#also my brain doesnt want to work so it could be complete and utter nonsense

[acidmatze]

In this together [1]

So.. I said I would maybe write some self-indulgent Dabi x Reader stuff and I did and because I love attention I will post it here now. There won’t be any specific update times or anything I just update when theres something to update. This is mainly stuff I wrote for myself to feel better but I figured that I want to share it. So suggestions are welcome. 

Since it’s intended as a pick me up there will be barely any plot nor will there be much angst. A bit might pop up here and there given the setting of the thing but it will be quickly resolved. Also due to the setting triggering themes might come up but I will tag them as such and also mark the passage in which they occur so you can read around them.

The setting basically is: You are currenly living in a rehabilitation facility since you got diagnosed with [Redacted]. You have settled in quite nicely and found some friends. However, due to some fights things haven’t been the same and you hope that the New Guy can change it.

And now the room next to yours was empty again. To the left of you, when standing inside your room facing the door. To the right was Izuku's room. Next to his Todoroki's. Opposite of yours Tsuyu's. You moved here three months ago and since then to the left of you was some guy you barely ever saw. Or heard. He moved out and you never learned a single thing about him. And tomorrow a new guy will move in, your group was told.

Your friend Twice, living on the above floor, knew him apparently. Said he was a great guy and all and just recently got out of jail. Drug dealing or something, nothing too horrible. Maybe also broke someone's jaw but that was some time ago already.

But now it was time for breakfast.

Tomura, a guy in your group who lived at the other end of the hallway was already in the kitchen and angrily stared at his plate Seems like he didn't sleep again. You on the other hand slept quite well. The weekend was spend by watching movies with Twice mostly.

Todoroki seemed awfully tense. During the morning assembly when the head of the clinic was talking about how your group gets a new “patient” tomorrow he winced on his chair. He also didn't say anything during breakfast. It was normal that he was somewhat withdrawn and silent but normally he would say what is bothering him. But nothing today.

He didn't appear to occupational therapy, only to tell the supervisor that he has a migraine and will be absent.

You absent-mindedly filed around on the piece of the tree trunk you wanted to paint a picture on. You got the idea from Kirishima who burned a picture into another tree trunk piece for the herb garden in the backyard of the rehabilitation facility.

But before you could start the actual drawing process you needed to get it smooth first. Which was boring. The last two times you were lucky enough to have Todoroki to chat with, who was glueing rhinestone pieces as a mosaic onto a small glass. He said he would later put a candle in it. Tokoyami walked in with lots of Acrylic paint tubes in his arms.  

“I was told you might need those soon. Gonna paint something?” You pointed at the tree stump. “Yeah as soon as its smooth. I wanna hang it on the wall of my room.”

Tokoyami nodded. “I like that aesthetic. It has a Victorian touch to it.” You had no idea if he just made this up or was right. And you had no reception here in the basement to look it up. So you just agreed. “Exactly. Victorian era inspired.”

Todoroki was absent during lunch too. One of the guys who only came here for the therapies and lived in his own apartment and Tomura got in a fight about Final Fantasy.

After ten minutes Tomura got up and walked in his room. He wanted to dramatically slam the door but its a fireproof one that closes on its own. Even if he would have wanted to slam it, shortly before closing it would have slowed down and then slowly fall shut. A few moments later you could hear him passive aggressively play Need for Speed Most Wanted. His cheap speakers made Disturbed sound horribly tinny.

If Twice was here he would have yelled at Tomura for being such a disgrace.

After lunch you helped in the kitchen instead of Todoroki. Tsuyu thanked you whole-heartedly since today more pots and pans were used to cook than usual. Which means more dishes. Which means less time to clean everything before the therapies started again.

Tsuyu had to be downstairs for occupational therapy and you had to go to the living room for social skills training.

Which was boring. And now as the day was ending you really started wondering how the new guy would be. The atmosphere got chilly over the last few weeks and many fights had broken out between the patients. Or occupants. Whatever someone would want to call them. You preferred to say Occupants.

