#WOOH all gifts are DONE \o/

[striveattemptfail]

And all I see is you (because you're near me) | MidoTaka, G, 1.7k

Summary: Ironically, he was looking forward to his shift on New Year’s Eve. He wouldn’t have to deal with the chaos of the New Year crowds. Barring an emergency, he knew he had no surgeries planned for midnight, and was likely going to ring in the New Year in his office, writing away at medical reports... His partner, predictably, had taken the day off after working tirelessly for weeks to put in enough hours so that it would be near impossible to call him in. When Shintarou explained his New Year plans, Kazunari (also predictably) whined at him. Read on Ao3

A/N: For the @knbexchange. Takes place post-canon, well into adulthood when Midorima is a surgeon and Takao is a nurse. The two got together in high school and have stayed together ever since.

A late gift because Midorima wanted to be stubborn. I hope you enjoy it anyway, @just-a-re-blog~!

Title from Thank You by Dido. Thank you to @imaginarydragonling for the speedy beta and being so understanding<3 Any other mistakes are mine.

~🎊~🎊~🎊~🎊~🎊~

Shintarou was not working late that night—a miracle of miracles. The hospital tended to either fill up because of the holiday season with increased traffic and flu spread, or (though rather rarely) die down considerably because people simply wanted to be out and about or at home celebrating. This year, somehow, it ended up being the latter. So, he left for home after his 1.5 days shift at just before three in the afternoon, saying a gruff goodbye to his colleagues and slipping his jacket on before leaving.

He glared once he exited the hospital doors—it was pouring rain. Not quite a thunderstorm, but heavy rainfall nonetheless. Opening his umbrella, he silently thanked his past self for having the foresight to always have one on hand.

The train ride back to his apartment was dreary. Despite the relative calm at the hospital, the trains were still busy as ever. This was compounded by the fact that the weather was gloomier than normal. The snowfall from Christmas was already being washed away by the unexpected rainfall. It simply made everything slushy, the once beautiful piles of snow now darkened with mucky rainwater and muddy footsteps.

Not that Shintarou really bothered to notice such trivial things in his day-to-day life unless Oha-Asa said so. Today, Cancer ranked 6th place—while not ideal, still much better than the latter half of the chart beneath his standing.

Still, despite his mediocre ranking, he did think the day could have been helped with some sunshine, or at least a little less rain to trudge through on his commute home.

Of course, all this was despite the bright and cheery music and decorations surrounding him. It was the liminal period between Christmas and New Year, and though the Christmas ornaments had quickly been taken down, there were already festival lights and decorations hung up in its place.

Ironically, he was looking forward to his shift on New Year’s Eve. He wouldn’t have to deal with the chaos of the New Year crowds. Barring an emergency, he knew he had no surgeries planned for midnight, and was likely going to ring in the New Year in his office, writing away at medical reports.

He continued thinking about the New Year’s Eve ahead as he stepped off his first train and onto the platform. Making his way through station corridors, he eventually found his way to the bus stop for his final ride home.

Eventually his mind wandered to what Kazunari would be celebrating the New Year. His partner, predictably, had taken the day off after working tirelessly for weeks to put in enough hours so that it would be near impossible to call him in. When Shintarou explained his New Year plans, Kazunari (also predictably) whined at him.

“Such a spoilsport, Shin-chan!” he groaned.

“For what? Being reasonable and avoiding hellish crowds of people?” Shintarou had retorted.

Kazunari rolled his eyes. “We’re supposed to be partners.” Just as Shintarou was going to ask what their relationship had to do with New Year’s Eve, he continued, “It would be nice to spend a holiday together, you know?”

Now Shintarou rolled his eyes. “We already spend many holidays together, and we’re also planning to go to the shrine the next day. What’s one New Year’s Eve?”

Kazunari sighed, grumbling something under his breath that Shintarou couldn’t catch, and dropped the conversation.

But Shintarou had grown up since high school, had learned how to read his boyfriend’s moods and attitudes over the years. It took him a brief moment to realize that Kazunari likely wanted to have a romantic evening together, regardless if they participated in the hectic celebrations or not.

