My partner had the cutest idea and I just have to share it with you.
Rex was so strict as a cadet. He tried hard to prove himself, stuck to the rules, made sure everything he did was in line with regulation.
However, a few command track clones took Rex under their wing: Cody, Wolffe, Fox, Bly, and Ponds. They knew Rex needed to relax a bit. He needed to have a bit of fun, not just stick to the regulations, so they kept trying to get Rex to play with them. Games like cards or more physical games like tag instead of having to run laps every time they did cardio.
Little baby cadet Rex was not having it. He was too nervous to step outside of the lines so they came up with an ingenious plan.
“It’s training, Rex!” Cody would say and he’d tilt his head to the side in suspicion.
“It looks like a card game.” Rex would throw back. Which is when one of the others would step in to say that it ‘tests your reaction time’ or ‘helps you strategize.’ He gave in, of course, and let them pull him away from responsibilities too many times to count.
He loosened up as he got older, realized that part of life is goofing off and having some fun. He didn’t have to be ‘perfect’ for them to still love him.
And imagine, down the line when Rex meets a trooper a lot like himself when he was younger. Someone who knows the regs front to back, can recite them without a second thought, and is tied at the hip with someone that would follow his lead anywhere. Someone who is still trying to prove himself and now wants to work extra hard in the 501st to be the best he can be.
Imagine the first time Rex strolls into the training gym and stops them in the middle of a spar and doesn’t like the way Echo’s back straightens like he’s about to get in trouble. Think about how he sighs and says:
“Boys, I think it’s time you got some more specialized training.” And Fives and Echo look at each other, confused but intrigued by what in the galaxy ‘specialized training’ even means. The only warning he gives is the same one he got from Cody as a cadet. “Don’t let me catch you.” before he takes off after them.
It’s tag. They’re playing tag. And it’s silly and a little stupid but by the time they’re done everyone is out of breath and they’re all half dead because their lungs are screaming at them but everyone is smiling and that’s really good enough for Rex.
He thinks of all the times a simple, silly game was called ‘training’ and he had to be tricked into it by people who love him and he knows he’ll do the same to make these two primarily Echo loosen up and get comfortable with their place in the 501st.
They have a lot to learn, but Rex knows they’ll make him proud. Whether or not they can win a game of tag- oh, wait, I’m sorry - whether or not they can win a ‘training exercise’ or a ‘spar’. They’ll get comfortable. And he’s sure there will be times they’ll make his life hell just like he did to everyone who helped him find his place.
It’s part of growing up and finding your people and figuring out who you are, your place in it all. Rex is more than happy to help.
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I know no one asked, but I have exactly zero (0) people to talk about bkdk with irl so here you guys go
My BKDK Journey
Yes, this sounds stupid, but my god it’s been almost three years of an absolute rollercoaster of feelings and denials and tears and revelations…
and if you don’t mind, I’m gonna rant about it.
(not spoiler free)
_____
May 2021
To start off, i wasn’t always a bkdk shipper.
I shipped izu*cha at first (not saying it’s a bad ship btw; it’s actually quite cute. im just afraid people’ll be mad if I accidentally invade their tag lol), primarily because I assumed that would be the ship that became canon.
But also, my veryyyyy leasttttt favorite character… was Bakugou Katsuki.
When I tell you that I would’ve loved nothing more than to somehow spawn into the bnha universe and punch that brat in the face— AGHHHHHHHHHH
Now this wasn’t all his fault: A) I watched the dub first lol, and B) he reminded me of someone that i was not in a place to stand up to at the time, and his constant anger, yelling, and harsh treatment of Izuku—who i began to relate to—made me hateeee him.
There was a time when I literally said “if he died, I wouldn’t miss him.” <- this was later proven false lol
So, I was watching the anime dub with an absolute animosity for our resident deuteragonist, but on top of that…
I was watching it with a friend with a crunchyroll account who lived in another state that I was visiting and staying with for two weeks, so by the time i had to go back home, we’d only gotten up to the part where All Might was getting Inko’s permission to let Izuku stay at the UA dorms.
