#that character reminds me of Dabi mostly

[ghostbeam]

In before sunrise when he is like “can I tell u a secret?” And makes her lean closer and closer to tell her and then he kisses her….such a gojo move

[summercreolefanfictioner]

the scent wafts in, her name making him beg on his knees chap 1.2

pairing: dabi / todoroki touya x fem!oc / reader (MODERN AU)

summary: He mentions her name after 6 months in therapy, absentmindedly narrating vivid memories of her. She was the only good thing during his darkest times.

(In which Touya returns home after rebelling against his family for 7 years. And no, it wasn't about forgiveness. He wanted to fix himself because of a certain someone.)

themes: nsfw, domestic abuse, violence, alcoholism, cigarette smoking, toxic relationships, mental health, co-dependency and other related themes (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

notes: for this one, pls keep in mind that touya didn't have much scars on his face; mostly are on his body to accomodate the plot; charas might be ooc since this is modern au

It was after 4 days that he finally revealed about the Todoroki family, the scandalous story of Enji Todoroki, and the abuse they have endured in his hands based on what he had experienced until 19. To be honest, everything wasn't really how they started. Touya grew up seeing Enji so proud of him, prancing him around as his firstborn, the one who will continue his dream of being the number one corporation in Japan with the best workforce and highest earning. Touya was actually more excited to learn more about business at a young age, studying how money worked through stock exchange games and trying to beat his father through crossword puzzles.

Then the next year, Fuyumi was born, and they were almost the same age, separated by months. One could even say she became his twin, and they shared the same room, the same bed, the same food, the same unisex clothes, the same words—just not the appearance and gender. When it was just the two of them, they somewhat understood each other even if Fuyumi sometimes find him annoying because of his silly pranks.

As he tells this to his therapist, he realizes a shocking truth.

Their family was okay back then. There were a lot of good times, and he had a hunch Fuyumi was the one who remembered most of them when it was supposed to be him, the oldest of the bunch. That's why it was a lot easy for her to forgive him. That's why she hoped so much for him to come back.

His favorite memory was of Fuyumi asking him to create a large drawing of the four of them because she wanted to give something to them. She was holding the same blue flowers their mother liked, and after everything was done, the two siblings met their parents at the living area where they were having tea. Enji ruffled Fuyumi's hair and told her to wash her hands after, noticing the dirt around her hands and in her fingernails. Meanwhile, Rei giggled melodiously, her laughter making Touya embarrassed as she patted his head. They were all happy. Everyone was happy.

When did everything go wrong?

"I think it was when... when Father found me pushing myself so hard because I was so devastated at my achievements that he had enough of me," Touya continued. "Whenever things won't go my way, I tend to neglect my body's capabilities. I stay up all night. I don't eat until I get the equation right. There were times when at a young age, I ripped my hair so bad due to stress. They manifested so bad that I resorted to violence."

A child who throws a violent tantrum. Torn apart posters of comic characters. Ruined picture frames and shattered glasses. Fearful eyes halting in time and unable to stop him from overworking himself. Scattered test papers with scores of 99, 98, 97, and 96 flooded all over like a burning reminder.

"I should've listened to Mother and Fuyumi-chan when they told me to have fun instead."

------

After two weeks, the therapist had the guts to ask him about Natsuo and Shouto. He used to evade questions about his two brothers, usually opting for silence or quickly dismissing the man with answers like, "I don't want to talk about them," or "It's not good." The therapist thought maybe Touya would never be able to discuss things about them, but he knew he had to bring them to the table. After all, the eldest Todoroki had mentioned before that seeing them born had been the small flicker of fire that burned their family down.

"Father thinks me and Fuyumi-chan were failures; it doesn't mean Natsu-kun wasn't either," Touya started, remembering the infant Natsuo and his cries ringing around the Todoroki household. Of course, disappointment was etched again in Enji's face, realizing that Natsuo did not live up to his expectations.

Touya could hear his familiar sigh in head, the way he was stoic but Natsuo was trying his hardest to please him. It broke Touya's heart, the way he could only watch his two siblings casted aside like him, thrown away like a garbage because their potential were wasted. In Enji's eyes, they weren't his children; they were experiments with his wife.

"His masterpiece was my younger brother, Shouto," he concluded.

"Do you hate Shouto?" the therapist asked.

Touya could only shrug, not clearly having a definition of what he felt towards his youngest brother. True, he felt so many things about his brother. He was the bane of his existence, after all. He despised him the day he was born, and yet he felt guilty the moment baby Shouto wrapped his stubby hand around his long finger, cooing at the warmth as he opened his heterochromatic eyes and gazed at him cutely. That day, Touya instantly felt a responsibility as his oldest brother, but at the same time, there was bitterness. He knew the youngest would be Enji's favorite; he just knew it, with the way he watched him all this time while he thinks he's not aware.

It will never be Shouto's fault that they weren't the favorites; but blaming him was so easy Touya could get away with it.

Shouto was unyielding, though; confused as to why Touya didn't like him but still trying his bestest to get along with him. He would trail behind him, meekly asking him to play with him, to ask their father if he could play with them for a bit because he wanted to be like the other kids and play. "You should be grateful he's spending time with you," Touya snarked at him, not speaking the next words. Because he wouldn't do that with us; with me. Of course, Shouto was so pure-hearted he just replied him with, "But being with Touya-nii and the others is a lot better. You all get to play other than study."

But studying and being the best was the only thing that kept Touya driving; it would be his downfall, though. Enji found out what he did to himself, knew from his teachers about his wellbeing. Touya goes to school with deep eyebags. Touya gets sulky about his grades. He snaps at the other kids at school. He almost got into a fight with another classmate for trying to cheer him up with his grades. And the next thing, Touya will be dragged to the hallway and Enji would not hesitate to slap sense in his face, disappointment and anger in his face as he beat Touya up for bringing shame to the family, for acting all so childish over some silly grades.

This was his usual routine. His parents would fight. His siblings will help him up to his feet. Fuyumi-chan will take the first aid kit and tend to his bruises. Natsuo-kun will try to shield Shouto away from the scene even though the youngest was already crying his eyes out, not wanting to see him hurt so bad. Don't cry for me, Shouto. Don't be that way with me. I hate you. I hate you the most. Please, don't be like that.

Afterwards, he would play the good son card, would keep his bursting feelings in check, watch over everything he would say and play right in Enji's palm. He needed his approval again, even if the attention was all showered on Shouto. It was damn frustrating, suffocating him the more he watched Shouto endure the beatings as he treated the three of them like nothing. At that moment, Touya wanted nothing to do with Shouto. If he did, he might unleash all these intrusive thoughts.

Fate was a trickster, and Touya would always find Shouto pleading for help, especially to him of all people. "Touya-nii, save me! Please!" It kept repeating like a broken record, haunting him in his dreams. The wet streaks. The runny nose. His tight fisting on his shirt. The way he would hiss his name. The eyes that cried so many times. Touya will never give in; a lie he told so many times.

Touya did give in, and without much thought. Shouto brought back those feelings he wanted; how it felt so happy that someone needed so much from him. He liked it. He felt appreciated. He felt blessed. He felt so free Shouto had no idea how much Touya wanted this for so long. That's why Touya tutored Shouto in secret, teaching him a thing or two about business, about stock exchange, about the Todoroki family, about the Endeavor Corp.—heck, he even laid down the basics of algebra and science on him, ensuring Shouto would be able to comprehend everything at the age of 5 and 6. It wasn't the same as when Enji acknowledged him, but for Touya, this was enough.

Enji knew about it, of course, and he didn't mind... at first. After all, he thought Touya was just helping his brother learn, keeping his mouth shut as he let them be. This aggravated Touya, pushing him slightly to the edge.

"The least he could do was acknowledge me," Touya stated bitterly to his therapist, remembering how Enji praised Shouto's performance instead of telling him how good of an older brother he was.

"So you used Shouto's kindness, is that it?" the therapist clarified.

Touya nodded. "But sometimes, I pity him. I felt those things only an older brother would feel."

There was a palpable tension as Touya gripped his knees to even out his breathing. The memories were getting more vivid than ever he swore it happened yesterday? Or the other day? But he was a lot younger back then. He was 14 when it happened, and he felt his bruises and scars getting more painful, his skin shivering from a certain coldness. Maybe it was Enji's eyes on him. The same eye color he and Shouto shared. He didn't know. He didn't care.

"Sekoto Peak," he mumbled in a trance, flashes of memories where Shouto held his hand and gazed at the view below him.

"Touya-nii, this is where you go often? It's so cool here!"

"Sometimes, I sleep here under the stars."

"R-Really? Do you bring Fuyumi-nee and Natsu-nii here?"

"I haven't."

"Let's go here, the four of us."

"..."

"Please?"

"I'll see what I can do."

"I couldn't bring them all," Touya admitted, gripping his head to force himself to remember. The therapist recorded his responses through his notes as he muttered everything in a fast pace. "I tried to make a plan. I brought Shouto there a few times without anyone knowing. I asked Natsuo and Fuyumi for help. Before we could all go, Father found out. I couldn't speak. I couldn't fight. I was hit by the bokken. They were all crying. Mother tried to protect me but Father slapped her. I could feel his kick and punch in my gut."

"... did he—"

"No. NO. HE WASN'T DONE!" Touya gulped nervously, imagining the scars on his body burning. "They were hot on my skin. It burned my flesh. I couldn't move. I cried and cried and cried. I begged for him to stop. I want him to stop. The hot iron. Everything. I want the world to stop. I couldn't become the son he wanted. I couldn't be Shouto's big brother. I couldn't give them everything."

And when he ended the story, that was when Touya finally cried, sobbing as fuck. He couldn't care about the world or the pitiful gazes. The boy cried so much from bearing all the sins he didn't do.

------

Touya spent a few months in isolation, his thoughts circling around his childhood and all the painful memories. When he was alone, he would write them all down, narrating that one moment in his and Natsuo's shared bedroom where Shouto secretly snuck in and apologized over and over. He kept blaming himself for Touya's pain. Everything was his fault that Touya was hurt so bad, and Touya wanted to agree. It was true, though. He hurt when he was born. He hurt when he got all the glory. He hurt when he became Enji's pride.

He just went silent about it.

Why did he?

It was never Shouto's fault.

"Shouto," he whispered, his hand reaching out to ruffle his hair despite the searing pain in his arms. There was a weak smile gracing his lips, bruised and battered yet patched up clumsily by a crying Fuyumi. "As I thought, I couldn't be your good older brother. Not anymore."

(Touya never knew but after a few years following his rebellion, Shouto went to Sekoto Peak and stared at the same view Touya admired so much, slept under the stars when everything became too much, and wished the four of them could be there together.)

ps. I removed the last part and placed it on the next chap in case y'all confused bcos the post is too long to read

next chap

masterlist

[fearedblueflames]

Hawks / Keigo Takami dating hcs <3

Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since I last posted, but I'll be a bit more active from now on! Enjoy reading! (Please do not copy or plagiarize my work!)

━━━━━━━━━━━━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━━━━━━━━━━━━

he still has the Endeavor plushie from his childhood

I can imagine that when he's bored bc you're working at home he'll open the door, peek his head inside and stare at you like a chicken until you turn your attention to him

Too. Many. Feathers. On. The. Floor.

probably startles sometimes when he walks past a mirror

your shared bed is full of pillows and blankets, mostly during spring

possesive, especially when someone approaches you

he'll stare them down until they apologise and leave quickly

pretty touchy, unless you don't like it, then he'll find other ways to show you his affection

deep talks during night time are his favourite

when he thinks he can fully trust you, he will also vent quite often

absolutely melts when you do his eyeliner

when you do, don't be surprised bc you will have to sit on his lap <3

always has his arm around your waist

passionate kisses >>>>>>>>>>>>>

definitely at night, but also randomly at day time will kisses lead to heated make out sessions

loves to mess with you, always sends a feather to you

nicknames for you: kid/kiddo, love bird, dove, little hummingbird, princess/prince, baby bird, chicken wing (when he's messing with you), doll, song bird, birdie (this man will call you every bird name)

don't try to mess with him by touching his wings cuz you'll be the one who needs a wheelchair after

he really loves you, don't try any cheat/break up pranks, it will take weeks till he'll trust you again (in the best case scenario that is)

just in case gave you a feather so he knows where you are :)

(I hope these are accurate, though they're a little short, a reminder that my headcanons are just how I feel like the characters are, if you have different then that's okay! The next one will definitely be Dabi, but let me know who I should do after! Have a nice day/night!)

[swan2swan]

Huh, your Black Clover post reminded me of a train of thought I had about Shonen Female Leads? What makes for a good one period and what makes for one that is good in spite of the story around them?

Furthermore what does it mean for them to be "useless" as opposed to just not being the main asskicker of the lead cast? Apologies if this turns into something way too complicated.

Not at all!

So, there are several categories of "Useless" that female characters can fall into. One is the "Actually Useless", where you can cut them out and things don't really change. Examples being Tenten, Ururu, Loly and Menoly, probably some girls in One Piece...yes, Ururu helps with Ichigo's training and stalls Ilfort, but she's mostly just there to provide a sense of scale for the enemies. This is honestly usually what they're for. And it's fine, mostly...there's plenty of useless dudes, too. Jinta isn't exactly more useful than Ururu, save for his cute subplots with Karin. They're really just There, and that's...not usually the issue with the Female Characters we're talking about. You need to be a bigger hitter.

