous lol

And I mean, what he says is so freaking weiiiiiiiiiird! (proof in pic👇)

Iida and Izuku were not even speaking that loudly, so how the fuck did Katsuki even hear all of that shit from where he was?! (he just arrived there with Ei, you see him walking up to them with his usual gremlin face, Kiri blocking him lmao)

So now I am HC-ing the fact that Katsuki actually do not have any fucking hearing impairments because of his Explosion quirk - on the contrary, he probably trained himself so fucking much so that shit would never be a problem and so that he could eavesdrop on any conversation his nerd would be having with other people (see Sport Festival and his stalking of Izu/Todo secret meeting lol)

I mean seriously, Kiri and him JUST arrived there and what's his first move? To fucking head to where Deku is hdezdezmde and you wanna tell me that guy ain't obsessed with his broccoli head? PLEASE!

"Otherwise there's no way I'd lose to a damn nerd like you!" - or literally, Katsuki openly admitting that he has been losing to the nerd (in the first DvKpt1 of course, but also when they teamed up against AM for the exam because he had been reckless and had to rely on the damn nerd for help - hell, he even lost consciousness and the guy dragged him to the exit (HC-ing again, but pretty sure Kats asked for the recording of that fight cuz he didn't remember and wanted to know what the fuck happened - he'll never tell Izuku though))

So our blonde baby IS already growing up, it's subtle but for someone like Katsuki to say that he's lost to Deku, I mean that is fucking big, man. I'm certain Izuku didn't even pick up what that meant here, but progress baby, you've been acknowledged by your person! 🧡💚

As soon as he's there, he's already picking a fight with his baby nerd lmao at this stage, it's established he sees both Deku & Todo as his rivals - Hori is even already setting the tone for the next gen' of UA Big Three since the 3 of them end up being the ones winning each racing rounds and are now facing each other in the final

(Just some appreciation of how fucking hot Katsuki is when he doesn't make his bitch face lmao 🔥🧡 also the fucking V-shape he has, god dammit man!)

Of course, the final round doesn't happen - I wonder who Hori would have turned into the winner on that one lol Guess it was too hard to decide huh flekdmzemdez Look at those dum-dums' faces as their quirks got erased 🤣

That episode is so gold, I swear! Even the ending with Katsuki's frustration of not having raced against Deku & Todo when he's on his way back with Kiri and the fact that we see once again that his goal hasn't changed (yet?), honestly, it's endearing 🧡

"No matter who it is, I won't let them catch up to me, let alone get ahead of me!" - oh baby boy, talking about your insecurities like that *sobs* it makes it even more amazing that he changed so freaking much by s5-s6 because he's no longer with that mindset 😭 "The nerd's ahead of me now but I can still catch up!" fuck me man, that 180 is just... *cries*

You see his All Might fanboying seeping through what he says and how he's determined to prove himself, someone please give that baby a hug😭 (he fucking gets kidnapped in this season, I can't man)

ANYWAYS, I LOVE THIS EPISODE SO MUCH OKAY?! lmao Ending this review with the official season ending, firework moment and Kacchan next to his Deku (come on, Hori could have placed him anywhere else there but nope)

That's it, folks! Cheers for coming to my ted talk lol Till next time!🧡💚

[samthehyena]

A longwinded post about how I've been feeling frustrated and tired as a femslash author

Just crossposting my recent vent post from dreamwidth since I know that some of my togachako friends have been going through similar frustrations. So I thought that who knows maybe this could help make anyone else with similar frustrations about BNHA femslash feel a little less alone.

Lately, I've been reflecting a lot on writing femslash in the BNHA fandom. I don't know, I've just been growing more frustrated with the discrepancy between how well M/M fics do compared to F/F fics.

I’ll start out with how I ended up writing a lot of F/F fics to begin with. BNHA is probably one of the first fandoms where I initially shipped mostly M/M ships rather than mainly F/F ships. It was a little bit of a shift for me given that before I started reading/writing fics on AO3 I was a shipper in fandoms where femslash ships were more prominent than in BNHA (think She-Ra or Adventure Time featuring Bubbline).

Anyways, I entered the fandom in roughly November 2022 and I was reading a lot of the very popular longfics for BNHA for the first handful of months after I got into the fandom. One of said longfics was a quirkless Izuku in fic in which there was background Inko/Midnight but Inko died before Midnight could propose. And that moment struck a chord with the tragic yuri lover in me – and I was determine to write at least one fic in which Inko and Nemuri could be happy together without their love ending in tragedy.

Thus, my fourth fic ever (if memory serves) was a self-indulgent one shot in which Inko was a cop and Midnight was a thief. And there was a very thoughtful comment and bookmark on that fic that made me overjoyed because I could see that someone else loved Inko/Midnight as much as I did. So I did what I still often do and browsed through the bookmarks of people who bookmarked that fic (after all people who like my stuff are likely to have similar fanfic tastes to me) – and behold I found so many yummy BNHA femslash recs. That’s when I realized that there ARE BNHA femslash fics out there – I just had to work harder and know where to look.

Flash forward to the summer of 2023 (ah the good old days of olden times) and I hopped onto the togachako renaissance train after the togachako chapters dropped. After all, I’ve always been a sucker for hero/villain and stories of redemption (coughs in catradora shipper). And at first posting for togachako felt so explosively rewarding. Knowing that femslash fics typically do not get as much engagement as say M/M fics, I was so amazed and overjoyed to see my first few togachako fics get comparable reader engagement when placed beside my other fics.

Heck, my most fic with the most kudos was a togachako multi chap I started posting when there was a big boom in new togachako shippers in the following months.

But with time the tides turned. By November the togachako oneshots I was posting did not get as many comments or kudos as my first few togachako fics did. And it was a bit discouraging to see the increasing disparity between my femslash fics and other fics especially since I like writing F/F the most of all. Still, I pushed forward because I’d see the returning readers in my kudos email and I had friends to cheer me on when I was feeling discouraged.

Eventually continuous togachako server drama ended up chipping away at my resilience (to no fault of the mod team – they are wonderful). I won’t go deep into it because it’s convoluted and not necessary to make my point. I’ll just touch on the two straws that broke the camels back after months of poor behavior that the mod team I was a part of had to mediate.

One day there was a comment someone made about there “not being enough new togachako fics after chapter 428 was dropped.” And that comment made quite frustrated since in my opinion at least there was a bit of a jump in togachako fics after the epilogue chapters dropped (I highly recommend this comphet fic and this fix-it fic oneshot). Also togachako writers worked FAST there was so much new togachako angst posted after chapter 428 that helped me heal from how sad I was about the outcome. Heck, I also posted an angsty togachako fic within 48 hours after spoilers for chapter 428 dropped.