Anddddddd in my drive to consume more bnha once I got home, i somehow stumbled across an Instagram account that posted bnha sub episodes divided into parts,
but they only had season four and onwards.
Sooooo I never saw the second half of season three… more importantly,
I NEVER SAW DEKU VS KACCHAN 2!!!!!
(I will say that I had seen a couple photos/edits/etc, but I never knew what had been said, or why they fought)
_____
June 2021
At this point in time, I’d been exposed to a lot of the fandom. My fyp on both IG and Pinterest were filled to the brim with all things bnha (because this is what happens when one has a hyperfixation), so I saw a lot of stuff.
Especially fanart.
This is where I started learning about the different ships.
I saw a lot of the side character ships and thought they were adorable (kamijirou, todomomo, even kiribaku), but then I saw some with Izuku.
Izu*cha was a given for me. I didn’t think there was a single person that didn’t ship it. But then I started seeing fanart of ships like tododeku, shindeku, and bakudeku.
And my first reaction to finding out that people shipped my beautiful baby sunshine boi with the person who bullied him for years?????
HELLLLLLLLLLL NO
So with my (unknowingly) limited knowledge of their relationship, i was very much an anti (i never spoke out or anything, i just reallyyyy didn’t like the ship lol)
(And then, you know, I started to see all the bkdk hate online and kinda went “okay not touching that”)
But that began to change…
_____
August 2021
…after I saw a manga leak for the first time.
I was scrolling thru my feed and all of a sudden. BOOM!
I was like 😧
IS THAT IZUKU?????
And i looked in the comments and yes it was.
I checked out the page and found that they had an entire account of manga leaks and was so happy.
I quickly began to read from the very bottom of that account, and it started from right about where Izuku first began his vigilante arc (i had no idea how much was in between then and where I left off on the anime, but I was willing to read it lol)
And so I waited diligently for the leaks every week (a practice I have continued to uphold lol), until one day, i came across an untranslated series of panels from the latest chapter. I looked at it and it was of Katsuki and Izuku, facing each other in the rain (you know the one). I knew the leaks would be coming a day later, but I wanted to look through them anyways, so I did.
I didn’t understand a word they said, but the pictures and imagery of them as kids then middle schoolers then where they were now seemed so touching…
And then I came across a pair of kanji that I recognized.
I was like “wait WHAT???”
I zoomed in and went “that— isn’t that—? That’s part of Midoriya’s name, right???”
And then I was like “wait a second… omg that’s Izuku, isn’t it. That’s the freaking kanji for Izuku.”
And it was!!!!!
So inside I’m having a mini freakout cuz—
Bakugou just called him IZUKU
Fast forward to the next day, and I looked at the translated version, and found out that not only did he call him Izuku,
He
Freaking
APOLOGIZED
And I was like “huhhhhhhh”
What happened between now and the most recent anime episodes for this to occur???? For Bakugou to do a complete 180 and apologize????????
Well, I finally got my answers…
_____
November 2021
…when I started reading the manga.
I started from the beginning, cuz I wanted to see Horikoshi’s art style and the extra drawings and all the other stuff…
And when I tell you that Katsuki became a whole new character to me—
First, I read everything about early-on Bakugou— without hearing him yell in his dub voice—and realized “oh wow he really is just a kid with issues and a worldview that he’s now having to change.”
Then, I finally read what happened in that space between moving into the dorms and the beginning of season four (most importantly, DvK2).
Cried.
Then, oh then, I got up to where season five ended and the rest of the manga began.
. . .
Funny thing: back when I read the leaks to ch322, I remember thinking to myself, “huh. what did Bakugou mean by Shigaraki making swiss cheese outta him?”
😦
THE WAY I GASPED
AND THEN CRIED
OH MY FREAKING GOD
That was the moment where i truly ceased to hate Katsuki cuz holy character development batman
Then, of course, we see them in recovery
And then the vigilante arc and apology scene *sobs*
And then I was caught up.
