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iwritewhump · 4 days ago

Text

panic attack | exhaustion

april is the cruelest month day 7

characters: hero, superhero, villain

warnings: stabbed, cursing, bleeding out, hospital setting

1558 words

Villain’s mouth curls into a smile as Hero presses him against the wall, one arm against his throat and the other holding a knife to his chest. Blood drips from the cut on his forehead into his eyes as he tries to take a breath in. Hero lets up just enough for him to fill his lungs before leaning into him again.

He bites his lip and tilts his head, “Feels good, doesn’t it?” he taunts hoarsely, baring his teeth. “Big man in the fight. Superhero didn’t train you…well enough because…I always have something up my sleeve.”

And in one swift movement, Villain pierces Hero’s stomach with a dagger.

She wails and pulls away from him, hand flying to her stomach. She doubles over and stares up at him.

Her blood coats his arm and soaks into his sleeve. He takes deep breaths and chuckles. He circles her and shoves her from behind.

Hero stumbles and falls against the wall. She leans against it, letting the concrete cool her down. She manages to raise her head and glare at Villain.

He smiles cruelly at her, wiping the blood from his eyes. He takes a step back and stands on the railing of the building. Tilting his head, he holds his arms out, “I’ll see you around.”

He leans back, staring at the sky and lets himself fall back as a fit of laughter explodes from his mouth.

Hero cries out and crawls to the edge of the building. She looks over the edge and sees Villain being pulled into one of the windows. She curses softly and looks down at her stomach.

The knife Villain plunged into her abdomen catches the light of the sun. If it were anywhere else, she would admire it. Groaning, Hero wraps her hand around the base of the blade and pushes herself to her feet.

The blade twists inside of her and she moans in pain. With too much effort, she unzips her inside breast pocket and pulls her phone out. The red battery icon flashes at her and she curses again, remembering back to that morning when Superhero reminded her to charge her phone.

She closes her eyes and sends a silent plea out, “Please let me have enough battery to make a call.”

She dials Superhero’s number and he picks up on the second ring. “Hellooo~!” He says in a singsong voice. “Are you going to be late to dinner?”

She inhales shakily and looks down at the dagger. The tone changes and Superhero clears his throat. “Hero? What’s wrong?”

She sniffles and slides down the concrete wall, watching as the blade’s hilt glistens in the dying sunset. The concrete is warm on her back and she closes her eyes. “I need you to come pick me up.”

Superhero pauses, waiting for her to say anything else. “What’s wrong?”

“I was…you were wrong. I wasn’t ready for Villain. He…uh, he stabbed me.”

“Fuck,” Superhero whispers. There’s some rustling and a door slams, “I’m on my way. Stay on the phone with me, Hero. Don’t hang up.”

She nods and looks at the battery again, “My phone’s almost dead.”

“I told you to charge it.” he says in a tone that could almost make her forget about the current situation. Where she’s bleeding out. With a knife in her stomach. Almost.

“Sorry,” she says, sliding down the wall further. “I forgot.”

Frowning, Hero waits for him to answer, but he doesn’t. Biting the inside of her cheek, Hero stares at the sky and finds her lucky star. The one she always looks for when things are bad and wishes for them to get better.

She closes her eyes and lowers her hand to her lap, letting the phone slip out from her fingers. She inhales deeply and sighs, “Please don’t let me die.”

“You’re not dying,” Superhero snaps, panic edging into his voice. “You’ll be fine.”

Hero almost laughs. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

“Who was?” full blown panic now. “Is there someone there?”

Hero looks in front of her and then down at her stomach. There’s too much blood. “I’m talking to the star.”

Her head feels heavy. Her thoughts are slow and it’s too hard to stay sitting up. She lets herself slump over and the skin around the dagger stretches, letting more blood spill out of her.

“Superhero?” she whispers, looking down at the phone.

“I’m still here.”

“...”

She hears his rapid breathing over the phone and she feels bad, but her mouth won’t open. Tears spill from her eyes and she stares back at the sky. The last rays of sun shine warmly on her face and she closes her eyes.

“Hero!?” Superhero’s voice is frantic. He’s running up stairs, she can tell. “Hero, I'm almost there, stay awake!”

She wants to.

The door gets pushed open and Superhero’s boots clunk on the rooftop. He scans the roof and rushes up to Hero.

Her phone falls from her lap into the puddle of blood around her, the screen dark.

“Fuck!” He shouts, laying her down on her back.

The blade protrudes from her stomach and her shirt around it is soaked in blood. He stares at her chest, looking for any movement to show she’s still breathing.

“Come on, Hero. You’re fine.” he insists. “You’re fine.” He scoops her up in his arms and stands, her arms dangle limply below her.

Without much effort, Superhero runs back down the staircase to his car. He places Hero gently in the back seat and jumps in the driver’s seat.

The tires squeal as he hurries to the hospital, constantly looking back at her.

He jumps out of the car and pulls her from the back of his car, ignoring the blood stains now in his seat.

The doors to the Emergency Room open slower than they ever have. He shouts at the woman behind the desk at the entrance, “I need some help over here!”

She jumps to her feet and shouts something behind her.

“What happened?” she asks, hand hovering over the dagger.

Before he can answer, someone runs up with a gurney and helps him set her down on it. They cart her off with promises to keep him updated.

He wants to follow them, he should.

But his feet are glued to the floor.

Blinking rapidly, Superhero looks at the woman from the desk as his chest heaves. She takes a deep breath and smiles warmly.

“They’ll take good care of her. Are you up for some paperwork?”

His brows furrow and she must take it as a yes, because she takes his arm and sits him down in one of the uncomfortable hospital waiting room chairs before disappearing behind her desk.

She reappears with a small stack of papers on a clipboard, “Take as long as you need. There’s coffee and a charging station right around the corner and I’ll be up at my desk if you have any questions.”

Superhero frowns and stares at the sheet in front of him and blinks a few times. He clicks the pen and starts to conquer the stack.

Someone taps Superhero’s shoulder and he bolts awake. The nurse that took Hero back stands in front of him. He nods and Superhero stands up. “She’ll be alright with a lot of rest. There was quite a lot of blood loss, we’re lucky we got her back.”

“Got her back?” he repeats.

The nurse nods, “We lost her for a minute, but she’s a fighter. You can come sit in her room, if you want.”

Nodding, Superhero follows the nurse to the elevator and stares silently at the lit up arrow above the door as the number increases.

Finally, the elevator stops and the door opens. The nurse leads him to a room and opens the door.

“She’ll be sleeping for a while, but it’ll be good for her to wake up to a familiar face.” he says, flipping a dim lamp on. “Push the call button if you need anything. Nurses will be in and out all night to check in with her and the doctor should be in early this morning.”