Anyways, the comment made me feel like the work femslash writers were putting in was being underappreciated. Of course I get it that it can be tricky to filter for togachako fics that are more than a background pairing – but there are fics out there. Also, sorry to be a cynic here… I don’t think it’s realistic to expect as much of a boom in togachako fics as in summer 2023 where there were a bunch of new togachako fans whereas rn the bulk of togachako fics are being written by ppl who have already been togachakos for a bit.

I know that the comment was not meant to be a personal attack by any means but as someone who is a relatively prolific togachako writer idk I felt like the work I put in was being ignored. Not that I expect ppl who ship togachako to read my stuff because seriously there are a lot of togachako writers out there more adept than I am. It just instigated me guilt-tripping myself. I tried so hard to uplift the togachako community – I love making togachako rec lists and putting togachako recs in my author’s notes. I make sure to comment on togachako fics and read togachako fics regularly even when I’m tired and am lacking the reading/commenting spoons. Because I love femslash so much and I want F/F writers to know that they are valued and appreciated and how fucking cool I think their stories are.

So I fell down a spiral of thinking that my writing wasn’t good enough, that my efforts to uplift the togachako community weren’t good enough, that I wasn’t good enough. There’s a part of me that so badly wants to be like the femslash writers I admire – to inspire, motivate and induce brainrot – but I felt like I was failing. Like all the work I was putting in was pointless. All I could see was how clunky I perceive my writing style is. How a lot of my togachako fics weren’t innovative enough and kept treading the same ground.

And I really aspire to become the kind of togachako writer that avid togachako readers might recognize and be like “Oh samthehyena? That name sounds sorta familiar”. But that whole mental spiral just left me doubtful that “breaking into the ship” is in the cards for me.

On the other hand, I feel so privileged that Dear Google has gotten a lot of traction. It is such a privilege to have such a sizable readership for a togachako-centric longfic – especially since I know a lot of fanfic readers are apprehensive about reading longfics so I am so grateful for being given a chance and all the outward support I’ve gotten. I am so happy and grateful that I have a femslash fic that’s going so well – without it I would’ve reached the extent of frustration I am feeling right now much sooner.

Yet even though I have the privilege of Dear Google’s readership, I often yearn for more engagement with the bulk of my togachako fics. Because heaven knows that I’ve written a good handful of togachako fics and my femslash works in general that didn’t get comments at all or only after many months later – and I know it’s not all about the stats. That’s not what transformative works are I supposed to be about – I know, I know it’s supposed to be about the act of creation and exploring characters we already love further. I guess it’s just tough to put sth out there and hear crickets. I feel like I’m screaming into the void at times.

Added to that I was helping to run a togachako exchange for which a lot of people hadn’t turned in their assignments on time and we weren’t able to gather enough pinch hitters together. So me and another mod were struggling to crank out a bunch of pinch hits last minute. Writing four fics for that exchange was not by choice. I was already burnt out from doing too many fandom events and writing so many fics out of a sense of obligation rather than a burst of creative energy crushed me mentally.

Ultimately, I think taking on all of those pinch hits was a moment of clarity for me. The stress of that situation left me sobbing on the floor in front of my parents and I couldn’t even tell them why I felt so overwhelmed since I only talk to my brother, friends and occasionally my sister about my fanfic stuff. That’s when I realized that I needed to take a step back from being as involved with the togachako community to the extent that I have been for the past year. Because as much as I love the ship, as much as I want to do my part to uplift the femslash community, I cannot to so at the expense of my own wellbeing. Especially because the negative online interactions had made me start to resent togachako – and I do not want to lose my passion for one of my fav ships the way I did with Shindeku last year due to people behaving badly online.

So I took a step back and narrowed down the places where I exchanged with togachako to the online nooks where I did not feel emotionally drained. And I’ve been starting to heal a little. The new NSFW togachako oneshot has been really healing in that process. Because this fic doesn’t feel like a chore to write the way those exchange pinch hits did – it’s tailored to my tastes and I feel like I’m finally breaking out of the monotony that’s been present in a lot of the togachako oneshots I posted in the last few months. It’s starting to feel more like it did when I was just getting started with writing fanfics – everything was exciting and new and I wasn’t as chained to my comfort zone yet. So writing angst and smut when I usually write crack and sfw stuff has been challenging, a little scary but also exciting. And although the fic doesn’t exactly have many readers (yet) I still feel like it has value to people other than myself. The comments that this multi chap means a lot to me because it makes me feel like I’m developing a better understanding of people who like the same things that I do. Because while I do write for myself, I share because of a desire to contribute to a sense of community.

Sometimes it helps to remind myself that my favorite things I have written tend to be my femslash fics. When it comes to reading my own writing I end up being self-critical and I have a hard time enjoying the act of reading my works because all I can see are the shortcomings. The drafting process is what brings me the most joy moreso than the act of creating stuff I’d like to read. Some notable exceptions are my HungerGames!Togachako AU and my Bachelor!Inko/Midnight AU fics. They just scratch an itch in my brain and fill a niche I yearn for in a way that I can overlook how much I cringe at my pitfalls as a writer (mostly typos – a lot of typos). And even though those specific fics didn’t get as much attention as I wish they had – didn’t get the kind of traction they would have if they were M/M fics – I still love them to bits. And my favorite things I’ve written are something that ground me. A reminder that first and foremost my writing is supposed to bring me joy.

Despite all my frustrations, I don't regret taking the leap to writing mostly femslash. I appreciate Ice especially, my beloved supporter and enabler for all things femslash. Without her I don't think I would have been brave enough to switch to mostly writing femslash no matter how passionate I've always been about WLW stories. It can feel a little lonely posting F/F especially when the reader engagement compared to my M/M fics and even a good portion of my gen fic is much more limited. So seriously Ice I love you so much. I appreciate how you're always happy to Iisten to me ramble and you make me feel like my femslash writing has value and can resonate with people even if it does not always reach as wide of a readership as I would hope. You are my number one cheerleader when it comes to my fics and I am so glad to have you in my life.

So who knows what’s next? Probably no togachako oneshots for a while from me let alone event fics (save for the one that’s already written). But I still feel passionate about the togachako multi chaps because they challenge me and have stuff that is new and exciting to me that I haven’t necessarily read/written before. I guess for the foreseeable future I’ll focus on Knee Deep In the Passenger Seat and Dear Google because I’m still fixated on the stories that can only be told in longform rather than shorter oneshots.