The more prominent ones are the Winless Ones. They might be important to the plot, but they ain't gonna carry a fight. This becomes MUCH more dangerous to their integrity. Hinata and Sakura kinda fall into this category: they're USEFUL, ridiculously so, and they have Big Moments, but they'll get scorned by a fandom because they're really only there to be the Side Character Woman. Often they'll get a Dedicated Chick Fight (this also happens to villains). Orihime is often viewed similarly: obviously, being a medic is CRUCIAL to Story Progression, having your Dedicated Healer is essential to keep the story going (see also: Bulma in the Namek Arc), but they're rarely going to have their Big Moments like that.

It's also a very, very sliding scale...but what I generally want for a Successful Female Character in an anime is for her to have the same bloody, tooth-grinding, hard-fought, well-planned victories that we read and watch shonen to see. I want them screaming with fury, mustering up all their energy, pulling out combos, unleashing hidden techniques, and finally persevering. It's fine if they fall short against a big opponent once or twice! Happens to everyone in Shonen! But by the fifth time your Female Lead finds herself fighting an opponent and almost dying before The Hero or the Antihero or the Mentor or The Squad pulls up to save her...sometimes it can get tiring.

And while shows like MHA did put out a good crop of girls to fight, most of the focus of plotlines and battles tends to fall on Deku, Bakugo, Todoroki, Dabi, Endeavor, and THEN onto Ochako, Momo, and Toga (the Ochako-Toga fights are all pretty good, but again, Chick Fights). JJK did okay with Maki, Nobara, and Mei Mei, but even they kinda pale compared to Gojo, Itadori, Nanami, and such (though she is certainly lively and memorable!!!).

Black Clover, though? Noelle's right in there with Yuno and Asta. In the recent epsiodes, she kept those shields up, kept saving people, and was fighting the whole darn time alongside Asta the Protagonist. Her powers grow, she fades a little as they do a whole arc focused on Vanessa's growth...Mimosa stays involved...and while the anime's current point hasn't really given Noelle any W's that I can remember, her biggest loss is to an enemy that SCREAMS "I am going to get my power level up, come back, and crush you". And I can't wait for that.

Also, she lost her WHOLE DARN POWERSET in the movie and still fought through, joined the battle, powered up, and...iirc...netted a W.

She's still playing third fiddle to Asta and Yuno, but she's more prominent than almost any other female SC I can think of. Short of Erina and Megumi in Food Wars.

[stillness-in-green]

On Heteromorphs and Heteromorphobia (Arc XVI - XVIII, Endeavor Agency to Villain Hunt)

My thanks to @codenamesazanka for providing me a few crops this week for less fuzzy looks at background characters than I could manage working just off the Viz online catalogue. I'm hoping this posts okay, because it's about a thousand words longer than any of these have been so far, but has a lot less sub-sub-sub bullets than last week's breakdown of the CRC volume extra. Fingers crossed, and dive in, all!

The Endeavor Agency Arc (Chapters 241-252)

Chapter 245:

Another installment of Bakugou using animal terms, as he calls Hawks a spoonbill (in the Japanese, heradori, loosely meaning carefree bird).  Deku asks, with some sweatdrops, if he means Hawks; Endeavor’s sidekicks just tell him he’s got moxie.  One of Endeavor’s four consistently illustrated sidekicks is a big horse-like guy, though he’s by far the one who gets the least attention from the narrative; he is notably not in the panel of Endeavor sidekicks praising Bakugou’s go-getter attitude.   

The Paranormal Liberation War Arc (Chapters 253-306)

Chapter 256: 

Shouji is noted as having done his work study with Gang Orca.  I would kill to know if they ever had a conversation about their wildly different approaches to managing their scary heteromorph image, but Horikoshi has not deigned to show us anything to that effect.   

Chapter 258: 

This chapter gives us the full spread of the PLF regiment advisors.  While only a few of them will (as of this writing) get much to do, it’s notable that the percentage of obvious heteromorphs considerably increases at this level.  The MLA leadership was, barring cosmetic things like Curious’s skin or Re-Destro’s pointed ears,[1] all quite baseline, but every single regiment has at least one obvious heteromorph in their chains of command.  Indeed, a solid third of them are blatant heteromorphs,[2] which is a better percentile than, for example, the Shie Hassaikai or the U.A. staff can claim. It makes sense, given the obvious problems with restricting unlicensed quirk use to the home, that the MLA would attract a disproportionate number of heteromorphs, but the full extent of this will not be apparent for some time yet.

[1] His nose I read as more an exaggeration than a trait that’s specifically intended to be non-human-looking, but if it is supposed to be non-baseline, it’s considerably more obvious than his ears.

[2] That is, the really obvious, extreme heteromorphs, who number seven of the twenty-one advisors.  I didn’t count the R2D2 lookalike, the guy with the question mark mask, or Hose Face, who might be heteromorphs or might just be in costume, nor did I count Dabi’s #1, the spiky guy in the cabbie hat, whose concrete divergence of a pronged chin is a lot less noticeable than his being, like, eight feet tall and as broad in the chest as a particularly top-heavy wardrobe.  Any of those that are heteromorphs obviously increase the ratio even more.   

Chapter 259:

Our only shot to date of the gal who’s probably Natsuo’s girlfriend, who’s a heteromorph in the “mostly human but with some tertiary animal features glued on” mode; in her case, she has mouse ears and, judging by her body language, a fairly mousy demeanor.  Notable for being one of the most prominent heteromorph/non-heteromorph romantic relationships in the series, which is setting the bar about a quarter-inch off the ground.  Even more notable when you consider Dabi and Shouto’s willingness to sling around dehumanizing microaggressions!    I will remind everyone again that Natsuo evaded the topic of his having met someone at school when Fuyumi brought it up in front of their mother back in Chapter 187; while it played at the time as just a young man being embarrassed, this chapter’s splash page makes it apparent that he had a reason to be embarrassed, and was not just that awkward about the very concept of himself in a romantic relationship.     Knowing, then, that he had met someone at school, the question for the attentive reader becomes, “So why didn’t he want to tell Fuyumi and Rei about it back then, when Fuyumi gave him such a perfect opening?”  At this stage, the most the reader has grounds to assume[3] is that he’s just shy, or he wasn’t quite yet at a point in his relationship with this gal that he wanted to do the whole “introduce her to my family” song and dance, especially given what someone finding out more about his family would entail!  Later reveals about Rei’s side of the family will suggest a different, less benign possibility, however.   

[3] I’ll go ahead and rule out the idea that Natsuo is an asshole who’s not serious about her as being obviously not in the spirit of what we know about him.      

Chapter 267+268: 

Mirko has the thought, “Quick as a rabbit!” when focusing on catching up to Ujiko.  Later, in the midst of vigorously dehumanizing Shigaraki, she makes mention of her “rabbit survival instincts.”  We saw those animal references with Hawks as well, whereas it’s not something we see as much, if ever, from people like Tsuyu or Spinner.  As I suggested before, it’s easy to imagine people who have a hard time because of their appearance are more sensitive about said appearances than people who look like drop-dead gorgeous baseline humans but with a few animal features—but only as long as they’re cute or charismatic animals!—pasted on as an “exotic” touch.

Chapter 271: 

Dabi addresses Hawks and Tokoyami as yakitori—grilled chicken skewers, localized as “roasted chickens.”  This is less eyebrow-raising than him calling Spinner a lizard and then accusing him of being oversensitive for protesting—Hawks and Tokoyami are Dabi’s enemies, after all, and this is hot off of Hawks murdering Twice.  However, it certainly doesn’t support a read I’ve periodically seen offered that Dabi Learned From His Mistake With Spinner and Resolved Not To Do It Again.   

Geten calls the assembled heroes “dogs of the state.”  He’s not addressing any heteromorphs specifically, and of course using “dog” as an insult against someone viewed as overly obedient to a corrupt authority has plenty of history in many languages.  Still, I wonder if it’s the kind of usage that is frowned on as insensitive in some circles, similar to using e.g. “blind” to describe willful ignorance.   

Chapter 278: 

First spoken line delivered by Spinner’s #2, who will go on to be a key figure at the hospital attack.  Even the handful of lines he gets here is extremely effective at establishing his personality—grandiose, dedicated to the cause of revolution, and a vocal rallying figure for those he leads.    A few pages later, another panel will reveal him as being unusually short, likely taller than e.g. Mineta, but shorter than any of the story’s other teenagers, even the girls.  This small stature, combined with the insectile legs protruding from behind his shoulders, give an early hint that we’re looking at a heteromorph, while his mask sets up the possibility that he’s concealing something about his face.    Regarding the mask, it's possible that he just wears it for The Aesthetic, save that the MLA—unlike, say, the Shie Hassaikai—don't have an organizational culture towards masks, as the MLA are very geared towards hiding in plain sight, just looking like normal, average members of society.  Only three out of the twenty-one advisors (give or take whatever’s going on with the R2D2 look-alike) fully cover their faces; Spinner's #2 is one of those three.  It begs the question of why—a question the hospital scene will at least suggest an answer to.   

Chapter 281: 

Shigaraki lays out, over the course of four pages, his mini-manifesto on why he’s going to destroy Hero Society, in which he talks about how heroes have disregarded, even actively concealed, the suffering of those they couldn’t save.  While his mind seems to be mainly on his own experience, we also know that he’s aware of how others like him have suffered.  He’s spent months with victims of Hero Society’s repressiveness, one of whom made very clear, by means of shouting it in Shigaraki’s face, the discrimination he’d faced with no one ever coming to help him.  Shigaraki knows about heteromorph discrimination the same way he knows about villain quirk discrimination and the dehumanization of criminals.  His declaiming here about generations of heroic failure serves to stand in for all of that.    Notably, it continues to be the case that the crowd scenes consist mainly of relatively baseline, mostly human-looking folks.  Those are the ones who most enjoy protection and safety in the current system; all of two people in thirty across three crowd shots in Shigaraki’s manifesto have heteromorphic features/builds more extreme than some extraneous pointy bits pasted on, and both of those two are dressed as heroes, not civilians.

I count the big energy guy in the cape in the top panel, and the Muppet-looking guy with four arms in the bottom.  Everyone in the panel I didn’t include—the one of Tenko walking through the crowd of silhouettes—is baseline-give-or-take-some-pointy-bits.    We hardly ever see someone like the Sludge Villain or Shouji, or hell, even Tokoyami, in these crowd scenes as everyday civilians, and the conclusion is, inescapably, that it’s because the present-day society doesn’t accept people like that as everyday civilians.

Note, here, how Endeavor responds to the accusation that heroes ignore the pain of those they can’t save—he takes a breather while Shigaraki rambles and then immediately resumes his attack, not seeming to register for even a second that this could be an opening to talk, to de-escalate, even if only as a stalling tactic to let Aizawa get a blink in, to buy the evacuation more time, to give his compatriots that little bit more time to recover.  He’s clearly written off Shigaraki’s words the moment Shigaraki started talking, and no one with him seems to have done any different, not even Midoriya Izuku.    This kind of thing is distressingly common in the series: the heroes have absolutely nothing to say about societal inequality, right up until a victim of it turns up acting criminal, at which point the dialogue goes from the stone silence of complicity to the moral scolding of, “This is going too far.”

Chapter 297: 

The Tartarus jailbreak chapter brings us Shishikura’s father scoffing at the idea that Gigantomachia could be called human, referring to him instead as, “A disaster on legs, or a wild beast.  Just like the rest of the animals we’ve got locked up here.”  He goes on to say that “disgusting beings” like the Tartarus prisoners only managed to blend in with society for as long as they did because, “Quirks have warped our standards for humanity.”    This is clearly mostly a villain bias issue—with the exception of Kurogiri, all of the villains shown on the page of this dialogue are relatively baseline, with transformation or emitter-style quirks.  All the same, it’s worth noting that he repeatedly associates villains with wild animals, dehumanizing them in ugly, startlingly explicit terms.  It begs the question: What are Shishikura’s father’s standards of humanity?  What is he suggesting his society tolerates that pre-Advent society would not have?  I would guess that his beef is with those he views as lacking the self-control or moral standards to refrain from villainy,[4] but rather than just say that, he instead goes to turns of phrase invoking the bestial.  I suspect that deterministic rhetoric like his is not uncommon as justification for both anti-heteromorph discrimination and the bias against villains.   

[4] This guess is based on his wording, what we know about his son’s personality, and the worldbuilding lore that the crime rates shot up with the advent of quirks and never went back down to pre-Advent norms.  The crime rate issue in particular would be highly visible in a society that prided itself on being as peaceful as Japan does in the real-world modern day.   

I will note that, of the six people we see making breakouts who we weren’t already acquainted with—five nameless figures and one Lady Nagant, at the time a new face—four of them are visibly, obviously heteromorphic.

The three in the foreground are quite distinct, and the one at the far back looks like he fits the bill as well.  Only the one to Moonfish’s immediate left looks baseline, likely an emitter.

The guards, of course, are baseline to a man, with the only exceptions being Gyges and Briareos, who, judging by their costumes, are hero-licensed, not normal wardens.   

Chapter 298: 

The Central Hospital staff start getting introduced.  In much the same way as the police force has a relatively high rate of animal-type heteromorphs in speaking roles,[5] Central Hospital is full of Super Mario Bros. joke characters.  This is mostly a silly in-joke at the time, but Dr. Yoshi here will be back to serve as a deeply exasperating, bad faith gotcha during the hospital attack.   

[5] The rando guys with riot shields are always hella baseline, but there are, by my count, six recurring roles in the police cast: Tsukauchi, Tsuragamae, Sansa, Gori, and two unnamed men I suspect to be with the National Police Agency (the one who tries to get Nedzu to call off the Cultural Festival and the one with the HPSC President in the scene where she’s giving Hawks his League infiltration assignment). Half of these are heteromorphs.   

