#i think this is my favorite piece ive done

[gravedigg]

They're in their honeymoon phase uwu. I redrew this old piece of mine, I hope I redeemed myself.

Full nsfw here

[shinnie]

redraw of my insanely old miku shin piece

[doodlin-ivy]

plus bonus cursed way i took the photo below the cut

i used my monitor as a lightbox :)

and i. am not using it again but i really like how the backlighting shows!

[chain-peoplebreaker]

ive watched over 500 episodes in 3 weeks i think im allowed to sketch smth silly

[gelatinous-globster]

here's a peek at something i have in store ;]

[veloriium]

dude how have i never posted this either

[gl1tchxr]

i went to my sister's concert today (she's a music student) and one of the pieces she played was by another student. at the very end there was a melody that sounded like the main melody of ori and the blind forest but a little to the left. after it was over i had my sister ask that student about it and it turns out he did take direct inspiration from that game's ost. i was RIGHT

[infernaltenor]

am i trying my hand at a shitty fyodor analysis? yes. yes i am. this may be slightly deranged as it is also 3am where i live but i wanted to take a closer look into the similarities/asagiris line the fyodor is based on the joker. specifically, he mentions the dark knight joker, and imo this is where everything gets a little muddled.

personally i havent seen the joker (as in the movie) and i havent watched the dark knight in a while, but the difference between the imaginings is very focused in backstory. the dark knight features much more as a backstory for two face and not the joker, its just the joker who backs batman into a corner: either you make the city turn on the greatest politician its had, or you sacrifice yourself. from my understanding of the joker’s version, hes a much more anti-societal character, and while an argument can be made for fyodors dislike of abilities and wish to destroy them and the similarity there, i genuinely am not qualified enough to say.

but dark knight joker does make a good argument. for one, the introductory story of the joker changes every time. the repeat line of “do you want to know how i got these scars?” is the only part of his story that does not change. the only reason i point this out is because of the mystery behind fyodors backstory and his ability. this also ties into what i would argue to be the strongest point of fyodors inspiration by dark knight!joker; his introductory scene on ace’s ship and the ultimate killing of everyone on it.

why do i cite this scene in particular? routinely when joker shows up he tends to spin a small story about himself before killing everyone in the room, including allies. during fyodors introduction on ace’s ship he proceeds to follow this closely. spins a lie about his ability and kills every member on the ship, including karma, who’s pov we follow.

in relation to the most recent chapter, i think fyodor is hopping on this plan a bit as well. screw with sigma with some indication of himself (i.e., that of the split personalities) but ultimately he does plan on killing sigma and dazai, and (possibly?) chuuya as well.

but not only do i think this relates to fyodors introduction, oh no, i think this also sheds more light on nikolai and fyodors relationship, purely due to the fact that the dark knight is a movie which shows the origin of two face and how joker fits in. obviously i could go on with how dark knight!joker is much better of a manipulator than other characters (the use of harvey dent as two face, cornering batman, etc) but nikolai and fyodor are referenced to have a past together, and nikolai is flighty in an almost similar way!

without confirmation, i cant say for sure that nikolai and fyodors dynamic was 100% meant to be read as that dynamic from the movie, but i think it can shed light on the particular way the characters interact. of course nikolai comes to the conclusion of killing fyodor to release himself from his birdcage, whatever trap nikolai feels he is under could be implied to have been caused by fyodor, and i only say that due to the connection with the dark knight. harvey dent only becomes two face because his girlfriend gets literally blown up by the joker. so why does nikolai become, well, nikolai?

[lemongogo]

i need 2 stop drawing static stuff . white bg . front facing pose. <will do it again

[queenerdloser]

me, rereading several of my half-finished oneshots and drafts: huh i love this. damn i'm a good writer. man, i want to read more of this.

me, remembering i have to sit down to write to finish these fics: ah

[whatswiththemustache]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers ⭐️

Aww yay I love ask games! Thanks for sending this my way!!