Superhero falls onto the couch in front of the window and stares at Hero, smaller than ever and drowning in the hospital blankets. Machines in the room beep every few seconds. He sighs and pulls his legs up onto the couch, “You’re fine.” he says. “You’re gonna be fine. They got her back and she’s fine.”

He can’t catch his breath.

“Calm down,” he snaps at himself, trying to slow his heart. “She’s fine, you’re fine. They got her back. She’s gonna be fine.”

His hands cover his face and he stares at her through his fingers, “She’s fine.”

He thinks back to their conversation. She was so scared, she wasn’t ready.

He sent her out to fight Villain and she wasn’t ready.

“Stop.” He scolds himself and hits the side of his head. “She’s fine. You’re fine.”

He inhales sharply and stares at Hero. “They got her back.”

Slowly, he exhales and closes his eyes. His hands tangle in his hair and he pulls it taut, his scalp pulls and he inhales deeply.

“You’re fine.” Another deep breath.

He opens his eyes and watches the steady rise and fall of her chest. “She’s fine.”

part two (will be posted eventually)

#aprilisthecruelestmonth #exhaustion whump #panic attack whump #whump #whump fic #hero whump #hero whumpee #whumpee #villain whumper #superhero caretaker #superhero #my writing #whump writing #whumper

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polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup · 1 month ago

Note

pez dispenser debris for the fic ask thing? 👀

As much as this is my “kill no darlings you will get EVERY flashback” fic, there’s overarching sociopolitical backstory explaining why Izuku and the rest of class 3A exploded in the public eye that I don’t think I’ll ever fully fit in.

It’s a combination of it being more of a meta analysis than anything and also requiring information from a perspective that I know will never appear in the fic. Like, the fic still gets the different moments that make up this analysis, but there’s no explicit connecting thread to show how they all locked together to create this sort of global cult following of class 3-A. I almost put in a little fake news article opinion piece that was meant to sort of walk the reader through why society is Like This, but I decided it was too heavy handed and deleted it.

Everything that I’m going to reference has already appeared in pez dispenser debris to some degree, and none of it will ever actually materially impact the plot. They may receive a little more detail down the line if they’re mentioned in passing in the fic, so out of an abundance of caution, I’ll stick it below the cut so people can avoid this, but I don’t personally consider any of this spoilers.

Izuku and the rest of the class are famous in pez dispenser debris in a way that’s pretty much unprecedented for students. Canonically, not even all might had a name for himself until after his graduation. Pretty much everyone from class 3A are public figures, with Izuku specifically being considered a major global figure.

In my mind, there was this perfect storm right during their second year that catapulted them into fame. The class personally has varying levels of awareness of why they got so popular, but there was this perfect cross winds of societal unrest and fear that made them household names.

There was an approximately one month span in their second year where they were just hit one after another with a major firestorms of events: The UA Sports Festival, the Sidekick Strike, and the Tartarus Prison Break/Desertion of Yokohama.

The UA Sports Festival is the one that the kids attribute this most to, because so many of the news articles that followed referenced their performance in it. But it probably gave them less mileage than what the other two events did.

What the UA Sports Festival did was showcase their skills to the world in a venue designed to show them off. The public was already on edge. All Might had retired, crime rates kept going up, and people were rapidly losing confidence in existing heroes. Class 2A made such an insane showing of skill in the second Sports Festival that it made the public rave about them for weeks after. It was extremely reassuring to Japan that they had such powerful heroes in the barrel and would soon be on the streets. But that attention probably would have died down had it not been for the Sidekick Strike and Yokohama.

The Sidekick Strike actually had nothing to do with them. But it undermined the public’s faith in heroes at just the right time.

The Sidekick Strike is just one of those things that I have no POV that would even tangentially be involved in it so we’ll get a few passing references in media clips and it’ll never be discussed in depth. Which is a shame because it’s such an interesting conflict to me.

The Sidekick Strike was heavily inspired by the 1919 Boston Police Strike. Effectively, it was the height of the labor rights movement, and police officers got together and went on strike to get the police union recognized. They had tried to negotiate and negotiations failed, and so they all walked off the job. The city descended into lawlessness, the national guard was deployed, it was a whole thing. Famously, Calvin Coolidge fired the entire police force over it on the grounds that there was no striking from public safety.

I thought it would be really interesting if there was something similar that happened with the sidekicks. The thing is that the heroics structure as it stands really incentivizes abuse towards sidekicks. We have a society where there’s a decent amount of heroes who are only in it for the fame. A not insignificant amount of money must come from marketing deals. And it’s a ranked system, so they’re all in competition with each other.

Heroes wouldn’t be incentivized to showcase their sidekicks—they’d be incentivized to take advantage of them and take credit for their work.

Like, think about the work-study experiences. Momo didn’t even officially work for the hero she studied with. She wasn’t getting paid. An adult woman used her for a shampoo ad. Who wants to bet whether Momo saw a dime from it? It’s probably very predatory because the nature of the system incentivizes predation.

I thought the underlying legal issues would be interesting and complex. Who owns a sidekick’s image—the agency or the individual? Who gets the proceeds of their brand deals? This all would be governed by their employment contracts, and sidekicks just starting out have very little leverage compared to big name heroes. And those heroes would want to keep their sidekicks names small and theirs big. The rankings are competitive, after all.

It’s a situation where I do think that like. The sidekicks would have a point in unionizing. The use of their image, appropriate compensation, and proper credit for their busts would all be like, very legitimate concerns in a normal employment context.

I see agencies like Idaten settling immediately with the union and having their sidekicks back on the street before the day is out. In my mind, idaten is considered the gold standard for sidekick jobs already, and their employees mostly did it out of solidarity with the people they worked alongside of. Like, Idaten was already doing most of the union’s demands and signed off very quickly on the remaining ones. If it was just about the Idaten sidekicks, none of them would have gone on strike, but they had a lot of colleagues who they depended on in the field who were in terrible situations. What were they gonna say, sorry, sucks to be you, I got a great gig though so condolences? These were the people keeping them alive. They went on strike because they knew Idaten would publicly settle before the day was out and set an example for the rest of the agencies. Hopefully it would help other agencies follow their lead.

But that didn’t happen. Some agencies, like Endeavor’s, fired everyone immediately. And I think a lot of agencies spent a long time picking over every line item in prolonged negotiations. It dragged out.

And that went over fucking terribly.

All Might just retired. Crime is up. And their sworn defenders are bickering over who gets what cut of the action figure line. Like I think the public would have fucking hated this in a post-All Might world. It would have seemed like the only real hero just medically and irreversibly retired and the rest of them are squabbling about whose turn it is in the spotlight.