It was, after all, their first year living together. It unfortunately occurred to him a bit too late that the milestone was usually an important one for couples.

He had yet to figure out how to make up for disappointing his partner. He spoke to Kazunari shortly after their discussion, and promptly bought a lavish Christmas present to aid his attempts at mending his lack of forethought. His boyfriend did very much enjoy the new jacket and basketball jersey Shintarou had splurged on for him.

He thought about this when he finally stepped off the bus, re-opening his umbrella and dragging his shoes through muddy slush once more as he made his way to his and Kazunari’s apartment.

(They lived two floors below the penthouse, which Shintarou could have easily afforded on his own with his salary, but Kazunari insisted they split the rent, and they compromised with their current apartment. His partner could be so picky sometimes, though Shintarou knew that was hypocritical coming from himself.)

As he made his way down the block and into the building, Shintarou wondered how he could make up for the faux pas regarding his shift. He still knew that he had to do more than give his boyfriend (admittedly expensive) gifts.

He was so deep in thought he barely registered that he had finally made it home, punching in the code at the door out of habit and opening it with a frown.

He was finally pulled out of his reverie when Kazunari spoke.

“Welcome home, Shin-cha—hey, are you okay?” His partner appeared before him with a towel in hand, a concerned look growing on his face.

“Eh?” Shintarou finally looked around him; he was standing in the genkan, shaking his umbrella. He shook his head—both as an answer and to clear his mind. “No, I’m fine.”

Kazunari simply furrowed his brows even more, not quite believing his hasty answer. Fair, because as Shintarou had learned so much about Kazunari, Kazunari learned just as much in return.

“I’m fine, in fact,” he repeated. Mustering up the smallest of smiles, he finally greeted, “I’m home.”

At that, Kazunari softened. “Welcome back.”

Shintarou toed off his shoes, sniffing the air, pleased to notice the delightfully sweet scent permeating the apartment.

“Are you cooking something?” he asked, setting his umbrella and work bag aside and sliding out of his winter gear. “It smells pleasant.”

“Mhm!” Takao answered, passing the towel to him before walking towards the kitchen. “I’m making hot chocolate right now and warming up some pancakes I bought earlier.”

Shintarou followed him into their home as he dried himself off, surveying the spread. On the table were two fat pancakes drizzled in syrup from a local bakery, already out of their take-out container and served on a plate. A pot on the stove was indeed boiling something brown and decadent. Shintarou pursed his lips as Kazunari brought down matching mugs from the cabinet but didn’t make any comment. He always thought couples items were tacky, but they made Kazunari happy, so he kept any remarks he had to himself, quietly stirring the pot and smelling the sweet aroma of chocolate.

“I decided to skip the instant stuff,” Kazunari explained. “Since I got the fancy pancakes, we can have a nice afternoon together before I start on dinner.”

Shintarou was pleasantly surprised, but nodded nonetheless. He wasn’t going to say no to spending some quiet downtime with his boyfriend.

And, indeed, they spent the hours before nightfall splitting one of the pancakes Kazunari had bought. Though Shintarou remarked (grumbled) that the sweets would ruin their appetite, he still went along with his boyfriend’s plan. They were only able to finish one pancake, planning to save the second one for dessert or as part of breakfast tomorrow. They sipped their hot chocolate in between casual discussions about their friends, basketball, whether their schedules would sync up once Kazunari’s holiday ended. The rain outside eventually calmed down from a pouring shower to a soft drizzle, the tapping sound of raindrops a soothing noise amidst their quiet conversation at the table.

This, he eventually realized—the quiet, the domesticity, the literal sweetness of the chocolate on his lips—was all that Kazunari wanted to welcome the New Year together.

So Shintarou had to ask: “Is this to make up for the fact that I’m working on New Year’s?”

This startled Kazunari (which was understandable, since he was gossiping about his coworkers’ love lives just a moment ago), but after a moment he sheepishly admitted, “Yeah.”

Shintarou nodded, narrowing his gaze down to the near-empty mug of hot chocolate in his hands.

“I see.”

