#but that old fucker has been screwed over so badly that it’s insane

[helpiamlostsomewhereinthegarden]

*Yugioh Gang talking about their family and problems during duels*

Y/n: they should invent a parent who is normal and says normal things and has normal interactions with their child or children

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 053: Shounen Life Lessons

Previously on BnHA: After making a flashy nick-of-time entrance to save Iida, Deku went one-on-one against Stain with his new One for All power-up. Iida kept telling him not to interfere but we all ignored him. Stain managed to paralyze Deku with his quirk, but before he could finish Iida off, yet another obnoxious U.A. student in a spiffy new costume showed up with a last minute save, because Deku is a gen z shounen hero and knows how to send a fucking text.

Today on BnHA: Todoroki shows up and immediately gives Deku a break from being the main character. Stain is able to wound him, but before he can paralyze Todoroki, Deku’s movement is suddenly restored. Stain’s quirk is revealed to have varying mileage depending on the victim’s blood type. Deku tries to keep Stain distracted until help arrives. Todoroki reminds everyone of his aggressive character development since the sports festival, and takes it upon himself to pass some of that wisdom down to Iida “RARRR VENGEANCE!!” Tenya. It’s good stuff.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 126 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

I love everyone’s reactions on this fucking page

Stain is all, “these little shits just keep on coming”

Iida is all WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP TRYING TO SAVE ME!?

Deku is all, “but! half-finished sentences!!”

and lastly we have Shouto, who just seems like he can’t even fathom how they managed to get themselves into this mess to begin with

-- OH MY GOD IT WAS A GROUP TEXT?? well I guess that does make sense; he didn’t know who might be in the area. come to think of it, there’s actually a chance more of them could be there, due to the Noumu attacks. oh my god if any more U.A. students show up I will just start laughing and never fucking stop

(ETA: I’m not saying this would have singlehandedly transformed this from my least fave arc to #1 BEST FAVE FOREVER!! but I’m also not not saying that)

what are the odds that Best Jeanist was on duty nearby. god I know it’s a long shot but my heart wants it so badly

Stain is so fucking screwed now. pretty sure Todoroki can still attack him even if he’s not able to move. and unlike Deku and Iida, he actually has ranged attacks

so anyway, Shouto immediately knew Deku was in trouble when he sent a text with just his location and nothing else! because we all know how much Deku never shuts up in the fucking group chat normally

Shouto says the pros will be there in a few minutes. meanwhile he’s shooting off crazy powerful ice and fire blasts toward Stain just to remind us all that he’s basically already a pro himself

not sure what he’s doing here but I love it

oh lol he used the ice to roll all of the others over to where he is. this fucking guy transported a bunch of paralyzed dudes across the length of an alley using only his ice. the control this kid has is utterly insane

he should just encase them all in ice now so that Stain can’t get to them

Deku warns Shouto not to let himself get cut, because if Stain gets a taste of his blood he’ll be able to paralyze him too

“so I’ve just gotta keep my distance.” yep. honestly if Stain can manage to get close enough to him to cut him, he almost deserves to kill him

-- !!!

!!!!!!

well it’s l like I said, Shouto, just die then you idiot

FUCK

WHY IS THE PROCEDURE FOR HIS QUIRK SO FUCKING GROSS?! PLEASE STOP LICKING THE FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD CHILD

YOU SEE?! HE DOESN’T LIKE IT WHEN YOU DO THAT!!

ALSO SHOUTO YOU COULD HAVE DONE THAT AT ANY POINT, YOU TOTALLY LEFT YOURSELF OPEN THERE FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON

but thank fuck, at least he stopped him before he got to the blood

Iida hasn’t whined about people trying to save his life for almost two whole minutes so he decides to throw in his two cents once again

Todoroki says it’s odd that he’d say that because “the Ingenium I know never made faces like that.” YESSSS TODOROKI. SET HIM STRAIGHT. DEKU WAS TRYING BUT HE GOT INTERRUPTED HALFWAY THROUGH. BUT YOU, AS ONE OF DEKU’S NEWLY CONVERTED DISCIPLES, HAVE MY PERMISSION TO FINISH THE JOB