I also think that the villains would have taken advantage of it.

The Tartarus Prison Break in pez isn’t the one that happened in canon. Here, the League of Villains attacked Tartarus and set everyone loose. In the process, they made a very clear stance: they are going to leave with All for One, and they are not going to attack any civilians. They won’t fight at all unless attacked first.

All of the horrible and sadistic villains they just let go have not made the same promise.

They chose to do this now because of the Sidekick Strike. All their heroes don’t give a fuck about protecting them, so they’re strapped for staffing. So they’re taking back their leader and going back to ground, and the heroes are free to immediately go after and contain all those bad bad villains who just escaped. And those guys are headed to the heavily populated mainland, so better be quick.

The whole world knew that was their explicit reasoning and promise. Because Himiko fucking lived tweeted the escape.

The Sidekick Strike took the hit for a lot of the blame, but I do see all the sidekicks breaking strike lines to go respond to the crisis. But response times were severely handicapped by the fact that most if not all of them were cut off from their agencies. It was just a complete systemic breakdown.

And then there became the question of what crisis do you respond to: All for One’s escape, or everyone else’s?

I mentioned in one of the little fake tumblr posts that the Tartarus Prison Break was seen as Endeavor’s greatest failure. And part of that is because he chose to sacrifice the nearby area, Yokohama, to contain All for One.

I am one of the biggest haters of Endeavor’s later arc, specifically because it required going back on the nature of the abuse he had subjected his family to that was already established in canon, but that’s a different rant. This is not canon endeavor. I hate what they did with canon endeavor.

That being said, I do think that the self doubt weighed on him once he became number one. And this was the moment of his career where it really crushed him.

All for One had escaped. So had every other villain from Tartarus. He should go after the most immediate threats. He knew this. It was basic triage.

But they would never have a better chance to stop All for One.

Prisoners in Tartarus aren’t exactly hitting all their macros and micros or training daily. They are not adherents to the Bakugou Katsuki Fitness Lifestyle. All for One was coming off spending the last few months drugged up to his eyeballs and strapped to a chair in a straitjacket with at least fifty guns pointed at him at all times. The man has not scratched his own nose in weeks. He’s weaker now than he’ll ever be again.

It was their best chance.

If he escaped, and he went back to ground, he’d have the time and space to get as strong as he wanted, and then he’d come back for real. And he’d be coming back for everything.

Stopping him the first time had cost them All Might.

And Endeavor simply was not All Might. And he still wouldn’t be All Might when the next fight came.

It really was the hardest decision of Endeavor’s life. He had to admit to himself that his own inadequacy was going to cost them countless lives. But he thought it was a hard decision he had to make. He was losing the battle for the barest chance at winning the war.

So he made the call that all heroes were to respond to All for One. They had to hit the league of villains now with their full force if they were to stand a chance. They could not afford to divide their already sparse forces. They’d respond to Yokohama when AfO was contained.

He was also the one who made the call to broadcast the warning message that we hear in the Twitter post. He thought it would give civilians their best chance. He didn’t want them to act with the expectation of the heroes being en route.

Of course, that meant that the entire city got fucking sirens going off and a message telling them that the heroes were not going to save them. Which, as you can expect, did not do a lot for public morale.

In my head, Tartarus is like, the equivalent to Gotham’s Arkham. It’s borderline an institute for the criminally insane. You don’t end up there unless you did something super fucked, are super dangerous, and have extreme violent tendencies. It’s exclusively for the most dangerous and indiscriminately violent criminals in the country.

The entire world was watching in real time while the tragedy unfolded. A lot of people were livestreaming after the emergency broadcast dropped, because they didn’t want the government to be able to handwave away how terrible their death was, or because they didn’t know what else to do, or because they just didn’t want to be alone. The full expectation was that it’d be a massacre.

But it wasn’t. Because Class 2-A responded instead.

The Class 2-A defensive efforts were discussed in one of the silly little fake tumblr posts and in the fake twitter post. In those, we find out that 1) Class 2-A, along with Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire responded to the scene; 2) the entire class rolled out of Mirio’s fucking mom van and tamaki and nejire’s cars like they were fucking clown cars; 3) the HPSC claimed it was a legitimate operation blessed and coordinated by them; and 4) a lot of people think this was a lie, in part because videos leaked of Aizawa bitching them all out in the street afterwards. We also see Izuku’s green lightning at the end of the twitter video, showing him responding to the scene just as the first villains hit the mainland.

This fight has a lot of names in the backstory that lives in my head. It’s called the Tartarus Prison Break for obvious reasons. It’s also been called in some circles the Desertion of Yokohama, because of the call Endeavor made.

But it’s also called the Battle of Yokohoma. And it’s ranked alongside the Battle of Kamino as one of the finest acts of modern day heroics. And that’s because of Class 2-A. If it hadn’t been for them showing up, it would have gone down in history as the Massacre of Yokohama.

Like. It kills me that I can’t include the full details of what happened, but there’s just too much to make in a flashback. It’s a fic in and of itself. But it really was the fight that made Class 2-A.

It was the first fight where they were really the only heroes that could be counted on. Granted, they’d had to fight for their lives alone, but this wasn’t just their lives. These were thousands of terrified civilians who all thought they were going to die.

It was the first true test of them as heroes in the world. And they actually rose to the occasion. They didn’t just fight the villains—they realized that they needed to get emergency services working throughout the city if everyone was going to make it. Momo and Tsuyu conducted a mildly hostile take over of the emergency call center so they could coordinate relief. They had fucking Tokoyami and Dark Shadow single-handedly holding the line on the hospital while Kaminari, Shoji, Jiro, and Sato all learned to drive for the Very First Time while commandeering the city’s fucking ambulances. They were fighting and containing villains, performing emergency aid, putting out literal fires, everything. It was the hardest fight of their lives.

There was a hot second where Class 2-A was The Moment. Like. The entire world was watching them during this fight, and they had no fucking idea until it was over. People lost their minds when the first footage made it out of Yokohama of a bunch of teenagers showing up and immediately throwing hands with S-Class villains.

It was global news. Think of the kind of media attention that was received by the search for the Titan, the Tham Luang Cave Rescue, the Suez Canal getting blocked by the Ever Given (rip queen you will always be famous to me), that kind of thing. Class 2-A was fighting for their fucking lives and then found out three days later while they were all still in the hospital that there was a prayer vigil going on in Portugal for them during the battle and CNN had 24 hours live coverage of the fight that had so many viewers it outnumbered the population of Finland. Like what do you even do with that information.