Looking up once more, he could tell that Kazunari was trying to hide his uneasiness, so Shintarou reached forward, clasping their hands together. His partner accepted, fingers clutching him gently.

“I’m still sorry that I am working that night, and that I didn’t understand why it was so important to you at first,” Shintarou admitted, “and, in fact, I apologize that you set this up for us. I believe I should have been the one to do it, since it was my error.”

“No, Shin-chan, it’s fine—”

“It isn’t,” he interrupted calmly, but firmly, “so I appreciate that you have prepared this nonetheless.”

Kazunari stared at him with a tender expression. His smile was small but visible, his eyes soft, brimming with what Shintarou assumed was a combination of surprise, pride, and affection.

His cheeks burned at the observation. He darted his eyes away before he did something embarrassing like blurt out “I love you” the way he did when he confessed his crush on his basketball partner all those years ago in high school.

Finally, an idea popped in his head.

Clearing his throat, he said, “I cannot move my shift, but I may be able to change my schedule so we can have a few days together after our first shrine visit.”

Meeting Kazunari’s eyes once more, he was pleased to find his partner too stunned to speak.

“Are you sure, Shin-chan?” he asked, but Shintarou could so easily hear the hope in his voice. “You don’t have to—”

“I want to.” He kept his gaze steady on Kazunari’s. “It is the least I can do, especially since you’ve already done this—” he gestured at the pancakes and hot chocolate, “—for us today.”

His partner’s wide grin was worth his monotonous days at work, every glum step towards home. Despite the weather, despite his mistakes, there was nothing more Shintarou could possibly need than this moment with Kazunari.

~🎊~🎊~🎊~🎊~🎊~

BONUS: Midorima plans a trip to a hotspring about a week after New Year’s. He and Takao talk some more, take silly photos and bitch about said photos, and just enjoy themselves. Somehow, they also find a public basketball court and shoot a couple of hoops. Overall, 10/10 would do again. (“Hopefully next time on an actual holiday, Shin-chan.” “Shut up, nodayo.”)

[thedistortedfroggit]

Welcome, welcome, welcomeeee—back!! Yes, yes! He is indeed the homeless caterpillar man from the ever popular anime: My Hero Academia!!

Now, Why am I making a post about him? Whats with the sad blob? What're the weird fairy things? why is Aizawa sad, and whats the with the thing in the lower left corner?

Well, for the last question!—IGNORE IT!! It's not part of this topic! Now for the other questions,

I'm in the process of making an AU! Specifically one that revolves around an Aizawa Shouta's torment!

Thats alot of take in, isn't it? Lemme explain!! But first, a warning.

I've only done light research about the folklore and topics I've planted into this fantasy, quirkless world! I like it's premise as is, and it'll be kinda hard to make replacements since they're already so ingrained into the AU. so don't expect it to be accurate on how the fantasy creatures actually are, I just based them off a few lines from google results and wikipedia!

That being said, lets continue!

"Aizawa Shouta, An orphan (probably, I haven't figured out his lineage yet) young adult man who lives "alone" in the forest. A group of 20 spirits of seelies and will-o-wisps that live in the surrounding forest, haunt and torment the tired adult from his first week at his tree-cabin, to recent times!

A toxic relationship between the 20 and Aizawa grows. Normalized and with nobody around or willing to help him, he never knew a different environment. Despite the constant torment and jabs being 'gifted' to him, he treats them as a parent would. Their remarks of his 'curse'? The seelies' laughs at his mistakes? The wisps' pitying looks sent to him every which way? Ah, he doesn't mind. After all, it'd be rude to insult his guests."

...Wooh, quite the intro huh? Lemme break it down into bits to form somewhat of an overview.

Welcome, welcome! This is the Alternate Universe I often call: the Spirit Torment AU, or ST for short. Keep in mind this is still a Work In Progress, so things are subject to change! But I'll explain what I have at the moment.