! it looked like Deku was able to move his finger for just a second!

oh shit now Stain is slicing up Shouto’s ice barrier. oh yeah I forgot to mention that Shouto had made an ice barrier

he’s chastising Shouto for obstructing his own vision. eh, all things considered, I’d still argue that wall in between you and them > no wall in between you and them

OH SHIT

AND NOW HE’S FUCKING DIVING AT HIM FROM ABOVE

HOW THE FUCK DID HE EVEN GET UP SO HIGH

OMG YESSSSSSSSS

I guess that shit had a time limit?? but then if that’s the case Iida should also be able to move, no?

Deku doesn’t even know how he was able to do it, but he says that somehow he’s able to move again just fine. and now he’s physically dragging Stain and it looks like maybe he’s gonna toss him or something?

wha

shit now he’s elbowing Deku in the back and pulling out one of his knives again

Deku dropped him but thankfully Shouto takes advantage of Stain being temporarily off balance!

they work together so nicely! Shouto’s arm is pretty fucked up, though. of course, it’s nothing compared to Deku levels of fucked up

-- oh my god I just realized something. hold up lemme go check Deku and Iida’s blood types

yep. Deku is type O while Iida’s type A. that’s what that fucker meant

I just looked up Shouto’s blood type and he is also type O! so that’s good! but it doesn’t seem like it grants them total immunity; just that the effect isn’t as strong

literally one panel after I had this realization, the characters are confirming it lol

and here we go

I fucking love the term “bloodcurdle” for his quirk. if that’s actually a Viz-ism then I respect it even more

(ETA: as expected, Viz isn’t nearly cool enough to have come up with that on their own)

so Iida should be okay before too much longer then, right? at which point he will probably manage to fuck things up by immediately trying to go after Stain again

anyway, for now at least Shouto and Deku are smart enough to realize that they need to keep playing this defensively until backup arrives

since Shouto is bleeding a lot which makes him more vulnerable, Deku volunteers to draw Stain’s attention

oh my god yes please double team this guy. I’m so fucking here for this. dream team

now Shouto’s thinking to himself that he’s been keeping an eye on Iida ever since Ingenium was taken down, because he recognized the look of reckless shounen grudge-holding in his eyes or whatever lol

he thinks, while staring up at Deku’s butt for some reason

lol but seriously can we all just stop for a moment and appreciate just how much Shouto has grown and matured as a person in such a short span of time

apparently he patched things up with his mom. well that’s good I guess. and he seems to feel a lot more settled now

and once he had managed to sort that out, he made the decision to work at his dad’s agency. because his dad is the number two hero for a reason, and he wants to see and experience for himself why that is

but he hasn’t forgiven him. good

for someone who literally didn’t have a single line for the first ten chapters of the series, Todoroki sure did pretty much take over the manga all for himself in a remarkably short period of time! and I’m not even mad tbh

I’m fucking living for the self-awareness he’s gained in hindsight of everything that went down since his fight with Deku. good shit. four stars. 10/10 would relive this character arc again

anyway, it looks like Iida’s starting to snap out of his vengeance funk just a bit

yes, Iida. see the contrast there?

now he’s telling them to stop this and that he can’t take it

and Shouto’s screaming back, “if you wanna stop this, then stand up!”

Shouto’s all-in on the jesusing today

MY GOD BUT I LOVE WHEN SOMEONE WHO PREVIOUSLY LEARNED A LOT OF SHOUNEN LIFE LESSONS COMES ALONG AND PASSES THAT KNOWLEDGE DOWN TO THE NEXT STRUGGLING PERSON WHO NEEDS TO LEARN THEM TOO. THE CYCLE OF SHOUNEN WISDOM CONTINUES

and that’s the end of the chapter! and apparently the volume!

there’s a little celebratory page of Horikoshi being happy that the anime was just announced, and then that’s it! but that’s okay, we don’t need any bonus content. Todoroki teaching Iida the true meaning of Christmas is enough for today.