The world expected a massacre. They didn’t expect a bunch of footage of high schoolers kicking the shit out of superpowered murders and personally ferrying the injured to the hospitals they were also defending.

The other part about this fight that really made them permanently part of the public consciousness is that it was not lost on everyone that every single person who responded to that fight did so at the risk of their license.

All of them had provisional licenses, save Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire, all of whom went AWOL from the explicit directives ordering them to respond to the fight against All for One. The operation could not have been less authorized. They had to steal their gear and jimmy the UA fence to even get out. The explicit plan was to steal one of the UA buses and have Bakugou fucking drive them to the fight (he also did not know how to drive but he seemed the most likely of them to break literally every single motor vehicle code to get them there but still be naturally talented at it enough to not kill them) but Izuku told Mirio what bullshit they were up to and Mirio, who was with Tamaki and Nejire when the news broke, immediately decided he would be on that bullshit too and pulled up in his mom van.

In my mind, there were strict rules around provisional licenses and how they could be used, and they broke pretty much all of them to respond to Yokohama. It would have been grounds to revoke their provisionals and permanently bar them from heroics. Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire could have all lost their licenses for helping them and for going AWOL.

The HPSC fucking fell over themselves to legitimatize the entire operation. They knew they were utterly fucked if they didn’t. These kids already had murals being painted of their faces in other fucking countries. There was a little old lady in Kyoto livestreaming herself working overtime to embroider Iida’s face onto a cushion because that lovely young man saved her darling granddaughter from *checks notes* horrible and painful death directly caused by the failings of the current HPSC administration. There were multiple trending posts online agreeing to fucking riot if those kids got in trouble for this.

Every single actual hero in the immediate vicinity of this disaster had responded to fight a villain who wasn’t actually attacking anyone. And then they fucking lost. They publicly broadcast a message saying Good Luck Champs Because We’re Not Going To Save You. It was an actual PR nightmare that they had a bare chance of salvaging if they just latched onto these kids like an aggressive parasite and that is exactly what they did.

They totally knew. Actually, it was a joint operation coordinated by and between UA and and the HPSC. Why would the kids be in trouble?? They had responded because the HPSC told them to.

UA gave it a week of dead silence and then issued a short statement praising the bravery of their students in a recent HPSC approved mission, and then they never said another word about it. They didn’t have any choice but to go along with the HPSC’s story. If they contradicted them, all of class 2-a would find their licenses pulled by the end of the day, and lord knows they wouldn’t wait for the court of public opinion to work its magic and would just all go out and become fucking vigilantes, because why not. Aizawa has aged 100 years since he got this class. Every single day he thinks of how it was a 50/50 shot between him and Vlad.

No one in the class is fully aware of just how famous they were in the immediate aftermath, because the school bent over backwards to try and shield them from it as much as possible. Like, they have an idea, but none of them saw the full explosion firsthand because of just how hard the school worked to keep it from them. Aizawa confiscated the internet router and told them it was punishment for whatever the fuck they did to the buses (thank god Mirio was just as crazy as them because they were NOT GOOD at hotwiring cars) but really it was to try and insulate them from it a little bit. Like. Japan’s Imperial Family wanted to do an official visit. The White House offered to host them. They received interview requests from every major talk show on the planet. Buzzfeed wanted to do a puppy interview with them.

Right now, Aizawa’s terrified for Midoriya’s graduation, but in the aftermath of that, he was breathing into a paper bag about all of them. Society had sort of latched onto them like they were the last life raft on the titanic. All for One was back, and All Might wasn’t, and the heroes had publicly broadcast a message saying they were useless, but don’t fucking worry, fifteen year old Iida Tenya is on the case. Society will be upheld by Kaminari Denki, currently viral for driving a real life city ambulance one hundred miles per hour down the street while screaming “WEE WOO BITCH.” And don’t forget the pillar that will be Mina Ashido, who rushed over to him earlier that day to show him her extra sparkly pink nails. And if you have a major fight that needs to be won? Don’t fucking worry, just send out bone-breaking boy wonder Midoriya Izuku and his equally reckless brother Toogata Mirio, because their dumbasses managed to take down an S-Class villain team that only All Might could defeat the first time around. Don’t worry about the multi week hospitalization they needed after, because that’s an acceptable burden to put on children.

When Aizawa started this job, he promised himself he would never send a student out to die. Some of them would die. But it would be tragedy, not damnation. He’d have given them their best chance. Part of the reason why he made that promise was because he sort of felt like his teacher sent him out set up to die, and it’s only luck that he made it through his first couple of years.

He has gone to the funeral of every single student he has ever had who did not make it. He goes back to their graves every year.

He was fucking petrified after Yokohama that society would push these kids too far too soon. Every single one of his classes before them had gotten the benefit of being practically unknown their first few years. They didn’t have the world talking about them like they were already the top heroes. He was terrified they wouldn’t have the space to learn and grow when they started.

A lot of teachers would have tried to mine the notoriety of Yokohama to hard launch their students’ careers. Aizawa told Nedzu point blank that he would quit tomorrow if he did not help him quash this thing as much as possible, and nedzu agreed.

This world killed its real heroes. It sucked them dry and left them like All Might, and he just needed fucking time. He needed fucking time to let them be kids and maybe they’d survive.

Izuku ended up being the one who escaped the aftermath of everything the least. His Quirk was too much like All Might’s for the world to let go of him easily.

And then Stain got fucking dogpiled by idaten in the aftermath of the Tartarus prison break and implied he considered Izuku the only true hero in the absence of all might and everyone started asking super inconvenient questions like “how does stain even know you exist” and “no really he called you by your actual legal name how does he even know that” and it just. It didn’t help things. Izuku’s suffering.

So yeah. There was just this absolute collision of a total lack of faith in current heroes combined with a huge swell of public trust in class 2-a that led us to being in the landscape we are now. All of the currently licensed heroes said that they wouldn’t be there to save the public, and then Class 2-A immediately hit back that they would be there. Actually, they’ll risk everything to be there. They’ll die to protect the public and they’ll risk the entire future they had been trying to build and they will fucking be there to save them.

There’s a lot of people that never forgave the heroes for deserting Yokohama. And there’s even more people who have absolute faith in Izuku and his classmates because they didn’t. That’s why the world is watching them so aggressively. These kids are the most trusted heroes in Japan right now.