From that lil intro, we get our starting cast! With Aizawa as the main character! ..thrilling. And yes! that group of 20 seelies and will-o-wisps are, indeed, class 1A of this AU! Don't fret, they won't be the only people that get the spotlight in here! I'm making progress on including some pro-heroes(mostly just the UA staff rn tbh), perhaps some villains, perhaps some 1Bs—and a possibility of a backstory substitute for the ever feared, ever loved: Nezu!

But that can wait 'till a future post. No, right now, lets focus on what I actually have for the ST AU! (at the time of writing this, I've managed to gather 29 words that come from the meaning of Aizawa's full name, in kanji, in different languages to string together a foreign-sounding name--atleast to me)

Our protagonist used to live in a small town far from the country's capital, yet miles away from the boarder. A generic, isolated community with similar beliefs and traditions.

Enter our tired, black-haired, younger-than-present protagonist! Into a quirkless world set in somewhat of a medieval era, although—not all is as our history books! Fantasy creatures, big and small, intelligent and feral. These are the creatures who are the only ones who are not bound by the rules of humans.

By the rules, of a magic-less body.

Yes, yes! Our magical fantasy creatures are able to use magic! Several factors depending on the species. A cluster of several of theses fantasy creatures litter the forest that the town neighbours.

Unfortunate for Aizawa, he was born different from his peers. A bad kind of different. From the creatures that scurry and survive in the forest, to our quaint town of magicless beings.

For a first in the town, when Shouta Aizawa was born, the small child with unique red eyes, instilled fear and uncertainty to those who knew of his trait.

With a word from a traveller on horse, The red eyed child became part of a town folklore: On the days the wind was ever so slightly chiller, when an ominous sense of danger wafts through the town—It shall be a sign Theia's descendent came outside his abode.

'Theia, the titan goddess of sight and the shining ether of the bright, blue sky. She was also, by extension, the goddess who endowed gold and silver with their brilliance and intrinsic value' or, that's how the story goes.

The descendant's tell-tale sign of his linage by his other-worldly eyes. A color natural to no man, woman or child. He wanders aimlessly around town, the people who the goddess so graciously gifted gold and silver to—yet only to be wasted on pubs, slaves and the like.

They say, to quell the descendant's growing fury: One must give back to the goddess by the descendant, must pay back a debt so long ago—no human would live to today, must graciously gift the descendant with shimmering blue hues of jewellery and gems of value, to the titan goddess of the sky's blue.

Breaking out of that rhyming fest! Yes yes, Aizawa's natural eye color here is red! Like how it turns when he uses his quirk?

And he got a town folklore made after him! Sure, it make him sound like some tyrant leader....but still! Also, now we know where he gets his income from! Sad he doesn't have much to actually do with it except buy groceries. ...what? Did you expect him to hunt the fantasy animals for food? or harm the forest for fruits? How rude!

Fun factoid! I actually came across that goddess while researching a bit for this AU! Found the question 'what deities are associated with blue?' The answer was given before! I'm not rewriting that just back scroll. Yeah, I didn't really look into her outside of that one question...

I don't really think it matters much in this AU, since I just needed an excuse for why the townspeople are ostracizing him or basically begging to be spared instead of just executing Aizawa. And it gave me an excuse to give the lil boy a source of income.

I found it a pretty great coincidence how she's the titan goddess of SIGHT, ya know, something Aizawa is known to need to activate his quirk?

Anyway, thats pretty much the most detailed thing I've got rn.

Moving onto the seelies and will-o-wisps, I read the seelies' wiki page, where a part caught my interest..

Appearently, in legend the seelies could be morally ambivalent and dangerous. Calling them 'seelie' similar to names such as 'good neighbors' could just be a euphemism to ward off their anger.

So just from that alone, I made the seelies in this AU more toxic and outspoken about it.

Now to will-o-wisps, I'll be honest...they weren't supposed to be added in originally until I thought that just having a roster of only toxic character would be a bad idea... So I added in the wisps.

...until I made them toxic too

Reading from the wiki again, in Urban legends, folklore and superstition.... will-o-wisps are typically considered to be ghosts, fairies or elemental spirits.

This is getting a bit long and I have school so I'll try to wrap this up quickly.