For this assignment, I have decided to present my answers in a visual format. Enjoy a brief collage of images representing objects/sights/sensations/experiences that bring me unbridled joy:

Thanks for being here! :)

[alfheimr]

My Favorite Cheap Art Trick: Gradient Maps and Blending Modes

i get questions on occasion regarding my coloring process, so i thought i would do a bit of a write up on my "secret technique." i don't think it really is that much of a secret, but i hope it can be helpful to someone. to that end:

this is one of my favorite tags ive ever gotten on my art. i think of it often. the pieces in question are all monochrome - sort of.

the left version is the final version, the right version is technically the original. in the final version, to me, the blues are pretty stark, while the greens and magentas are less so. there is some color theory thing going on here that i dont have a good cerebral understanding of and i wont pretend otherwise. i think i watched a youtube video on it once but it went in one ear and out the other. i just pick whatever colors look nicest based on whatever vibe im going for.

this one is more subtle, i think. can you tell the difference? there's nothing wrong with 100% greyscale art, but i like the depth that adding just a hint of color can bring.

i'll note that the examples i'll be using in this post all began as purely greyscale, but this is a process i use for just about every piece of art i make, including the full color ones. i'll use the recent mithrun art i made to demonstrate. additionally, i use clip studio paint, but the general concept should be transferable to other art programs.

for fun let's just start with Making The Picture. i've been thinking of making this writeup for a while and had it in mind while drawing this piece. beyond that, i didn't really have much of a plan for this outside of "mithrun looks down and hair goes woosh." i also really like all of the vertical lines in the canary uniform so i wanted to include those too but like. gone a little hog wild. that is the extent of my "concept." i do not remember why i had the thought of integrating a shattered mirror type of theme. i think i wanted to distract a bit from the awkward pose and cover it up some LOL but anyway. this lack of planning or thought will come into play later.

note 1: the textured marker brush i specifically use is the "bordered light marker" from daub. it is one of my favorite brushes in the history of forever and the daub mega brush pack is one of the best purchases ive ever made. highly recommend!!!

note 2: "what do you mean by exclusion and difference?" they are layer blending modes and not important to the overall lesson of this post but for transparency i wanted to say how i got these "effects." anyway!

with the background figured out, this is the point at which i generally merge all of my layers, duplicate said merged layer, and Then i begin experimenting with gradient maps. what are gradient maps?

the basic gist is that gradient maps replace the colors of an image based on their value.

so, with this particular gradient map, black will be replaced with that orangey red tone, white will be replaced with the seafoamy green tone, etc. this particular gradient map i'm using as an example is very bright and saturated, but the colors can be literally anything.

these two sets are the ones i use most. they can be downloaded for free here and here if you have csp. there are many gradient map sets out there. and you can make your own!

you can apply a gradient map directly onto a specific layer in csp by going to edit>tonal correction>gradient map. to apply one indirectly, you can use a correction layer through layer>new correction layer>gradient map. honestly, correction layers are probably the better way to go, because you can adjust your gradient map whenever you want after creating the layer, whereas if you directly apply a gradient map to a layer thats like. it. it's done. if you want to make changes to the applied gradient map, you have to undo it and then reapply it. i don't use correction layers because i am old and stuck in my ways, but it's good to know what your options are.

this is what a correction layer looks like. it sits on top and applies the gradient map to the layers underneath it, so you can also change the layers beneath however and whenever you want. you can adjust the gradient map by double clicking the layer. there are also correction layers for tone curves, brightness/contrast, etc. many such useful things in this program.

let's see how mithrun looks when we apply that first gradient map we looked at.

gadzooks. apologies for eyestrain. we have turned mithrun into a neon hellscape, which might work for some pieces, but not this one. we can fix that by changing the layer blending mode, aka this laundry list of words:

some of them are self explanatory, like darken and lighten, while some of them i genuinely don't understand how they are meant to work and couldn't explain them to you, even if i do use them. i'm sure someone out there has written out an explanation for each and every one of them, but i've learned primarily by clicking on them to see what they do.