I wish I could fit in more about what happened, because I love this backstory so much, but 1) some of it absolutely requires POVs like Endeavors, which we won’t get in pez dispenser debris, 2) there’s no one POV that could tell the full story via flashback and 3) it’d just be too long of a divergence. Like. It really is a whole fic of its own. I’d love to write it one day but I probably won’t have the time

#pez dispenser debris #bnha #the sheer drama of the battle of Yokohama #you know the fanfiction battle that lives in my head lol #it’s SO dramatic to me and I’m obsessed with it #when the footage first leaked of class 2A responding people fucking rioted #people all over the world stayed up all night to watch them fight #like They Were The Moment #it was one of those really unique moments of humanity where the entire world held its breath at the same time #and it was just them all really coming into themselves as heroes #there’s so many fucking dramatic moments of it #Izuku had the exact same analysis of all for one’s escape as endeavor #he knew he’d never get a better chance to stop him than right this second. and he also knew that all for one would be coming for him.#no one knew it would one day be his fight. endeavor didn’t know. but Izuku saw afo’s escape and realized that if he went and tried to end #him now it would be his best chance at surviving to adulthood. he picked Yokohama. he doesn’t regret that.#there’s this dramatic moment where all might finds him when they’re breaking out of the school and tells him he’s proud and then lets him go #there’s this huge dramatic fight between Izuku and Mirio and a villain team that wrecked havoc over Japan for nine months until they were #stopped by all might and sir nighteye. there’s TikTok edits of the end of the fight between them and All Might/Nighteye and the end of the #fight between them and Izuku/Mirio. there’s TikTok edits. I’m sick in the head over this fanfic battle I’m sick over it someone sedate me #the entire world is kind of obsessed over this fight but class 3A doesn’t like to talk about it. they were all sort of scared out of their #minds. like no one was coming. it was just them and some of the worst villains alive. everyone close enough to respond was responding to afo #and everyone else was too far away to make it. and like. the UNSPEAKABLE relief the heroes felt when dawn came and Yokohama was still #standing. Aizawa was one of the first to respond to Tartarus before endeavor made the call otherwise he would have been awol too. he got #news mid-battle that UAs class 2A had responded to Yokohama and he spent the entire night terrified that one of them would be dead by the #time he got there. and then he made it and his kids were bloody and exhausted and in shock but they were fucking alive.#he nearly kills yagi in the aftermath what do you MEAN you KNEW THEY WERE DOING THIS and HUGGED THEM GOODBYE #there was also this entire HPSC document leak that happened that I’ve referenced a few times but that was months later so it wasn’t part of #the perfect storm during the twoish weeks surrounding their second sports festival. like what a time. Aizawa has never been more stressed ou #in his life. except for maybe right now when there’s two Izukus and both are in crisis.

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haine-kleine · 9 months ago

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Slowly leaving the copium phase and getting genuinely curious what even was the intention behind the epilogue?

The manga could've ended with Deku punching Shigaraki into dust and nothing of value would have been lost. Why are we spending 70% of the epilogue on the society rebuilding itself back to status quo? Nothing has changed, no lesson was learned in the war against villains because they were successfully defeated. Pro heroes are alive and well, the hero kids, despite being literal war veterans at 16 years old are all still in the hero course. Now they even have their own fans.

Is it supposed to show how the hero propaganda makes child soldiers and keeps the machine running forever by glorifying the profession and demonizing the villains? Is it supposed to show the heavy burden the heroes will be carrying for the rest of their lives after getting killed the person they set out to save?

Is it supposed to be so dark and hopeless? No one won in this war, no one got what they wanted, none of the saviour trio achieved their goal of saving their villain, with two confirmed dead and one joining them soon. Even the narrative's golden boy Bakugou got his dream of competing with Deku forever taken away from him because Deku doesn't have a quirk anymore. (on that note, what Izuku is even doing in UA still when the manga has spent so much time establishing how impossible heroics are for quirkless people and not giving us even one example of a quirkless hero who did not get OFA).

Why this insistence on making both sides as miserable as possible? For a manga that started as a hopeful story about saving people, giving them hope, that sure is a choice.

Not sure what message we are supposed to take away from this other than a 'Fuck you' from the author to all of his readers.

#i understand and am very sympathetic towards the burnout and pure exhaustion he has from writing this story #but why take it out on all of the characters?#horikoshi is really beating the entire cast with sticks and throwing stones at the villains specifically #bnha epilogue is a marvelous lesson in fucking up your own story to an unbelievable degree #bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha critical

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maybeitsalivescribbles · 3 months ago

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Superpowers: a recap

You know, I often tend to skip superpowers under the rug when I write my snippets- which is kind of a problem in a Hero/Villain setting.

So this is a recap to help me remember the possibilities, in case it can help anyone else:

LIST OF POWERS

Classical set

Super strength

Super endurance

Super speed

Telekinesis

Teleportation

Forcefields

Laser eyes (classical because of Superman, but I still think this is bonkers)

Immune to superpowers/elements/illness/etc

Flight

Healing (themself or others)

Can speak to animals/plants

Hypnotism

Immortality

Wish-granting

Astral projection

Miscellaneous

Can steal power from others (forever or it’s temporary)

Has non-human animal anatomy (reptilian scales, horns, produces poison, etc)

Can break into parts and reassemble

Can make clone(s) of themself

Immune to gravity (the fall doesn’t kill you, can jump as high as you like, can crawl on walls, etc)

Super instinct (can sense when something’s wrong, when someone is lying)

Can control fibers/clothes

Can create portals to anywhere else

Control of one single type of object (doors, trains, cars, paper, etc)

Control anything made by humans

Music powers

Can force everyone to dance

Can control voices/can take voices away

Can control volume of any sound

Charm people when they play an instrument/sing

Can summon music whenever they like

They get an upgrade (super strength, etc) every time there’s music

Elemental/Nature powers

Can control fire/ashes

Can control electricity

Can control water/ice

Can control plasma

Can control air/wind/gazes

Can control earth/magma

Can control metal

Can control light/shadows/colors

Can walk on water/wind/lava/rainbows

Can breathe underwater/in space

Can burrow into earth

Can control temperature

Can control the weather

Control of life forms

Can control humans

Can control beasts

Can control plants

Can control...mushrooms, I guess ?

Can control viruses and bacteria

Can control blood

Everything they touch die

Everything they touch come back to life

Can accelerate/slow down aging

=> is the life form conscious while under control ? Can they fight back? Do they have to be okay with it?