[6stronghands]

please read. it’s long. but i need to say this:

Broken in the past year:

Dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave, furnace, water heater, toilet, gas fireplace, TV, 2 laptops, 2 cellphones, my eyeglasses, the locking system, door handle, driver window (stuck DOWN not up, of course) and catalytic converter on my 15 year old minivan and the other car, a 22 year old beloved 4 Runner had to be junked because it was so decrepit and unfixable (it’s a credit to those amazing early generation Runners though, because it made 260,000 miles and basically ran on Marvel Mystery Oil, Seafoam, and pep talks at the end), then I found out that my home has serious foundation issues, and now, NOW, the dryer. 

My new (used) Mustang got hit ONE WEEK after I bought it, by a drunk guy in a big ol F150, as I was my way home to kansas after caring for three (3!!!) family members in the hospital in Utah for four months. The whole time I was in Utah, I was like, holy god these guys are shockingly bad drivers (and I’ve driven extensively around a ton of states). There’s this move I call The Utah Special, a lane changing move where they don’t signal, they don’t check their blind spots, they don’t move vertically….they just horizontally zoom into a space they want in the next lane. I saw so many near misses and actual accidents during my time there. And lo and behold, LITERALLY AS I’M ON MY WAY OUT OF THAT HELL STATE, at the motherfreakin base of the canyon, four hours from Colorado and freedom from the religious insanity and repression that manifests as the angriest, most aggressive, flat out incompetent drivers I’ve ever seen, a jackalope did the Utah Special on me and my new car.  

It screwed up the alignment and tire pressure monitor and left a big dent on the drivers door. Luckily i didn’t run into the giant concrete wall that he spun me into, because I’m an experienced driver, esp in correcting a bad, fast turn, but it was close. The guy is now trying to avoid payment so I’ve been driving around with a beatup looking car. 

One month after i got back to Lawrence, a guy backed into me at the store, and I ended up using the 100 bucks he gave me for groceries, and trying to buff out the back myself, which didn’t work. This is my childhood dream car btw, the only nice thing I’ve ever owned (and it looks a lot nicer than it is, it’s very bare bones inside and out, it just looks slick. It took almost two years and three states of looking to find a good Mustang for such a low price). 

And now. 

Now I’ve got a gutted dryer, parts spread out to hell and gone, because Samsung dryers have the worst design and the cheapest parts (seriously, don’t ever buy Samsung appliances. Three different parts stores and repair people told me they refuse to work on Samsungs or carry parts for them any more because the design is so bad and the parts are so cheap). I thought I fixed it by replacing the circuit board, but now I think it’s the thermal fuse switch which is located UNDER and BEHIND the drum, not in the more accessible places other brands put it. But that’s not irritating enough, no no, now it turns out I have to learn how to solder because they didn’t use screws or plugs for the fuse mount, no no, they soldered it on, so I had to drill the fucker out and and buy a solder iron and now I’m watching how-to-solder videos on youtube. 

And (of course there’s an AND) the charging port on my 3rd used cell phone broke, and I don’t have time to order a replacement port and do it myself, so I took it into one of those overpriced walk in places (for $130 dollars!!! for fifteen minutes work). Picked it up five minutes before they closed last night, and now the screen is unresponsive. According to the good people of the internet, since I can’t get it to reboot, it’s probably a badly seated digitizer that got bumped when they did the replacement. I have to take a break from my how-to-solder videos and go in and convince a bunch of 20 year old guys to fix my phone and not charge me for it. 

So. This is a lot. 