Maybe someone new could bring some stability into this mess. You missed spending the evenings together in group 3's living-room. They had the biggest one so mostly you would sit there until midnight with some others watching movies or playing Playstation but after all those fights lately you never got a group together.

Kirishima's football group also got disbanded because of this. Normally, he and some others would meet every Wednesday and Friday after dinner and go to the football field down the block for a few hours. That was no more. Kirishima and Bakugou went alone now mostly.

It all had started after Izuku took over the storage room where the mineral water was kept. The girl who was in charge of it for literal years moved out and now that was Izuku's job.

He quickly noticed that bottles where disappearing. He gave out full crates to everyone but somehow almost never got full crates back. He talked about this one morning during assembly and that was how the fights started. Everyone accused the other one of stealing the bottles to exchange them for money at the local store. Bakugou even threatened to beat up Shinsou because he thought he was the one stealing them. So far it was still unclear what happened to the bottles. They were still disappearing but now slower than before.

And then he arrived.

You were sitting in one of the armchairs on your group's hallway and played around on your phone.

The main entrance door slammed shut. You expected someone to come back from a smoking break.

You heard Twice yelling something and someone answered.

“I'm not even in your group I just wanted to say hello and welcome to my bestest friend. Also I hate you! Please rot in hell forever.”

Yeah that was Twice, alright.

The glass door opened and in stepped Twice accompanied by a really tall lanky guy about your age, maybe a bit older in all black and a Korn T Shirt. He looked a bit intimidating with all the burn scars and stuff.

This was the new guy?

“Yo, Y/N! Say hi to my good pal Dabi!”

“Uhm.. hi”

You were still intimidated but nevertheless got up to shake his hand. He was in your group after all. And would live right next to you.

“How's it going? I'm Dabi.”

“Y/N”

“Cool.” “Yeah.”

You stared at each other for a few seconds.

Twice clapped his hands sarcastically.

“Wow what a great conversation you're having. You both suck!”

Dabi cleared his throat.

“Yeah... well.. Where can I put my shit? I get my own room, right?”

Twice pointed at you.

“Why don't you ask Y/N? Ah by the way, who is his buddy?” “My... what?”

It was time for you to explain the basics.

“A buddy. Like.. someone who shows you around and explains to you how stuff works here. Everyone has one for the first few days here.”

“Cool. Who's mine?”

You chewed on your lip. He will probably not like the answer.

“We couldn't find anyone, to be honest. But if you want I can show you around. First you should go and get your key though.”

Dabi sighed.

You led him down the hallway to the secretary's office.

She gave Dabi his keys and the schedule for this week.

“What's this for?” He pointed at the schedule.

“Well.. so you know when you have to be somewhere. Breakfast is at 8.15. If you're late someone will wake you and it's not pleasant. Then we go upstairs to the morning assembly. And it seems like you have nothing to do in the morning yet. But occupational therapy in the afternoon today. And tomorrow too.”    

Izuku walked past you two. Upon seeing Dabi he paled a bit and walked faster.

“Oh great, everyone's afraid of me. Have they never seen someone with scars before?”

After showing him the entire house you were happy to be back in your room. During the tour you ran into Kirishima who just stared at Dabi, Bakugou who wanted to kick him for some reason, Tomura who was in the living room and immediately slammed the door shut and Tokoyami who complimented his shirt.

You heard Dabi slamming his closet door and cursing under his breath.

You had no idea what to think about him. His voice was pleasant. Calming. Absolutely in stark contrast to his looks.

But he also was a head taller than you and looked like he could break a tree in half.

You noticed that it was weirdly silent outside. Normally the kitchen crew would be shuffling around, cooking and stuff. And Tsuyu was known for putting on some music while cooking. But you heard nothing. Maybe it was time to invenstigate.

[chromsai]

i didnt want to answer this using the actual ask because since the full, untagged name is there, i just know that tumblr will find a way to get it into its main tag and just out of courtesy to its fans, i don’t wanna be that person.

that said, and out of courtesy to any of my followers that like it, i’ll put my actual opinion under the cut as extra precaution because, again, i dont wanna be that rude ass person.