Sense powers

(Reminder: human senses are hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, vestibular)

Better senses (better sight, better hearing, etc)

X-ray vision

Can see every place they like or eavesdrop everywhere

Can manipulate the senses of others (can heighten them or cancel them)

Can inflict pain

Emotions

Their sheer presence induces an emotion (fear, love, etc)

Can force to feel an emotion/heighten or dull emotions

Can project their own emotions into others

Empathy (they feel the emotions of others)

Shapeshifter

Can reduce/aggrandize their size

Can seem much older or younger

Intangibility

Invisibility

Strechability

Can take the form of another thing/person

Can take the form of any human

Can take the form of anything (animal/plant/object/liquid/gas/etc)

Reverse Shapeshifter: can transform others into an animal/stone/plant/anything

Mindpower

telepathy

illusions

possession/mind control

can mess with memory

can mess with dreams

Time powers

Can time travel (future/past)

Can froze time

Can predict the future/see the past

Oh now that's just cheating

Reality wrapper

Luck

Everything they create becomes real

Can choose any superpower they want according to the situation

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Is the character okay with their power ?

they hate it it’s a curse to them

they wish it were different (stronger, another power altogether, etc)

they don’t mind

they really enjoy it

it’s their whole identity

Etc.

If they hate it, is it because:

it hurts

it could hurt someone/something else

it’s useless/ it’s not offensive

it goes against their personality

people hate it too

it makes people treating them as a tool

Can they control it?

they’re a walking disaster

using it makes them sick

perfect control, natural or learned

they don’t even need to think about it

etc

How powerful it is?

(Ex control of fire: can barely light a match versus can set in fire the whole country)

Characters with weak powers my beloveds. It's about them fighting when they know they will lose, putting everything they have in the fight, keeping their head high when people sneer at them. It's about them enjoying their power without having it to be useful, or forcing them to be creative and smart about/around it.

Overpowered characters my beloveds. It's not about them winning the fight because the answer is obvious, it's about them dealing with too much power in a fragile world, the gap between them and the others, how it impacts their relationships, their morality - never hesitate to make a character like this. It can be terrifying, it can be hilarious, it can be great. No trope is bad, it all depends on how it's used.

What is the source of their power ?

failed experiment?

successful experiment?

got them from a supernatural being?

got them from their family?

got them from a magical object?

When did they get it ?

when born?

during childhood ? Teen years ?

grown-up ?

Was it expected or not?

Is getting this power a one time thing or do they need to renew it ?

(via sacrifice, offering, a special food/medicine, a good/bad deed, etc)

Can they give it to someone else?

Can it go away/fade?

Does it grow stronger/weaker with age?

Is it affected by the health of the character ?

(Is the power weaker when the character is sick, or is it stronger as a defense measure ? Does it become unpredictable?)

Does it hurt using it/not using it?

(Because it takes too much on the body/because it forces to repress an important part of the self)

Does the power change their personality in a good/bad way?

(Does it corrupt them, does it force them to see the world in a new light, etc)

Can their power combine with someone else’s ?

Do they have a weakness/something that cancels their abilities?

Do they have special needs because of it ?

(Do they need glasses, headphones, medicine, a special diet, etc)

Are they immune to their own power or do they take damage ?

(Ex : is your character able to control fire is fireproof or not?)

How much do they rely on it?

they use them for everything

they use them often

they could do without

it’s barely an afterthought to them

they never use it

etc

How do they use it ?

Raising their hand

With their eyes

With some object

They don’t have to do anything

Etc

How does this power is perceived by the others?

This makes them a god

This makes them a star

This makes them totally mundane

This makes them look really stupid

This makes them a nuisance

This makes them someone to be killed at all costs

Etc.

About the suit

Is that for protection ?

Is it an uniform ?

Is it here for the vibe ?

Does it strengthen their abilities?

Does it have gadgets ?

How (im)practical is it ?

#hero x villain #hero villain community #writeblr #writers on tumblr #villain and hero #heroes and villains #hero and villain #writers #hero x villain community #writing community #hero and villain community #heroes and villains community #villain x hero #toolbox #not an exhaustive list by any means but you know...it's long enough

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jeding-png · 10 months ago

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Chapter 151 made me feel like a sadomasochist all over again.

OK. I was hoping to see Reynold in the new chapter, BUT NOT UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES—

"Reynold told me that you weren't the one who stole Ivonne's necklace."

And in that moment, Penelope realized that the wounds on Reynold that she had seen on him during lunch with the Eckharts in the orangery were not from training.

He seems so... small. I do not know. What he did is truly terrible. But I just remember the affair and the Duke's attitude towards all his children. And separately, his attitude towards Reynold killed me. Because Reynold will not blame his father, whom he loves and from whom he has never heard the words "I'm proud of you", for this.

Do you think only this moment will break your heart, which is already full of events? Other Tumblr users will quickly convince you otherwise.

The Duke has come to say 'goodbye' to Penelope, his immature daughter who is about to become an adult. Everything sounds great, so why so many cool colors? Why is there so much pain in their eyes again?

Because those words were not heard by the one who was waiting for them the most.

"That day I thought you just wanted jewels for your young heart. As a father I thought it right to forgive your transgressions."

"If I knew it would take six years to hear you call me father again..."

Real Penelope not only did not hear farewell from her father, she carried the stigma of a necklace thief until her 'death.'

Also, the duke says that he can't get the same look of Penelope out of his head the day Ichlis brought the protagonist of Normal Mode to the duchy.

"What... what expression in my face did you see?"

"You didn't make any facial expressions."

This chapter isn't just about Penelope and Duke's conversation either. It's also a reminder of how much Penelope and Siyeon are alike. How past and present life echo each other.

— Nothing will be solved if you are emotional.

— If you hold your breath until you suffocate, everything will pass.

"Dear... do you remember our first meeting?"

A tired and exhausted duke who is desperately searching for his missing daughter and that little girl from poverty who begs for some food.

As much as I love the Original Penelope... we really don't know much about this character. Except for general information or relying on the stories of other heroes. And it is her finale that breaks the heart.

The chapter is very full of events, but I can't tell more. It was as if I had taken all of Duke Eckhart's mood on me, fr.

#villains are destined to die #death is the only ending for a villainess #death is the only ending for the villainess #death is the only ending for the villain #manhwa #vadd #vadtd #vadd spoilers #vadd new chapter #penelope eckhart #og penelope eckhart #duke eckhart #reynold eckhart #there are so many mistakes in the post cuz I wanted to sleep damnit—#i shouldn't have read a new chapter when i'm exhausted.

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goldenshrikecomic · 7 months ago

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Question for you! What makes Nero an appealing character for you specifically as a creator? I love to hear people's thoughts on their fictional bebes :]

I love writing his kind of characters. I love love love portraying flawed mindsets, bad behavior born from insecurity, characters who have tunnel vision and anger management issues, straight up selfishness, greed, desperation, struggles to fit in with kind and considerate people. Not saying Nero has all of these, but I love musing about these characters the most. Which honestly sucks because there's this ridiculous and loud mindset going around calling these characters out, and their writers with them. It's ILLEGAL to enjoy morally grey characters, god forbid they're villains, and man it's so tiring to see. Sometimes it feels like baby sensory videos are the only safe media to consume.