On how these spirits are toxic to Aizawa? Well, you've seen some hints throughout this post but I'll explain a little more!

The seelies, they're more of the outspoken emotions out of the slightly opposing sides of seelie and wisp. Emotions like anger or frustration, maybe mocks and taunts with laughter.

The wisps, while not meaning any bad intentions, still is toxic to an extent--or atleast not treating Aizawa properly. They're more of the sadder, subtle and worried emotions. Emotions like, as I said, sorrow and worry. Maybe with a hint of treating him like frail glass and underplaying most of what Aizawa does or dreams of.

I said before they're slightly opposing sides, not necessarily good and evil—its more of 'intent' or 'display' than that. But there will be times where a side would agree with the other Ex: "The wisps are right, you cant even do [ ] correctly. You're so useless! Pathetic!" "The seelies are right, you cant do a simple [ ] without getting hurt. You can't do [ ] or else you'd get yourself killed."

Anyway, I'm tired and maybe I'll make another post about ST!AU in the future

For now, have these bits of art as a thanks for reading this far!

[survivormarmoreal]

Episode #3: "i told him i loved sicko mode( which i dont)" - bryce

Today no one has been online so our tribe has been quiet. But we have our alliance together so thats good.

John is gone? Good. I don't want to work with anyone who chooses Boston Rob as an avatar. No thank you.

Okay so this challenge is interesting...it really could be anybody's game. Luckily I know Brian is really good with music so I'm hoping that will come in handy for us. Other than that who tf knows. I just hope we stay safe.

This music video challenge is really hard. Hopefully we could pull another win and stay safe again. It would really suck if we would lose this challenge.

so I just woke up. like ~ 6-7 hours after the challenge announcement. AND THESE FREAKS ARE ALREADY DONE. WTF LET ME HELP.

no no. For real. I am so happy, I am not used to a tribe working this well together in challenges. I am SO SO HAPPY

We actually just murdered the challenge. We finished it in like less than 12 hours. We are beasts at these challenges. I just really hope that we got them all right because that gives us a great shot at winning. Even if we lose I'm in a great spot with Four of a Kind and Nicole is an obvious first boot. But I would still love to keep this win streak going for a little while.

I swear, I go offline for one night... I come back and literally EVERY song is done... I mean go on carry me to immunity thats fine.

So the last couple of days has been quiet since we did win immunity again, but I do have some tea to spill in here, and I love spilling tea hehe...

So I got nothing from my trip to Wonderland, but that's OK!  I'd rather get nothing then get something bad for my game.  In addition to that, though, the more juicy ish is that Sharky told me that Maynor is trying to get a group together of the 4 men not including me (or Nicole, obviously).  He probably already succeeded in that, but I do know, based on what Sharky said, that their first target would be Nicole followed up by me.  "It's not that Maynor doesn't like you, because he does, but he just thinks this is the group."  Maynor better hope that I don't swap with him because I do not mind having to flip on his ass and send him home at this point.  I'd love to stick to tribal lines and think I could find comfort in them if we swap, but I also literally don't care if I wasn't included in an alliance.

So while I know I have Sharky with my back and Maynor not with it at all, that still leaves Charlie, Nicole, and Dennis.  Nicole doesn't really talk much to anyone, so I'm kinda just gonna sneak in over the next 24 hours and make sure to solidify something with her so that I could work with her if need be.  Dennis and I talk from time to time, but I think if I can play on the fact that we both play League more, then I can solidify something with him... and Charlie and I talked about something between the two of us already, so I feel good there, but he didn't warn me about the Maynor alliance thing, so I know he doesn't trust me fully yet (which, might I add, just shows how I have to keep him at a distance).  I feel like if we can win this challenge and potentially swap next round, I will so amazing... because I might swap onto a tribe with a bunch of amazing people that will help me kill some of these annoying hoes on my current tribe (I'm looking @ you, Maynor).  My tribe's kinda hard to talk to, so I really need this... I need Marie... Godt... help me tf out because I am DYINNNGGG.....