(long rant ahead tbh)

it’s my least favorite ygo. i mean, setting vr aside for now just to be fair since it’s still not done yet, it is without a doubt my least favorite ygo because its writing is just that piss poor. 

tl;dr: it’s a fucking mess of a show, it doesn’t appeal to me, i find it to be (ironically) superficial (in terms of themes and messages), i dont like the decks, character arcs? god they’re wasted, the writing is just a bunch of asspullery nonsense, and “foreshadowing” is actually just spoon fed self-fulfilling prophecies. it’s my least favorite show and it almost made me quit yugioh altogether. but i still don’t discourage anyone from watching it. because maybe it didnt appeal to me or click with me, but maybe it would for someone else, and i’m not afraid to admit that. because people have different tastes.

its characters overall get little to no development, what little development most of them get (like shark and ........i wanna say kaito, but i dont wanna include kaito in here because i think his development was the only one that was actually decent, but idk who else to put here since... most characters didnt actually get development? as/t/ral, i guess?) is completely ruined sooner or later when the plot decides to inevitably asspull. i will admit i did like where shark’s development was going but the fucking moment he was revealed to be na//sh is when his development went completely down the fucking shitter. oh so JUST cuz some “destiny” says you’re “destined” to fight against yu//ma you just... go with what it’s telling you? you don’t even like your own destiny or some of the people you’re working with but... like... just cuz you remembered some memories of your past life you gotta finish the mission? even tho... 1) you didn’t actually want to, 2) you can just talk this all out (seriously this plot CAN be resolved with just talking things out, the card games are notably forced up this plot’s ass), 3) wtf happened to yu//ma being your friend??? you don’t wanna fight him but you will because you must, it’s your destiny?!? what kind of fucking non-explanation is that. fygdshbjkl honestly there are so many more questions that can be asked about just na/csh’s logic for fighting ALONE and i am still left dumbfounded. the amount of utter STUPID going on in this writing is incredible, honestly that i’m left without words.

ze//al’s plot & writing is NECK DEEP in allll that kind of stupid nonsensical logic, literally i could probably go on all night asking so many questions about where the fucking common sense went while writing this show. like i have so many fucking issues with ze//al II’s writing i just don’t understand how people think of it as legitimately good? it was all drama for drama’s sake with no real consequences since everything was reversed back to normal anyway??? fuck, i have less issues with ze//al’s first season and i actually liked it better. but anyway, moving on....

the aesthetic... is ... well before vr, i would say it was horrid, but at the very least ze//al gives us colors... it’s very colorful and the animation is pretty nice, ngl... but do i care? not really. not when i didnt really like almost any of the character designs... IV, Kaito, Mi//sael, and A//lito, Du//be, Rei/Vec//tor’s designs imo are nice... the rest... “what about the other arc//ights or [insert character here]”. no, if i didnt mention them by name just now, i didnt like their design. Yu//ma’s design... it’s... it’s very generic shounen protag. he is definitely, imo, the worst design of all the ygo protags, but i don’t think he’s HORRIBLE to look at. at least not most of the time, anyway. and actually you know what, i’ve never been into alien stuff but As//ral’s pretty, i’ll give him that. i guess perhaps that’s why i didnt like the aesthetic... too... alieny for me (gross, imo....... i just... absolutely hated the Ba//ians).

the little foreshadowing it gives us from the beginning through the end is spoonfed to us, and you literally gotta be foolish to not understand what it means straightaway. not only that, some of it uses retcon as a mechanism to seem like it’s foreshadowing (that fucking door from the first episode telling Yu//ma that he’ll lose his most important thing... and then at the end it turns out it was As//ral?? did Yu//ma not have anything important to him at the time he dreamt of the door??? or like... wtf is this door a prophet or smth or is it trying to make a contract, which is it??? make up your damn mind!!)... so yeah... it doesn’t actually give us any real “foreshadowing” as much as it uses self-fulfilling prophecies...

leading us to my next ironic point: this show is superficial af. as i just said, everything is literally spoon fed to you. literally all of its themes are plainly spelled out to you and laid out on the surface, you don’t really need to actually think to to get its message, and there is certainly no point in digging deep to find richer subtext... because there is none. there literally is none. and you know what? i know this is a very subjective preference; i personally love to delve deep into the symbolic and get analytical with the stories i enjoy because my brain is just naturally curious like that... but... even with a naturally curious brain... i just... no matter how much i try... this show is all bones and no meat. there is an established foundation of a message and it’s nice but it’s... way too straightforward and, as i said, spoon fed for my liking.

if you like that kind of story-telling, that’s completely fine, i get that. we’re not all here to watch YUGIOH, of all franchise, trying to give us some deep, meaningful message. hell, that’s not even the reason why i’ve enjoyed yugioh ever. i’m here for the same appeal that everyone else is here for: teens saving the world with stupid ass card games. but i just strongly prefer when a story, ANY story, shows enormous amounts of attention to detail and hints at deeper meanings in its context that i can use my brain to work around with and delve into. ze//al doesn’t give me even a hint of this. past ygos have, but ze//al doesnt even try. it’s meant for a younger audience tho, even for ygo’s usual demographic, so i get it. but... it’s because of this that i find it so lackluster.

speaking of the card games.... this show literally... has my least favorite decks. i’m not so into the OCG/TCG that i’m an expert about it so i dont wanna delve into something idfk much about, but just... that’s my taste... this show’s decks are terrible for the most part. the card effects are all too particular and disturbingly OP (one OP card after another... it always happens and it always makes the duels a drag to watch, even if they’re just one or two episodes long at the most)... plus... aesthetically... i guess they’re not all terrible, but still none of them wowed me either...

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again... this show nearly made me give up on yugioh. my logic was “if they’re just gonna keep making ze//al after ze//al, i’m just gonna stop.” thankfully... well i think you know what happened next...

even after all that’s said and done and i’ve pretty much ranted and ripped this show a new one, I STILL DON’T WANNA DISCOURAGE ANYONE FROM WATCHING IT IF THEY REALLY WANNA TRY IT. because i know that maybe this show just wasn’t for me and it didnt click with me, but it might for someone else. i’m not here to tell you that it’s a piece of shit abomination that should never have happened and it should be whipped out of existence and you should go watch something else instead (HUR DUR GO WATCH VANGUARD INSTEAD) . i’m not here telling you what you should and shouldn’t like. if you like this show, that’s awesome. tbqh with you, i still enjoyed some of it and i’m not afraid to admit that. but overall? it was super lackluster and unimpressive, IMO. at best, i’d say it’s forgettable so for the most time i’m just like... “oh ze//al? yeah it happened i guess” and move on without a second thought and let its fans enjoy it as if its the best thing in the world even tho i personally do not see it that way at all. 

but again, i’d say watch it and make up your own opinion over it. i think that’s honestly the best course of action for any media that might even slightly interest you. don’t let people spoon feed their opinions to you. this was all MY experience of the show. go have your own.

p.s. (more of my opinion) i LOVE music and soundtracks of things. they’re always also a big factor of my enjoyment of the media i consume. the soundtrack for this show is decent at best. no track really stood out to me (like maybe one did) but for the most part... the soundtrack is just... i wouldn’t say it’s bad, it’s just... again not memorable... not my style... and my biggest gripe is that a lot of the tracks have this pseudo-grandiose feeling to it that just ultimately fall flat and don’t convey actual emotion. it mostly just seems like it’s music for music’s sake. personally, i think good soundtracks should be able to tell a story or convey an overwhelming feeling without the context of its source material being present. i... i just never got that with ze//al’s soundtrack. maybe once, as i said, but... even then i dont remember it.

on a more positive note tho... i have to admit all of the ED themes are really good (Challenge the Game was literally too good for this show, who the fuck allowed this). i’d listen to them way more often if i didnt associate them with ze//al tbh. not a huge fan of any of the OPs tho. no, not even the second OP. like it’s nice for the first few times but then, to me personally, it starts getting really grating and wangsty.