BUT on the topic of Nero, I just get him. I get his train of thought, and while I don't agree with how unfair and offensive he is, I get where he comes from and where the anger stems from. He's the easiest character for me to write. There's a lot to him that is still unexplored in the comic, I can't talk about that. But those parts of him are very important. I also really like his design, he's a joy to draw.

#ask #nero #writing a story from a villain's point of view is something I'm very interested in making but I instantly get exhausted even thinking about #some of the comments it would garner.#that hasn't stopped me yet though #i just don't really look forward to posting what I'm cooking on my freetime

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chaotic-orphan · 1 year ago

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A quick prompt

“Please…” Hero wheezed, clawing their fingernails desperately into the dirt, trying to pull themselves forward, closer to Villain who was so heart wrenchingly close if Hero could just reach them. “Please d-don’t…”

Villain tilted their head at the exhausted Hero with more pity than sympathy, and a little bit of awe at how even when beaten, even when eating dirt, Hero still didn’t know when to quit. Maybe they were born without a survival instinct.

“I told you before Hero,” Villain said.

Hero’s grip in the dirt turned their knuckles white and they cried out a strangled scream of frustration and helplessness as they pulled their limp body towards Villain.

“You can’t save everyone, everywhere, at all times and expect to get away with it.”

“Yes…” Hero panted, dragging themselves an inch closer. “I can. As long as I draw breath, I can save the world.”

“Sweetheart,” Villain cooed, clicking their tongue against the roof of their mouth. “You can’t even save yourself.”

Hero heard, more than saw, Villain push the button on their remote and froze. It was as if the Earth took a sharp inhale of breath — the world turned slower, nature grew quiet, all Hero could hear was the ringing in their ears and the thundering pounding of their heart in their throat — the ground rumbled beneath Hero and they had just enough strength to push their head up to watch as everything they knew turned to ash.

The fire burned hot, as if Hero was in it instead of beside it, looking down at it, and no matter how much they wanted to Hero couldn’t tear their eyes away from the flames or the screams or the smoke or the sirens or the death and destruction they could have prevented if they had just been stronger.

Hero flinched as a hand settled on the nape of their neck, rubbing soothing circles over the skin. “It was a valiant effort Hero, I want you to know that. There is nothing you could have done. Although you did come the closest to beating me. I had to even the playing field a bit, what with your borderline obsessive tenacity.”

Villain’s words sent a shiver up Hero’s spine. “Don’t worry, this is only the beginning. I told you we would change the world, didn’t I?”

They did. That was the first thing Villain ever told Hero. At the time it sounded so attractive, so endearing. It was so easy for Villain to convince Hero to follow Villain after that because they wanted the same things.

Hero just didn’t imagine that in order for the world to change, so many needed to die.

“Come on now, let me get you back to bed. We can start rebuilding tomorrow. That’s when the real work begins.”

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caledine · 3 months ago

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Leader Whumpee Pt4

(I think what comes after this is my favourite part of miscommunication whump, the realisation 😌🌟 i adore it. anyways hope this isn’t too shitty)

Second didn’t even try to glance at Leader. Leader was sat lazily cleaning up the mess he'd made with a cloth. He felt like he was doing it so badly to piss him off so he didn’t comment. Anger coursed through his veins, he couldn’t help but scowl. “ Leader, can’t you do anything?” he spat. He knew it was rude but he couldn’t contain it. He heard Leader whisper under his breath but he didn’t even lift his head to look at him. Rude. Oh he’d show Leader rude.

“ Medic, Where’s dinner?” Youngest frowned entering the kitchen. Medic muttered about how Leader had decided to ignore the boiling pot till it boiled over and burnt the pasta. Youngest sent a pointed look to Leader who still refused to move. “ We’ve been waiting for like an hour and technically you haven't even started it. Leader— stop ignoring me!” Medic voice raised as started getting frustrated, she pressed her hands into fists by her side. Leader didn’t startle.

It didn’t take long for Second’s mood to be not only soured but curdled; To enter expecting a steaming plate, to be met with an inedible mess was beyond infuriating . Medic flinched at his burst of anger. “ Leader.” seemed to be all Second could growl out. In his blind rage, he almost raised a hand at Leader and that got Youngest yelling about friendly fire, and oh lord more complaining and then Medic grumbled to herself— if only Leader could take his role as captain seriously. Or even just understand that an angry, hungry team wouldn’t ever be a good idea.

Second tried to push Youngest away gently while Medic huffed and watched Leader push himself up. “ Leader, don't you dare try to leave. You’ve done it! You seem to have a superpower at making every situation worse; It’s not hard just take respon—“ She paused mid yell scanning him. His face was flushed and his eyes looked dazed, the way he struggled to keep his feet beneath him seemed to trigger the doctor in her. “ Leader, sit down.” She commanded. Second thought it would be best he followed, because even he could see Leader looked a moment from blacking the hell out. He didn’t seem to hear her, he took two fawn-like steps towards the door as he trailed her. Two.

Second watched his body give in falling forwards and crumpling to the ground. Medic grabbed at the back of his Leader’s shirt trying to cushion it even slightly; His body slammed to the floor but she managed to keep his head off the ground.Ohhh god. This didn’t look good. Him and Youngest had long shut up blinking blankly at the scene. Medic tried to take his weight by letting his head rest on her shoulder “ Leader—? Jesus christ, you idiot. You're boiling alive. That’s a horrendous fever, hey Lead come on. Look at me.” She patted his face but got no response. Worry pooled in his stomach alongside the guilt for yelling at Leader, not to mention forcing him to make dinner. Medic slid an arm around his waist trying to get him to sit up properly. Second watched a weird expression cast her face, she removed her hand which came back coated in crimson. Second bit his lip.

“ Fuck is he alright?” Second kneeled down next to them as Youngest bolted, announcing that she’d grab the medkit. “ Ok no. This seems more serious; Can you pick him up? I need him in my office now. Hell , I've been a dick to him all day.” She hurried out. Second nodded.

He scooped Leader into a bridal carry and all Leader could respond with was a weak whine of pain. Tears ran down his face. Second grimaced, he’d never seen Leader cry. “ Leader, Lead , I'm sorry. I know but I need to. You aren’t looking too good.” He whispered trying to be a bit reassuring. Leader didn’t hear him. He placed Leader gently on the twin bed in the bay. Leader tried to push himself to sit up but Second placed two hands pushing him down gently, Medic peeked under his shirt and winced putting it back down. “Ok good news, he tried to patch it up. Bad news— it’s gone beyond horrifically wrong.”