Chapter 299: 

Hawks's dad, whose little elbow winglets prefigure his son's full wings, has a lament about how he could have been, “free as a bird!” There's no animal reference in the Japanese text.   

I brought up a panel back in the Kamino arc to demonstrate that there was a higher incidence than usual of heteromorphs in an area that was meant to come off, visually, as somewhat seedy.  While there’s always some element of randomness to that sort of thing—I assume the background extras are usually drawn by Horikoshi’s assistants, not the man himself—we see the same thing in the subway station Tomie takes baby Hawks to after they leave home.

Note how run-down the place looks, with cracked floor tiles, dingy walls, and equipment piled up in the open, then note how at least three, maybe four, of the five people in the foreground have heteromorphic features.   

Chapter 300: 

Dr. Toad at Central Hospital, who will show up in a flashback in the hospital raid that is barely less obnoxious than Dr. Yoshi’s appearance.

Chapter 301: 

While not immediately connected to heteromorphobia, this chapter establishes that Rei’s family, the Himura, were once prestigious and much-storied, but had fallen on hard times by the time they were approached by Endeavor about a quirk marriage.  The easy assumption for why Rei’s parents are so okay with the arrangement is that they were just that desperate for money, but in retrospect, a quirk marriage was far more sane and normal than what their family had been doing for generations!   

Chapter 303: 

Hawks mentions Spinner in his accounting of the problems facing Team Hero.  This makes him rather unusual—All Might, for example, will later repeatedly fail to mention Spinner in similar situations, though it’s unclear whether that’s because All Might genuinely doesn’t believe Spinner to be a threat or whether All Might is trying to avoid bringing up the brewing race riot enormous mob consisting of members of a long-oppressed minority group, in hopes of keeping his students away from it.   

Chapter 306:

I’ve avoided bringing him up until this point because his hero costume makes it very hard to tell if his neck is just a mildly caricatured feature like Re-Destro’s or if it really is covering up a non-baseline feature, but Best Jeanist’s outfit at the press conference is the place to start if you want to make an argument for him having a heteromorphic feature.

If he is a heteromorph, Jeanist covers it up extremely well, to the point that I’ve never seen anyone outside my chat group even raise the possibility that he might be!  But that is part of his whole modus operandi, isn’t it?  To keep up the appearance of things, to present an unassailable image of heroes, even when they’re running themselves ragged, because that’s what he believes the public needs?  Here we see Shouji’s decision about masking himself taken to its logical extreme—being so invested in a harmonious appearance that doesn’t disturb anyone that he doesn’t even register as non-baseline to begin with.    I’m very fond of Jeanist, mind you, and I love his awareness of surface and veneer—he feels like someone who has made a conscious, considered, moral decision to uphold the system, a decision he’s given far more thought to than fellow heroes who never get past, “How do I want to present myself to the public?” to the question of, “Why do I believe this presentation is the correct moral choice?”  But that veneer is, as the endgame has gone to some efforts to explore, not sustainable for anyone.  (Would that Shouji were taking notes.)   

The Villain Hunt Arc (Chapters 307-328)

Chapter 310: 

This chapter brings us the attack on the giant woman.[6]  While the three men—all baseline, all using support goods rather than whatever their own quirks are—attacking her seem to be doing so out of fears that she’s a villain, not explicit hatred for heteromorphs, this is very clear heteromorphobia nonetheless.  There’s absolutely nothing about the Ordinary Woman that suggests that she’s remotely villainous—not her attitude, not her dress, not even something like a punky haircut!  The only reason to distrust this woman’s intentions is suspicion of her height, her claws, her vulpine face—in other words, her status as a heteromorph.  The only other thing remotely dubious about her is that she was out after dark—but of course, so were the men hunting her!    Note here the woman’s strong implication that she was attacked before she ever reached a shelter.  She says she thought to take shelter at a hero school and, somewhat haphazardly, left her home in the night.  She doesn’t finish the sentence, trailing off before apologizing, but it’s plainly nighttime when Deku rescues her, and, by her own words, she’s still in her own town.  The story isn’t finished with her yet, and what happens to her next is tied to her experience at the shelter she was trying to reach.   

[6] As yet unnamed due to some misguided idea Horikoshi has about keeping her an everywoman; even in her character profile, she’s just the Ordinary Woman.   

Deku unthinkingly commits what reads to me as a fairly egregious microaggression here,[7] suggesting that the men who attacked the Ordinary Woman were probably just as afraid as she was of the recent chaos.  They were just understandably afraid, so, you know, it’s not really their fault that they viciously attacked you, an obviously terrified innocent woman!  You just look so scary!   

[7] Though I don’t get the impression Horikoshi registered it.   

The two discuss wanting things to “go back to normal.”  Normal, in Ordinary Woman’s experience, means not getting attacked right out in the streets of her own town, but it’s worth thinking about how little it took to prompt that attack, and thus to ask how abnormal such violence truly is.  As we will find, there are parts of the country that didn’t at all need a slide into lawlessness for an attack like this to be horrifically, appallingly “normal.”  

Banjo compares the current circumstances to those around the time of the Advent—darker days in which people lived holding their breaths, trying not to stand out.  This phrasing is not exclusive to heteromorphs; even something as simple as being on your own can make you “stand out” as a target, and we know plenty of quirkless people were victimized exactly like that.[8]  All the same, it’s self-evidently the case that people who don’t look like everyone else will inherently stand out, and no amount of traveling in groups or refraining from the use of their powers will change that.  Lines like this don’t explicitly reference the heteromorph mass slaughters we will later be shown, but they do lay the contextual groundwork that makes those slaughters both believable and predictable.    Folding that all together, the Ordinary Woman demonstrates very clearly how difficult it is, especially in times of chaos, to be a heteromorph and just be normal.  And when being "normal" is so difficult, what do you do? Try to be normal, gambling that heroes will be there to save you when you’re victimized?  Try to protect yourself by becoming the kind of paragon your society admires, knowing it will cost you your voice? Turn against the society that repeatedly fails to protect you, resigning yourself to a life on the run?  There's no outcome that doesn't demand carrying the burden of a decision that other, “normal” people are not required to make.   

[8] We know this because it’s explicitly explained as what happened to the quirkless man in the One For All dream flashback in Chapter 193.      

Chapter 314: 

Lady Nagant drops the ugly secret of the HPSC for Deku,[9] telling a heroic character an only very slightly more extreme version of what the reader already knew from Hawks’ duties and backstory.  This is not specifically about heteromorphs (though the face we most visibly see her murdering is one), but it does point to the possible difficulties in organizing serious movements to agitate for changes to the current system.  The HPSC is so firmly convinced that the Hero System is society’s best and only defense against chaos, and thus any threats to that system can, justly, be disposed via extrajudicial assassination.  What chance, then, would an activist leader have as soon as they started being disruptive enough for the HPSC to notice them?   

[9] Who will do absolutely jack shit with it, and, indeed, come away from their encounter blaming her fall on AFO, somehow.      

Chapter 318: 

*meme voice Good For Him*

Introduces the Spinner fanboys, a pair of octopus-type heteromorphs in quite good Spinner cosplay, who will crop back up later at the hospital attack.  They’re foreshadowing for the Spinner-as-representative plot, though said plot will not make 100% clear whether or not these two were inspired by Spinner on his own merits, back when he was just another member of the League of Villains, as opposed to after the PLF started pushing his image forward specifically.    They’re with a small group of other heteromorphs attacking a trio of baseline folks.  Deku defends the baseline group from the attack but apparently does not follow through on chasing down the heteromorphs; he just breaks it up and lets the attackers run off, perhaps feeling like panicky civilians (to whatever extent people literally wearing a wanted villain’s colors are “civilians”) are not threats he needs to facilitate the arrest of, or perhaps just conserving his energy for his big fights with AFO’s people.

Later in the chapter, we see a more abbreviated version of a similar sequence of events, save that this time, there are heteromorphs on both sides, demonstrating that the violence has not entirely broken down along baseline vs heteromorph lines.  You saw this in an earlier chapter as well, with one of the people in the group confronting Endeavor being a lady with a dog head, but this is the first place you see it in an actual conflict.

I dig this kappa dude with the Shounen Main Character Guy haircut.  And good on his more baseline friends for sticking with him.

This chapter also introduces Dictator, one of the Tartarus escapees singled out as sent by All For One.  Dictator drives me crazy because like, okay, yes, he’s a cartoonish and ridiculous caricature of a Villain, down to his quirk name being given as Despot.[10]  But I would ask the reader to look at this guy and really, really think about what life must have been like for him when he was, say, Kouta or Eri’s age.

   I mean, really.   

[10] Remember my thought experiment from early on about who decides what quirks are named, parents or a government official?  Yeah.  Who’s responsible for giving that quirk name to a four-year-old?   

One thing that’s always felt telling to me about Deku’s brief exchange with Dictator here is that Dictator, in amidst a flurry of dramatic supervillain talk, says, “Taking you in will bring me security,” and Deku, Mr. Wants To Understand Villains & Save Absolutely Everyone himself, doesn’t ask, doesn’t even think, about what Dictator could possibly mean by that sentence.    I know Dictator’s in the middle of controlling a bunch of people and is working for AFO and Deku’s exhausted and all—the story makes it clear that he took a turn for the more gritty and driven after Nagant quite literally blew up in his face.  Still, when you compare the attempts he makes to ask questions and interact with Muscular, Overhaul and Lady Nagant—all relatively baseline when their quirks aren’t in use, and significantly more baseline than Dictator even when they are—his total incuriosity about Dictator does stand out pretty badly.   

Chapter 320:

Ojirou mentions being touched by how angry at Shinsou Deku got on his behalf back at the Sports Festival.  Recall that Shinsou called Ojirou a monkey back then.  Is he not used to other people getting mad for his sake about that sort of thing?   

Chapter 323: 

Some really fascinating stuff both from and about Nedzu in this chapter.  Firstly, Endeavor says that Nedzu’s contributions to “quirk morality education” have made him internationally renowned, yet I can’t help but observe that at least the first year students have not learned anything of the sort.  Their classes and exercises are focused primarily on combat, with a secondary focus on teamwork in that most of their exercises see them separated into pairs or small groups.  There are also special lessons that boil down to being about how to create their own distinct hero “brand.”    What I cannot call to mind are any lessons on the morality of quirk use.[11]  That’s not to say there’s none of that in the series at all, but the stuff that I think of is not encountered in class.  The focus on dealing appropriately with injured and frightened victims, for example, comes courtesy of the license exam, while the lecture about heroes following the rules and behaving appropriately comes from Tsuragamae after the Stain incident.  The remedial course with Gang Orca probably comes closest, and is technically a course, rather than an exam, but Nedzu has nothing to do with it, so it clearly can’t count.    Once again, I am left to wonder when exactly Hero schools start teaching these alleged lessons in quirk-based ethics.  Offscreen, or only in higher grades?  It’s not a real great look, I think, that the priority is on all the cool flashy stuff and not the ethical ramifications of using your power to enact violence on people.  And sure, it’s a shounen comic, so you’ve got to keep things flashy enough not to lose the readers, but it wouldn’t take more than a few dedicated pages now and again where Aizawa or Nedzu talk to students about the weight of what they’re doing.  We don’t get those pages, so the discussion of quirk “morality” is largely under-explored.[12]    This is, of course, not directly about heteromorphobia, but discussion of the morality of quirks would have to include the beliefs people have about quirks, which in turn affect everything about how the world deals with them: quirk discrimination, quirk counseling, the laws surrounding quirk use, the punishment for breaking those laws, and so forth.  All things with significant impacts on heteromorphs!   

[11] Indeed, if there were any effort from U.A. to provide morals education, you’d think Mineta would have seen some consequences for his egregious behavior ages ago.

[12] Honestly, I think the person who’s ventured the clearest moral stance on quirk use is Yoichi in his flashback, and he’s ludicrously absolutist about it, saying that quirks must only be used to help others, never for personal gain.   

My Press X to Doubt response to Nedzu’s contributions to quirk morality education aside, I’m fascinated by his mini-speech that follows:

It’s a great observation of humanity from one who sits just that little bit removed from humanity, and begs a whole series’ worth of questions about Nedzu’s position and his feelings about the species his intelligence has both enabled and required him to grapple with.  While he doesn’t specify exactly what sort of intolerance he has in mind, and the flow of the plot ties his words to the anti-hero sentiment amongst the civilians, we’re well past Chapter 220’s introduction of the CRC here, and have more to see yet on the treatment those with “villain” quirks are subjected to.

As one who was, himself, mistreated in a way that fundamentally would not have happened were it not for his (heteromorphic) quirk, yet whose quirk gives him a degree of insight about that very mistreatment, Nedzu is in an amazing position to opine on discrimination.  I frankly wish he got way more room to do it in.   

Chapter 325: 

The Ordinary Woman giantess gal returns to tell us that she was turned away from several shelters because they didn’t allow heteromorphs.  It’s hard to overstate how incredibly bad this is—the blatant discrimination of turning away an entire demographic during a national emergency.  And not just a national emergency, but one where the actual support personnel—heroes—are going to be concentrating around the shelters, consciously electing to leave minimal aid for people remaining behind in evacuated zones.  So like, when this is how bad it is, can it possibly be any kind of surprise that there’s a riot brewing, especially when there are villains stirring the pot behind the scenes?   