And mayhaps I’ll even expand to other fandoms. Descendants 4 brainrot has been festering in my brain – there are some high quality femslash ships with enemies to lovers and tragic yuri vibes and I am obsessed. Also, since the movie literally came out last month I need to get to it and crank out more femslash descendants fics :DDD (cinderella/queen of hearts only has 22 fics when I checked yesterday so it’s high time i fan the flames of this precious rarepair)

[stillness-in-green]

Favorite Characters of 2023

Saw this meme template by @limayde and had to drop anything more productive because I Love Character Memes. I tried to focus on characters who particularly signified 2023 in fandom for me, not necessarily just my favorites in any given fandom, and certainly not my favorites of all time! So consider it a reasonable representation of what I read/was reading/was still thinking about last year.

(I'm also relatively sure I could fill this out entirely with BNHA characters, but if I were to do that, it would be with the goal of representing how much I was thinking about said characters in terms of Fix-It Fic(s) Brainstorming, rather than simply how much I like them. Yoichi would be prominent in the former and not present at all in the latter, for example.)

Anyway, after much painstaking cropping, here it is!

(A full list of who all these people are and a blurb apiece of my thoughts on them, as well as the meme template, can be found beneath the cut!)

Most Favorite Blorbo(s) of 2023

Lord Glück and Macht of El Dorado (Sousou no Frieren) – Macht's was the arc that turned me around on Frieren's treatment of demons—he’s so interesting, and so tragic, totally set in his ways while also yearning to change them.  Glück, meanwhile, is so devoted to his word, blunt in his assessment of Macht’s character but wholly sincere about trying to give him the knowledge and environment he needs to change.  My BF asked me for the spoiler-free version of what I liked about them, and the best I can sum it up as is, “A mutual acceptance despite the parts of each other they can’t understand,” and, “They’ve made each other promises that go all the way to end, to the goddamn end.”  Thirty years of that!  I am once again begging on my hands and knees for Frieren to get a second season, and also, if the universe really loves me, to end the first season with a tease for the Golden City.[1]

(I cheated a bit here; the central square is intended for a single supreme fave, not center-mounting one's OTP. I am, however, entirely incapable of picking one of those two above the other. Also, putting them both there does bring the character count to a nice even 50.}

1: A second tease.  There’s actually been one already, a reference to Macht’s enchanted jewelry, squirreled away in some on-screen text—one of the anime’s many additions to the background detail compared to the manga.

12 Characters vs. 12 Months In A Year. Coincidence? Probably!

(Starting at the top left corner and moving clockwise.)

Shigaraki Tomura (BNHA) – 2023 was the year Shigaraki Tomura got his groove back, thank heavens.  While he didn’t get much material in which to speak his own mind—really just Chapters 379 and 411, a full year apart (the latter didn’t officially come out until just a few days ago; we just got the leaks a week early).  We’ll see how he holds up going forward, but even those few scenes effortlessly demonstrate just how profound a waste of time handing AFO the reins to the end game was.  Here’s to not letting Heroes off the hook in the new year!

Iguchi Shuuichi/Spinner (BNHA) – Spent a lot of 2023 worrying about this guy.  Still am worried about this guy.  But him turning the tides of the war at the end of 2022 shifted the whole course of the battle, and new we’ve got Shigaraki invoking The Horizon to finally give us incontrovertible evidence that Shigaraki and Spinner have talked about more than just video games!  2024 is shaping up Spinaraki!

Yotsubashi Rikiya/Re-Destro (BNHA) – I provide fanart for this man because, of course, he was in the actual canon not at all last year, absent a single flashback panel from Hose Face, not at all making up for what a caricature that character was otherwise.  All the good Re-Destro content I was getting last year was thanks to @nickfoo’s wonderful, wonderful fanart of him.  Thanks for continuing to give this guy love, foo! (full art here)

Geten (BNHA) – Himura backstory reveal!  And that revelation accounted for the only fanfic I posted last year at all, as well as being super satisfying in terms of largely clearing Todoroki Enji of the responsibility for the heteromorphobic microaggressions perpetrated by certain of his children, as well as giving us some more hints about Geten and Re-Destro’s relationship.  Exquisite. (Now just let him have something to say that isn’t mostly there to Contextualize Dabi.)

Vamirio/Anne from Management  (Helck) – I reread Helck last year in celebration of its anime, and just to reiterate this again, Vamirio and her determination lead her to make firm stands and fiery declarations about her combat role and priorities that Deku has never even fuckin’ thought about.  Vamirio a best; vote Vamirio for Head of Management.

Samuel Murphy +Hal and Nobu (Canis: The Speaker) – Sam’s my favorite of another inseparable trio, probably because, at least as an adult, he’s the most vulnerable—not simply because he lacks the firearms or goons that his partners’ positions allow them to call to hand, but also because of his struggles with insomnia.  Whip-smart, observant, and well-spoken, and I always have had a preference for the smart ones.

Jasper (Steven Universe) – I started reading @faelapis’s post-canon Jasper exploration fic Something Better last year and absolutely fell in love with it.  It reminded me all over again how much I love Jasper, and how much I wanted a story that gave her all the time she needed to change.

Somei Yoshino (Yakuza Fiancée) – Last year saw the anime announcement and Yoshino’s totally amazing bathtub fight with Azami, which I guess there are cowards out there who didn’t like?  RIP to them but I’m different, I guess!  I’ll watch Yoshino break her terrible suitors’ fingers any time!

Wolfgang Grimmer (Monster) – Reread the back half of Monster last year solely because I love Grimmer and wanted to read his material again.  A perennial favorite, manga and character alike.  I love a man held together with scotch tape, stitches and good intentions.

Boutarou the Pirate (Golden Kamuy) – Probably not my actual favorite character in the series, but I finally got to see him in anime form last year after a maddening wait thanks to the delay in 2022.  Shiraishi’s best ship and a feral merman (look at the way he uses his hair and tell me I'm wrong) that someone unaccountably let walk around on dry land. A+ character.

Sailor Cosmos (Sailor Moon) – Speaking of characters with a huge wait on seeing them in the anime..!  God, I’ve wanted anime Sailor Cosmos since high school, and I’m thrilled to finally get her (and the merch that would accompany her).

Mitaka Asa (Chainsaw Man) – I read the first half of Chainsaw Man a while back, largely on the basis of @robotlesbianjavert’s enthusiasm, and while I enjoyed it well enough, particularly Denji’s assorted travails, I never got super invested in it because, not having to wait week to week for releases, there was never really enough time to get attached to most characters before they got unceremoniously offed.  Whether it’s the week-to-week wait or just that I like Asa as a character more, she’s really done the job of getting me interested in the series.  I love this loser failgirl and I want only the best for her; while I doubt that’s what she’ll get, at least I can watch her torture logic to make sick weapons and have affecting scenes about her own crippling inadequacy issues in the meantime.

36 Others

(As before, starting on the top left and moving clockwise through the BNHA Zone.)

Scarecrow/Spinner’s Number 2 (BNHA) – Scarecrow’s big speechifying moments would have been back in autumn of 2022, but I still loved him more than enough in 2023 for him to make this grid.  He was reduced to a shallow caricature and still had to get knocked off a roof because no one could actually out-argue him, and through all of that unendurable authorial laziness, his potential still shines through for me.  Stan the MLA, MLA 5Evah.

Toga Himiko (BNHA) – The only Villain whose Hero foil plotline is working for me on any level, though a lot is hanging on whether or not she, y’know, lives.  She definitely should have gotten to stab the bejeezus out of Hawks, and Ochaco should definitely go on the run with her once Apple Cheeks realizes that the HeroAca justice system could not possibly be relied upon to do anything other than throw Toga in a hole for a few years before executing her.

Gentle Criminal (BNHA) – The only redeemed villain whose regard for Deku functions at all thematically.  Lady N’s return is hogswash on multiple levels, but I will defend Gentle’s without reservation.

Kunieda + Aoyama Yuuga (BNHA) – Consider these two to be a stand-in for all the thinking I did last year about Fix-It Fic scenarios for this whole final arc.  For example, Kunieda in the canon speaks far too knowledgeably both about and to Aoyama for them to be total strangers, so why not plant some seeds for their confrontations earlier?  I ask the reader to consider this:

In a version of the Edgy Deku arc that allowed the rest of 1-A to get out into the world to help out with relocation efforts, they one day come across a scene of dread: a neighborhood full of corpses and Kunieda’s flowers.  Aoyama has a noticeably shaken reaction, which he plays off as just horror to his similarly horrified classmates, but the truth is that he’s got prior history with Kunieda—AFO didn’t plop corpses in front of his parents to intimidate them (because that’s ham-handed and silly), but bodies were still involved.  They’d turn up buried in the family's fancy gardens sometimes, always heralded by those vivid red-black flowers…

Frieren (Sousou no Frieren) – I was relatively neutral on the title character until the anime came out and I had to suffer through The Discourse about her attitude towards demons (arguments on both sides tending to be poorly considered and ignorant, both of canonical details and real-world relevance).  That made me a bit more defensive of her, but even setting my contrarianism aside, I was also very pleased with how she navigated the manga’s most recent arc.[2]  She’s maybe the first character I can think of who I have actively wanted to write Asexual Representation fic for, if only because my answer to, “Does she Romantically Love Himmel?” is much more complex than just saying, “No, she only saw him as a friend,” or, “Yes, and now she’s going to be sad about her Tragically Lost Love for the rest of her life and we need to write all the fix-it fics about that.”

2: She wants to go home!  Her feelings for Himmel, whatever they are, are of less importance to her than going home!  Despite everything we know about how she perceives time, she still values her “now” more than her lost “then”!  My gloating aside, though, I was far more affected by the sword scene than I was the wedding attire or the near kiss.  Being trapped in a wedding illusion?  Trite, overplayed.  Being trapped in a wedding illusion yet still being able to wrap your hands around your partner’s arm and faithfully guide them into drawing the sword neither of you can perceive?  Now that’s intimacy!

Heiter (Sousou no Frieren) – While I had little overall use for the aforementioned most recent arc of Frieren, I did very much enjoy my favorite member of the Hero Party getting a moment to demonstrate what being The Priest Of The Party That Defeated The Demon King actually means in practice.  Grausam being unable to put him down with an illusion?  Being the only one who could defend his downed companions?  The sheer level of trust he has in Himmel?  A little bit of vulnerability where he’s bare seconds away from getting gibbed by Grausam?  Heiter is the member of the party that we get the least amount of in on: Sein didn’t stay with the party long enough to serve as a point of comparison, and despite Heiter raising Fern, she didn’t assume his role in the new group, like Stark did Eisen’s, nor do her reminiscences about him get anywhere near the amount of screentime that Frieren’s do of Himmel.  So for real, you guys, Chapter 118 was so good.

Edward (Shadows House) – *bangs fists on table*  WORST BOY WORST BOY WORST BOY!!  Anime Edward is pants, but Manga Edward is where it’s at, always keeping Kate scrambling, always coming out on top of his maneuverings against his peer group rivals, just flappable enough that his victories doesn’t look effortless, and engaging enough that his smugness feels earned rather than intended to turn the reader against him.  I have no idea how the story is going to deal with the adult shadows, who are after all still just as brainwashed and wronged by Grandfather’s workings as the kids are!  If anything, they’re worse off, having already been manipulated into losing the “faces” they must once have loved dearly.  Thus, while Kate and her allies certainly approach the conflict with a very Us vs. Them, Adults=The Enemy mentality, the screentime Edward’s own affairs get, fully independent of how they intersect with Kate’s, along with an avowed desire to improve the House that parallels Kate’s, make me hopeful that the authors have something a little more nuanced in mind than, “Free the current victims by wiping out all the previous ones.”

Melinda Desmond (Spy x Family) – The main cast are all perfectly fine, but Melinda is interesting.  Super curious to find out more about the Desmond family dynamics, and I love Melinda bouncing around with Yor. (I swear, though, judging by the collective response to the most recent chapter, the fandom is going to turn me into a Donovan Apologist yet. Only one member of that family has visible scars suggesting brain surgery, folks!!)

Anti/Knight/Gridknight (Gridman Universe) – Always my favorite single character from both Gridman and Dynazenon, and he was characteristically great in the movie as well.  His scene with Akane at the end was only my second favorite beat because, while it’s wonderful emotionally cathartic (more fanservice like this, please!), it’s also kind of muddled thanks to the idea of Gridman!Anti and Dynazenon!Knight being two separate entities. Churlish to hold that against it, though, when it's so heartfelt.

Minami Yume + Asanaka Yomogi (Gridman Universe) – Such a great pairing in their own show—I once saw someone call them forced, which has always struck me as just being too high on Bashing The Hets to see that Yomogi and Yume have a great arc towards getting together, actually.  Seeing them be unabashedly together and happy about it in the film was 100% delightful and deserved. Yume swooping down out of the sky on Dynarex to scoop up her wifeguy boyfriend is my actual favorite beat in the movie.

Hyura (Helck) – Firstly, the dry humor around Hyura is fantastic.  (“Something like an arm grows back simply enough.  That’s just common sense.”  “It doesn’t, right?”  “It does not.”)  Secondly, she’s the biggest badass in the secondary cast.  Thirdly, she and Edil have the designated rival ship dynamic (incredibly rare to see across gender lines in shounen manga), and Hyura holds her own all the way to the end.  Hyura is great.

Mikaros (Helck) – “Yes, we may have lost some assets and I personally shattered the mind of one of our strongest soldiers, removing him from the playing field.  But the important thing is that I personally overcame my trauma, so overall it’s a win.”  What a slimeball.  What a total heap.  And what an excellent example of the end-stage stakes driving the title character's choice in the epilogue! I love Mikaros unreservedly.