(Btw I finished the entire manga up ‘til ch334 in just over a week. I read for nine days straight. During the school year. My emotions were all over the place goodness gracious I could barely concentrate.)
So that’s how I went from being a Bakugou hater to going “you know what he’s a complex character and he’s slowly becoming a better person” and realizing that he was now one of my fav characters and therefore cursed to die but I’ll talk about that later
Was I now a bakudeku shipper?
Hah nope.
_____
December 2021
I began my dive into the true essence of any fandom: fanfiction.
Over the course of winter break, I had started off with fics that had no romantic pairing (I just wanted to see my boi Izuku), but then somehow stumbled across Mastermind: Strategist for Hire and then read the entirety of the For Want of a Nail series (shoutout to Clouds btw ❤️) cuz I was like “ok whew no bkdk fics” which was my mindset at the time.
But somehow (I can’t even remember how I found it) I came across a bkdk fic. It was called For Want of Izuku’s Toe Joint by Talavin (okay now that I think about it there’s probably a simple explanation lol).
I don’t quite know what compelled me to start reading it, but I did.
And I really liked it.
But not in the “I’ve been converted” kinda way.
It was like an “I shouldn’t be enjoying this why am I enjoying this?” kinda feeling. Like my head says no but my heart says yeah.
A really really really really guilty pleasure.
So, from that day on, whenever I came across any form of bkdk media, I would simultaneously feel discomfort and yet an odd sense of satisfaction.
A snippet of my daily life:
Me: *comes across bkdk fanart on pinterest*
Me: eww
Also me: *stares at it for like five minutes straight*
Me: who even likes this?
Also me: *saves pin to my mha board*
Me: not my ship
Also me: *scrolls down to more like this*
Bless my heart I was in such denial.
_____
July 2022
Bit of a timeskip, but nothing of note really happened in those last six months so here we go.
We’ve gotten to the point in the manga where the final arc is underway and Bakugou is about to KICK SOME BUTT
He’s revealed his Panser Strafe support item and I’m gushing about it to my friend (she kinda fell out of the fandom but still tolerated my rants bless her)
Oh, side note: it was then that I also expressed my concern for Bakugou’s “alive” status
Evidence:
For reference, some of my favorite characters are:
Beth March (Little Women)
John Reese (Person of Interest)
Joss Carter (Person of Interest)
Leonard Snart (Arrowverse)
Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)
Fantine (Les Mis)
Eponine (Les Mis)
Jean Valjean (Les Mis)
Simon (Lord of the Flies)
Piggy (Lord of the Flies)
Grace Stone (Manifest)
Bubaigawara Jin — Twice (BNHA)
Wanna guess which of these guys died?
Trick question! It’s all of them (:
Yeah so anyways those following chapters really made me excited and nervous cuz YEAH KICK HIS ASS BAKUGOU but also IZUKUUUUU WE NEED YOU
hah hah.
_____
August 2022
Utterly gobsmacked. Cried. Disbelief. Horrified. Confusion. Anger. Went through the five stages of grief and then some.
Sometimes I hate being right 🥲
But the good thing that came from this was that my positive view of Katsuki only grew after seeing his utter faith in Izuku (and his thoughts being on him in his final moments???? 🥺🥺🥺)
And it was at this point in time where I could admit to myself “you know what? i see it. i see the appeal. i wouldn’t mind this actually becoming canon.”
Did I think that it would actually become canon?? No.
_____
September 2022
I don’t know how I thought Izuku was gonna react to seeing Katsuki’s body on the ground, but GOOD LORD IT WASNT THAT
Even sweet little blind me realized “oh wow he like really feels intense stuff for Katsuki huh”
(But some things I missed—cuz I was still a bit wired for izu*cha—were shigarakis implications “yeah u looooove the present I got u” and the freaking HEART that blackwhip caused??? when Izuku reeled himself back in???? like how did i miss that i read that chapter like fifteen times??)