One thing that really, really gets me is the bit where Ordinary Woman says several shelters turned her down until she made it to U.A.  Remember how I mentioned that the strong implication of her original scene is that she’s still in her own city, only left her home that very night, and was attacked before she could reach a shelter?  If that’s so, then what in hell happened after Deku left her with All Might?    I’m so serious about this.  Did All Might just take her to the nearest shelter, drop her off at the door, and then drive off, so concerned about getting back to Deku that he left before he could ensure her safety?  That would reflect incredibly poorly on him, and put her right back in danger.  Though it would not be the first time he prioritized his mentorship of Deku over his other responsibilities, it would still make him look so bad that I’m doubtful that was Hori’s intended sequence of events.    The other possibility I see is that All Might did stay with her, driving her to a few different shelters before getting fed up and bringing her back to U.A., where he could be sure she’d be accepted.  This option looks almost as bad for a totally different reason: that even in the face of a refugee delivered to them by All Might himself, with everything the country owes him and the nigh universal love and acclaim he commands amongst the populace, people would still take one look at Josei-san and turn her away.    Of course, it’s also possible that I’ve just misinterpreted her initial scene, and she already had been to the several shelters, but couldn’t bring herself to tell Deku why.  Her silence on the topic would be its own brand of Relevant For This Essay, particularly given Deku’s baseline state—perhaps she doubted that he would believe her, or thought he might get defensive, if she told him.  That’s certainly the least awful of the options.    Still, I’d maintain that the way her story is framed—the way she was traveling on foot, the time she says she left vs. the time it was when Deku found her, how unlikely I think it is that there are multiple hero school shelters in timely walking distance,[13] the fact that she’s perfectly willing to tell him about her rejections when they meet again at U.A., etc.—suggests she hadn’t made it to a shelter yet when Deku turned up, and thus either All Might got unforgivably sloppy or there were multiple government officials overseeing shelters who were willing to be gargantuan bigots right to his face.   

[13] That’s if hero schools are the only shelters in use at the moment.  On the one hand, that feels improbable and unnecessary to me, given that HeroAca!Japan presumably has all the same emergency shelters IRL!Japan has now, and Jeanist’s phrasing in 306 suggests that hero schools are being added to the list of designated shelters, not that they are being designated the only shelters.  On the other hand, he does also say the heroes are looking to decrease the amount of area they, with their diminished numbers, have to cover, and specifically calls out hero schools' defensive capabilities and large campuses, while not independently mentioning shelters of the normal sort like I might expect if both were going to be in use.  For example, he could say something like, “We are asking people to report to their local emergency shelters, and will be opening hero schools as shelters to help with the increased burden.”  I invite readers to come to their own considerations on what’s more likely, but will say that if it is only hero schools being used as shelters, that obviously makes the whole “turning away heteromorphs at the door” scenario even more scandalous.   

The baseline dude who’s generally been the spokesperson for the anti-let-the-kid-back-into-school crowd asks Deku if everyone can go back to their old lives after this, if they let him in to rest up.  Deku, who has just been told that a woman he rescued was turned away from multiple shelters, reiterates that he and the rest of the heroes will “bring it all back.”  No matter when he promises this, he will never exhibit the slightest hint of awareness about what exactly he’s proposing to return.   

Chapter 327: 

Bakugou makes a conscious effort to call Deku by his given name instead of the derisive nickname of their childhood.  It remains to be seen whether he will follow through on that for the derisive nicknames he uses for everyone else, but for what it's worth, I have made it all the way from here up through the point at which he goes down to ShigAFO and have not had cause to jot down anything about him for the purposes of this essay yet. We'll see if he can keep it up through the epilogue!   

With Deku safely passed the fuck out, Jirou—a heteromorph, albeit not a hugely visible one—is the one to say that they and the rest of the heroes can’t just bring things back the way they were; they have to make things better.  Desperately wish Deku would pick up what Jirou’s throwing down here.   

Chapter 328:

328 gives us some cameos of international heroes, cameos from the third movie, World Heroes Mission. The one relevant to this topic is Big Red Dot, the Singaporean hero who the wiki claims is his country's #1,[14] and who appears to be a merlion heteromorph. And like, there is so much I could say about Big Red Dot and his status as top hero and heteromorph! So much!    I could talk about the merlion as a national symbol for Singapore, and how heteromorphs who just so happen to resemble local sacred/divine/fortunate animals in their regions might be treated differently compared to heteromorphs like Spinner or Shouji.    I could talk about the merlion's status as tourist attraction and subject of nationalistic poetry, and how that imagological history impacts Singaporeans' feelings about the merlion as cultural icon.    I could talk about the way the merlion's brand image is maintained under trademark by the country's national tourism board, and how that might relate to or impact Big Red Dot's image as a hero, particularly given that we have no idea what sort of metrics Singapore's HPSC equivalent uses to rank their heroes!    I'd love to talk about that, but I'm reluctant to do more than sketch out the above outline for two reasons, both profoundly Doylist.   

[14] The fandom wiki does not see fit to cite a source for this. I assume it's mentioned in the movie? Anyway, if he isn't Singapore's #1, the stuff I said is still relevant, just somewhat less pronounced.   

Firstly, I read Marvel comics growing up, and I am keenly aware that a tremendously common approach taken by superhero stories dealing with heroes from outside the author's country of origin is to just theme those international heroes after famous (e.g. stereotyped) aspects of their home countries. I highly doubt that whoever came up with Big Red Dot was thinking any deeper than "Singapore = merlion, ergo Singaporean Hero = merlion hero guy".   

Secondly, Big Red Dot is, first and foremost, an original character created for the anime, and the anime transparently, desperately Does Not Want To Talk About Heteromorphobia, so I highly doubt they're thinking about ways it might impact their movie OCs. Now, I know Horikoshi comes up with many of the designs of prominent characters in the movies, but I don't know how much he's involved in conceptualizing those characters. That is to say, did Studio Bones ask him for "a design for a top hero from a country of your choice, Horikoshi-sensei," "a design for the top hero of Singapore," or "a design for Big Red Dot, the merlion-themed top hero of Singapore"?

Suffice to say that if I were going to include BRD in a fanfic, I'd be full of things to say about him. For the purposes of this essay, though, I'll just raise some possibilities and then leave the reader to turn him around in their heads some and think about how he fits into the broader tapestry of the heteromorphic experience around the world.

---------

Come back in (probably) two weeks for what will hopefully bring this essay up through the hospital attack! We'll see after that if I want to continue on into Vigilantes or what-have-you.

[starstruckkittensweets]

“A Dance with the Devil” | Dabi x Reader

Fandom: My Hero Academia  Pairing: Dabi x Reader Words: 6.2k 

A/N: This is my very first attempt at writing for a non AoT character, and of course it had to be this guy! On my recent rewatch of MHA to prepare for Season 6 my crush on him was reignited (no pun intended I swear) and now with recent events in the anime and manga I’ve fallen into a hole I can’t seem to get out of. I started this as some basic angst/comfort, but it quickly morphed into something I couldn’t really stop writing. So here’s roughly 6k words of shameless self-indulgent comfort, fluff, flirting, suggestive talk, and awkward pining over some cigarettes and booze. The title’s partially inspired by that “dance with the devil in the pale moonlight” quote, honestly I had a really tough time coming up with a title for this because titles aren’t my thing! But I think it works for what it is. This is also my first time writing for him so I apologize if it’s a little choppy in some places; but I hope you guys enjoy! Oh and happy birthday Dabi you menace to society! 

Warnings: mostly SFW, smoking, alcohol consumption, suggestive language, Reader can be very insecure at times, Dabi is an asshole but he tries his best to comfort Reader, this is just very self indulgent and I want to give him a hug and maybe a kiss or two

He’s waiting for you on the rooftop, in your usual spot at the edge. A lit cigarette hanging from his fingertips, flicking the ash down on the city streets below. At the scuffle of your shoes on the stone he shoots you his trademark smirk, motioning to the tiny cooler at his heels.

“About time you showed up.” You give him a shrug as he settles down on the edge with his legs dangling below, practically pulling you down to join him. “Worried you might skip out on me, doll.”

“I had…” Your throat runs dry beneath that burning blue gaze. “…Just had some shit to do.”

He reaches into the cooler and pulls out a beer for himself, before pressing a bottle of cider into your palms. He’s always teased you for your dislike of beer—the way your face scrunches up at the tiniest drop on your tongue, the way it seems to suck out every bit of moisture from your mouth. It took you guys a while to find a drink that didn’t make your insides squirm. Finally settling on a brand of hard cider that was too sweet for his taste, but gave you just the right amount of liquid courage to keep these little midnight trysts afloat.

The bottle opener hanging from your keys trembles against your fingers; you can barely fit the cap into the little slit before Dabi’s hands close over your own, snapping it off in one swift movement. You mumble a quick thanks before tipping back the bottle, hoping to drown out the low chuckle he gives in liquid fire. Or the sight of that damn cigarette barely hanging on between his lips.

“Thought my presence didn’t make you blush anymore,” he croons, and all you can think of is how to make the alcohol work any faster than it already does. “Nice to see it still works, though.”

“It doesn’t…”

But your voice dies in your throat as you nurse the bottle close to your chest, counting the lights of the city sprawled below. It used to be able to calm you down, sitting up here at night, with or without the company of someone else. But tonight it’s different, and no matter how many sips of cider slide down your throat, you can still feel that heavy weight against your chest.

Crushing you until you can barely breathe. Reminding you of just how tired you are, how much of a failure you can be—how much you already are—

“Doll.”

Your jaw tightens when you look over at him. His fingers are already tracing the fabric of your jacket, just above your shoulder.

“…Yeah?”

“You’re quiet tonight.”

“Oh… It’s okay, I’m—”

“Tell me what’s bothering you.”

Oh.

You clear your throat again before raising the bottle one more time. “Nothing’s bothering me, I’m fine. I promise!” It’s the same lie you tell yourself every other day, hoping that just this time, it’ll actually be true. “Nothing you have to worry about, I swear. I’m all—ah!”

His palm is suddenly pressed against the mouth of the bottle, your lips barely brushing over the skin of his knuckles. You yank yourself back as far as you can—with his arm still around you of course—as he plucks the drink from your hands and holds it up to his face. The glass glints against the moonlight, painting his face in a pretty amber shade.

“More than halfway done. You never drink this much this fast. So tell me,” his voice is deeper now, making you tremble all over again, “what’s bothering you?”

Fuck, he’s right! You’re not the fastest when it comes to drinking alcohol—you both know he comes in first in that regard. But from the looks of his beer on the slab of stone beside him, he’s probably had three or four sips tops. And here you are making a fool of yourself, knocking it back like you’re some idiotic girl who’s just gone through her first breakup.

“…I didn’t think you were that observant, Dabi,” you try to brush him off with a laugh, but it only makes him tighten his grip on your shoulder. And then your insides are twisting up again, your fingers itching to grab ahold of something.

Answer him already. He’s caught you, it’s too late to try to save this.

“…Just had a shit day at work… Well, a shit week, more like it.”

But how is that different from any other week at work? It’s always the same, every day rolling by as slowly as possible, little events and annoyances piling up on top of one another until the tears start spilling. Until the weight in your chest becomes too much to handle, and you end up shutting yourself away from the rest of the world to scream into your hands—or a pillow, whatever’s closest to you at the moment.

But it’s not just work—sometimes it’s the neighbors across the hall or next door, others it’s family members with their incessant poking and prodding, or maybe it’s just a random stranger on the street who’s too focused with their own problems to make room for anyone else’s.

Grin and bear it. Be as nice as you can be. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Everyone likes to see a smile, right? So smile until you can’t, until your face begins to ache.

Even if they don’t always smile back.

“I’m just…tired. And I know I shouldn’t be, but I guess I am.” Fuck, why are you even telling him all of this? It’s not like he cares, right?

He’s got more pressing matters to deal with. More important things to worry about, besides your sudden change of mood.

“Sorry, I know I’m being stupid…” Your tongue feels thick against your lips, nails biting into the skin of your palms.

“It’s not stupid if it’s makin’ you this upset.” He drags his thumb below your eye, catching a lone tear before it can fall down your cheek.

No, don’t cry, don’t you fucking start, not now, please not now!

“I…”

You swallow hard and reach for the bottle, whimpering as he holds it just out of arm’s length. You don’t want to feel like this anymore—like you’re a burden, a child, so fucking helpless you have to be coddled.

“One more—just one more sip—”

“Not if you’re gonna suck it all down one go.”

His voice is firm, almost enough to get you to stop reaching for the bottle. But he’s quick to place it down beside his beer, before catching your wrists in his hands. You can’t bear to look him in the eye, instead staring down at the line of staples holding his hands together. Your cheeks are flared up as he leans in close; you can practically taste the smoke on his breath from the cigarette he’s been nursing all night. The same one that’s currently burning on the rim of his beer can, lying forgotten as he brings you close to his chest.

“B-but I—”

“’S fine,” he mumbles, pressing his scarred cheek against your temple.

You snap your mouth shut. What is he doing? He’s never this tender, never one to initiate any kind of touch on his own, unless it’s inherently sexual. The closest you’ve ever gotten was holding hands when the nights got too cold—and he wouldn’t let you live it down as you sat there in your apartment shivering, at least three blankets already wrapped around your shoulders, practically begging for him to warm you up.

He’s never shown any physical interest in you like this, apart from the constant flirting and lighthearted smirks he’s thrown your way over the last year or so you’ve known each other. Never gripped your arms or kissed your cheek or even hugged you. Apart from tugging you down onto the couch and pressing his chest against your back. But you know better than to think there’s more to those touches. You know better than to expect that kind of affection from a man like Dabi.

So then…why now?

With a shaky breath, you squeeze your eyes shut and begin to speak. “I’m just…tired and pissed. Tired of being the only one around here who seems to give a damn. Tired of feeling like nothing I do is good enough—no matter how hard I try. It’s just so…fucking frustrating!”

Your eyes are no longer hot with tears; instead your nails are cutting into your palms, teeth bared against the chill of the night air.