Harold Aldo Hughes and Iwaki Tadanobu + Sam (Canis: The Speaker) – Transformation, reinvention, the fierceness of devotion and the ruthlessness of rebirth—I don’t love them quite as much as I do Sam, but they’re also both great.

Hera (Lore Olympus) – Lore Olympus is one of those series I read more because it’s interesting enough while also being blisteringly gorgeous than because I’m deeply invested in the characters, but the plotline about Hera and Kronos really has pulled me all the way into active, character-specific interest.  Great, tense, painful stuff.  Can’t wait to see where she goes following recent events.

Redcloak (Order of the Stick) – His last really insightful and heartwrenching scene was in the year before last—that fantastic exchange with Oona!—but for as long as I’m reading OOTS, Redcloak is going to be a favorite.  God, the Law Elemental summoning is so funny.

Hyness (Kirby franchise) – This one’s entirely on my sis-in-law—like another character further down the list, I am not remotely “in” the Kirby fandom.  But what can I say—tell me about a warped cult leader who started in a bad place and only got worse who still managed to get saved by the Hero taking a leap of faith that paid off, and tell me the fandom calls him a horrible abuser?  Sorry, but I Have No Choice But To Stan. (full art here)

Lafcadio Boone (The Sexy Brutale) – Replayed this again last year, and it’s still great.  In a sense, despite its sizeable named cast, it really only has the one character, and his story is such that I want to make every single person on tumblr that gets hyperbolic about the forgiveness and redemption of fictional wrongdoers play this game.  “Time to move on, old man,” indeed.

Sissel (Ghost Trick) – Finally got the remaster of this and replayed it, and it’s also still great.  Knowing The Spoilers about Sissel seriously make replays such a scream, but also man is this game really sitting on some completely over-the-top darkness not at all far beneath its candy apple red and Matrix-text green surface.

Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India (Across the Spider-Verse) – Strictly in terms of character writing, he’s very fun, but I don’t think he’s as strong as Spider-Punk or Miguel O'Hara, but on the other hand, he’s so much fun, especially to simply watch in motion.  Most of the rest of the leads, however varied their artstyles might be, still feel like they move in basically the same ways, just with varying levels of grace vs. power, intent vs. controlled collapse, but because of the way Pavitr uses his thread, he moves completely differently, and it’s just a ton of fun to watch.  The first character I went hunting for fanart of when I got out of the movie theater.

Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Across the Spider-Verse) – I have outstanding affection for Spider-Gwen from reading her comics back when, but that opening Vulture fight, the fantastic look of her dimension, and all the trans signaling kept her right at the top, too.

Brutha (Discworld: Small Gods) – @codenamesazanka read this and a few of the Watch books last year, prompting me to do some rereads as well, and Brutha and Small Gods remain very dear to me.  I only wish more artists would draw versions of him that remotely resemble “fat, simple-looking young man from a desert country in fantasy!expy!Middle East” rather than “suspiciously trim and Benedictine.”

Sam Vimes (Discworld series) – Ditto on Nal’s read above, but also chatted with foo a lot about this guy, and he’s been my favorite single character in the series since high school.  It takes very little to prompt me to reread his books generally, but last year was the first time I’ve had it in me to reread Snuff, as it was previously a little too tied up in my feelings about the last few books prior to Pratchett’s death.  Regardless of anything else, though, Snuff is the book for Sam/Sybil.

Mina Murray (#DRCL: Midnight Children) – Discovered this lush chonk of horror phantasmagoria last year and I’m kind of in love with it.  Its take on Mina anchors it well—she’s smart and fiery but up against ingrained sexism and classism in her setting, and not too Anachronistic Grrl Power to not be hurt by that sometimes; she’s stubborn, but vulnerable to the supernatural horrors in the way any child would be.  An unreliable but intriguing and sympathetic narrator.

Capone Bege (One Piece) – The other character I got onto largely without getting into the series he hails from, nickfoo—whose art I again use to illustrate—does great work with this guy, a once-jovial monster shocked back from that moral brink by marriage and fatherhood.  Still gets a bit Into It at work, but tries not to bring it home, at least as much as that can be avoided when carrying both family and crew around in the same heart/sub-dimensional space.  (Also, foo’s version of Bege is great, but her rendition of Chiffon is—speaking as someone who doesn’t read the series and can only gauge by image search or skimming the wiki—borderline miraculous, accurate to Oda’s lively caricature design, but so much more sensitive, expressive and human.)

Prince Kazu/Lady Chikako (Ooku: The Inner Chambers) – On the occasion of the Netflix anime, I finally tracked down and finished Ooku last year, and when I tell you that I laughed more and harder in the final arc than I did through the entire rest of the series combined…  The Kyoto cast members are a big part of why,[3] and none more delightful than the stuffy, prideful, possessive, and deeply impetuous Chikako, one of the most singularly human characters in the whole 19-volume melodrama.

3: Catty ex-male prostitute turned head of the Inner Chambers Takiyama is the other part of this equation, by the way.

Gao Shun (The Apothecary Diaries) – Long-suffering stoics are my absolute favorite type, and that holds true even though Gao Shun's stoicism has been largely a humorous beat thus far.  I want this guy to get more attention, but until then, I will continue to enjoy his weary exasperation every time he has to deal with Mao Mao’s eccentricities/Jinshi’s enthusiasm about same.

Mao Mao (The Apothecary Diaries) – Best female character of the season, for sure, but I’ve been reading one of the manga for a while now, and she’s a regular delight.  Eccentric and ruthless by turns, painfully aware of the limitations of her position and yet wholly willing to make her own decisions and exert her own agency within those limitations without ever concerning herself with whether she should ask permission from or report to someone above her rank.  Mao Mao’s mercy takes the form of knowing when to speak and when to demure, and every time I see some stuck-in-their-own-ethical-framework commenter complain about her moral compass, I appreciate it harder.

Accustomizer Stud/Tiffany (Angelic Acceptor Alouette) – Enthusiastically resourceful teenage girl who would probably be super into transhumanism if she hadn’t fallen in with angels (sic) instead, transforming into the gloriously nonbinary pile of muscles and amazing hair that is Accustomizer Stud, Tiffany’s ultimate expression of her inner self.  Stud is magnanimous, gracious, and well-spoken, and they are also VERY LOUD AND FIGHTY.  My absolute favorite character in a game wall-to-wall with great characters.

Yuunagi Tsubasa/Cure Wing (Hirogaru Sky PreCure) – The first Official Boy Cure with absolutely no provisos or qualifications or ways to wiggle out of it, and the show gets him just right by playing him basically completely straight.  Has a costume no one would look twice at in a magical girl line-up, wastes no time on masculine embarrassment at his frills, with the only nod he/the show make towards his gender at all being to frame his role as being a knight to a princess, rather than simply a guardian to one, but it’s not really what he’s about.  His actual character is driven by knowledge, studiousness, and a desire to overcome the limitations placed on him by being a human/pudgy flightless bird fairy.

Kei Miyama (Go With the Clouds, North By Northwest) – Something of a stand-in for his series generally, which I read the two most recent volumes of last year and fell in love with all over again—particularly the most recent one, which switches deftly between depictions of shattering, world-hollowing grief and the beguiling intimacy of the rhythms of life and nature.  But my love for the manga itself aside, Kei’s a great protagonist, full of little contradictions and snags that make him feel much more fleshed out and grounded than your average animanga male lead, even as he’s running around doing very Animanga Male Lead Things, like solving mysteries by using his Strange Power to get information a normal person could not.

Lord El-Melloi II/Waver Velvet (Fate franchise) – Waver is possibly my favorite character of all time in any medium, so it takes very little to rekindle the love.  In last year's case, it took the Fate/strange Fake special!  Love to see my boy continue to wrest more narrative space for himself than he was originally allotted by virtue of being a run-away audience favorite of the Fate/Zero anime!

Ivan (Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still) – Got the remastered Blu-ray last year as a gift, and guess what?  I still love Ivan in all his cartoonish mini-boss villainy layered over the pathos of tragic loss and resentment.  Honestly, I can only assume he’s as well-adjusted as he is because Alberto is so inspiring to work in close quarters with (mood), because otherwise I’d think it pretty unfair that the sole surviving Bashtarle national in the story gets so little to say about/to the people who blew it up.

Isurugi Camice (Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans) – I was a bit too preoccupied with BNHA meta last year to think much about my prior fandom phase, but I still made time to rotate Isurugi in my mind from time to time.  As one of my beloved long-suffering stoics, I can always make that kind of time for him.  (Image source is from the cover of a doujinshi I have, because melancholy BL doujinshi is definitely more the kind of tonal zone my mental rotations were occupying than they were canon’s!)

And, finally, the blank

(If anyone reading this wants to give it a whirl, I reccommend blowing it up to x2 size; makes the small squares easier to work with.)

[teenandbeyond]

Hanta Sero x Reader

Since my Tumblr on my laptop was acting suuuper buggy* Excuse the quality.

(⁠☞⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠☞(⁠☞⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠☞(⁠☞⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠☞

Want more from me? Masterlist

🩹Christmas Love🩹 (BNHA)

Warning(s): Fluff

Sero takes you out on a date or... You take him out???

🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹

Before Sero’s knuckle could leave your door, it was open in a rush.

He jumped back in surprise, but couldn’t hold back the fond smile at what he saw.

You grinned wide, jumping in excitement, “Hanta! It’s snowing on Christmas! In Japan!”

“I know, can’t say I expected to wake up to it.”

You hurried back in to put on your cute Christmas coat and boots you liked before closing the door behind you.

He sighed, the puff of air visible with the chill, “Looks like our original plan won’t work with all this snow.”

Your grin was wide, “That’s okay. We can improvise.”

He yelped as you quickly grabbed his hands, dragging him along. Then he chuckled.

“I’m coming, baby. I promise.”

“Then put those nice thighs of yours to use and walk faster!”

✧*̥˚ *̥˚✧

“So, what are we doing first on this improvised date of ours?”

You didn’t answer, too focused on all the pretty Christmas decor decorating different places.

“[Name]?”

“Hmm…? Oh! We should check out the antique Christmas stand first!”

You dashed away, Sero having to rush after you.

“Hello, sir. You have such pretty things here,” you were looking with interested eyes after a polite bow.

“Oh, yes. I have old Christmas gadgets from all over the world here—I’m quite a collector, but I’m getting older you see. I’d like to let you younger folk gain happiness from them like I did at your age.”

Sero watched you look at everything with a soft smile.

He loved you so much.

As if you felt his eyes, you looked at him, only to shyly smile at the burning gaze and busy yourself with a Santa plate.

And you didn’t even know it.

The two of you hadn’t exchanged the ‘L’ word yet.

It wasn’t because he was so busy at UA, because you visited him every other day with special permission.

Or because you hadn’t gone on too many dates.

It was fear, he’d met you during the break before high school started. And you hadn’t known each other long before he’d gone through USJ. You were a rock he hadn’t known he needed.

You stuck by him. Helped him with his studies, helped him just get a break from it all, and comforted him after each villain situation.

He fell for you, it was impossible not to with how kind of a soul you were, and you fell for him.

So you made it official. But things were still kind of fresh.

So he thought it would be too soon to tell you…. ‘[Name]! I’m in love with you!’

So he just kept all that deep love in, letting enough of it seep out and pass as ‘like’.

Even though what he felt was so much more deeper and passionate than the simple feeling of ‘like’. ‘Liking’ was a boy’s feeling, he was a man that loved you.

But…what if you didn’t feel the same?

“Hanta? Are you still there or did you freeze from the cold?”

He snapped out of it, eyes meeting your amused ones.

“Yeah, just…You’re really cute right now.”

That look, so full of something you couldn’t place had you playing with your gloves. It was too intense.

“W-well anyway, I decided to get this,” you showed him your choice. “Let’s go!”

You zoomed away, but something caught his eye before he could follow you.

A gold carnation necklace.

“Ah, yes. It isn’t necessarily Christmas-themed, but I wanted to get rid of it.”

“How much is it?” he looked back up to the seller.

The elder man smiled at him, “Free of charge. You can take it.”

“There’s no way I could—”

“I know a man in love when I see it. Carnations are a wonderful flower to show that love with—and it’s old, nothing I can do with it. Go ahead!”

“Thank you.”

The seller put the necklace box into a pretty bag.

“Merry Christmas.”

“Yes, you too.”

You patiently waited a distance away, looking in different directions to find where Sero had disappeared to.

“Sorry, I got caught up buying something.”

“That’s okay! I noticed there was a hot chocolate stand not too far from here, let’s go there next!”

Sero just followed like the dutiful boyfriend he was, though he had to admit, once it cooled down a little, the hot chocolate was delicious.

The two of you continued walking, holding each other’s free hand as you talked about anything coming to mind.

Then Sero got bumped into.

“Ah!”

“Sorry!”

“Hanta! Are you okay?”

He waved off the person so they wouldn’t keep feeling bad.

You pulled him to the side to check his hand.

With the pout, you checked his hand, body hovering over it to block some of the cold.

“I told you you should’ve worn gloves…that would've helped a little.

“I wasn’t thinking about it.”

He watched as you took care of his hand, so gentle with him, checking how he was feeling.

You were always gentle and caring with him.