And because we are in the aptly named bad timeline, my personal life has pretty much echoed all the broken down stuff. I have had some weird, hard to diagnose, health crap that cost me one job and has prevented me from finding another. So I just do a bunch of volunteer stuff now, and keep applying to worse and worse jobs, hoping someone, somewhere will take me. My new dog (who I adopted because I’ve been so overwhelmed and stressed, I was freaking out one day and my sister was like, I KNOW WHAT YOU SHOULD DO, YOU NEED A DOG, and she was one hundred percent right, everything is better with a good dog) got attacked at the park, by a Husky owned by a RedditGuy, who then RAN when I was trying to revive my dog, and drove away in a Mercedes with a license obscurer. The only reason I know who he is, is because a quick thinking teenager ran after him and tried to get his name (which the guy wouldn’t give) and the teen took pics of him with his cellphone (don’t shit on Millenials around me, just don’t. All I see are good kids doing good stuff under bad circumstances). (Also, just fwiw, there are all kinds of Huskies being surrendered at shelters and involved in attacks because, and this is so dumb it just kills me, people are watching Game of Thrones and deciding they want their very own Direwolf, without having the experience or willingness to take on a breed that needs a lot of training and reinforcement and care. Huskies are great dogs if they have great owners, like a lot of other great but high-care breeds). 

The medical bills were over $4000, which I had to take a loan out for. There was a court hearing, and the judge ruled in my favor, and ordered the guy to pay, by March 1st. You won’t be surprised at all, because FML, that the guy hasn’t paid, and is contesting it, which means more court stuff. This has all been stressful as hell, but this dog is genuinely the most amazing dog I’ve ever had; he is worth any trouble and expense. I would sell my Mustang, if I had to, to keep this tiny, adorable fuzzball (some kind of poodle-terrier mix, I think, I dunno. He was a rescue dog who was fostered with an inmate in a local prison, Safe Harbor Prison Dogs, check it out, they’re great) I’ve never had a companion dog before. I’ve had family dogs who have all been great, but I’ve never had one where they are bred to be a companion, that’s their work, like a work-dog needs work to be happy and sane. He is carrying my kid and me in his soft little paws; he does good work, this guy. He is always happy, very energetic when you want, calm and cuddly when you want, incredibly sensitive and attuned, unnervingly intelligent and a joy to train, and as soft as a bunny. I have to brush him every single day because of his crazy Fizzgig hair, but that’s fine. He rides on my shoulder in the car and fits inside a tote bag so I can sneak him lots of places. I’ve socialized him from the beginning (which is why I was at that damn park) so he’s totally silent in public places like stores. He loves people, especially kids, and if I ever get off the job-hunting, broken-thing-fixing treadmill, I’d like to volunteer him as a therapy dog in hospitals or wherever. He’s like my very own Daemon, my own Pantalaimon. A gift and a blessing at any time, but especially now, when things are Challenging. 

Then. Then the worst thing. Something really bad happened to my one of my kids. Something so bad that I can’t talk about it in a public place like this. I can barely talk about it in my Al-Anon support group. I spend a lot of energy not thinking about it. I have learned a lot of things in the past few years, like A LOT. I know so much more now, about so many, many things. But this bad thing is something I wish I never knew, and it’s not fixable, only recoverable. 

I have never, ever been so continually sad and angry. It’s been bad timing for my mental health, the Me Too movement. I had a friend visit and he was talking about it, and was telling me that it’s turned into a witch hunt, that things aren’t really this bad for women, that maybe women and men just speak different languages and have different needs and wants, that if things have been this bad, why didn’t women say something sooner, and I just….I couldn’t talk. He wanted me to give him specific examples of male violations in my life, and I literally didn’t know where to start. I can list so many, like every woman alive. I could list hundreds of small things, things where you just accept it because what else can you do, and other things, things that were not small, but you ignore, because you actually know the guy and you know he’s genuinely a mostly good guy, or trying to be, or will be some day, or has a family who loves and depends on him, or maybe I didn’t have the vocabulary or confidence or experience to safely call him out then, or maybe I didn’t know if calling him out would ruin his life, and for real, I could see that he would some day evolve into A Good Man, An Ally, and I didn’t want to jeopardize that. Because that’s real, that dynamic. It doesn’t fit into any black and white social media woke doctrine, but it’s real. I have hurt people through ignorance, and I have learned and evolved, and there have been a few specific times where I can look back in gratitude that someone educated me in a gracious, patient way, because it changed me for the better. Do men know this? That people like me aren’t calling them on stuff? That the problem is much, much worse than the revelations of the Me Too movement? That we let pretty much all the small and medium stuff go? Do they know? Are they so uneducated, so culturally indoctrinated, so blind, to other men’s bad behavior, to their own, that they really think that this is all an over-reaction or mixed signals or just women looking to be angry about something??? 