“I try and try and smile as much as I can, but it never gets me anywhere, and I’m just so damn sick of it! And some people only make it worse—no, most people do! But if they don’t really care then why should I? Maybe that’s my fault though, for expecting too much from…”

Your voice dies in your throat when you feel a faint tremble against your fingers. You hadn’t realized that, in the midst of your ranting, you’d grabbed ahold of the lapels of Dabi’s jacket, and now the man was snickering against the top of your head as he cages you in against his chest.

…What the fuck?

“Fuckin’ hell, doll,” he breathes out in a gentle voice, “if I’d known you’d look as hot as you do when you’re pissed off I would’ve ramped it up ages ago.”

Is…is he serious? You roll your eyes and shove him away, nearly knocking over the pair of drinks resting at his side.

“Shut up! I’m practically pouring my heart out and all you can do is laugh, asshole!”

But you’re giggling alongside him, despite everything. It’s weak and pitiful, but at least you’re not crying anymore. And your chest does feel a bit lighter now…

You hold out your hands for the bottle of cider, putting on your best puppy dog pleading face…to no avail as he stubs out his forgotten cigarette and reaches into his coat pocket for a fresh one.

“Don’t know, doll. I don’t want you getting sick or passing out on me.”

“C’mon, just give it to me.” At least the air is less tense. The two of you are back to normal for now. “I won’t pass out, I’ll take it slow. Now give me the drink!”

“Mmm… Dunno.” He slips a second cigarette through his lips and lights it with the tiniest blue flame from the tip of his finger.

“You got it for me in the first place, it’s not like you’re gonna drink it yourself. Now give it to me!”

“You mean the drink or something else? ’Cause I can think of a couple other things to give you right now, dollface.”

“Stop it, you know that’s not what I mean!” You shove his shoulder as hard as you can, eliciting a smug laugh from his lips. “Come on now!”

But then he leans in close—so close you can spot the little rusting staples on the corners of his mouth. “Only if you say the magic word.”

“…You’re joking.”

“Not in the slightest.” And the little upward twitch of his eyebrow pushes you over the edge.

You groan and throw your hands up in defeat. “Such a pain in the ass, fine then! I’ll do it!” Acting like you’re fucking five years old again…

A deep breath fills your chest, as you shift your eyes to meet his own. He takes a drag of his cigarette, blowing a puff of smoke directly into your face.

“…Please? Pretty please?”

“Ooh, I love when you beg for me like that,” he says slyly, and just when you prepare to swat that stupid cigarette right out of his mouth, he’s hovering the bottle of cider over your outstretched palms. “Take it slow. No need to get yourself wasted for the wrong reasons, doll.”

You huff out a soft “thanks” before taking the smallest sip you can muster, well aware of those bright blue eyes on your body. When you’re done you let out a sigh, watching him as he takes another drag, a coil of smoke pooling past his mismatched lips.

“Although,” he continues with a smirk, “I like watching you speak your mind. Should do it more often; let everyone know what you really think of ’em.”

“Ah, I don’t know about that…” You clear your throat when some of the smoke slips past your nose. “I’m not…very good at that.”

“Seemed to be just fine a few minutes ago.”

“Yeah, well…I guess you’re the exception, then.” Unfortunately.

“Aww, I’m flattered.” He presses his hand to his chest, cigarette sealed between his fingers, and holds out his beer in the thin space between you. “So I’m just that special to ya, huh?”

“As if,” you murmur, clinking your drink against his own. “You just know how to push my buttons that much.”

Never mind the fact his face comes to mind practically every day of your life, even when you’re a handful of cities apart. Or the fact you keep the bathroom window unlocked every night just in case he decides to slip in for a quick visit. Or the rolls of gauze and bandages you have stuffed away under the bathroom sink, so you’re prepared if he ever comes in bleeding or burned beyond repair again.

The sly remarks, the taunting tone of voice—even the occasional dirty joke whispered against the shell of your ear. Every little bit of him just grinds your gears and makes your fingers curl. Sends a bolt of heat down your spine until you’re almost sure you’ll pass out…at least until he decides to shift that burning gaze onto something else instead.

“Anyway, how are the others?” Desperate to get his attention off you, despite the tiniest flutter in your chest. “The boss not running you too ragged, I hope?”

He shrugs his shoulders, stretching his arms above his head with a soft groan. The pit of your stomach flares up when the hem of his shirt rides up, showing a sliver of the scarred skin of his abdomen. “Not really, hasn’t been too demanding the last couple weeks.”

“That’s good to hear. At least you have some time to kill between jobs, too.”

“All the more reason to swing by here,” he adds, tapping his drink to yours before taking another sip.

You’re well aware of his less than favorable views of the world you live in, and the profession that comes along with them. It wasn’t hard to piece together; one too many refusals of going to the hospital rather than your tiny apartment when he needed some patching up led you to convince him to cough it up. Not that he shied away from villainous activities in your presence. Just spared you from the details of some of his more gruesome jobs. And at the end of the day, a small part of you is thankful for that, even after all this time.

The two of you slip into easy conversation between sips, a thin trail of smoke hovering over your heads. He keeps the names of his cohorts under wraps, as though they’re not blasted over the evening news every other day or so. You’ve only had the pleasure of meeting Toga, after she stubbornly—and not so stealthily—followed Dabi to one of your nightly meetups on this very rooftop. She’s not so bad, once you look past the sharpened blades strapped around her waist and thighs. A bit hyper and outgoing, but she can be a lot of fun to hang around with.

She’s always begging you to spend a girls’ night with her to talk about boys, but you know you’ll never hear the end of it from Dabi if you agreed—meeting up with a dangerous villain on your own, knowing full well they could kill you at any moment, and everything along those lines. He fails to see any irony in this; when you asked him about it one night, he simply slung his arm around your shoulders and pulled you in close.

“You said it yourself, doll, I’m the only exception around here.”

Still, once in a while you’ll get a text from an unknown number (probably one of those burner phones Dabi’s always using), and you’ll end up spending the rest of the night talking to Toga. She’s a great listener, too—and a master at keeping secrets. Even without the threat of a fiery demise, she’s promised not to spill to the rest of their little band about your relationship with Dabi.

If you can even call it that, at this point.

“Just so you know,” he breaks the silence with a grunt, “don’t look for me in the next week or so.” His voice is softer now, taking a longer drag from his cigarette than before. “Something’s come up, boss needs everyone this time.”

“Oh…okay.”

Your knuckles hurt from how hard you’re clutching the bottle. He never means it, whenever he gives a date like that. A few days could easily turn into a few months—a couple weeks at most, if you were lucky. Worst case scenario, this could very well be the last time you saw him.

Heroes did it all the time. How many sullen faces flashed over the news at night, sharing bittersweet memories of their loved ones lost to needless combat? You never saw yourself as a fan of heroes growing up, never even aspired to be one yourself. It wasn’t a lifestyle that appealed to you, with how isolated it seemed to be. And you were well aware of the risks that came with being one, or even caring for one.

It’s the same for any villain out there, maybe even more. Treat each day as though it’s your last. Otherwise you’ll end up cuffed and chained in a cell—or maybe even six feet underground. There’s no room for meaningless attachments or unwanted feelings. Squash those down now while you can, or you’ll regret it even more down the line.

This would be the sixth time Dabi’s left you. At least this time he’s given you a fair warning.

“…How long will you be gone?”

“Can’t say.” Another drag, just one more sip of his beer. The hollow sound it gives as he places it down makes you feel a bit better about your own drinking. At least I’m not the only one who’s almost finished. “No way of knowing how long this’ll take.”

“Oh.” Just drop it, you’ll only get yourself worked up. “…So no Toga either then, huh?”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Sadly no—but she’s never gonna shut up about you until we get back. Little shit,” he adds under his breath.

“…Okay.”

This time he turns to look at you; you give him a smile, trying to ignore the swirling in the pit of your stomach.

“You don’t sound okay.”

“Hm? Nah, I’ll be fine. You got shit to do, I get it. I’ll just be waiting for you until you get back.”

If you come back.

It makes your stomach squirm, the thought of not having Dabi in your life anymore. He’s an asshole, no way around it. He’s the reason your couch constantly smells of burnt skin and smoke, the reason for all those bloody bandages clogging up the little trash can you have in the bathroom. He keeps you awake until the ungodly hours of early morning, has a habit of stealing snacks from the fridge whenever he pleases, and always has you on edge whenever you’re out in public. As though any random passerby will catch a whiff of smoke from your clothes and immediately trace it back to Dabi.

But he’s also the reason you’re not as scared walking home in the dark anymore. The reason you watch the sun go down with a smile, wondering if tonight he’ll stop by for a quick visit. The reason you’re not as lonely as you used to be. He might be a villain, but he’s a damn good security blanket. Not to mention a free heater whenever the nights get cold.

“You go do what you gotta do, and don’t worry about me, alright?”

You can’t help but grimace at the bottle in your hand—not a drop left inside. Wordlessly he plucks another from the cooler, flicks the cap off with ease and passes it towards you. The alcohol still burns down your throat, though not as strong as before.

Just don’t leave me out here all by myself.

The next few minutes crawl by in complete silence, save for the sounds of the city below. He presses his cigarette into the stone before lighting up a fresh one with the flame at his fingertip.

A sudden boldness grabs ahold of you, and you find yourself motioning to the little cancer stick between his lips, before tapping your finger against your mouth. He shakes his head with a soft laugh, taking another puff and plucking it from his lips.

“I’m startin’ to think I’m a bad influence on you, doll. Drinking, smoking… What happened to that good girl image of yours, huh?”

Your nose scrunches up at the smoke near your face. “You were the one who thought I had that image—I never claimed to have it myself.”

A quick inhale, a glowing speck of blue, and suddenly you’re coughing up a storm, pounding at your chest with your fist.

“You sure about that?” He’s outright laughing now, as he reaches in the cooler for another beer. “Still can’t handle a tiny bit of smoke, huh?”

“I can handle it just fine. I spend all my time with you, after all!”

The laughter dies down, the cigarette’s back in his hand…and your stomach twists when you start to feel that heavy weight settling back in your chest.

You’re going to miss these nights. Just being stupid with him over a couple of drinks, as though you’re the only two people in the world. That damn smirk, those cocksure blue eyes, the way he always seems to find his grip on your shoulder, your hips, your—

“Pass me your phone.”

You quirk an eyebrow but obey nevertheless. Not the smartest move, handing a well-known villain your phone, but you’ve done worse than that in his presence. You still remember the night you gave him your number, the second time he found himself in your apartment, bloodied and beaten and leaning on the edge of the kitchen counter. You had rolled your eyes, grabbed the nearest pen you could find, and scrawled the digits on the palm of his hand.

“In case you need a doctor again,” you sneered, and he only responded with a smirk. “Keep this up and I might start charging you for your visits.”

But he kept coming back, and you never did charge him.

It takes him a few moments to find whatever he’s looking for. Hell, he could be sifting through all your personal texts to your family and you would be none the wiser.

A cool breeze slips through the air; you bring my knees up to your chest and continue to stare at the city below. Listening to the furious clicking of keys, the soft hum when Dabi finally seems to find what he’s been looking for.

A soft tune fills the air around you. He places your phone on the little slab of stone between you, looking rather pleased with himself as he turns the volume up to the highest setting. And before you can blink he’s pushing himself to his feet, his cigarette forgotten beside his drink.

He snaps his fingers, taps his heel with each beat of the song. It’s an older one, a song you haven’t heard in quite a few years. Not something you would associate with the villain beside you. Then again he’s always been full of surprises, hasn’t he?

He spins on his heel—nearly knocking over his beer can—and flashes you a smirk. It’s hard to keep a straight face as you watch him swaying from side to side, the elated look on his face making your throat close up all over again.

“What are you doing?”

He doesn’t answer you, only twirls around once more in time with the music. But then he’s smirking again, stretching a hand out to you. You shake your head as fast as you can, and that fuzzy feeling in your chest only worsens as he slowly makes his way over to you.

“Ah, I…I don’t really dance.”

“Too bad.”

A startled yelp fills your ears, your shoes scraping against the rooftop as he pulls you into his chest. Fingers laced around your wrist, his other hand pressed against the small of your back. Too warm—your hand slips against his chest, in the dip of skin between his scars and the collar of his shirt.

“D-Dabi, I’m serious!” Another gasp as he tugs you in and spins around. It’s a miracle you manage not to step on his heavy boots. “I can’t dance!”

“If you think you can’t dance, you haven’t been doing it right, doll.”

It’s almost overwhelming, being this close to him, face to face like this. So close you can count each individual staple embedded in the skin of his face, holding him together. The ridges of scarred skin beneath his eyes, the glimmer of the triple piercings on the side of his nose—

Fuck, he’s staring—I’m staring—!

“Aww, what’s the matter?” You can barely hear the music anymore, with his voice so close to your ear. “Still scared of me? Thought you were braver than this.”

“I am! You’re just…” An insufferable piece of shit. A constant headache to deal with. A cocky villain who thinks he can sweet talk me into anything he wants to do. “…Just…you.”

“I’m flattered, doll. That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” He spins you both around one more time, keeping his hand firm against your back. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think you got a soft spot for me.”

“As if!” You hate to say it, but it’s getting a bit easier to move your feet, keeping rhythm with his own. “I don’t think I could ever have a soft spot for you.”

“No? Well, that’s a shame. I was kinda hopin’ for a different answer.”

Suddenly he’s pushing you away, keeping his hold on your wrist, snickering at the soft grunt that slips through your lips. He yanks you back in, twirling you beneath your clasped hands, before your back slams into his chest, and his arms coil around your waist.