for the topic of this post, the blending mode of interest is soft light. so let's take hotline miamithrun and change the layer blending mode to soft light.

here it is at 100% opacity. this is the point at which i'd like to explain why i like using textured brushes so much - it makes it very easy to get subtle color variation when i use this Secret Technique. look at the striation in the upper right background! so tasty. however, to me, these colors are still a bit "much." so let's lower the opacity.

i think thats a lot nicer to look at, personally, but i dont really like these colors together. how about we try some other ones?

i like both of these a lot more. the palettes give the piece different vibes, at which point i have to ask myself: What Are The Vibes, Actually? well, to be honest i didn't really have a great answer because again, i didn't plan this out very much at all. however. i knew in my heart that there was too much color contrast going on and it was detracting from the two other contrasts in here: the light and dark values and the sharp and soft shapes. i wanted mithrun's head to be the main focal point. for a different illustration, colors like this might work great, but this is not that hypothetical illustration, so let's bring the opacity down again.

yippee!! that's getting closer to what my heart wants. for fun, let's see what this looks like if we change the blending mode to color.

i do like how these look but in the end they do not align with my heart. oh well. fun to experiment with though! good to keep in mind for a different piece, maybe! i often change blending modes just to see what happens, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. i very much cannot stress enough that much of my artistic process is clicking buttons i only sort of understand. for fun.

i ended up choosing the gradient map on the right because i liked that it was close to the actual canary uniform colors (sorta). it's at an even lower opacity though because there was Still too much color for my dear heart.

the actual process for this looks like me setting my merged layer to soft light at around 20% opacity and then clicking every single gradient map in my collection and seeing which one Works. sometimes i will do this multiple times and have multiple soft light and/or color layers combined.

typically at this point i merge everything again and do minor contrast adjustments using tone curves, which is another tool i find very fun to play around with. then for this piece in particular i did some finishing touches and decided that the white border was distracting so i cropped it. and then it's done!!! yay!!!!!

this process is a very simple and "fast" way to add more depth and visual interest to a piece without being overbearing. well, it's fast if you aren't indecisive like me, or if you are better at planning.

let's do another comparison. personally i feel that the hint of color on the left version makes mithrun look just a bit more unwell (this is a positive thing) and it makes the contrast on his arm a lot more pleasing to look at. someone who understands color theory better than i do might have more to say on the specifics, but that's honestly all i got.

just dont look at my layers too hard. ok?

[flippinpancakes64]

Hello, I absolutely love your work. iv re read your stuff so many times that it's getting concerning.

Can I request the cullens x artist reader who made a painting of them I just think that would be cute

The Cullens with an Artist! Reader

Thank you?!?! I suggest seeking mental help for rereading my bad stories tho

Thank you for requesting and I hope you enjoy!

Edward:

We all know that he is an artist too

He made Bella a whole song on the piano

As someone who can play the piano, that’s not easy

So he definitely loves that you’re also artistic

For you, he’s a muse

I mean, how could he not be

Literally the definition of perfect

So obvs you sketch him a lot

When he finds an almost finished painting one day of him, he is floored

He can never seem to wrap his mind around the fact that you are just as obsessed with him as he is with you

He hangs it up

Even if it’s not finished

If you insist on finishing it, he will begrudgingly take it down and give it back

But as soon as it’s done it’s all his

Alice:

She’s also an artist

But more with fashion

And design

She’s not so well-versed with the classical arts like painting or sketching

So she always loves seeing your paintings

She’s a coexistence girly

She loves to just be doing something while you’re painting

You know just sort of existing in the same space at the same time

The day you give her the painting, she is so surprised

It was so difficult for you to hide this from her

Especially with her gift

She absolutely loves it

She hangs it in the main room of the Cullen house

She wants absolutely everyone to see it and acknowledge how talented her s/o is

Jasper:

He loves the arts

They’re relaxing to him

Some of his favorite classes he’s ever taken in all of the schools they’ve been at have been art classes

He’s not good by any means, but he loves it anyway

Art dates with him are a must

He would love that tiktok trend where you and your partner trade paintings every couple of minutes

Never misses an opportunity to tell you that he loves your work

He honestly almost started crying when you showed him your painting of him

You made him look so happy, so peaceful

He’s used to being perceived as a monster

Definitely hangs it up

But only in his room

He wants to be the only one to see it

Rosalie:

She’s more of a technical, sciencey person

Not to say she doesn’t like art

Just that she doesn’t necessarily enjoy making it

She can definitely appreciate good work tho

And she loves everything you make

She buys you new supplies all of the time

If just one pen ran out of ink in your favorite set, she would buy you a whole new set

When you give her that first painting though, she’s obsessed

She wants at least 20 more by tomorrow

But actually, she knows that she’s beautiful

But something about the way you capture her is just so different she loves it

Emmett:

He’s not an art person either

He’s a bit of a meathead

But he can appreciate art

Probably not as deeply as other people can

But he know when it looks good

And he genuinely thinks you’re the best artist ever

He will gladly put all of your little doodles in the clear pockets of his binders

And hang them on his locker

When you give him the painting of him he’s actually dumbfounded

Like awestruck

What do you mean the best artist in the world just made a painting of him?

Get ready to be cuddled for the rest of the night

Esme:

Resident artist

We already knew that tho

I’m pretty sure it’s said that she’s the one who made the grad cap piece?

Idk

Either way she loves art

Pottery dates, painting picnics, date nights at the art museum

She loves it

So if you were to ever paint her and give it to her?

Yeah she’s gonna start crying

She just loves art, she loves you, and you put them together and she’s so in love

She hangs it in the main room

It doesn’t matter if the colors clash

And it’s never coming down

Carlisle:

Another appreciater of the arts

I mean, he probably knew Da Vinci on a personal level this guy is so old

So it’s no shock

Whenever he’s home and hanging out with you, he loves to watch you paint or draw

Especially if he’s doing some paperwork

I just feel like he would like the company while he’s working

Now I don’t see Carlisle as the type of guy to necessarily enjoy pictures or paintings of himself

The only portraits he has in his office are either him in a crowd or family photos

So when you give him a portrait of himself, he’s a little shocked at first

He doesn’t want to seem narcissistic, but damn you made him look good

He hangs it up in your shared bedroom

Even though he knows he will likely never have guests who would see it, he wants to make sure it’s hidden

He just doesn’t want people to think he’s vain

But he secretly loves it so much

Vampire! Bella:

I think I’ve talked about it before but this girl would have loved deviantart

Rip Bella you would have loved fan art of your favorite characters

But she totally had an artsy phase

I don’t think she’s necessarily good or bad

She just prefers to look at art rather than make it

So that’s where you come in

She loves just watching you work

Every once in a while she paints with you

But she always feels inferior when she looks at what you made vs what she made

So she usually just sticks to admiring

The first time you give her a portrait of herself, she doesn’t even know what to do

She’s still getting used to actually perceiving herself as beautiful

And then you capture her like she’s a goddess?

She needs to lie down

She loves it tho

[withlove-xixi]

— SANJI NSFW THOUGHTS: sanji x reader

ᥫ cw: nsfw, pet names, praise, also cum, roleplay ★ my favorite white guy ... sanji my darling boyfriend ... i miss him i need to start watching one piece again — MINORS DNI! —

first things first, i'm putting my foot down and saying sanji is simply too service top for me to see as a power bottom. im sorry, as much as i know he would be wrapped around your finger, he's not completely powerless. sure if you told him to bottom, he'd be bent over and spread open before you've even finished asking.

that being said, his submissiveness is done completely out of love. he's always treating you like you're the most precious thing in the world, because to him, you're nothing less.

hes definitely not that kinky i'd say, hes just willing to try things you'd like. sure, there are some things that would turn him on (doesn't everything lol?) but i think there would be very few of what hes actually into and definitely some he'd absolutely refuse to do.

ive seen other people say it, but idt he'd be big on like spanking or other kinds of pain play, simply because the idea of hurting you (consensual or accidental) will actually drive him insane and he'd explode. he's a bit wary of things like bondage too because what if you get hurt? your safety is always his priority, he'd do anything to ensure it.

idt he's keen too on the idea of threesomes, voyeurism, etc because hes a bit .. possessive of you. at least, maybe he would allow sharing you if he had the reins. like if he was able to dictate how things would happen and stuff, because otherwise he wouldn't dare even entertain the idea. i think sanji finds sex to be intimate more than anything, it's a way for him to show his love to you, so why must he share that? that isnt to say he hasnt thought about having multiple partners during sex, the idea's passed through his mind once or twice before and it's gotten him flustered, but it's hardly anything he'd really want to do (again, unless he had control of things or if you really begged him for it)

oh and he is so good with praise. he's always showering you with complements even outside of sex. it's always "good job, darling" or "i've got you, sweetheart" and aughhh!! he's just sweet like that. he's always planting kisses on your thighs or chest, on the back of your hand on against you palm. PLUS PETNAMES! he loves calling you all sorts of things, comparing you to summer days or sweet flowers. it was like he was always finding new ways to tell you he loved you.

i think sanji likes looking at you too. sometimes he could be a bit too mesmerized by you, staring intently, hungrily with those pretty blue eyes. he's taking in every detail of your face and body, every bead of sweat on your skin, the shine of slick on your thighs, the rise and fal of your chest. sometimes he gets too busy staring he stays completely frozen lmao.

and ... i think he likes watching you covered in his cum. like he'd cum as deep as he can inside you snd spread you apart just a bit to watch it ooze out, or he'd cum on your belly and smear it over your skin eith his fingers, or he'd cum all over your face and watch it drip off your chin (oh he is definitely getting a nose bleed from all that)

his favorite thing though is when you dress up for him. whether is frilly revealing tops or lacy lingere, he's getting hard as soon as he sees you. again, idt he's got too many kinks, he's just willing to try things out with you, but if there was anything he liked the most it might be roleplay. there's something about seeing you in different outfits and seeing you play the role of a nurse or a doctor sends his blood rushing to his dick lol.

[djpachipikachu]

Hey! You draw so beautifully! Do you think you can give me some tips for anatomy and sketching?

AW stop thank you so much ur so nice !!! and id love to :]

ive done a big post about some anatomy tips that you can check out here

but it is definitely a little old so here are more tips on anatomy !

i think my most utilized piece of advice for my own sketches is adding guidelines similar to the ones ppl usually add for the face to show where the body is facing? as an example here, i use a curved guide line to show how cj's body twists and tilts to build up a form , as well as lines for his legs and arms just to know where theyre facing

along with that CURVED LINES ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND !!! every part of the body is a glorified cylinder stacked on top of cylinders ! a lot of what helps make a body believable is that there Is some perspective used to show the dimensions even if there isnt any visible background

feet are also smth i see people struggle with and i dont Reallt know how to explain how i draw them but i usually draw a triangle with a half circle in front to mark where the toes are.,., make sure to include the arch of the foot and such..,,. make sure that the back of the heel pushes out a little further than where the leg connects....

this other small tip is about some of my favorite muscles to draw bc idk theyre fun LMAO but its about the deltoid and this other mass of muscle that control the neck

the deltoid is that triangle thats at the top of the arm and part of the shoulder ! adding some small lines that overlap into the arm and show the creases of the skin where the deltoid is placed helps add more solid form into the body :] and just drawing that sloped line of the neck muscles (green part) helps to connect the arm to the neck a littl more believably than if you just drew a straight line from the arm to the neck