So this is all to say that I’ve missed any and all actual bkdk hints up until this point. I finally lifted my head out of the izu*cha fog when…
_____
July 2023
…Ochako and Toga had their chat about romance.
The first actual hint was when Ochako had told Toga “I’ll give you my blood for the rest of my life.”
Little blind me became a bit less blind that day, cuz I was like “um. ochako? that— that sounded kinda like a proposal. like. a marriage proposal. ochako??”
And then those chapters just kept getting better!!
Bebe Ochako’s determination???
The Spirited Away moment?????
“I’m envious of your smile”????????
“YOU REALLY THINK IM CUTE?” “THE CUTEST IN THE WHOLE WORLD” LIKE 😭😭😭😭😭
For the first time, I was looking at the manga without the assumption that izu*cha would be endgame. And it only got better after I…
_____
August 2023
…got Tumblr!!!
Everything was downhill from here folks.
In the best possible way.
I came across some analyses of what was going on with togachako, and consequently led me to some bakudeku analyses. I read them and my goodness they made so much sense.
Like not even just personality-wise!! Those metas brought in actual things Horikoshi said about wanting to go outside the norms of shounen (and about not liking the Naruto ending 💀), and compared bkdk to tropes in different works of fiction, and even discussed how bkdk made sense narratively. They properly convinced me of the ship.
And then for good measure, I reread the manga in its entirety thru a bkdk filter, and lo and behold things took on new meanings and my eyes were opened.
I totally and irrevocably shipped them! And I actually thought they had a chance at being canon!!
(And then I binged so much bkdk fanfiction omg you wouldn’t BELIEVE like I read the ones with the highest kudos first and then just picked the biggest collections I could find and read down the line
It was like being on drugs like each fic gave me more dopamine than the last I was so happy oh my god)
_____
October 2023
And then finally, the day came.
The answer to “is bakugou alive yet?” became a yes.
We screamed. We cried. We jumped for joy. We told bakugou antis to suck it. But most of all, our bkdk hearts soared to see our boys make eye contact with each other for the first time in over a year 🥹
And from that moment on, I truly began to believe that bkdk would indeed become canon.
_____
And so, this concludes my 42672288 page rant about how I came to be a bkdk shipper.
Thank you for reading, and before I go, I want to ask:
How did you guys get into bkdk?
Did you convert over from izu*cha? Or perhaps tododeku? Or maybe kiribaku? Or are you one of the few who have shipped them since the beginning??
In any case, I’m happy you’re here. And while it may have taken me a couple years, I’m happy that I’m here too :)
(and thank you @animelover32456)
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slasher iii & slasher iv
oh geez oh boy oh god here it is. i had to strangle this thing out of my brain and she came out kicking and screaming. unedited, just some fun slasher iii & slasher iv content on this saturday evening. this is... something
there's a good bit of triggers in here, please proceed with caution.
1.15k words
The two of them are just hardcore horror fans, right? They've seen all the classics a million times but as they're getting older it's just not enough. III is the first one to suggest it as he turns off the television after watching the newest horror box office flop. At first, IV thought it was a joke. An outlandish suggestion to throw him off his game. That was the kind of jokester that III was. But there was no humor in his voice when he said in a sinisterly quiet voice.
"We could just do that shit ourselves."
The thought caused excitement to pulse through IV's veins as III laid out the details of his fantasy. It was almost too perfect, he thought. Their calculus professor was a piece of shit who was always too hard on the class, so he made an obvious target. He had no family, which further eased IV's conscience. They'd be doing the world a favor.
It was an experience unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, the thrill of watching the light wink out of his horrified eyes as he clawed at the masks covering their faces, watching the fight leave his body as he fell limp to the floor. He found he didn't quite mind the feeling of his blood soaked jeans clinging to his legs.