“For someone who claims they can’t dance, you’re not half bad.” You can feel him smirk against your cheek as your blood freezes in your veins. So close, so fucking close. “You have no problem keeping up with me.”

“I don’t really have a choice,” you choke out as he readjusts his grip, shifting you around so your chest is against his own once more. “You’re throwing me from side to side. Is this what you call dancing, Dabi?”

He traces his lips with his tongue, and suddenly you can’t stop staring at the little silver piercing right on the tip. Wait, how long has he had that? And have I seriously just noticed that now?!

“It’s dancing as long as you’re having fun.” His voice is a low growl in his chest, sending a surge of heat right to your stomach. “And I’m having a blast right now, doll.”

You suck in a breath at the touch of his fingers against your back, slipping under your shirt to graze the skin beneath. He quirks an eyebrow, readjusting his grip on your wrist, before spinning you around one more time.

Fine. He wants to play like that then, huh?

Before you can think about it, you’re wrapping an arm around the back of his neck, pushing into his chest with all your might. He stumbles briefly before regaining his step—but you’re already leaning in close, lips pressed against the shell of his scarred ear.

“And what would you do if I said yes?” Suddenly you’re grateful for the alcohol coursing through your veins, giving you that extra leap of courage to pull this little act off. “If I told you I had a special spot for you, huh?”

But he doesn’t falter like you thought he would. Instead he jerks his body to the side, tugging you down until he’s dipping you towards the edge of the roof. The city sounds are little more than low hums; completely irrelevant with those bright blue eyes on your own.

“That depends. What would you want me to do?”

“Dunno.” The words spill out faster than you can stop them. “I’m down for anything you have in mind.”

“Is that so?”

It’s only when he pulls you back into his chest that you realize the mistake you’ve made. The hand around your wrist comes to rest against the column of your throat. The tiniest squeeze has you wincing, your face flushed with heat, your heart exploding in your chest. His fingers heat up ever so slightly, and a shiver drips down your spine.

His flames have never frightened you. They’ve killed plenty of people, reduced countless buildings to rubble and ash. They’ve left ragged scars along his body, a testament of just how dangerous they can be if left unchecked. He could easily kill you if he loses control—or simply if he feels like it.

But fear is the last thing you’re feeling right now. All you can see are those beautiful blue eyes, the same shade as the sparks emitting from his palm, the scent of smoke still strong in the air…

And the sudden rush of heat that’s pooling in your stomach at the mischievous glint in his eye.

“Be careful, doll, or else I might get the wrong idea.”

I can stop and leave right now if you want. Tell me what you want.

You should listen to him. You should shake your head and admit he’s right, that you’re way in over your head, so your night can continue underneath the stars. Before one or both of you has drunk too much and you stumble back down the fire escape and into your apartment. You should stop this before you do something you know you’ll regret in the morning. Before you end up ruining whatever dynamic you have, crushing any sparks of that forbidden something else you’ve been wondering about for the last few months.

But instead you curl your fingers around his own, pressing them deeper into the skin of your throat.

“Trust me,” your voice is barely a whisper, “I want this.”

In the few times you’ve imagined kissing Dabi—when you’re unable to fall asleep in the dead of night, or when you’ve had a few more drinks than usual—you always thought he would be rough. Quick and searing like his flames, leaving no room for you to breathe. You wondered if he would be demanding with his hands, tugging at your hair, nipping at your mouth, or slotting himself between your legs. He seems like the kind of guy to have priorities like that.

You suck in a breath as he leans in, mismatched lips pressing against your own. The first thing you notice is the slight tremble of his palm, the way his fingers quiver beneath your own. But he’s pulling away from your throat before you can blink, curling his hand around the back of your head.

His skin is burning against your own, but his mouth is startlingly soft. Even with his scars and piercings he’s still so gentle, cradling you into his body as though you might break. Soon your hands are in his hair, fingers tugging at black tendrils and pulling him in as close as you possibly can.

The song finally ends, a breath of silence before another one takes its place. It’s a slower beat, one meant for romantic dances or sensual dates between lovers. A part of you wonders if he chose these songs on purpose, just to try to win you over.

Your breaths are getting shorter with every traded kiss; your knees begin to buckle as he slides a hand down to rest at your waist. Every inch of you is blazing with heat, the alcohol making your head swim, your nails desperately scraping at the hem of his shirt, your chest tightening at the ragged patch of skin splayed across his stomach—

Your heel knocks into something on the roof, the sound of a splash filling your ears. The two of you jerk away from each other in time to see the bottle of cider tipped over, the alcohol dripping down the edge of the roof.

“Better watch yourself there,” he snickers against the shell of your ear. “Don’t want you getting hurt all the way up here.”

“I’m fine!” But your words are already starting to blend together, the faint pounding of your head matching the beat of your heart.

“Like hell you are—two drinks in and you’re already tipsy. Let’s call it a night, sweetheart.”

“I said I’m fine!” You can’t stop yourself from smiling as you swipe your palms over your eyes, watching as he leans down to grab the (now) empty bottles and cans. “You…you just made it worse, you know!”

Kissing me like that, how can I not act a little tipsy?

“Aww, you’re so sweet.” He throws the rest of the drinks into the cooler, flicks the remains of his final cigarette over the side of the roof. “C’mere, let’s get you to bed.”

“But you’re tipsy too, aren’t you?”

“Only a little,” he replies with a smirk, leading you down the fire escape as carefully as he can. “I know how to handle my alcohol, unlike a certain someone I know.”

“…Shut up or you’ll be dancing alone next time…”

“That’s a shame, I had a completely different dance in mind.” He licks his lips again, flashing that damn piercing on his tongue, as though you’re  not already lightheaded enough. “But we’ll save that for next time, doll. When we can both remember it.”

“Huh, bold of you to think I’d want to remember it.”

His arm presses into the rung above your head, caging you against the steps of the fire escape, just outside your balcony door. It’s hard to stop the smile on your face as he leans in close, looking rather insulted at your little comment.

“You really don’t think I can make you feel good?”

“I don’t know—if you’re half as good as you are at annoying me…then I might have some pretty high expectations.”

He chuckles, his smoky breath warm against your cheeks. “Then I’ll just have to prove you wrong when I get back.”

His words are a kick in the gut, a grim reminder of the reality around you. He slips your phone back into your hand and slides the door open to let you both in. All the while your mind is racing, wondering if anything you say will get him to—

“Stay with me.”

“Already planned on it, doll.”

He sets the cooler down on the counter before flopping down in his usual spot on the couch. His long legs bend over the arm as he shuffles out of his coat, the scent of ash strong as you settle into his side.

But before he can kiss you again you grab his face with both hands, bringing his eyes up to meet your own.

“I mean it—stay with me. Not just for the night…” Your mouth goes dry, the words aren’t coming as easily as you want them to. “…You just…you better fuckin’ come back to me, alright? Or else I’m locking you out of my apartment for good!”

You expect him to roll his eyes, to laugh you off or even tease you for being so clingy. But instead he tugs you into his chest, his lips warm against your forehead.

“Yeah, you got it. I’ll come back, doll.”

You don’t know if you believe him, if you should believe him. Not when you both know you’re going to wake up to an empty couch tomorrow morning, only the lasting smell of smoke to keep you company.

“I’m holding you to that,” you murmur, pressing a finger to the line of staples running down his chin. He twists away with a grimace, and the ache in your chest slowly begins to melt away.

“Fine, whatever. Just go to sleep already, before you really do end up kicking me out.”

You roll your eyes before nestling your face into the crook of his neck. “Suit yourself—goodnight, asshole.”

“’Night, dollface.”

You know it can’t last���not for tonight, maybe not ever. Maybe it’s the alcohol swirling around in your veins, or the smell of ash so strong you think it might choke you. But suddenly you’re smiling against the scarred skin of his neck, idly tracing over the ridges and stitches left behind from his flames. The effects of the alcohol and touch of his skin are lulling you to sleep…but before you feel yourself slip away, you lean in close and press your lips to the shell of his ear.

“Better come back to me, I’m still counting on that second dance.”

[shadow-assassin-blix]

WIP Update

Just doing a small update on all my stories for anyone who cares. This is also a way for me to keep myself sane with all of my stories. I also realized I accidentally deleted my tagging page on my masterlist post. If you wish to be tagged in the following please let me know in the comments. If you have any ideas for one shots involving the below mentioned fandoms/characters, please. Feel free to implode my DM's. I will happily take any suggestions.

so... lets see. gonna list wips and some new ideas cause... why not?

WIPs:

House of Memories- Gojo x OC

It's a Grey Area -Poe Dameron x OC

Little Red- Heisenberg x Reader

It Belongs in a Museum - Veracruz x reader

and then my song fics with the Triple Frontier Boys.

These are the ones I am most likely going to update the most alongside my Pacho x oc story. I appreciate everyone who still enjoys A Picture is a Poem Without Words.

The other stories I may one day update again, but inspiration for them has been lost currently. The only one that is most likely to rejoin the line up is the Billy Russo x reader and thats.... a very slim chance currently

I do technically have two other stories that I have posted on my AO3 but haven't done so here. Mostly because...they're westerns and I don't see many people who are in those fandoms. Specifically, Tombstone and Magnificent Seven tv series. (I really love Michael Biehn, don't judge).

New Ideas:

I have two Bleach ideas. One involves Sosuke Aizen and the other Shunsui Kyoraku. Both will be OCs (but not the same) and I have been wanting to do the Aizen story for so long and I am finally working up the courage to write it down finally. It is him and a subordinate that he has known since he was a lieutenant and follows them from then on. The Shunsui one was inspired by the Thousand Year Blood War arc, and its Shunsui falls in love with Yhwach's daughter and follows them from when they were kids until the arc. I love me some drama and some angst thrown in. Just a sprinkle. is there a possible love triangle with Haschwalth?......

I have two different stories for My Hero Academia, one with Dabi and the other is Aizawa's daughter and her joining in on the shenanigans of UA, love interests are possible but not chosen at this point in time.

I have recently gotten into Toyko Revengers and I may write something for Draken or Hanma because I see two very different personalities but love both of them. Maybe its the two-faced gemini in me idk.

The Live Action One Piece has reminded me why I loved both Shanks and Zoro....and Mihawk lets be fair... So may do a couple of one/two shots with those.

I have ideas for both Fruits Basket and Moriarty the Patriot, still rattling them around in my brain. I will eventually also do a Leon Kennedy story because Leon needs all the love and appreciation possible.

[x-neurotoxin-x]

Can you rank some MHA characters in order from the most likely misgendering Dabi/Touya to the ones who would absolutely never do that according to your headcanons? Common list for trans Dabi and regular Dabi, but write how you exactly see these interactions.

*Both intentional and accidental misgendering counts.

Oh geez... Im gonna make some people mad, ain't I?

Putting this under a cut. These are hcs, not canon, not a personal attack on your faves, just my personal hcs and y'all can take em or leave em

Not really ranking since that's too complicated so in no real order

Majority of heroes/cops/etc are a give away for likely to misgender him. Looking mostly at Gran Torino since he legit deadnamed Big Sis Mag in canon. That wrinkly old geezer.

Endeavor would say he's supportive (mostly bc Touya started transitioning young and Enji wanted a boy anyway) but he'd misgender him "on accident" or when he's mad. Or when he's projecting Rei onto him. Good ol' "you look just like your mother" "You remind me so much of her" etc etc

Rei straight up calls him a girl when she's having an episode. Pry Bad Mom Rei hcs from my cold dead hands. I have mommy issues.

Hawks maybe wouldn't straight up misgender him (depending on hcs/ship concepts) but he'd femininize him for sure. Those dead dove toxic dabihawks concepts though? Yeah, for sure.

Tomura 50/50. A chill Tomura protrayal that's closer to fanon Tomura, no, never and he'd kill somebody if they did. But the fucky nasty Tomura that i like in toxic shigadabi concepts? 100% would misgender him and probably do some forced feminization shit, threaten to out him, blame it on All For One's influence, etc. I've been real, real into fucked up Shigaraki.

All For One and Ujiko, yeah, also would misgender him from time to time, but they also gave him top surgery.

Wanna say the majority of the league wouldn't, but I like when sleazy Giran portrayals femininize him. So like it's a toss up.

A while ago on a writing server with some homies we talked about Dabiten with Trans Dabi and Geten outting him through posting a sex tape and then Spinner fucking up Geten bc he was quirkist to him so he already hated him on top of being a dick to Dabi, and for spinnerdabi in general. <33 but yeah. Geten. I could see him misgendering him.

I wanna say the majority of the todosibs would respect pronouns and all but some might forget/accidently misgender him, mostly like Fuyumi and Natsuo since Shouto probably didn't know him before he came out.

[hanrinz]

give your moots a valentine's day ship <3

❛ MOOTS VALENTINE'S DAY SHIP <3 ❜

༊*·˚ rosie's notes — okay okay so first of all, thank you nonnie for this ask & second i'm very sorry for my other moots i haven't added :( i tried my best to include all of you, but it's really hard & the ones who i wrote for were mostly the ones who i knew the best !!

+ for those who have received two characters, I can't really decide which one who goes with u better, so why not make it both?

༊*·˚ if you don't like this i would throw myself out of the window /hj if you're uncomfortable with this pls ignore it and you have the green light to bonk me in the head

@gettinshiggywithit with touya !!

༉‧₊˚ my first ever moot !! i'm pairing you up with dabi, wbk you'll get dabi! touya has never spent valentine's with anyone before and this would be his first time with you. he had planned it out a week before (he might have asked and research for things to do on valentine's, but that's not for u to worry about) and he's so nervous of what you might think about his idea. nonetheless, he had put so much effort in this particular day <33 he'll be giving you his famous hot chocolates that literally melts your tongue!! i now hereby declare that touya would give you matching rings :))

@popkorrn with akaashi !!