HOWEVER LIKE . thats a stylization choice and also a matter of body type since im more used to drawing filled out muscular/fat body types, im not very experienced in bonier kinda bodies !

as for sketching advice ummm ..,. although i usually try to make a sketch as clean as possible first try , dont be afraid to have like a Super rough gesture type of sketch/thumbnail sketch just to get the movement and emotion down as best you can before refining it ! trying to make it accurate and detailed and shit on the get go can cause it to feel rly stiff , so get the Entire pose or comp down quickly in maybe 10-20min or less to just capture the motions before going over it again in a cleaner sketch ?

i tend to have the issue of forgetting to just capture everything first before getting into details so thats something i gotta remind mtself a lot LMAO here are some messy sketches i have where i just wanted to get shit down above all else

i also try to use as little lines as possible and get the vibe right in one brush stroke type of feel , no small chicken scratch/hairy lookin lines , which is mainly bc im aiming to be a storyboard artist and also bc i want to be able to post my sketches without needing to clean them up LMAO the only times i do a second sketch is for bigger pieces usually

another example of rly rough jotting down before cleaning it up

last bit of advice is using pen to do traditional sketches thank you and goodnight blows kisses

[scary-grace]

(secret) santa, baby - part 3 of a shigaraki x f!reader fic

Shigaraki doesn't want to participate in the office's Secret Santa exchange, but when Toga promises to make it easy on him, he gives in. But making it easy for him makes it a lot harder for you -- you're the one who got his list. Office AU, no quirks. A fic in 12 parts. Divider by @ wcnderlnds

part i part ii part iii part iv

part iii (deck the halls)

Tomura knew he shouldn’t have left his desk. The entire office is so Christmas crazy that any time he leaves his desk, there’s a nonzero chance of getting dragged into some Christmas activity he’ll hate. But somebody dropped a note in the Slack channel that there was food in the break room, and Tomura didn’t bring food – again – so he ventured out. The rumor about food in the break room turned out to be true. Unfortunately, food in the break room apparently comes at a price.

“I don’t have time for this,” he says, as Magne offloads an armful of something sparkly onto him. “I have shit to do.”

“We know! But this has to get decorated, and if you don’t help, we’re going to take the donut we saved for you and feed it to Midoriya,” Twice says cheerfully. He’s wearing one of those Santa hats with a motor in it that makes it flop back and forth, and looking at it is driving Tomura up the wall. “You don’t want that, do you?”

Tomura has the misfortune to have the same favorite donut as Midoriya, everybody’s favorite customer support specialist, and because Midoriya’s office is on the same floor as the break room instead of in the fucking basement, Midoriya usually gets to the donuts first. “I hate you.”

“You love us,” Magne says, and adds a pile of precut paper snowflakes to the pile Tomura’s already holding. “Go, uh – over there. Make that wall look festive!”

The wall in question already has somebody standing in front of it. “Looks like it’s covered.”

“Oh, come on. Be a gentleman! Don’t leave the new girl to decorate alone!”

The new girl. Tomura studies you, or studies your back, which is all he can see of you at the moment. He hasn’t seen you before, he doesn’t think. He doesn’t even know what department you’re in, or how long you’ve been here, or anything more than the fact that you work here and you’ve worked here for less time than he has. “What’s her name?”

“Who knows?” Twice turns Tomura in the right direction and applies a shove to his back. “Go help her out. The sooner it gets done, the sooner you can go back to your cave!”

“With your donut,” Compress adds. He’s cutting out paper snowflakes. “Good luck.”

You’re in the middle of hanging up some kind of banner, balancing on an office chair that looks way too unsteady for the job. Tomura figures it could be worse – at least you didn’t pick one with wheels on it. “Hey,” he says, and you glance down at him just long enough for Tomura to realize that you’re pretty. “They sent me to – uh, help.”