III had done most of the dirty work, but who was IV to deprive him of the joy he received from plunging the knife into his victim's stomach? They tidied. up after themselves enough to erase their presence, and waited for someone to find him.
The discovery of the beloved professor’s body the next day came as a shock to the whole community, leaving the town a worried mess. Things only got worse as III and IV selected their next target. She was a young woman, engaged to be married, known for babysitting just about every kid in town– the two of them included. IV’s stomach soured at the thought, but the grin on III’s face stirred his excitement enough to quell his conscience.
“Don’t worry mate, she’ll be perfect.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder and pulled him into his pickup truck, the bed loaded with enough hunting knives to butcher a stampede.
And perfect she was. They managed to slip into the garage undetected, slinking through the darkened hallways towards the illumination and chatter of the television in the living room. She had nodded off on the couch, her head tilted back and nestled into the corner, surrounded by blankets and pillows. III gave him a silent nod and IV walked around behind her, wrapping an arm around her neck and clamping his hand over her mouth. Her eyes shot open in fear, panic overtaking her body as her eyes raked down every intimidating inch of III as he knelt in front of her, sliding a knife out of his boot.
IV could feel her gnashing at the flesh of his palm, and simply pressed the crook of his elbow further into her jugular. He could feel her resolve dwindling as she thrashed against his hold, trying to shove III’s towering figure away from her. But III only laughed and swatted away her comparatively small hands as he began tracing the tip of his blade up her pajama clad leg, the twinkle in his eye indicated to IV that he was thoroughly enjoying the muffled whimpers coming from behind IV’s hand, relishing in the way that her body lurched away from him.
When IV felt his hand dampening from her tears, he audibly groaned, looking down to see her beautiful eyes squeezed shut, tears running down her cheeks. If his mask wasn’t covering his mouth he would have leaned down and licked those tears off of her perfect skin himself. But instead, he managed to catch III’s attention, nodding down to her streaming tears and III laughed evilly.
He leaned over her, wiping her tears away with his thumbs, gently caressing her cheeks as he did so, despite IV’s hands covering most of her face.
“Hey, no use for that,” III cooed. “No point of doing that at all, love.”
Her eyes opened, a bone-chilling fear shooting through her body as she saw the murderous glint in III’s eyes. The tears flowed faster, and as she tried again to break free III restrained her arms with ease, resting his body weight on top of her as he brought his knife up to her line of sight again.
“We’re going to have a lovely time, the three of us.”
She screamed from behind IV’s hand, making one last attempt to bite at him and managed to find purchase on the meat of his palm, causing him to yelp. She sank her teeth in until she could taste his blood on her tongue, but she found his grip only tightened. When she dared a glance above her, she could see his eyes shut, breathing labored, but when he looked down at her, she realized what a mistake she had made.
A mixture of her tears and IV’s blood dripped from her chin, and the sight sent a shockwave of excitement through III’s body. He was ecstatic to have a partner in all this, to get to experience his wildest fantasies with his best friend. To share this new side of him with his best friend.
“Now for the fun part.” He whispered, more to IV than to her, but the words caused her heart to sink, she felt the resolve fly from her body– there was no salvation for her. The coppery tang of his blood on her tongue that had once tasted like victory now tasted of defeat. Not only would she die at their hands, she would die with their repulsive presence invading her every sense.
III felt the familiar rush of euphoria as the blade pierced through her belly, her muffled scream like a favorite song heard on the radio. He didn’t miss the way IV’s hip pressed slightly into the couch, spreading a wide grin across his lips.
This would be the fun part, indeed.
Hours later, III laid down in his bed, resting an arm behind his head as he replayed the events of the day, that same grin still plastered on his face. He felt his eyes drifting closed, sleep ready to take his body when he heard the sound of his phone vibrating on his nightstand. His heart leaped at the sight of your name, and your sweet message.
i guess you turned in early tonight. sweet dreams, i love you <3
As he laid back down, his eyes falling shut one more time, his mind conjured up the most beautiful plan for you.
A special surprise.
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