༉‧₊˚ love love love my fave moot of all time, you're my sun and the light of my world <33 i would've gone with yamaguchi, but u and akaashi would be so cute together!! please i hope u like this :') i feel like the both of you would be a fashion icon & imagine matching clothes together! the both of you are just being so adorable <33 and omg akaashi with acts of service and words of affirmation as his love language. he would be giving you all the love on this particular day & he just can't help himself fall in love with you more :(( hand holding with him on the street as the both of stroll and just spend time with each other. he has the softest smile on his face when you look at him!!

@uravichii with bakugou !!

༉‧₊˚ now hold on listen to me, i've been shipping the two of you since day one!! ik u like shinsou but idc lmao/j (i'm literally thinking of you and him as an old married couple fr) PLS katsuki would definitely bake you sweets for valentines (took extra classes for baking, when he's supposed to be sleeping early- he didn't tell u that) & when he gives it to you, he gets so shy??? and he would try to be so nonchalant about it too!! like "happy valentines day or whatever" but please give him a kiss on the cheeks as a thank you, he would be expecting it so much ;)

@suguful with shoto todoroki !

༉‧₊˚ vivi it's been so long :(( i'm pairing you up with the one and only shoto! he'll be giving you little gifts, like a matching bracelet with his color scheme on it and him with yours, he'll also be taking you out for a date or maybe simply just spend time with each other <33 omg and imagine hand kisses !! random hand & forehead kisses! by the end of the day, you'll be seeing something from your bag that looks like a love letter (he secretly slipped it while you were distracted)

@loving-august with childe !

༉‧₊˚ you & childe go together (we forgetting about scara & diluc for now🤭) mans would go all out for valentines day!! never expect less from THE eleventh fatui harbinger 😤 a bouquet of your favorite flowers? fuck that he had a field made of it just for you! sweets you say that are from another nation? no worries, he already contacted the owner of that confectionery to deliver boxes of it. or if you're not feeling any of it, he would gladly stay at home with you and cook your favorite meal <33 he's so sweet and tries his best to show you how much he appreciates you!

@escapenightmare with denki & reo mf mikage !!

༉‧₊˚ what can i say, i'm a multi-shipper. denki would literally burn you a playlist of songs that makes him remind of you :( and omg arcade dates with him!! you'll probably make it a competition (he'll get pouty every time you win lmao) and like !! physical touch with him he's so cute <33 okay we have talked about this! and reo would treat u like a royalty !! he would literally rent the whole amusement park just for you — honestly not just that,, whatever you wanted to do or go to he would just make a quick call and bam the both of you had a whole place to yourselves at your favorite cafe/restaurant, resort, island, maybe he would fly with you to paris because he's romantic & corny he loves you a lot <33

@kiiraes with kuroo !

༉‧₊˚ stop i literally just guessed that kuroo would be your fave 😭 I WAS SO GLAD anyways my rae bby, kuroo is a dork fr!! he would be using those table of elements pick-up lines "are you made of copper and tellurium?" because you're CuTe" he's so goofy. but fr he would take you out on a date, he would literally show up at your door in a tuxedo and a flower in his hands <33 or maybe the two of you would go on a trip on a beach house 🤭 he got the money okay? he would be the sweetest partner you could ever have!!

@angelshimaa with aone & kirishima !!

༉‧₊˚ i've gone with both aone & kiri <33 i couldn't decide which one so why not both? aone is so cute and very shy when he asked you to be his valentine :(( he would be standing outside your door with your favorite flower in one hand, he would give it to you without any words — the note attached to it says "my valentine?" please, say yes :(( & kiri would be taking u out on a date, he's so prepared for this day he got lots of things for you to do on that particular day! (imagine going on a picnic date with him !! all the food is valentine's theme — hearts, red, even your ship name was frosted at least one of them! he would give you a mini plushy of him <33

[inkykeiji]

I know like all your iterations have a hard exterior and entitled rich boy complex but what does it take for each of them to get to that *soft* place/moment with their reader? like even before the snowman series was there ever moments tnii was soft? for example something random like bmb tomura getting soft when his mental health was hurting and he just needed his reader

omg anon this is a FUN question!!! i’m only going to answer for touya-nii, bmb dabi + tag dabi, but if you’re interested in my other iterations as well (the twins, 50s!dabi + DA!touya) or other characters just send in another ask and i’ll answer for them, too! c:

HAHAHA that is true for the most part, minus tag!dabi + bmb!dabi (at least in the rich boy complex bit but yeah they def all have hard exteriors hehe). one thing they all share is that they each become marginally softer and sweeter beneath the veil of night, particularly between two and five in the morning. it is a combination of the sleepy haze fatigue casts over their brains, as well as the faux/pseudo protection nighttime brings with it—they are all ever-so-slightly more willing and more likely to be more honest, open, raw and vulnerable during the deep, dark hours of the night. it feels as though those confessions and fears and desires mumbled out into her hair or skin or nightgown or sheets will stay hidden in the night, or will burn up with the rising sun, as if they never happened at all.

more specifically, though:

touya-nii: there are definitely moments before my snowman & me where touya is a little softer, with his behaviour in i take my pills and i’m happy all the time, especially at the end of the piece, being a good example. anything that rudely reminds touya that he isn’t actually entirely invincible and completely in control of his life and the lives of those surrounding him will more often than not have him seeking out the comfort only his little sister can provide him with (and his blood relatives are often a very strong and stark reminder of this, and thus a trigger), especially since she is one constant in his life where he can be 99.9% sure she is his to entirely control and predict. it’s kind of ironic that the reminder of his lack of complete and total control is exactly what causes his usually meticulously controlled emotions to spiral.

touya also has a tendency to continually grow incrementally softer towards his reader the longer they’ve been officially together.

bmb dabi: bmb dabi actually gets soft ridiculously easily, and sometimes all it takes is a dazzling smile, or a pretty pout, or glittering eyes blinking wide and pleading at him, to make him totally melt. he is also very much not immune to that sweet, playful begging that’s pitched high and full of giggles but not necessarily whiny or super bratty. bmb dabi is also such a sucker for waterworks and intense negative emotions in those he loves/cares about; reader starts crying in the middle of their fight in part two and his demeanour almost instantly changes.

additionally, bmb dabi just genuinely loves seeing those he cares about happy, especially if he is the source or reason for that happiness (stems mostly from selfishness and arrogance + deeply rooted/buried, subconscious self-esteem issues; it makes him feel very important). while he doesn’t like to be told what to do or ordered around, he does enjoy the payoff that comes with fulfilling a want or need of someone he loves, especially if it’s of his own violation, which almost always works in tandem to satisfy something that he wants as well, or if it’s something that’s been asked of him in a gentle and sweet way (as opposed to demanded, ordered, or whined/screamed out in a bratty tantrum). even so, this emotional payoff is something uncontrollable, and something that still blazes in his chest (albeit less intensely) any time he gives into a request or demand made by his reader, which is one of the reasons why he has such a difficult time saying no to her.

tag dabi: genuine honesty really gets him if it comes from someone he actually gives a fuck about. something that leaves his girl raw and ripped open by her own vying fingers, bearing it all to him, for him, ribs and heart and soul, will somewhat melt his steely exterior. he’s phenomenal at reading others and deciphering the nuances and truths embedded in their facial expressions and tones of voice (which is why he’s so damn good at subtle manipulation), so it is exceptionally easy for him to tell when someone is being truthful and authentic. and despite the fact that he himself often isn’t truthful + authentic, it’s a trait he seriously values in others.

when he is genuine and sincere and truthful with someone, it signifies that he trusts them and cares about them deeply, so to him and in his mind, when someone is genuine and authentic with him, it means they trust him enough to be open and vulnerable with him, and he appreciates that a lot (it makes him feel special and significant, which in turn softens him a bit). this, of course, usually works in his favour as well, as he will exploit the trust + honesty + insecurities of others (shared in confidence with him) as one of his many tools to manipulate them into doing exactly what he wants.

the only other thing that will make him exceptionally soft and is almost completely reserved for his baby and his baby alone is seeing her in extreme psychological and/or physical distress. it ignites and flares his Daddy Instincts, has a fierce need to protect and nurture surging hot and blistering in his chest—a blaze that entirely consumes his being—and suddenly he must shelter and safeguard her, must take care of her, must make it better. this is demonstrated in the beginning of part two, when he tends to her and her psychological and physical wounds at the motel after keigo’s abusive outburst.

so those are the things that’ll make each of them soft with their reader, tho now that i’ve answered and i’m rereading your ask i’m realizing that you might’ve actually been asking what will make them be vulnerable with their reader, in which case the answer is:

touya-nii: exactly the same answer as what makes him soft. touya-nii possesses several sociopathic traits, one of those being his extreme selfishness; the things that make him soft almost always pertain to his own needs or serve him in some way, shape, or form.

bmb dabi: after a sacred or a deeply personal interaction, like sex or being intimate in any way. it’s almost a transaction to him; if you can make him feel safe and you’ve already worked on gaining his trust (as well as have already opened up to him!), he’ll open up to you in these moments of intense or extreme intimacy, or directly following those moments when the remnants of such a substantial and personal connection still wavers in the air between the two of you. in other words, he has to feel a deep connection with you first, and only after that has been established and solidified to concrete will you even have a hope of him being vulnerable, which will only be possible/come out when the conditions are ideal and he feels exceptionally safe. example: when he shares a piece of his past with reader in part four, after a sexual encounter.

tag dabi: either when he judges that it will be beneficial for him to reveal something about himself (example: revealing to reader that his mother was/is an addict in the middle of one of their more vicious fights, in an effort to knock reader down a few pegs and gain the upper hand again) or, similar to bmb dabi + kind of connecting with what makes tag dabi soft, if you trust him enough to be vulnerable with him AND he loves/cares about you, he will be more likely to be vulnerable with you, too. both are crucial components to the equation, and the chances of him revealing a shard of himself to you are even higher if you’ve just been very open and emotional with him, or if you’re going through an exceptionally difficult time. example: him revealing bits of his family past to reader while during their motel stay.

i hope this answers ur question anon!! <33

also also just as a very quick side note, bmb tomura also gets soft when he’s coming down particularly hard!

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

This is primarily a fandom blog, currently focused on BNHA, previously active in BBC Sherlock.

Here you'll find fandom things, headcanons, rambling about fics (and writing in general), occasional meta & translations, as well as other miscellaneous things I find interesting. (See the index below if you're looking for my old posts.)

Writing updates are tagged: dancing girl writes.

AdventureOfTheDancingGirl on AO3.

@/dancinggirl221b on x & bsky

Sideblogs:

@seeyouafter a collection of my thoughts and various ephemera related to my ongoing tdbk epistolary fic "See You After"

@ordinaryoffensivemagic various content related to the manga/anime 葬送のフリーレン (Sousou no Frieren)

Notes and helpful tags:

Asks are open if you want to chat. Give me an excuse to talk about my writing notes or headcanons if you want to make my day. Anon is usually on but be kind. There is a real human on the other side of the screen.

Replies are tagged as dancing girl asks. If you want to say hi but don't know what to say, feel free to check out the ask games tag.

🏷️Tag Index:

I have a comprehensive tag index that I finally updated but these are the tags that I'm using most often these days:

💜Personal Tags:

dancing girl rambles - random thoughts, generally not fandom related

dancing girl writes - tag for my fics and general thoughts on writing (previous tags: my writing - this one has mostly Sherlock stuff, writing updates)

also: see you after fic, sya writing log

dancing girl's reblog themes - sometimes I go down a rabbit hole and reblog a bunch of related posts. It's a fun time.

🩵General writing & fandom stuff

on writing, writing reference, fandom life, AO3 tips, tumblr tips

💚BNHA Content

dancing girl’s bnha thoughts - includes my personal reactions, headcanons, misc. thoughts related to bnha

bnha fanfic - includes my fics and others I recommend

I use the tag bnha for all my hero academia related reblogs. spoilers are tagged bnha manga spoilers

Chapter reactions/thoughts are tagged with the chapter number as bnha xxx,  see also: bnha meta (not all meta is mine)

images: bnha manga, bnha anime, bnha art (for my favorite bnha fanart)

Multi-ship, but TDBK is my OTP. (that being said, a lot of my reblogs with "ship" tags are purely for organization purposes and many can be viewed as platonic.)

I just want a happy todofam au so I made a tag for it (other favorite AUs: fantasy au, winter au, childhood friends au)

The ladies of this series don't get enough love so I like to highlight them with the tag bnha girls

Todoroki Shouto tags: shouto loves cats, sleepy shouto, todofam, shouto art, shoutocat, strawberry shouto-cake, shouto birthday

Bakugou Katsuki tags: dynamy, sleepy katsuki, katsuki comfort, bakugou family

Other commonly used character tags: class 1a, origin trio, remedial squad, dadzawa, eri-chan (If you're searching for someone specific I generally just tag the character’s name as it shows up in AO3’s tagging system) 

misc collections: 2023 bnha xmas sketch

💛BBC Sherlock

Main tags: sherlock, johnlock

Sherlock Fic Recs - Mostly BBC Sherlock universe. Most of my own Sherlock fics are under the My Writing tag

BBC Sherlock: sherlock meta, series 4 theories (also: season 4 theories), sherlock parallels, mirrors

Original Canon: acd canon, AStudyInCanonBookClub, acd parallels, sherlock analysis

see tag index for additional tags and other fandoms

🧡Misc. Tags (not fandom)

mental health, reminders, encouragement

otterly adorable, cute animals, beautiful things, reasons to smile

bookish things, reading log, quotes

💭Random Facts:

I share my birthday with Dabi and Burnin'

My username is a play on the Sherlock Holmes story "Adventure of the Dancing Men".