“Okay,” you say. “Do you mind handing me the stapler? They gave me command strips but this thing is really heavy.”

Tomura drops the stuff he’s holding, finds a stapler, and passes it up to you, at which point you open it wide and basically hammer the banner into the wall. Tomura doesn’t think you needed to do it that hard. “What did that thing do to you?”

“It’s taking too long and I’m on my lunch break,” you say. You hook the stapler back into place and hand it to Tomura, then climb down from the chair. “I tried to be patient, but –”

Tomura’s already at the end of his patience and he hasn’t even done anything yet. “What am I supposed to with these?”

“Put them on the wall, I guess.” You pick up a roll of masking tape and tear off a piece. “I wasn’t here last year, but – this seems like a lot of effort to go to for just the break room. The party’s offsite, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Tomura’s planning to skip it this year, and unlike last year, he’s not going to tell anybody that he’s planning to skip it ahead of time. Last year he did, thinking he could talk Spinner and Dabi into skipping with him, and instead they kidnapped him and made him go to the party anyway. “You weren’t here last year. When did you get here?”

“Um – this spring,” you say. You roll the tape sticky-side out, attach one side to the snowflake, and attach the snowflake to the wall. “In time to sign your birthday card.”

In spite of the fact that the company’s enormous, the CEO has some weird thing about making everybody feel appreciated, which includes birthday cards signed by everybody HR can get to hold still long enough to do it. Tomura’s card had probably a hundred signatures on it. Yours wouldn’t have stood out. “What’s your name?”

You say it, and the bottom drops out of Tomura’s stomach. He might not have seen you before today, but he knows you for sure – he got your list for the stupid Secret Santa thing.

Toga promised him an easy list, and yours is really easy.  You wrote out the exact stuff you wanted, plus the prices and where to find it, and the total price for all your items is ¥4000. Tomura can’t tell if you understood the assignment or if you fucked it up; he saw the lists his friends wrote for their Secret Santas, and each individual item cost ¥4000. Tomura’s friends are going to get one gift each if their Secret Santa doesn’t go overboard, but Tomura could buy almost everything on your list and still come in under budget. Looking at your list made him feel kind of bad for whoever got his.

Tomura realizes he’s staring at you around the same time as you stop looking at him and go back to hanging snowflakes. He picks up a snowflake and some tape and gets to work. “I was kind of surprised by how into Christmas everybody is here,” you say. “My last job didn’t do anything like this.”

Maybe Tomura should quit and go work where you worked. “Did they skip it?”

“It was a nonprofit, and we got paid basically nothing. Our decorating budget would have covered, like – a snowflake and a couple of candy canes,” you say. Tomura snorts. “I guess it’s nice here. That everybody’s so involved.”

“Not everybody. I hate this shit,” Tomura says. A pointed memo he got about appropriate language use in the workplace flashes through his head on its way to his mental recycle bin. “I only came up here because they promised me a donut.”

“What kind of donut?” you ask. Tomura glances at you. “Not all donuts are created equal. Only some of them are worth decking the halls over.”

Tomura gets the weird sense that he’s walking into a trap. Are you really going to judge him over which donut he wants? Yes, you are, because he and Midoriya want the same stupid donut, and half the reason Midoriya gets to it first is because he’s willing to say it out loud: “Chocolate glazed with sprinkles.”

He glances at you, his face red. You aren’t laughing at him. “I thought you were going to say powdered sugar. I’d have had questions about your sanity.”

“Did they even have to bribe you to help with this? I have questions about yours.”

Tomura hears what it sounds like as it’s coming out of his mouth, and by then it’s way too late. You look surprised, maybe a little hurt, and Tomura returns his attention to the stupid snowflakes in a hurry. He snatches the next one off the top of the pile, scraping his hand against the others, and feels a sharp sting across his knuckles. Paper cut. “Fuck!”

“That looks kind of bad,” you observe. “It’s bleeding a lot.”

It’s bleeding a lot because Tomura’s fucking dry skin hates the cold and throws a temper tantrum every winter, splitting at the slightest provocation. The paper cut’s just an excuse. “It’s fine.”

“Hang on,” you say. You abandon Tomura and the snowflakes, cross the room, and come back with a paper towel and the first-aid kit. “Here. Give me your hand.”

“No,” Tomura’s mouth says. Tomura’s arm decides to do its own thing and sticks his hand out anyway. “This is stupid. I don’t need a band-aid.”

You aren’t listening to him. You have the paper towel folded and pressed down over the cut on Tomura’s knuckles with your thumb, and you’re sorting through the first-aid kit you’re your other hand. “All these band-aids are Christmas-themed. Do they really switch them out seasonally?”

Tomura wouldn’t put it past them. “I don’t want a band-aid. Especially not one of those.”

“Too bad,” you say. Tomura glares at you. “You’ve got options, though. Candy canes, gingerbread men, Santas, snowflakes – nutcrackers –”

“Nutcrackers.”

“I don’t know,” you say. You hold up the band-aid. “Want to find out?”

“No,” Tomura says, and you set the nutcracker band-aid back down. You look like you’re trying not to laugh. “The snowflakes. If there’s not anything else.”

The snowflake band-aid looks stupid against Tomura’s cracked skin. Anybody who sees it is going to laugh. You press it down carefully over the paper cut, then let Tomura’s hand fall back to his side. “Maybe you shouldn’t help with the snowflakes.”

Tomura’s in the clear. He can go back and get his donut and get the hell out of here before anyone notices and tries to make him do anything else festive. This time it’s his mouth that gets ahead of the rest of him. “You can hang them up. I’ll roll the tape.”

By the time the snowflakes are all attached to the wall, your lunch break’s basically over, and you vanish without a word to Tomura. Tomura sticks around long enough to get his donut before he retreats back to the basement. He wonders where you work. He doesn’t even know which department you’re in, not that it matters. Once he actually gets his shit together and leaves you a gift, he can just stick it in your mailbox for you to find later. That’s what everybody normal is doing, at least.

But whoever got stuck as Tomura’s Secret Santa isn’t normal, because when Tomura gets back to his desk, there’s a present sitting on it. It’s not a big box. It’s wrapped in red and green and tied with a ribbon, and Tomura studies it uneasily. He doesn’t have a clue what’s in it. If he’d made his list like you did, he’d have at least some idea, but he barely remembers what he put on his list at this point. Is any of it small enough to fit in that box?

One way to find out. Tomura sets the donut aside and opens the present, barely avoiding another paper cut in the process, and finds himself holding – “A hot chocolate bomb?”

“Huh?” Spinner looks up from his desk. “Oh, nice. Those things are supposed to be good.”

“What is it?”

“You put it in milk and it melts and then you have hot chocolate,” Spinner says. “Didn’t you put chocolate on your list?”

That sounds right. Tomura inspects the box and finds a sticky note attached to the top of it. Dear Shigaraki, Keep warm! Sincerely, your Secret Santa. Tomura doesn’t recognize the handwriting, and the longer he looks at it, the weirder he feels. “Did you see who left this?”

“No,” Spinner says unconvincingly. Tomura turns to stare at him. “I didn’t. Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. It’s a surprise. That’s the fun part.”

Tomura’s not having fun. Tomura feels weird. His list is coming back to him now. He asked for chocolate and said he hates the cold – and his Secret Santa put two and two together. Whoever they are, they aren’t half-assing it. They’re putting in an effort. And now that Tomura knows what his Secret Santa’s doing for him, he feels a lot less okay about the idea of phoning it in for you.

He sits back down at his desk, ignoring Slack messages in favor of studying the hot chocolate bomb. You might have given him an easy list, but this is going to be harder than he thought.

<- part ii part iv ->