#The Hero Public Safety Commission

[mha-fic-recs]

Prompt #8

Universe: Canon divergence, opportunity to turn into an AU.

Timeline: Meta Liberation Army Arc.

Ship: Tokoyama

Prompt: After (incorrectly) believing Hawks is taking too long to infiltrate the League of Villains, The Hero Public Safety Commission turns to UA and two of its first years to get the job done. The two first years being Tokoyami Fumikage and Aoyama Yuga. Of course, no one’s happy about this and unsurprisingly things go differently than expected.

[girlatrocity]

kill to save

[valenteal]

I know that the mha fandom kinda had to make up shit for Hawks because his backstory came out slowly but I really wish it hadn’t taken over. As far as I am aware the HPSC doesn’t torture him or have super strict control of his life anymore. Obviously they groomed him and trained him properly pretty brutally but I don’t think they’re unnecessarily cruel. They wouldn’t want to risk him turning against them and with how young they got him the don’t need to.

Hawks is Lady Nagant’s replacement, meaning all the people she would’ve been sent to assassinate he took care of. Corrupt heroes who needed to be silenced, political enemies, criminals with ideas to dangerous like the league and the mla, he was sent to kill them. Hawks is an assassin and a spy with a background reminiscent of Black Widow. That’s traumatizing enough and I wish I could find more fics that address that rather than him being overworked and pushed to be perfect to the point of mutilation.

Cause like— Hawks isn’t a perfect golden boy? Where did people get that idea? That would be like All Might or Best Jeanist. Hawks is super socially awkward and covers it up with bravado and ends up coming off as rude. In terms of social experience he’s at the same place as Shouto if he never went to UA. He has no idea what he’s doing, he’s just winging it and everyone ignores it because he flashes a pretty smile. He’s like completely tactless.

I don’t think the commission even intended for him to be so high ranking, he’s just too damn good at his job and too pretty for his own good. He was supposed to be an assassin and an infiltrator and being so high profile is not conducive to that.

Anyway those are my thoughts on Hawks, I love him and I love Dabihawks but god do I wish there weren’t so few fics that actually use their canon characterization, or as close as you can get with a Dabihawks fic since canonically they hate each other. But their like so perfect from a narrative standpoint, they could be each other’s perfect foil with all the parallels and similarities in their backstories!

[itsnothingofinterest]

Wild to me that people are looking at the new Hero Commission president being this guy:

And thinking: "oh yeah, he's gonna change things, make them better, bring about some much needed reform." Because I must've missed the part where he had any revelation that anything the hero system or the commission in particular were doing was wrong.

I mean treatment of villains is going to get so much worse between this guy ^ being in charge and every other reason we have to expect that treatment of villains will get worse. But even something as small as the ranking system, which I've seen suggested he'll do away with...but did we ever get a scene where he said he didn't like the ranking system?

I mean I remember him saying it could do with some improvement, but I also remember he really liked the idea of there being a number one hero to inspire people, it's part of why he tried to help Endeavor be that inspiring figure (The rest is him choosing the worst hero to be a fanboy of, but that shouldn't discount his personal logic).

And overall I just don't recall him ever having any problem with the existing way of things besides wanting more free time (and without giving any thought to what makes a villain, which he has not, that one's out of his hands), or else otherwise complaints about his personal annoyances being told what to do. But we never got that he thinks what he was told to do was wrong. Even Twice he still thinks of as "The pretty decent guy who it sucks I had to kill-which I definitely did, what does 'arrest' mean?" He even doubled down by calling for Toga's death. (Goodness sake, I give Enji shit but at least he knows when he did something bad.) So besides those little things; he had no criticisms, nor did he ever agree with people who did have criticisms. I'm just not seeing a lot of reason to think this is the guy who will improve things.

[arceus-insanity]

A Moral Scapegoat for who?

All For One is a shit character, he is presented as a massive threat, but we never see him get a win, similar to the dissonance between the All Might we see and the context in universe.

And in the end, he becomes a moral scapegoat... for the heroes.

What is a moral scapegoat?

A moral scapegoat is (usually) a character used to excuse the actions of other characters or a system. Character A may have done XYZ but Character B was the one manipulating them and/ or is so much worse, so we can excuse A's actions. Or helping defeat B acts as pence for their past actions. Etc. And to a degree it makes sense, getting people to believe a character has changed and should now be considered good both by the characters and the audience is hard. So having some bigger bad to blame takes the pressure off the desired character(s).

While the term is typically only brought up negatively, like the use of Mary&Gary Sues, there are good ones. Commander Zhao in Avatar of the Last Airbender is an early moral scapegoat, used to say yeah Prince Zuko may suck, but there are a lot worse out there. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic has a moral scapegoat, right in the pilot, Nightmare Moon for Princess Luna, sure Nightmare came from Luna but it is presented as a curse, something that was cured, fixed. The Hobbit uses Dragon Sickness as a way to both corrupt and excuse King Thorin's actions when they have retaken the mountain; he is not in his right mind, and shouldn't be considered solely responsible for his actions

In certain ways, Pink Diamond (due to the audience learning her arc in reverse, when it has such an effect on the plot of Steven Universe) is a scapegoat for the remaining Diamonds, even though it makes a lot less sense for her to be the scapegoat when considering the actual sequence of events in universe. And while most people don't think Pink/Rose's actions excuse the Diamonds (especially White), she does work with Spinel. Another rocky moral scapegoat is Horad Prime from She-ra & The Princesses of Power, he is the big bad of the show and is meant to be a scapegoat primarily for Horadak who was the previous big bad, and mildly a scapegoat for Catra. The big problems with his sacrificial slaughter is that there isn't enough time to really settle in that this is the true big bad, and both Horadak and Catra's issues were both way more on screen and show up well before we ever hear of Hoard Prime, with them operating separately.

And All For One is a worst example of all of them (that I mentioned)

For starters the more we saw of him the less ultimate intimidating evil he portrayed, nor did we get a satisfying he was actually pretty pathetic. Really trying to have your cake and eat it too. Looking back he's very cartoonishly evil, but lacks the presence, he's boring. I've seen many good portrayals of him in the fandom, but canon is just boring. His background of miscellaneous evil deeds, don't really go into how they were evil, just that Yoichi (& AFO) clearly believes them to be, both come across as very childish to me, seeing the world as black & white.

He lacks the moral complexity of complex villains (like Magneto), meant to be an ambitiously evil man, whose evil for the sack of being evil. But he lacks the presence found in Classic evil Disney characters like Jafar, Clayton, and Ursala. In a way he's like King Magnifico (from Wish, the only recent hated animated Disney movie, that I agree deserves to be shat on), trying to have both but failing to capture either

In the present, he has little involvement on screen, and once he's out of the picture, Shigaraki (& the League) really bloom as villains and characters. The story could have had a slow realization (for Shigaraki, the League and the audience) that he was holding the League back, and that meant either he was nowhere near as competent as he was portrayed, or he wasn't actually helping Shigaraki, setting up for the body suit plan

But my biggest issue is who he's the sacrificial goat for.

And who is he the scapegoat for? The fucking Heroes and their shit-ass society, including the H PSC crap.

The ending reveal that he was behind everything that happened to Tenko, from him being born, his name, the kids he chose to play with, the issues with his quirk, and only having him; fails. It doesn't work! Mainly because of what that scene ignored the walk, and the complicity of the family. It ignored that the family were directly ignoring that Tenko was being abused, trying to placate him after the fact. It ignores that Kotaro Shimura chose to follow his friends advice, over his wife too. It ignores that even though AFO would have killed anyone who tried to help Tenko, no one tried. It also doesn't make sense either, normal kids are shit actors, not to mention Tenko was the one to reach out to them, not the other way around. And with the sheer amount of heroes, and cops, and regular citizens, how was it literally no one tried to help him, it's not AFO.

What else does it ignore, oh yeah, Tenko isn't truly unique in having a tragic backstory. Sure he was planning on taking advantage of the Endeavor's awful legacy plan, but we never see that AFO has done anything before kidnapping Touya. It's implied that he helped stroked Heteromorphic discrimination for his own gain, but that doesn't change that Spinner had pesticides thrown in his face, by 'innocent' civilians, that Shoji was mutilated as a child, for saving a child, by 'innocent' civilians, that the Ordinary Lady was attacked and denied shelter in the middle of an active warzone, by 'innocent' civilians. Himiko's abuse was enabled and furthered by quirk counselling, we don't even get a he was secretly to blame all along for this one. The commission has assassins, ignore. The homeless have to resort to villainy to survive, ignore. Once someone is considered out they are abused by this society until they have to lash out, ignore. The big bad was taken down, so nothing has to be done about these systemic issues, cause the heroes say so

There's a pattern, he was only able to do this, because the society he was in was already doing it.

And AFO being a moral scapegoat could of worked.

IF the Hero Public Safety Commission was similarly a scapegoat.

To begin, AFO should have been the scapegoat for the League, and the villains as a whole. The heroes would instead have the HPSC as their scapegoat.

Hawks should not have been made president of the totally different PSC, not only is he a known murderer, he doesn't regret it, he has never criticized the Commission's (or any other hero's) actions. If he's not going to see the issues, and hypocrisy right in front of him, he shouldn't have any role at all in it, and a very small one if he does recognize them. Giving this to Hawks screams nothing is actually going to be fixed, any changes are going to be for the worse.

Going into the final Deku vs Shigaraki battle, as well as the dreamscape crap, I had hope in this series. I thought that Deku would finally be forced to have the long over reality check of the Villains are right, what are you going to do about it. So instead of hyper-focusing on one tiny moment that with any and I do mean any additional context would show that it's not just this tiny shit moment. Rather than murdering Tomura for not abandoning the League (the same reason Hawks murdered Twice), have Deku convince Tomura that they can make a better society. That Deku's peaceful(ish) method is what's better for the League we have seen he loves.

From there they could have come up with a deal where either (these are simplified) everyone is held accountable for their past actions (as in the villains, Endeavor, Hawks, the Commission, everyone responsible for the sky coffin, etc). Or the clock is restarted, and everyone is hence forth held to the same standard. The villains are around to make sure the actual issues to their problems are dealt with, hint; Himiko's problem wasn't lack of access to quirk counselling. Happy satisfying ending for everyone

[raynetheinsane]

“oh dabi and hawks are character foils!!” WRONG.

HAWKS AND SHIGARAKI.

Their stories, their lives, even their dreams are perfect mirrors of each other. they are two sides of the exact same coin.

Young Takami Keigo, son of a well known theif, he finally escapes an abusive home only to be met with an even crueller world. Just when he thinks the world has failed him, in comes the HPSC. They give him a new name, a new purpose, a new life. He is perfectly trained in everything he does, designed to carry out the Commission’s will.

Young Shimura Tenko, grandson of a well known hero, he finally escapes an abusive home only to be met with an even crueller world. Just when he thinks the world has failed him, in comes All for One. He gives him a new name, a new purpose, a new life. He is perfectly trained in everything he does, designed to carry out the All For One’s will.

Even their dreams, the thing that separates a hero from a villain are nearly identical.

Hawks wants a world where heroes aren’t as burdened, where they can trust that others will help them and that they can not have everything put on them.

Shigaraki wants a world where people dont leave it all to the heroes, where they realize that they have autonomy outside of hero society and can help people as well.

Admittedly, Shigaraki wants his because he believes heroes to be incompetent, but the point still stands.

Hawks and Shigaraki are cut from the same cloth. The only place where they differ is who “saved” them.

(Because neither of them were really saved, were they? Simply told they were saved, and pushed into a life that they didn’t want in the first place)

[delawaredetroit]

"Suspicions That He Can No Longer Fight Confirmed"

So there were people who saw the writing on the wall. There's no way there wouldn't be people who noticed that All Might was showing up to less and less incidents over the last six years and then suddenly announcing he would go into teaching. It screams retirement. There was no way the HPSC didn't notice.

Which makes it even more unconscionable that they weren't prepared for this. Even in a world where All for One didn't exist (and the HPSC knew he existed), All Might was a fifty something year old man. Super strength doesn't grant immortality.

[wizzidoodles]

I know it’s pretty much decided among the fandom that Shinso is in foster care

But imagine we all get a random backstory and his dad is this mf

[wouldntyouliketoknowthat]

Guys…

Hunter

Has the same voice actor as Hawks

WHAT

You’re telling me that a blonde boy who was raised by the government to be a perfect and obedient soldier, who then went undercover at least once, who has a connection to red birds, who now has a scar on his face because of the carelessness of his superior,

Has the same voice actor,

As a blonde boy who was raised by the government to be a perfect and obedient soldier, who then went undercover at least once, who has a connection to red birds and now has a scar on his face due to the carelessness of his superior?

NO WAY BRO

[dekubreaksbones]

You know those old AUs where Dabi/Touya trained at the HPSC?

That, but with Natsuo.

Losing both his brother and mother leads Natsuo to have a mental break, resulting in a stress mutation of his quirk. Makes it stronger; currently thinking his ice becomes unmeltable, and certain parts of his body turn completely into ice, such as his arms and jaw. He can regrow the ice and change its formation on his body. The HPSC already had an interest in Endeavor's children, but only after this incident are they able to get their hands on one of them.

He's not the same as Hawks; the commission doesn't own him, it's more of a "boarding school" type thing, and after he becomes a Hero, he's only so on paper. He doesn't have an agency, doesn't patrol, is mostly unknown. He doesn't assassinate people like Lady Nagant and Hawks, they keep his business mostly legal. He's just,,, a hero working specifically and directly for the Commission, called in on certain raids or jobs as the HPSC sees fit.

Outside of that though, he tries to have a normal life. Moves out at 18, attends college, keeps his civilian and hero identities separate. He doesn't have many connections in the hero world; everyone knows he's a Commission plant.

Anyway. Just something i'm thinking really hard of rn. Will probably do some art later

[fan-dweeb]

*at a fireworks event*

Hawks: Oh hey they’re spelling out words!

Hawks: O.. Or… Oreo?? That’s a funky looking “o”. Is this a promotion event??

Endeavor: ,, that’s inverted, it says Hero

Hawks: Ohhh

Hawks: ….

Hawks: oH ‘cause WE’RE being promoted

[wood-goblins]

I think Mitski's songs suit her

[hollowtakami]

FOR THE GREATER GOOD

CONTENT: heavy angst, hurt w/ no comfort, implied ptsd/anxiety attack, corrupt hpsc, references to child abuse, power imbalance + implied beatings

WORD COUNT: 1130

AUTHOR NOTE: this is a very heavy (vent) fic - please do not read if you know this will trigger you (will be tagging this as nsfw on my masterlist bcs of its content). be safe, remember that you’re loved.

REBLOGS/COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED :)

Keigo hunched down onto the sofa, his skin finally remembering what its fabric felt like. Sinking into the plushness of the cushions, the avian sighed.

His eyes closed before he could stare at the ceiling. Instead, he’d stare at the abyss inside of him for hours.

He could hear his own breathing. Laboured, short. His chest felt heavy, the blood that circulated his body, nothing more than erroneous liquid.

His wings were made up of a few tattered secondaries and coverts, his primary feathers would need days to recover. His clothes stuck to him like a leech, the glue of his own sweat making his skin crawl.

A vibration in his trouser pocket brought him back to life. Keigo shot up, picking out his phone with a swift hand, his eyes strained by the painful white of the screen’s light.

The smartphone rang in his hand, shaking just like him. Keigo answered and felt himself sweating a little more.

“Hell-“

“Hawks. You’re needed for a last minute patrol.” A gruel voice barked out an order from the other end of the line.

“Madame President,” Keigo swallowed the spite stuck to his tongue, “With all due respect , you did just dismiss me, and I’m sure there are other heroes available to fill in for me!”

He did his best to spoil his voice with sunshine, but was met with nothing but silence.

His fluffy eyebrows furrowed at how loud the emptiness felt, not a single drone of white noise came from the other end.

“Madame-“

“You’re to report to my office immediately, Hawks,”

The call declined and the phone lay dead in his hand. Keigo’s fingers tightened around its frame, threatening to crack - whether the phone or his fingers would crack first, he wasn’t sure.

Tattered feathers sharpened in fear and Keigo’s face fell white. He had exhausted his body all day, fighting back whatever force the world threw at him. From the crack of dawn until the rest of the world fell asleep, he zipped around the city.

All for the greater good, he was always told.

And now, he was being told to report to his superior for - no doubt - a rather harsh scolding.

Peeling his clammy body from the sofa, Keigo made his way to his apartment’s door, leaving behind his jacket that he’d slung over a chair. His boots echoed footsteps and bounced them off the empty walls. Not looking back, not bothering to take in what he could of the only place he wasn’t watched.

They’d have cameras in here by the time he got back, anyway.

Walking down the street, Keigo was met with a black sky. Clouds hid away the beauty of the stars, the moon crying behind their mist. His feet slid across the pavement, too tired to put one in front of the other with the grace of a hero.

Keigo could fly and be there in a moment, but he’d sold his soul for a bit of cheap praise from people he knew couldn’t give a shit about him.

He’d reach the entrance of the HPSC eventually, the skyscraper sticking out of the gum of the ground like an ugly tooth. Greeting the receptionist telling her he’d been called for, he smiled with his teeth and trudged towards the nearest elevator and punched the button that would fly him up to Madame President’s office.

He stood still the whole ride, the eye of a camera burning into the back of his head - probably gawking at the laughable sight of his wings.

So much for the Winged Hero, Keigo thought.

Keigo went on autopilot as he sauntered through the empty floor of office cubicles until he reached the windowless room that was the sanctuary of his superior.

Bracing himself with a silent, short breath, Keigo rapped his knuckle on the door.

“Enter,” a low voice beckoned him forward.

Keigo pulled the door handle and slowly extended his arm inwards, met with the light of the office. The avian closed the door behind him and felt his wings shiver when he heard it auto-lock.

“Sit down, Hawks,” Madame President gestured to a lonely chair in front of her desk, smiling with hidden malice.

Keigo obeyed, lowering himself down and making sure he didn’t slouch.

“You asked for me?” He dared to speak.

“I don’t like attitude, Hawks,” Madame spoke, blunt as ever, “When a handler orders you to do something, you are expected to do it,”

Keigo felt his blood run cold at her words. She didn’t bother to blanket her intentions. He would be lectured, and then sanctioned. For the greater good.

“I understand, Madame,” Keigo squeaked, eyes down like a sheepish puppy.

“Look at me when I’m speaking to you.”

Keigo pinned his eyes to hers and didn’t dare break eye contact for a second. For a moment, he was a child again; a huddle of skin and bones on the floor as his father kicked in his stomach for leaving the house.

“Yes, Madame,” his voice barely scratched its way up his throat.

“For your outlandish behaviour against a handler, I’m sure you’re aware you will need to be sanctioned,” Madame President repeated Keigo’s thoughts.

The avian nodded, the corners of his lips quivering into a meek smile. His feathers ruffled, his heart threatening to burst from his chest.

Keigo felt sick.

For the greater good, his mind barked at him.

The days of his ‘special program’ ran through his mind. That poor boy, he had no idea what kind of machine they were going to turn him into. They were gentle at first, using blanketed words to coax him forward to their goal.

They used to be gentle to that baby bird. When it was time to pick through his pin feathers, they only tore them out.

“Follow me to the rehabilitation hall, Hawks.”

“Yes, Madame President.”

His superior ushered Keigo to the room he remembered all too well, watching him with the eyes in the back of her head.

The walk was quick, Keigo blinked and he was already locked in with the same man he’d known from his boyhood.

“Hawks.” He spat at the avian.

Hawks didn’t say anything. Like a whimpering dog, he inched forward to the man, awaiting his sanction.

The first punch was always the worst.

But, it was for the greater good.

When it was all over, they’d half-ass bandaging him up and covering up his bruises with makeup.

For the greater good, a hero must always look his best.

A hero must always obey his handler, no matter what. That’s what they’d told Keigo Takami when he was a little boy, right before they’d tell him that everything from this point onward;

For the greater good.

[itsnothingofinterest]

I actually find it funny when people will say the heroes need to kill more villains instead of arresting them when, from where I'm looking, every instance of the heroes killing a villain(s) has led to some consequence that would've been avoided had they just been taken in alive. (Which evidence has often shown them quite capable of doing.)

Lady Nagant was made to kill loads of people, driving her crazy and leading her to kill her boss and deprive the hero side of one of it's best. Her case feels like a big reason why killing on the regular would be incompatible with the rest of the hero shtick; 'cause it turns out people with lots of blood on their hands have trouble using them to then shake the hands of children.

People say All Might should've killed AFO; but you can tell both from All Might's dialogue in Kamino & from how AFO regrew his head that that's exactly how their first fight ~7 years ago ended. AFO's brains met the pavement that day. And I can only assume this allowed his body to be easily recovered & revived, letting him lay low for the next 6 years to mould Tomura into a successor and orchestrate a good portion of the conflicts we've seen in this series. Just saying, that sounds much harder to do from Tartarus. And at least the heroes knew when he broke out of jail way faster then when he broke out of the grip of death. Heck, it could easily be argued he only broke out of jail thanks to that 6 years of set-up.

Oh and where to start with Hawks killing Twice? Maybe how it enraged Toga & Dabi to make them more crazy & dangerous, maybe how it affected people's trust in heroes? Oh but the big one has to be how leaving Twice as a corpse let his blood be collected for Toga to get a parade off anyway; one the heroes were unprepared for too, which distracted a lot of the pros meant to keep AFO in Gunga. All of which could've been avoided if Hawks had just taken Twice in alive. (Which I must reiterate he easily could have done; I mean his quirk was shown pretty easily countering a Parade.) The heroes wouldn't have had to deal with a Parade in this war at all if Twice was sitting pretty in a jail cell next to Compress & Geten.

I can't help but think those last two cases could be a surprisingly common occurrence too if heroes killed as much as some readers say they should. Like, could you imagine if every dangerous villain in Japan's history was killed and then just dumped somewhere for a guy like Dr. Garaki to get his hands on them the same way he got Shirakumo?

So anyway, between the mental health issues it causes, combined with how villains keep finding ways to perform necromancy; I'm just not seeing a lot of evidence that things go well for the heroes when they kill villains, or that they'd go much better if the heroes were kill-happy soldiers of the war on villainy all the time.

[barid-bel-medar]

Thoughts on how I write the Commission and their views on Quirkless heroes

I like writing the Commission as not actually caring if there's a Quirkless hero, because I view them as being more interested in having someone easy to manipulate, rather than even necessarily their Quirk. Let's look at for example the two heroes we know were Commission-controlled. And well, then at why they'd be fine with it.

Lady Nagant's Quirk would have some pretty negative connotations. We see her in the flashback where the Commission is making her the offer that her rifle arm is wrapped up. Japan has very stringent gun laws and her Quirk would have a negative association to it (versus the US for example, were it would have had a positive association since Second Amendment). That makes her easy to manipulate, because the Commission is making her an offer she didn't imagine possible; they're going to support her to be a hero. They're not going to treat her like just because her Quirk is literally a gun (note that with Snipe's Quirk he likely *could* use a different weapon than a gun, but if he's younger than Kain [very possible since she's in her late thirties] then the stigma isn't there quite as much for a gun user) she's a future villain or shouldn't be allowed near heroics. Instead they're going to support her, but there's just this one other thing they need her to do...

With Hawks he gets scooped up super young. Like I think we gloss over the fact sometimes he likely wasn't even ten when everything happened. He already had very heroic tendencies, but he was also the son of a villain. His mother and he after his father got arrested (and even honestly before) were extremely impoverished. They were in a garbage situation. Then the Commission comes knocking an offers them a way out, the funds to support themselves and all Hawks has to do is something he already wants to do; to become a hero. He's going to be Commission trained and controlled, but he's also going to get his dream. He's not going to be held back for being the son of a villain, his identity is as good as private, and he's going to be able to do what he's always wanted.

A Quirkless hero!Izuku (or even another person who wants to be a Quirkless hero) is someone who they would view as easy to manipulate. It's unlikely they'd have prior support, it's unlikely that they'd be able to get the sort of mentorship or access to training someone who had a Quirk could have. They could be viewed as being able to have good PR or make for a good story (look! Even if you're Quirkless you too can be a hero!). Yes Quirkless people are a steadily decreasing minority, but it also doesn't really effect the Commission's bread and circuses. If anything it allows for greater distraction, and may even give the Commission a PR boost (look at how supportive we are!).

So yeah, I know a lot of people go with the idea of the Commission being anti-Quirkless hero, but I'd actually argue for the reasons mentioned here that it's just as likely they'd be fine with it.

[unnamed-idi0t]

@poppy5991. Based on this post they made :3

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