Even though I'm not active in the Sherlock fandom anymore, I decided to keep the same username because dancing is part of my IRL identity and I didn't want to keep track of a separate account. Also, Mina is my dancing (alien) queen so the name still works.

[2049web]

hello !!! I am just dropping in to ask how you decide your emojis for your character tags like I am very intrigued but also medium confused :))

haha no worries i understand the confusion !!

i mostly choose emojis that personally remind me of that character, if that makes sense. stiles from tw reminds me a lot of greenery (🌱) and nature and adventure (🪐🚞). it can also link to their personality or abilities (ex. dabi from mha with a fire emoji, and derek from tw with a wolf emoji)

it’s all just personal preference tbh sometimes they don’t even make sense, but i hope i explained it okay 😭

[dashielldeveron]

Okay Shy Anon from before back here, I’ve been re-reading in anticipation and I so want to know!! Who do you imagine Shinsou got off with during the villain attack (trying to be as vague as possible for anybody who hasn’t read it yet)?

Touya’s prosthetic!! It seems like he has complex functional use of it and reader couldn’t tell it wasn’t the arm he was born with when appreciating him shirtless. Was your idea that it was some specialized quirk-enhanced prosthetic? Did Enji abuse his power to get his son top of the line technology from a support item company??

Also!! It seemed like Touya had control over the soulmate bond sometimes, the connection stopping or starting at extremely convenient times for him. Is it just extremely lucky coincidence? Does he have an innate control over the bond? Or maybe because he’s technically had half of the bond going for presumably longer than reader (it seemed implied to me that he was exposed before and when reader was exposed both pieces snapped into place)? Like a muscle he’s subconsciously been exercising, when everything connected he was already practiced and given enough time reader will be able to turn it on and off at will?

Also also, I don’t think I properly conveyed this im my first gush, but the remnants of his shrine still existing is so devastating. A constant reminder in his eyes that he’s dead to them. They got Dabi back, but the Touya they used to love is still dead, like he can’t be good enough now after what he’s done (whether that’s true or not). Sorry to keep blowing you up, you just occupy so much of my brainpower lately.

i am throwing flower petals on your head. i hand you a jug of wine and loaf of bread. we spread out our blanket for our beautiful picnic.

answered below cut, bc spoilers (?) for aizawa's/shinsou's/dabi's routes of soulmate trope

shinsou and seredipity: there's a line in shinsou's route said by aizawa along the lines of "just be grateful you were trapped alone" in the aftermath of the airport stuff. i imagined shinsou to have been separated from the group in a place where serendipity's quirk didn't even leak into. this is mostly bc

1) i think shinsou wouldn't've had the energy to have that conversation with ito if he'd had to deal with serendipity's quirk already, and

2) lololol if shinsou were in the same place as the rest of them, it gives them all an easy way out with his quirk--and in my head, i think it's funnier if bakugou says "i'm not gonna suck icy-hot's dick" and then he does. (i actually think it'd be more in character for bakugou to get one of them to give him a handjob but critique their method the whole time, but the dick sucking thing is funnier).

touya's prosthetic: i like to think that such prosthetics are available on the market for everyone. unrealistic, i know, but it's my fic, and i have high hopes for humanity. but since there's quirks specific enough to, say, matching colour palettes to complement skin tone, why shouldn't there be quirks to make lightweight but mechanically complex prosthetics? if endeavor interfered, i'd like to think that it was only to get an exact skin tone match made or perhaps as a rush order.

touya's control over the bond: FUCK that's so good that's SO good. i wish i had thought of that. the reason it cuts at convenient times is bc i needed it to cut for the plot lololol. in my head, yes, touya breathed in the dust first, but since his assigned soulmate hadn't yet breathed it in, it's like the quirk sat dormant, like a sleeper agent, until reader was affected. but fuck the idea of him practising with it is so cool!!! i bet that he and reader could use that to practise with the link now that they're together!!! that would make it safer when, like, one of them is driving or something lololol. and could lead to adorable shenanigans.

touya's empty shrine: urgHUGHrughrughhgurhg you're the perfect reader. you're exactly whom i want reading my bullshit. because yes yes yes it's fucking devastating that touya has to walk by essentially his grave!! and since his fam has cleared it out, they've clearly been, like, "yes this is inappropriate bc touya is living," but since they've left the shell, it still leaves the message that they're still mourning whom he used to be!!!! screams

my beloved picnic-companion!!! don't apologise!!! i am so achingly desperate to talk about this stuff, esp. bc my beta reader doesn't even like anime and thus doesn't catch detail work!!!! but i am tickled pink that you've been thinking about the fic so much!!! i'm so glad it can fill some of your time and make you happy :)

i am working hard on shigaraki's route!!! i hope you like it, too!!! xx.

[snowkittwice]

Old Art Post #1

Year 2019-2022 Drawings 1-5 (not in any particular order, they're just scattered all over my gallery)

I had an abstract digital phase where I picked random mha characters, decided which shape reminds me of them, and the colored it in with their Character color palette

These abstract fanarts were originally posted on my now (mostly) inactive Wattpad acc and these characters in order are fanart for:

Shigaraki, Dabi, Twice, Denki, and Nezu

I no longer create art in this style, I dont know if I was the first to do this but I thought it was my idea first so feel free to draw fanart in this style if you want.

[jingo]

One critique I do have about much of modern media echoes that one post of mine some of you reminded me of; about how evil cannot create, it can only corrupt and make soulless mimicries.

One attempt at disguising this soullessness is extreme emotion.  Sometimes this looks like heavily detailed and exaggerated facial reactions  (Dabi from BNHA comes to mind as a recent example).  Other times, like with rotoscoped 3D animation, there is a high degree of body language that mostly feels forced and calculated to goad the audience into being overtaken by a sense of despair.  I don’t know if that is just a stage acting thing, but there again, the lack of empathy is there, and it shows.

As someone who has loved Fire Emblem: Engage so far, one heavy criticism I have of it are it’s cinematic cutscenes for these exact reasons listed above.  It’s very easy to notice here and is a prime example because the rest of the game, including the intro movie, has a certain sense of sincerity behind the characters that is lacking in the cinematic cutscenes.  They are faking hardship because they lack the sincere love and empathy to truly relate to the characters’ situations and express that to the audience.

So again, to emphasize like what I said in my previous post to my fellow Christians:  Don’t stop creating, and always do so with a caring heart.  Even now, with more research, more formulas, and more advanced technology at their disposal, those who try to willingly deceive still can’t hide their lack of sincerity and empathy.  It is an inescapable mark that they bear.

[tired-teacher-blog]

Hi! ❤️ If it isnt too much to ask, could I request the Scarlet Witch s/o idea you wrote before, but with Dabi, Shinso, and Aizawa? If not, that's ok! I hope you're doing well and take care of yourself C:

It's not too much to ask sweetie, your guys'requests give me happiness (even though I'm terribly slow) so I'm really grateful you sent this, and so sorry to have kept you waiting. I hope you're doing wonderful and please watch out for yourself babe.

Title : Mha boys with a Scarlet Witch S/O

Characters : Dabi/ Shinsou/ Aizawa/ Gender neutral reader

Genre : mostly fluffy/ a little angsty/ headcanons

Y/n's Quirk : Warping, teleportation, telekinesis, flight

Weakness : using your powers for extended periods of time without rest affects your mental status.

Note : Please keep in mind that Scarlet Witch is from a different universe which means that in order for y/n to possess similar powers, some changes need to be done to keep things as natural as possible. This is why I picked some of the original Witch's powers which can go together harmoniously without seeming like you have more than one quirk, and at the same time to reserve the originality of your character.

Masterlist|Second Masterlist

First part I did a few months ago with the Origin Trio

Dabi :

Growing up, you tried your hardest to make friends but were always shunned because of your unique quirk. No one accepted you or even bothered to check on you, but as time went on, you grew to recognize the reality you were pushed into.

Your friends in the league were the only ones who acknowledged and treated you like a normal human being. That being said, you wished you didn't have to join their side since all you ever wanted was to live a peaceful life. However, and same as most of the members, your quirk gave you no chance at a normal existence.

Even though you felt safe with them, you were still reserved and detached from everyone except during missions when you were 'forced' to communicate.

Touya was the sole exception, and for some reason you found yourself drawn to him.

Same as you, he was quiet most of the time, kept to himself and never intervened in the others' shenanigans.

You were the one who approached him first, you wanted a little closeness, a little intimacy, and so did he.

He admires your quirk and makes sure to remind you of your value everytime you start doubting yourself since he knows first hand what it means to be pushed to the side and deemed unworthy.

And it's vice versa, as you've always pulled him out of the pit when he was consumed with rage.

Things haven't changed much when you two became a couple, except for his -now-too-obvious-worry about your well being. He knows you're strong and capable of watching over yourself, but he can't help being overprotective of the person he loves, especially during missions when the unchecked use of your quirk triggers your emotional instability.

During such times, and no matter the station he's assigned to, he would leave everything behind and come for you.

He's never been good with words, so what he does is remove you from the scene and to a quieter one where he pulls you close to his chest until you feel better.

Being with Touya has taught you to finally be grateful for your quirk, not only because he's helped you see how amazing it is, but also because thanks to your power, you're able to perceive and diminish his constant distress, even if he's too stubborn to ask for help. When something like that occurs, you wordlessly invite him between your arms before whispering reassuring words and kissing everywhere your lips can reach until he finally relaxes in your hold, but even then, you don't let go and neither does he.

He is to you what you are to him; family, best friend, and true love. Neither one of you will ever need more than that.

Shinsou :

You and Hitoshi share more than you thought you did. Both of you are introverted, misunderstood, and possess a magnificent quirk that makes life unbearable sometimes.

You've known each other for a really long time before one had finally exchanged words with the other, and even when that happened it was during a mission you two were assigned to work on.

However, that short conversation meant the difference between unfamiliarity and friendship as you two started spending more time together.

You quickly opened up to each other and shared the reasons for your distress. You learned that he too was almost pushed to join the wrong side as everyone joked about him possessing a villainous quirk with no regard for his feelings.

Gradually, and with help from one another, you started seeing your strengths and values until fully accepting your quirks at last.

You were each other's best friend and biggest supporter, and soon enough, you realized that your sentiments for one another grew to something greater.

You were aware of your mutual feelings thanks to your quirk, but never possessed the courage to confess first. Which is why you were thankful when he finally did.

If he wasn't exceedingly protective of you before, then he certainly is now. He never allows you out of his sight during missions, and constantly checks on you in case you overuse your quirk.

You never complain when he does though, since it's his way of showing love and you enjoy it. You're even the same way with him, in that you watch over him and promptly interfere if you see him struggling.

There were times when he was forced to use his quirk on you to make you take a step back or leave the fight all together.

Such conduct undeniably leads to necessary explanations most of the times, but essentially to Hitoshi apologizing profusely for his behavior. He hates manipulating and forcing you to act a certain way, even more so when he sees the look of shock and confusion upon your features after he releases his quirk. Having to use it on the person he loves reminds him of the reason people dubbed him as a potential villain.

At times like these, it's up to you to soothe and pull him back to you, offering him reassuring smiles and gentle kisses: "Hitoshi, I trust you with my life so I'm never worried when you use your quirk on me, you did what you did to save me, and for that I am grateful." is what you whisper as you hold him close and allow him to hide his face in the crook of your neck for as long as he needs. You two are soulmates, and will forever walk side by side and hand in hand.

Aizawa :

Shōta has always been supportive of you, ever since you've met all those years ago. But at first he was only trying to help you through tough times, just the way he learned to do from his late best friend Shirakumo.

You were grateful regardless, even if you meant nothing more than a "charity case" to him, at the end of the day, he still checked on you and that was enough.

Nevertheless, you kept following him around like a shadow and trying to be near him every chance you had. He was the closest thing you had to a friend after all, and even if he didn't think of you as such, it was fine.

Him on the other hand, found you a bit overwhelming. He's a private person who likes to have his space and to him, you were similar to a lost kitten.

But he came to learn soon enough that the lively and frisky side of you only existed thanks to him, as you were never that way with anyone else. Therefore, what he once thought of as an uncontrollable side of you, became a comforting reminder that you were doing well.

Your feelings for Shōta started to grow and develop as soon as you learned that you were no longer a person he needed to help, but rather, an important part of his life.

It all happened one day after long tedious hours of work chasing one particular powerful villain. It was a solo mission that you successfully accomplished but at the expense of your peace of mind.

Shōta knew— even without you saying a word, that you were experiencing one of your quirk's downsides, and him showing up on your doorstep unannounced was enough proof.

"You disappeared right after handing over your mission report, today's assignment must've been hard on you." his words might seem like nothing to rave about to an onlooker, but to you it was the little nudge you needed to finally realize and admit your true feelings.

Thanks to your quirk, you weren't surprised to learn that he felt the same way about you. However, his reaction to your confession was a different story. The cool, stoic, composed man latched onto your body as soon as you finished talking, wrapping his arms around you with no intention to let go, "yeah, I love you too." That night you two shared your first kiss.

His way of treating you remained the same when in public, as he has always been protective of you anyway— and using his quirk on you when things get intense is one way of doing it, but once you two are alone, he shows you a softer side that only you have the right to witness.

Now that you're a couple, you're also able to see him at his worst, and get to take care of him just the way he does you. His once messy sleeping schedule and constant nightmares of the past are now alleviated thanks to you.

Being in each other's presence, entangled in sweet rare moments of peace is all you could ask for.