That’s why…

“I love you.”

Crap, did he say that out loud?

Your hands paused just as you placed one of your gloves on his wrapped hand.

“Uh, [Name] I—I shouldn’t have—”

“—Do you mean it?”

He couldn’t lie to you.

“...Yes. I love you so much it–it doesn’t make any sense. I love how much you care for me. I love when you’re so happy your face lights up. I love when you’re sad and come to me, wanting me to make you feel better. I love everything about you…” he looked away from you, “I know it’s kind of soon, but I just can’t help it. I–”

“—Love you, too.”

“Wait, huh?”

Your smile was soft and happy, “I love you, too. I had been hoping you felt the same way. I was going to ask you later today.”

Now Sero was happy, a bubbly grin stretching onto his face, “Wow. This is the greatest Christmas present ever—And I didn’t even need the necklace.”

“What necklace?”

He shyly rubbed his neck, “I, um—That man from the store gave me a necklace—A flower to confess love or something.”

“I’ll still take it. Just to be sure you really love me.”

“Of course, I love you! I’m serious!”

“I’m just teasing, Hanta. I know.”

“No. You need to be assured,” he went to attack your face with kisses.

“Stop! Your lips are cold!”

“Your face is hot enough to make up for it.”

“Shut up!”

“You loooove me.”

“You love me too, goof!”

[le-panda-chocovore]

What do you think are Aizawa and Yamada’s greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why? What do you love about their dynamic?

So, I don't see many Eraserhead/Present Mic shipper, so glad when finding your blog...(Hope you don't mind I use the same frame from your satosugu ask)

P.s 1

Can I ask, why did you dislike BNHA ending?

I know it's anti climatic but for BKDK shipper (me) the last 20-25 chapters feels like out of some fanfics. I can't believe we got that many BKDK canon moments and no canon m/f ending... (Sorry if you're anti Bakugou or anti BKDK, please don't hate me)

P.s 2

Now, that we got the feel of JJK ending, which did you feel more disappointed, JJK ending or BNHA ending?

Sorry for the late answer, I completely forgot about this ask 😭😭

I don't post much about Erasermic because I'm far out of my MHA hyperfixation. I still love them obviously but I stopped being obsessed with them 2 years ago so you probably quickly get bored if you follow me for that kind of content

Why I love them ? Well, they're the moonlight x sunshine cliché trope, PLUS they're best friends to lovers !! They met in high school and stay together, Aizawa is kind of a tsundere and Mic constantly calls him out on that ! And they're really cute together. Also, they're liars.

Aizawa pretends he doesn't but he cares so much about people he's willing to risk his life to protect them. And he knows that. He knows it's bad and dangerous too, which is why he teaches everyone around him to not do the same thing. Aizawa believes in his people, he believes they can change, they can do better, and he believes most people deserve to be saved. He's actually a sweetheart.

Mic is way less nice than he wants you to believe. He's impulsive and says his thoughts out loud, and most times they're insulting. He's kinda selfish, which doesn't mean he's a bad hero btw. He sees villains as criminals, he doesn't respect them, and doesn't care about them. He's not very merciful or lenient. He wasn't going to give Shirakumo/Blackmist a chance. He accused Bakugo of fighting seriously during a fighting tournament. Of course he's not on an extreme level of grudge and resentment, but Aizawa is more willing to forgive people than Mic is.

They complete each other and I love that. I love how they changed during the manga. Aizawa started as a scary and strict teacher, and Mic looked like the cool and positive teacher. At the end of the manga, Aizawa keeps smiling and being so pure and lovely, while Mic is bitter and frustrated and sad, and can hardly bring himself to laugh. I love them.

A few years prior I would say much more things about them but I haven't read an mha fanfiction for a while so my analysis isn't that deep. Also I don't feel like answering the weaknesses/strength thing today.

Anyway, as for the ending, of course it's great for BKDK shipper, which I am a part of. And no I'm clearly not a Bakugo hater, he's one of my favorite characters, I love him. I also think he has one of the best character development in the entire serie. So, yeah, this is the perfect bakudeku ending, they're so sweet and cute, but this doesn't mean I like the Manga Ending as a whole epilogue.

I'd say I'm just not the target audience. I guess I forgot MHA was a classic shonen with power of friendship and all. Problem fixed and everyone's happy I guess ? It's cute on paper but I don't buy it. I think Hiroshima didn't realize how deeply philosophical his work would be. There're serious moral and ethic and politics themes showing that there is an obvious problem in the Hero Society and the only way to change it is to destroy the Hero Society. Not change it from the inside. Destroy it, the way they did in JJK when they killed the Zenin clan, the Higher Ups and Tengen. The ending seems nice, but it's very superficial, very idealistic. (Almost) Every villain is dead or dying but there's no major loss on the heroes' side ? All Might and Edgeshot are impossibly still alive ? They all go back to school after after the war, as if the public image of Heroes hasn't been shattered to pieces ? What the fuck is this nonsense ? It's not fair, it's not right.

There are entire arcs about the villains, their lives, and their convictions. I know more about Toga than I do about Jirou or Momo, and you're saying me the students win and live happily in the world they rebuilt ? The LOV members are still seen as awful monsters and their voice aren't shared with anyone anymore ? Don't get me wrong, I didn't want the league to win, but it would have been fair for them to manage to destroy something else than buildings.

It's an idealistic ending and I guess people need to believe we can change the world that way, so I'd let them that. You can like it, it was enjoyable, the same way the last chapter of JJK was. But personally, I don't thing that story should have led to that.

I don't really want to debate about it, like I said, I'm over MHA.

I'm not disappointed in JJK's ending because all I wanted was for this to end. I'm not disappointed with MHA either because I stopped having expectations a while ago. I think I like the JJK one better though.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Now I'm interested, what are some of your favorite picks for the cast? Any choices that don't make sense on paper but you have an odd reason for?

Oh for the bnha pmd thing? Okay so they're all pokemon and like. I have. I have Thoughts™.

Like we brianstormed half of this ages ago in the discord and then I made a joke and we brought it back up and Aki is making their own spin on it now(I love this for you btw it's fun and I love seeing the overlap on our thoughts)

ANYWAY: Who is what pokemon!

So first off. All of 1-A are first stage evolution because they're baby.

Izuku - Oh boy. Short version: Mew 3 but thinks he's a Shaymin. Long story will swing back to it eventually

Katsuki - Riolu! I had narrowed it down to Riolu, Cyndaquil, or Mankey, all for appearance and vibes and some in the power category. But then it was pointed out that Riolu evolves through /friendship. and I just. The narrative there? Beautiful.

Ochako - Cleffa! They're from space!