Part 3

#whump #it gets worse before it gets better #whump scenario #whump writing #whump tropes #hero villain writing #team whump #whump community #whumpblr #whump ideas #exhaustion whump #hero whumpee #leader whump #leader whumpee #team leader whump #hero villain whump

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the-broken-pen · 1 year ago

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“You’re going to blow out your arms,” the villain observed. They watched as the hero merely grit their teeth, shoving themself through another pull-up. It looked painful, and if the sweat slicking the hero’s brow was any indication, it was.

They waited for the hero to let themself drop from the bar and accept the villain was stronger. But they didn’t.

Three more pull-ups, and the villain stepped in.

“Hero,” they said slowly. “You’re about to tear the ligaments in your arms. You need to stop.”

The hero blew out a shuddering breath. Struggled for purchase, fighting gravity—and let themself drop.

The hero’s hands were bleeding, calluses torn open by the bar. The hero didn’t seem bothered when their own hands shook so much that their blood began to splatter on the gym floor.

For a moment, the villain could only stare at them.

Shit.

They didn’t know how to handle this. They knew the hero was dedicated. They knew the hero was strong, and perpetually trying to be stronger, but they hadn’t thought…

They hadn’t thought the hero would be so willing to tear apart their own body for success.

It was supposed to be fun, the villain thought. They felt a little sick as the hero pressed their palms together to soothe the bleeding, an action that was practiced and familiar. As if they had done this before.

The hero reached for something in their bag, smearing blood on the side, and pulled out a roll of blue electrical tape. The villain didn’t understand why, until the hero tore a strip off and made to wrap their hands with it.

The hero would be the death of them.

They crouched in front of the hero, plucking the electrical tape out of their hands.

“What are you doing with this?”

The hero blinked at the villain like they were the strange one in this situation.

“Wrapping my hands?”

The villain hissed in a breath.

“With electrical tape?”

The hero flushed slightly, looking down at their bloody hands. They looked close to tears.

“It…sticks to skin, really well. And it doesn’t move, either, when you move your hands or wherever else, even if you’re fighting. Plus, blood doesn’t make it come off, at least, not for a while.”

The villain blinked at them.”

“Blood doesn’t make it come off,” the villain repeated, processing. The hero nodded, reaching for the electrical tape. The villain settled it out of reach.

“Not if you wrap it right.”

Dimly, the villain realized that meant the hero had done this enough times to have it down to a science.

“And you couldn’t use a bandaid?” The villain asked incredulously. The hero shrugged a shoulder, then winced at the motion.

Yeah, the hero had absolutely blown out their arms.

“Bandaids move—“

The villain hushed them.

“Be quiet for a second.”

The hero, wisely, went quiet.

The villain rubbed a hand over their face, then studied the hero for a moment. They took one of the hero’s hands into their own, studying the damage.

“Why did you do this to yourself,” the villain murmured.

“What do you mean, why,” the hero snapped. “It’s my job.”

“Your job is to save people,” the villain corrected. “Not destroy yourself.”

“I’m not destroying myself—“

“You are.”

“Shut up—“

“Hero.”

“I need to be better,” the hero snapped. Their voice rang out across the gym, echoing into the rafters, and they both froze. After a moment, the hero spoke again, voice soft. “I need to be better.”

They said it like they needed the villain to understand. The villain wondered who they were really saying it to—the villain, or themself.

“Better than who?”

“Everyone.” It was hushed, like a secret.

The villain watched them, waiting.

The hero took a shaky breath

“My whole thing is being the best. I have always been the best. That’s the only reason I matter. If I’m not strong enough, then I am nothing, so I need. to be. better.”

The hero had started crying, very quietly, like they were afraid to take up too much space.

The villain was not equipped to handle gifted kid burnout.

“There’s more to you than just being a good athlete,” the villain said hesitantly, and the hero shook their head.

“No. There isn’t.”

“Hero.”

“Can you give me back my electrical tape?” They hiccuped to contain a sob.

“No,” the villain said firmly, and then the hero really was sobbing.

“You don’t understand—“

The villain didn’t. Not really. They had never been the kind of talented that the hero was.

They wondered now if maybe that was a blessing.

“I don’t,” the villain agreed. “But I do understand that you’ve saved half the city, and you give everything you have to give, and you always do your best.”

“But I-“

“No.” The villain stopped them. “You are doing your best.” They tipped the hero’s chin up until they met the villain’s eyes. “And it is enough.”

The hero froze, eyes darting over the villain’s face. They wondered if anyone had ever said that to the hero, if whatever mentor they had was giving them anything other than orders to be stronger. Be better. Be more.

The villain had some new targets to take care of, it would seem.

For now, though, they had to take care of hero.

“We’re going to go wrap your hands,” they said softly. “And then we’re going to take care of your arms, and you’re going to take a nap.”

The hero nodded, watching them like they were some kind of good, selfless person.

“And if I ever catch you using electrical tape again, so help me, I will put you six feet under.”

That startled a laugh out of the hero, and they let the villain guide them to their feet.

“Fine.”

The villain turned to them. “Okay?”

Are you going to be alright?

The hero seemed to understand.

“Okay,” the hero agreed.

Yes.

And so, it was.

#writing #writing community #snippet #angst #heroes and villains #ficlet #writblr #hero/villain #hero whumpee #exhaustion #overworked #villain caretaker #whump #kind of #in case you’re wondering. yes you CAN do this to yourself. it’s completely possible #essentially what happens is if you do a motion (a pull-up) more than your body is capable #it gets mad. this is different from training till failure. this is to failure and then beyond #so while you started using the correct muscle groups you those muscles get tired and despite the tired you don’t stop #so then your body switches to muscles it SHOULDNT BE USINF and then you fuck up your elbows (in the case of pull-ups)#and then you can’t straighten your arms for a week bc the ligaments and tendons and all the little movement parts want to keep it curled in #I’m not a doctor #I’m just a gifted kid who was an athlete who got burnt out and destroyed her body lmao #this is possibly maybe based on true events that occurred #anyways. I’m not a doctor but you can use electrical tape on wounds. yes it sticks. yes it stays. it’s honestly very useful.#electrical tape > bandaids #do not do anything listed here it is BAD. do not blow out your muscles it hurts. properly clean ur injuries. I beg you.#don’t get injured at all #thank you to my friend who went “pull-up’ competition and then watched me create this angst #love u besties. drink water. go to sleep. summon demons. ❤️ self care

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