I worked on videos 2 and 3 last night and almost finished it except like missing 2 songs. When i woke this morning, tribe finished all of video 1 and the 2 that i was missing. I really like our tribe, its really active and they work hard on the challenges. Going to be sad when there is a tribe swap, hopefully i get some of my alliance with me or Brian. Atleast someone i could work with.

Our spreasheets is being locked. I hope that we have the right answers. I really want to win again so hopefully we win immunity again.

Soooo I woke up and the tribe had finished our challenge before I even got to contribute....annoying because now if we lose I’ll be booted for not helping. Still I’m having fun even though I really only talk to Dennis and Charlie.

We won. Again. I wish I had something more interesting to say but I'm in a majority alliance, on a physically dominant tribe, I know who has the idol, and I'm feeling super comfortable. The only thing that worries me is an impending swap. In that situation idk what I would do…

O M G. We won by 1 point. I literally died and came back. Im so happy that we are safe again. Only thing is I’m nervous about us being ‘recommended’ to be online tomorrow. Maybe its nothing and I’m looking into it too much. Lets hope the swap is after one more vote. But who knows cuz it could be swapped into 3 tribes of 5.

okay so i forgot to mention but nathan has vote spy so wooh. also so i found a potion today and instead of being loyal and smart and gifting it to nathan since he hadnt guessed yet. i took it for myself and now have to wait another day to see if i get sth new. maybe itll work out maybe not. but we won tribal so um wooh. i kind of carried but im pretty sure i also put the wrong ellie goulding song so uh give and take NNN. still love nathan, nick is fun when hes on, annabelle talks for like 1 minute at a time but shes busy so hope we connect more, jayden... ignores me also i told him i loved sicko mode( which i dont) but his pfp was astroworld.. close enough. they were talking about rap in the chat so i changed my picture to amine and kevin abstract to try to get their attention but did not succeed KDAJFHKAJD one day ill bond…

YAY WE WON!!! I hate selfie scavenger hunt. Ill get more in depth when there's you know... actual depth to get into... safety is fun but I dont have confessional material right now. Also HAHA KEATON YOU GOT A VOTE TOO (sticks tongue out)

I didn't even do the challenge and I feel like I'm going home because I've been really busy and barely active so I'm really sad. Hopefully I can get people like Matt or BC to save me.

Our tribe are such kings, yet another win!! Despite the happiness of being safe, I am kinda worried. If our entire tribe makes the merge it just makes us targets, and honestly I don't see the point. Nicole isn't really online much and from what I can gather it doesn't seem like anyone is closely allied with her.

Yes, what I'm saying is that we're considering, let's say, "Not putting our best effort" into this challenge. Dennis and I have talked about it already, and I do think it's for the best. You only have to look at the healers in HvHvH to see why it's not a good idea to always win!

I hope it's not a live trivia challenge. Cos I love those and it will suck if I have to not try my best on it.

One point... really? I had to log off because I needed to be up early in the morning. There are two people that did absolutely nothing for the challenge. They had 24 hours to do at least SOMETHING, and then we would have won. But no.

tbh the complete lack of giving a fuck on my tribe has left me super demotivated. I'm sick of staying up until 1am every night for this while others do fuck all. we're voting Marie because she's never around and hasn't contributed significantly to any challenge yet. sorry if you were expecting something more exciting than that.

so we lost the challenge. BY ONE FUCKING POINT. Like what is the point?? i slaved for ages looking for those videos, doing both videos 1 and 2 and some of 3. like hello tribe? please pull your weight? or like? I want you all gone? This vote thankfully should have a straightforward result, like marie is basically non existent and doesn't really try. The transcontinental trio have basically come to that consensus that it'll be Marie, so like it should be because we have a majority. Im praying for a swap HONESTLY.

I was driving home from Maine so I’m super glad the guys pulled through and won this one since I fell on ice and I’m in a stupid amount of pain and I didn’t want to potentially be voted out when I’m hurting this bad so whenever these are released seriously seriously thank you to the 4 of you that got all of it done you’re all amazing

Im a little nervous tonight for the semi-live challenge after tribal tonight but also more nervouse that it isnt a challenge by a possible 3 tribe swap

BC quits.