Kiri - Sandshrew! I knew he'd be a ground or rock type and Sandshrew's a vibe and they're all pointy, but also because my AU has Kiri and Tetsutetsu as siblings I wanted something to fit both of them as they'd be the same thing, and main Sandshrew is ground but the Alolan one is part Steel for Tetsutetsu

Shoto - Vulpix, still a Chimera so he's both Kantonian and Alolan.

Denki - Pichu. Like how can I not he already gets the Pikachu jokes but Pichu is extra baby and can't yet control the electricity!

Jiro - Noibat! Just fuckin look at it!

Tsu - Froakie. Frog!!! Will eventually be a Greninja and look at the similarities!

Fumikage - Murkrow. Once again. Obvious choice.

Hagakure - Kecleon! Invisible baby!

Ojiro - Aipom! Monkey! Tail is a hand!

Sato - Milcrey but like. Big one.

Momo - Eevee. Simple but many possibilities!

Himiko - Zorua. Known for disguising!

Mei - Tinkaton. It just. It's pink and it builds weapons!!!!

Monoma - Smeargle. he copies things!

All Might - Palafin. IT'S LITERALLY THE ONLY PERFECT CHOICE

Recovery Girl - Blissey. Nurse pokemon!!

Present Mic - Chatot. I have to make the gay bird be the other gay bird it's a pmd story I have to!!

Midnight - Slazzle

Cementoss - Conkledurr

Power Loader - Exadrill

Nezu - Ironically, the one random Human who got yeeted into the pokemon world.

AfO - A VERY pissed off Mewtwo.

-

Going into the Todoroki drama for a second:

Enji is an Incineroar(Seriously LOOK AT IT).

Rei is an Alolan Ninetails, chosen because 1.) compatible with Incineroar and 2.) can make both fire and ice kids.

We're /kinda/ breaking some of how in-game genetics and abilities work for the kids to match their canon powers.

Toya is a Kantonian Ninetails but he got Snow Cloak instead of Flash Fire

Fuyumi is all Alolan

Natsuo is the opposite of Toya, being Alolan but having Flash Fire instead of Snow Cloak.

Shoto, as mentioned above, is a Chimera. So he got both the Kanto and Alola forms in one.

-

Swinging back to Izuku's bullshit: Basically Dad for One but with me yoinking from my other Monster AU.

AfO being a very pissed off Mewtwo. Has become the thing he hated and tried to make another Mew, resulting in Izuku. Baby Izuku ends up teleporting his ass out of there and is found by Inko(a Shaymin). Imprints on her as a mother figure and unconsciously uses the transform ability to copy her form. Inko does not know what happened there but that is a baby and it's hers now damn it. Izuku knows Inko isn't his mom but isn't aware that he's not a Shaymin.

[loveephia]

anime crushes i've had, why, and if i still like him or not:

neito monoma (bnha)

listen, he can be really handsome. 😭 and the fact that he's canonically handsome (WITH GOOD FASHION TASTE) makes so much sense. i don't like him as much as i used to, but i definitely still giggle whenever he comes up on screen.

keigo takami | hawks (my hero acadamia)

his new haircut in the later seasons had me screaming. 10/10. i made my mha oc have a canon celebrity crush on him, because yes.

shoto todoroki (my hero acadamia)

when i first started watching my hero acadamia, i actually had a crush on katsuki bakugo (which.. i will not explain, nor will i discuss why on this list), but eventually, i came to realize that i loved boys who were more responsible and aloof. todoroki is actually one of the love interests i've been contemplating to introduce to my mha oc.

tōru oikawa (haikyū!!)

i swear, he was like every haikyū!! girls' first love (it was either him, kageyama, tsukishima, or kenma), and no, i do not like him anymore. >:p

ushijima wakatoshi (haikyū!!)

honestly, he has moments that make my heart pound. the "my cute fiancé" work i did make me like him a little bit more. he was the first haikyū!! character i thought of when asked the question, "who would think their s/o's stomach chub is cute?" [next to that would be bokuto kōtarō and osamu miya, of course. (kita shinsuke and keiji akaashi, too!!)]. i still like ushijima, but just below kita and iwaizumi.

kita shinsuke (haikyū!!)

i don't think i have to explain, but i will anyway. something that wins me over is a man who would definitely win my family's heart after the first meeting and is God-fearing. gracefully enough, i have a headcanon where kita is both. also, i think my entire brand speaks for itself as to whether or not i still like kita. HIS NOM-NOMABLE CHEEKS.

iwaizumi hajime (haikyū!!)

i've always sympathized with iwaizumi since his best friend was someone so popular with the girls, while he kinda just idly stands by. i gradually grew more attracted to him because the thought of him being jokingly aggressive with his friends, but kind and soft to me, was so heart-melting. so yes, i most definitely still like him.

atsumu miya + osamu miya (haikyū!!)

right off the bat, i disliked atsumu. his personality irked me a bit, and.. his ha aai ii iiir rrr.. but i eventually grew to like him because i found this trope cute: whereas atsumu would have a lot of fans, but only pay attention to your cheers. also, may i just mention his TIMESKIP HAIR. THE SIDE SWEEP. I SCREAMED.

i started liking osamu after this one scene of him looking unintentionally cute, then when i saw his timeskip job, i thought about him cooking food for me. AAAAAAA domestic fluff >>>!! and the fact that i wanted to study culinary to become a baker furthermore had me tripping over /the/ osamu miya. i'd love it if while osamu owned a restaurant, i could own a bakery, and our shops would be close to each other. (,,> ꇴ <,,)—!!

toge inumaki (jujutsu kaisen)

i'm ignoring the fact that i literally reblogged a "missing inumaki hours" post a few hours ago. yes, i still like him!! he's just so super adorable, and the headcanon of him learning sign language makes me so soft and AAAAAA!! i'd feed him all the tuna mayo onigiris i could make.

xiao (genshin impact)

if oikawa was haikyū!! girls' first love, then xiao would be genshin girls' candidate for the "first love" position (it'd be either him, kaeya, or diluc). i don't like him as much as i did back then, but his fluff-fics are always cute. ^^

childe (genshin impact)

y'know, i actually was in the midst of editing my list, then i went, "genshin has so many characters, why did i only like three?" then i remembered my freakin' childe phase. >:(

shikanoin heizou (genshin impact)

i find his moles (?) so charming, and his personality is just very playful. the hangout event was what made me like him so much, and i very much still do.

albedo (genshin impact)

yes.

special mentions:

ranpo edogawa (bungo stray dogs)

noé archviste (the case study of vanitas)

kurapika (hunter x hunter)

shirabu kenjirō (haikyū!!)

levi ackerman (attack on titan) by the way, i saw this levi ackerman cosplayer in the convention i went to a couple days ago, and he was shorter than me!! (HE WAS ALSO REALLY FREAKING HANDSOME)