 I know it’s a lot more complicated than that, because goddamn life usually is. There have been hundreds of not-terrible and semi-bad violations in my 40 years, that I’ve just lived with, and then there’s been a handful of genuinely, life-altering-ly bad ones. The ones that teach you to to beware, that there are predators who prey, and you are just meat. But I couldn’t articulate any of this to this friend, this guy who feels so defensive and attacked by the movement. No one has accused him of anything, he’s just feeling defensive. He thinks people are unfair to men, that men are trying their best, that women need to explain more nicely. 

I have been so angry, about so much, for months now. I usually blow up fast and I’m done. I’m usually the poster girl for Onward And Upward, Life Is Beautiful, Everything’s Awesome. This constant anger is exhausting. And I wish I was only angry, but I’m also broken-hearted. Broken. Everything’s broken, everything keeps breaking. Bad people, careless people, indifferent people, they keep ruining things and getting away with things. The news isn’t good, not politically, not economically, not environmentally, not anything. All signs point to things getting much, much worse. 

I will say this, I am smarter than I was a year ago. 

I seem to only learn by doing, to learn the hard way. I know a lot more now. Like A LOT, in a pretty short span of time. I am not the same person I was a year ago. I am not as sweet, and not as optimistic, but I am seasoned. I’m better at problem solving. I know there's always going to be another damn thing, whatever it is. I know the importance of good tools and resources and support, whether it’s fixing broken cars or broken hearts. That came out trite, but it’s true. I’ve learned that sometimes the only good thing to come out of a bad thing is knowledge, if you use it to recover or evolve, or to help someone else. Sometimes the only silver lining is that you’ve got newfound empathy. We need more empathy in the world, so that’s not nothing. I am so, so worried about the future, about what my kids are going to have to learn in order to navigate their own personal and cultural despair. They’re gonna have to get tougher, faster, while protecting their gentle hearts and giving natures. That’s tricky. I hope they’ll remember that we’re in this together, that the only way to survive is by leaning on and helping each other. Another thing that sounds trite, but is the truest thing I know. I’ve learned to talk about things, to ask questions, to ask again if I don’t understand (and again, and again), and to say to people, I need you, I’m stuck, I’m headfucked, I’m heartfucked, help. Help me. Using your resources, whether they’re youtube how-to videos, therapy, doctors, friends, Al-Anon groups, dogs, whatever, is the only way I know how to get over and through. 

It’s kind of strange to FEEL how much stronger I am right now, than a year ago. Because things are much worse; something that would have broken me for good, if Then-Me had known. But Now-Me has soldiered through some shit by leaning hard on my resources, and because of those resources, not through inner grit or stoicism, but the resources, I’m tougher, smarter, better equipped. I am not exactly happier, but I do have happy moments. That’s a big deal. I am afraid for the future, but I know that, at least as long as I’m able to fight, I CAN fight. 

I have leaned on some of you here. Some of you are my safe places, are resources, tools, friends. Genuine, real ones. I am stronger because of you. I can write and write, but never truly articulate what that has meant, what it means to me. You know how vets are with other vets? The way they’ll meet up after they leave the military, and fall into each other’s arms, the way they trust each other for the rest of their lives? I feel that way about you guys. I’ve been in the motherfucking foxhole, and some of you guys climbed in and covered my head and held my shaking hands. I just have no words. The ‘no atheists in a foxhole’ thing isn’t true. I still don’t believe in God, but I believe in friends, in good people, in the righteous fighters who get no acclaim, no awards, but quietly, bravely, change the world around them a little at a time, to great cumulative effect. I can say I love you, I’m so grateful, you’re wonderful, but really, I have no words other than, thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU.