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stillness-in-green · 11 months

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On Heteromorphs and Heteromorphobia (Arc XXI-B + Conclusion, Final War-B: The Hospital Attack)

To preface before I start documenting these final four chapters, there’s been a lot said (not least by me) about how wildly out of touch the resolution to this plotline is. While I didn't set out to rehash all of that again, it turns out I can't actually talk about how the series portrays heteromorphobia without talking about how it resolves it—if I'd wanted to do that, the place to stop would have been with the last post. This whole piece is also destined for AO3 eventually, so it needs to be readable for those who don't follow me on tumblr. Therefore, if you've been following my #heteromorph discrimination plot posts for a while, there are portions of this post that will be pretty familiar territory!

If you're new and want my full breakdowns, you can find them in my Chapter Thoughts posts or in this pair of posts rounding up the asks I’d gotten on the topic. Here, I will simply say that I don’t think Horikoshi’s fumbling of the plot can be read to mean that all the stuff I’ve documented thus far was just me reaching too hard, reading stuff into the manga where nothing was intended. While I’m sure some of it is—I definitely went out on a few limbs!—I think the main answer to, “How can heteromorphobia be such a well-thought-out depiction of a logically foreseeable form of discrimination while also having such a terrible resolution?” is, “Because the mainstream opinion about how best to handle discrimination is wildly different in Japan than it is in progressive American circles.”

That doesn’t mean I’m willing to wave the wand of Cultural Differences over this resolution and forgive everything—there were plenty of Japanese fans critiquing it as well![1]—but it does somewhat modulate my feelings about it. In any case, let’s get to it.

1: Most of what I saw was on Twitter, but there’s a Japanese site called bookmeter that’s kinda goodreads-esque, and which had several critical reviews posted for the volume, including one that felt like every point laid out was something I’d complained about as well. Super validating, but a shame it was necessary!

(I'll be changing up my formatting just a bit in hopes that I can find a way to present sub-sub-bullet points that tumblr won't choke on in this 13K post. Pray for me.)

Chapter 370:

O We open with a scene which we’re led to believe is about Spinner but which the end of the chapter will reveal to be about Shouji. It’s shockingly open about the extent of the discrimination Shouji faced, and there’s worse yet to come, but here we find people throwing stones at him, telling him to die, saying he has dirty blood that will defile the land, that he should stay inside the house, and that no matter how much time passes,[2] they will never accept “his kind.”

2: Viz renders this as “no matter how much society progresses,” but the word jidai means something more like “the times”/”the age,” and the progression term used can mean improvement, but in the circumstances, probably just means forward movement. I think the intention is more like, “No matter how much the times march on,” if only because it would be very odd for the people yelling this vitriol to frame it as themselves resisting progression. After all, bigots don’t typically think of themselves as “regressive” compared to everyone else’s progressiveness; they think of themselves as normal or valuing tradition compared to everyone else’s moral laxity/perversity.

So, remember how I talked about the spiritual/religious charge to the language the CRC used to talk about their “sanctuary” and the League/Spinner’s presence in it? Here’s the full scope of that. It’s about kegare, a Shinto concept of uncleanliness associated particularly with blood and death, and while that’s normally something that can be purified simply by undergoing the proper ritual cleansings, when something is, in itself, intrinsically unclean, no amount of purification will fix it; you can only keep it sealed away. Hence the yelling at Shouji not to leave the house.

The spirituality-based discrimination calls to mind the burakumin, originally an outcaste group of people who made their living working with all the aspects of life Shinto considered kegare—butchers, tanners, executioners and the like. They were made to dress and cut their hair in ways that identified them on sight, barred from entering temples or schools, and lived in their own villages. The laws mandating much of this were abolished in 1871[3] and urban sprawl gradually rolled over burakumin villages, turning them into slum areas. While today it’s not uncommon for people to not even know they’re descended from burakumin lineage unless they’re specifically told,[4] more subtle discrimination does endure. While it’s clearly not the only inspiration, there’s a lot about anti-burakumin bias that’s reflected in heteromorphobia.

3: Albeit not without considerable and violent protests against the liberation of the burakumin/the idea that they were henceforth to be allowed to hold other occupations and become ordinary citizens. Arson, destruction of villages, attacks and deaths—all things considered, the anti-Kaihourei riots are probably a decent place to look for inspiration on the historical massacres Spinner’s #2 will be talking about shortly.

4: Or find out because someone who knows the significance of those old neighborhoods finds out first and they’re suddenly on the bad end of some discriminatory act or another.

O We find out that the group Spinner’s leading consists of fifteen thousand people, that number split between PLF remnants and ordinary civilians who support the PLF’s cause. It’s unknown exactly how that split breaks down, but based on how the rest of the attack goes, I think it’s probable that the group is mostly civilians—if it were more PLF, it probably wouldn’t be so wholly defanged by Shouji’s big plea for peace. So that’s what we might call a “bad look,” that fifteen thousand ordinary civilians feel so incredibly hard done-by that they not only flock to join a known terrorist, but that they do so for the purpose of attacking a hospital.

O They’re opposed by about two hundred police and heroes, the relevant of whom for our purposes are Present Mic, Rock Lock, Officer Gori, Shouji, and Koda. With the exception of Present Mic, who will in any case be heading inside very shortly, they’re all minorities of some sort, with Rock Lock being very visibly, obviously Black, and the others being heteromorphs. None of them are immediately thinking about the composition of the crowd, but rather about how difficult the crowd is being to handle.

O Rock Lock yells out that the rioters are too organized to be some random mob, a dismissiveness that gets him shouted at by the Spinner fanboys—tragically their only appearance in all of this!—that, “Folks with human faces just don’t get it!” I have to assume that putting Rock Lock in this scene is no accident, but rather is there to make the rioters come off as short-sighted, so deep in their own pain that they lash out at someone who, if HeroAca!Japan is anything like present day Japan, almost certainly understands better than they think!

The phrasing, in any case, points towards the dehumanization that heteromorphs, especially animal-associated ones, are subject to. After all, as Re-Destro might point out, in the post-Advent world, isn’t it the case that any given heteromorphic human’s face, no matter how strange it may be, is de facto a “human face”? Yet the vitriol from the Spinner fans clearly reflects how internalized it’s become for them, that they don’t look “human,” despite the fact that “looking human” means nothing at all in the time of quirks.

O Koda gets called a traitor by an elderly beaked heteromorph from, apparently, a rural area, underscoring what’s been alluded to a few times prior to this, and which will be laid out explicitly in a few pages, that heteromorphobia is far, far worse in the countryside than it is in the cities. Mr. Beak assumes—correctly, it seems[5]—that Koda’s a city kid, because why else other than ignorance would a fellow heteromorph stand against them?

5: Koda’s from Iwate Prefecture, which is only above Hokkaido in terms of population density; a bit of research suggests that its largest city, Morioka, is considered to be a mid-sized city. So that’s definitely the hard upper limit on exactly how “big city” Koda could reasonably be. That said, Shouji also identifies Koda as someone who grew up in a city, for which I assume he must have at least some basis.

O Spinner’s #2 fulfills the promise of his early shorthanded characterization of being a fiery, well-spoken zealot by standing on top of a building over the mob and exhorting them onward with revolutionary, inflammatory rhetoric. And boy, does he bring up a lot to talk about!

Demagoguery for Fun & Profit

O Quirk counselling and quirk education? Phony nonsense, he says. That’s a fairly confusing grievance to bring up in this context, so let’s consider what he might have in mind.

• For quirk education, I would contend that BNHA has shown very little of it, in spite of having Academia right there in the title. The academics in question are about Heroics, after all, not quirks in and of themselves. Here’s the complete list of what I would say the reader has seen that could be qualified as actual education about quirks:

Aizawa telling the kids(/low tier villains at USJ) some broad generalities, things like a very basic explanation of how quirks work on the genetic level or how they’re classified. Most of this is delivered in the context of how his quirk works; the only outlier that immediately comes to mind for me is his explanation of how quirks are like muscles, and can be strengthened via training.

Mirio and Tamaki’s middle school class doing “quirk training,” which is framed as a P.E. class and is specifically aimed at finding ways for each kid to be “useful to society,” not about them learning anything about quirks in a broader sense.

Endeavor’s recent reference to Nedzu’s alleged “quirk morality education,” about which I have already registered my skepticism.

The bit in Re-Destro’s monologue to Shigaraki where he mentions he was taught not to judge others by their quirks. It’s hard to judge how applicable this is to normal society because Re-Destro was raised in a cult, and the book shown during this sequence was released by Curious’s publisher.

So of those options, what is #2 talking about? I’d say the last one is probably closest to what he means: don’t judge others by their quirks. But of course, people judge others by their quirks all the time. Family, classmates, teachers, people in the same neighborhood, heroes and police—we see examples from literally the first page of characters who are being judged by their quirks or lack thereof. While that judgement doesn’t apply only to heteromorphs, they are, by dint of their visibility, going to face it everywhere they go, regardless of whether any given situation—say, going to the grocery store or on a date—involves quirks or not. So, whatever lessons people in this society are getting about quirks and judgement, they clearly aren’t absorbing them.

It also bears pointing out, of course, that #2’s personal affiliation is with the Metahuman Liberation Army, and he definitely shows signs—as I’ll get to in a bit—of the quirk supremacism that group is so unanimously painted with in the endgame. So while the supremacy he’s preaching is about heteromorphs rather than quirks more generally, he could well be saying quirk education is phony because he’s all for judging people on their quirks! However, his criteria for that judgement differs from both forms of judgement taught by the society he’s railing against—what they practice and what they preach.

• Then there’s quirk counseling, a practice the story most prominently associates with Toga, who’s barely a twitch of the needle away from baseline (though her abuse is not wholly without reference to her appearance, in that her natural smile is repeatedly branded as scary or deviant). So why bring it up in association with heteromorphs? My suspicion is that a heteromorph—especially a heteromorph with an animal-associated quirk!—being visibly “different” in some way makes the people around them hyper-sensitive to behavioral “deviations.”

For a start, you see that hyper-sensitivity brought to bear against Toga. Curious contends that Toga’s sense of “admiration” was a perfectly normal thing, but it was the tie to blood that made it wholly unacceptable. It’s notable that, before she snapped, Toga was never shown to actually want to hurt people: the bird was already injured when she found it, her friend got a scrape the way any child might, Saito was involved in a fight Toga had no hand in. She hurts people now because a lifetime of rejection and dehumanization, but Toga’s admiration of blood was not intrinsically indicative that she’d grow up to be violent; people treated it that way because of cultural attitudes towards blood and blood-attraction.

So, might the same sort of thing be true of e.g. animal-associated heteromorphs? That they might exhibit behaviors which would, in different circumstances, be totally fine, but which they’re judged for unduly harshly because of cultural beliefs about the animal they resemble? Let me just spitball a few possibilities:

A cat heteromorph who, as a child, showed affection by nuzzling. That’s fine when a literal kitten is doing it, and funny and cute when a baseline child sees a cat doing it and imitates it for fun, but when the cat heteromorph does it, he makes people uncomfortable, makes them wonder if he lacks self-control, comes off as weird and too-forward. So his parents rebuke him and bring him to a quirk counsellor to break him of the habit, leading him to feel ashamed and alienated from a harmless natural impulse.

A snake-headed girl is the first heteromorph in her family line and the way she stares at people so fixedly, never blinking, creeps them out, makes them feel like she’s dangerous. She isn’t and has no intention of being so, but she’s sent to quirk counselling anyway and the lesson she learns is to just never look people in the eye at all.

A condor heteromorph develops a morbid interest in corpses in middle school. He doesn’t want to eat them, he’s not some kind of cannibalistic animal—at least that’s what he told himself before quirk counselling, where his counsellor, like his teachers, assumed that his interest had to be tied to animal instincts. He wanted to be a mortician, or join the police and get into crime scene investigation, but when he told people that they just looked at him like he was already holding a fork and knife. (He ends up getting into photography, and just has to live with the fact that now people have two excuses to call him a vulture.)

Two children—one with a plant-based emitter quirk, the other an eight-eyed spider heteromorph—are caught in the act of killing some insects by a local police officer. It’s the sort of innocent childhood cruelty you might find anywhere, and, indeed, when the officer calls their school about it, that’s what gets decided about the emitter—he was just a child who didn’t know any better. But the heteromorph gets recommended for quirk counselling instead—after all, spiders kill insects. What if this is an early warning sign for instincts towards predatory behavior? It’s important to nip these things in the bud.

That’s all off the top of my head or taken from some conversation with friends on the topic, and maybe it’s a reach, but it’s also a very plausible explanation for why a heteromorphic idealogue might bring up quirk counselling as a specific grievance—because, like the Villain-designation for criminals, it’s unevenly and unfairly applied.

O The next point #2 makes, and definitely the one that made the biggest splash in fandom at the time, is his invocation of a pair of historical incidents, possibly both but at least one of which was a mass murder targeting heteromorphs, carried out by a bunch of baseline types. He names them as the 6/6 Incident and the Great Jeda Purge. These are both stealth Star Wars references, though the former is disguised a bit better by being in the same format that Japan sometimes uses for naming events like attempted coups.[6] Given the image we see, it’s fair to assume the event in BNHA was similar.

6: See for example the May 15 Incident or the February 26 Incident, called the 5・15 Incident and the 2・26 Incident respectively in Japan. You see this in China as well, with the Tiananmen Square massacre being referred to there as the 6/4 Incident.

Notice that the perpetrators here are mostly holding weapons. Were they quirkless themselves, or were they avoiding using quirks such that they couldn’t be branded as Villains? Knowing the answer to that would give us a timeframe for this.

He goes on to declaim, on the basis of these events, that the history of the paranormal is one of persecution and oppression of those with “differing forms.”[7] The term in Japanese there is kotonaru katachi, 異なる形, which uses a different reading of the kanji in igyou (異形) and muscles in a verb conjugation, which has the effect of softening the harshness of 異 somewhat.[8] This would be a great catch-all term for those with heteromorphic bodies who might or might not have heteromorphic quirks[9] if it weren’t for the fact that literally the only person we ever hear using it is an anti-social zealot. No one on Team Hero ever makes this kind of distinguishment.

In any case, #2 is obviously over-simplifying to play to his audience—recall the baseline woman we saw back in that shot of Persecuted Early Quirk-Havers back in Chapter 59—but, as I’ve discussed extensively, being more visible does make one a more ready target. Also, of course, the presence of the CRC in the story lays the groundwork for this sort of historical horror story even long after the worst days of the Advent.

7: I provide my own translation here because the Viz one, “those who don’t fit the mold,” is vague to the point of uselessness.

8: The koto reading, as best I can tell, seems to be pretty rare, often tagged as archaic in words including it. The i reading is far more common, in words that denote wrongness, divergence, abnormality, and so on. But it may be less about the reading and more about the fact that adding the verb conjugation makes the term more of a descriptive phrase than a direct noun. As ever, take my talk about Japanese language minutiae with a grain of salt.

9: “Differing forms” is broad enough, however, that it could also be read as covering, say, people with amputations, congenital anomalies, or other sorts of non-quirk-related disfigurements from accidents or disease. As in real life, navigating the linguistic space between specificity and Othering can be tricky.

O Next, #2 rhetorically demands what excuse was given by those who perpetrated these slaughters? He answers his own question with the quote, “They give me the creeps.” Note how this ties in with my earlier suppositions about the likelihood of discrimination worsening the farther one is from baseline, as well as those about the necessity of putting up a good, positive, appealing front. It’s a perfectly intuitive leap, that more extreme variants of heteromorphy, or those who evoke negative associations—animals tied to rot or bad luck, people made wholly out of green ooze—are going to be more likely to be found “creepy” than those who look like e.g. sexy bunny girls or straight-laced guys who just happen to have pipes jutting out of their calves. Of course, that’s on something of a sliding scale; the more biased an area is against heteromorphs in general, the easier it will be to find oneself on the wrong side of that line.

O #2 presents the idea that society has reflected on their actions and made amends, or at least that’s how society’s narrative goes. Illustrating this, we see two of the three heteromorphs in the police force, as well as Nedzu. Interestingly, the panel does not include any heteromorphic heroes! I might guess that this is because heroes are meant to use their quirks to serve others; they’re really just enforcement tools, lacking any particular authority beyond a quirk-use license and some admittedly broad soft power courtesy of the social contract.[10] Conversely, a school principal and a police chief (Gori remaining the outlier here) have actual authority, such that the average heteromorphobia-denier can point to them as evidence that heteromorphobia doesn’t exist anymore.

10: Which is to say, I don’t get the impression civilians are required to take orders from heroes, such that they would actually get in legal trouble for disobeying. The fact that people do typically follow those orders speaks more to the power heroes wield via their association with the police force, as well as the general tendency of people to assume that someone in a uniform giving orders during an emergency is probably a professional whose orders it would be safe and wise to follow.

In the same panel, we also see a baseline guy palling around with a vaguely murine heteromorph dude (he looks more like a mascot suit mouse than an actual mouse, but he’s certainly nowhere close to baseline!), illustrating another way society wants to pretend it’s moved past heteromorphic discrimination. I can’t help but note, in regards to this specific pair, that the manga uses faces the readers know to illustrate the point about heteromorphs in positions of authority, whereas to make the point about baseline/heteromorph friendships, it has to make up a new pair to show us because the series hasn’t made the time to actually build any (heroic) relationships that actually look like that!

Now, one could argue that using familiar faces to underscore #2’s speech would imply that he’s aware of those faces, and while that’s fine for figures of authority, there’s no reason for him to be aware of e.g. Natsuo and his mousey girlfriend. However, the same would apply to anyone placed to demonstrate a random urban friendship crossing the “differing forms” line, including those two strangers. Who are those two, after all, that #2 is any more familiar with them than he would be of Natsuo and mouse gal?

Honestly, I think the best relationship candidate we have—a pair who would both communicate what the panel needs to communicate to the reader and who would feasibly be enough in the public eye to get pointed at for rhetorical purposes by an in-universe speaker—would be Kamui Woods and Mount Lady. Unfortunately, they don’t work because Horikoshi has never seen fit to actually reveal Kamui Woods’ real face, so they’re much less visibly “a baseline person being emotionally close with a heteromorph” than the random two Horikoshi made up.

O The oratory continues into discussing the divide between city versus rural views on heteromorphs, and this is, to me, the first clear sign that the series is beginning to lose the thread of this plot. Taking #2 at his word asks us to concede the heteromorphobia has been completely wiped out in cities, eradicated with that wonderful antidote called “education.” But discrimination very much does exist in cities! It may be less violent, less extreme, less vocal, but in the form of things like law enforcement bias, housing discrimination, microaggressions, the quirk counselling #2 himself brought up, it’s very much still there! Now, it could be that he’s just downplaying that discrimination to focus on the really ugly stuff you don’t see in cities, but I don’t know what his reasons for doing so would be? Not when there’s so much else he could say that would be equally inflammatory without alienating urban heteromorphs by dismissing their still very much present, modern suffering.

O He then brings up the talk of “light”—echoing Skeptic’s earlier rhetoric—and it not reaching those gathered at the hospital, so they must make their own, for people who’ve never once regretted the quirks they were born with can never be their heroes. What this primarily puts me in mind of is Hawks’s background with heroes prior to his father’s arrest—that heroes were only on TV, not present to save him in his actual life. Keep that in mind for Shouji’s response later on.

O Towards the end, #2’s speech finally tips over the line from what could plausibly be read as protesting unequal treatment to an outright call for supremacy. Notably, he doesn’t call for quirk supremacy, but rather for heteromorph supremacy—for the tables to be turned, the cards reversed, for them to not merely be equal, but rather to be superior.

It’s unclear how much of this he’s sincere about and how much is just convenient rhetoric disguising views that are more quirk supremacist in actuality. For many reasons, I want to read him in good faith: because the MLA originally struck me as being written in good faith throughout MVA and the first war arc; because #2 never once uses his quirk in this mini-arc, casting doubt on him having such an amazing quirk that he’d benefit overmuch from quirk supremacy anyway; and especially because it would be incredibly bad faith on Horikoshi’s part to make a character delivering a speech like this a total bad faith, manipulative outsider. Unfortunately, #2’s inner monologue in later chapters will make a good faith read all but impossible to sustain.

O Halfway through his speech, #2 unmasks himself, revealing both his face—dominated by four pairs of pedipalp-esque mouthparts, though the markings on his head are pretty eye-catching, too—and his scar. We’re never told how he got it, but the implication is certainly that he was attacked for his appearance. That may just be a conclusion it serves him to let people make, given his bad faith elsewhere, but thankfully the manga doesn’t go so far as to say that explicitly. In any case, his deliberate reveal turns his wound into a form of performance art, drawing attention to it, forcing it to be a part of the conversation—the polar opposite of Shouji covering his scars because he doesn’t want them to be a part of the conversation about him, and those scars being revealed because his mask is torn off against his will.[11]

11: This also fits a larger pattern of villains, by and large, choosing their expressions of vulnerability, making deliberate shows of agency in how their weakness is perceived by the broader world—Shigaraki taking his hand off for the first time, Dabi’s video, Toga approaching heroes with genuine questions, and so on. There are certainly exceptions, but generally if a villain shows his “true face,” it’s because they’re making a conscious decision to do so, and may be actively manipulating how that reveal is going to land. Conversely, heroes want to present a powerful, confident, untarnished image to the public, so their shows of vulnerability all have to be forced out of them after pitched battles or acts of violence. Heroes don’t make themselves vulnerable to the public on purpose, which feeds into the way the public then treats them when they are forced into vulnerable positions.

O Spinner’s a mess at this point, and the reason he’s a mess is all tied up in his faith in/desire to help Shigaraki. It’s not explicitly about heteromorphobia, but on the other hand, given that the thing that drove Spinner to be here at all was his horrifically low self-esteem caused by heteromorphobia, maybe it’s not so irrelevant after all. It may have taken Spinner longer than the Tenkos, Touyas, and Chisaki Kais of the world to reach the “fall victim to a dark influence due to the neglect and abuse you faced at the hands of Hero Society” plot, but he certainly got there in the end![12]

12: I call this The Sekoto Peak Problem, and it’s a big criticism of mine about how the final arc is framing all these conflicts as being solely brought about because Bad Faith Villain Men like AFO are scooping up vulnerable people and driving them towards violence, without acknowledging the much worse circumstances those vulnerable people might be in if they were just left to their fates. Touya, for example, if not for AFO’s timely rescue, would likely have simply died on the mountain long before Endeavor was able to find him.

O Shouji takes the mob to task for attacking a hospital without ensuring the safety of the uninvolved innocents within, a laughable bit of sophistry[13] that accurately foreshadows how disastrous his reasoning will be throughout the rest of these chapters.

13: It’s laughable sophistry firstly because the heroes knew this mob was coming but chose to leave Kurogiri at a hospital anyway; one can mount a very reasonable argument that Kurogiri’s teleportation power qualifies him as a military objective, which would make stashing him at a hospital an actual war crime in an international conflict, as well as negating the hospital’s protected status as a civilian object. It’s laughable sophistry secondly because it criticizes a Villain-led mob for failing to evacuate the building, as if said mob had exactly the same social cachet possessed by heroes, that they could freely walk in the front door of a hospital and start shouting evacuation orders with reasonable confidence that they’d be obeyed. Finally, it’s laughable sophistry because Shouji is quite simply wrong about the order of the actions he’s describing—the heroes’ evacuation of Ujiko’s hospital was concurrent with their invasion of said hospital, not precedent to it.

Chapter 371:

O Shouji accuses Spinner of taking actions that will set them back thirty years, which is just a really egregiously victim blamey sort of thing to say, placing the responsibility on heteromorphs for the crimes of those who hate them.

O Koda’s perspective gives us a flashback to Shouji telling his classmates about his history—his town and his scars and his reason for wanting to be a hero. It’s all material that works in the context of all the set-up we’ve gotten—the CRC and the religious inflection of their specific brand of hatred, the rural heteromorphobia, the hints about Shouji’s own discrimination, the attack on the Ordinary Woman, and so on—but that would have been far better served to have been integrated into the story more naturally. Koda has no specifically established relationship with Shouji (seriously, there is absolutely nothing; it’s shocking how out of nowhere his sudden deep dedication to Shouji is), nor does the scene he remembers have any specific flags for when it might take place,[14] leaving the memory feeling less like a natural extension of their arc than it is a graceless sequence muscled in to attempt to rouse some emotion in the audience when Koda has a quirk awakening he is not otherwise remotely in dire enough straits to have rightfully earned.[15]

14: Shouto and Bakugou being missing might suggest that they’re off at their remedial license course, which would put the scene somewhere in late September up through December (stretching from the aftermath of Overhaul to the introduction of the MLA), save that there are several other students missing as well—Sero, Iida, Sato, and Aoyama, none of whom where in the remedial course.

15: Nearly every other inarguable quirk awakening[※] we know of in the series has as a chief component serious physical injury: Bakugou, Ochaco, Toga. Geten’s is the only exception, and his is tied to the strength of his feelings for Re-Destro, which are clearly and overridingly his most significant character trait! Shouji is not anywhere near that central to Koda’s life, and he sure as hell isn’t injured enough to have gotten it that way.

※: By which measure I exclude stuff like the change in Shigaraki’s Decay or Mina’s acid attack against Gigantomachia. Shigaraki was explicitly just breaking through a mental block to access power he already had. Meanwhile, if Mina’s Plus Ultra moment had been a sudden quirk evolution, she wouldn’t already have an attack name picked out for it, nor would her horns have gone back to normal after it. Acidman: ALMA is an Ultimate Move, not Mina having a quirk awakening.

O The flashback itself calls for another subsection.

Ignoring the Difference Between the Personal and the Systemic for Fun & Profit

O The big thing here the description of the whole town coming out for a “blood cleansing” whenever Shouji touched someone. This is depicted as Shouji, probably a preteen in this sequence,[16] being savagely attacked with farming tools, the most visible of which is a pitchfork. This visual, as well as #2’s invocation of historical slaughters, is the darkest heart of heteromorphobia: a child being ritualistically assaulted in the open street as a matter of course, as a consequence for touching someone. This is the image you should hold in your mind as The Problem through all of the potential answers and responses that get trotted out through the rest of these chapters.

16: Visibly older/bigger than, say, Kouta, but also visibly younger/smaller than middle school Deku.

Before moving on, I do want to examine this image in just a bit more depth.

This is, firstly, the moment that Shouji got those scars, and it’s very important to note that what we’re being shown is likely not a random, representative sample of what the town “coming out in force for a blood cleansing” looks like. The strong implication is that this is in the immediate aftermath of the sequence we’ll see shortly of Shouji saving the girl from the river: he’s wearing the same clothes and shoes,[17] he’s the same size, and there’s a spray of blood from where he’s being struck across the mouth where he didn’t have his distinctive scars when he saved the girl. Does that mean the blood cleansings were typically not this violent? That’s hard to say. On the one hand, we don’t see any other scars on Shouji, and he wears his arms pretty bare! On the other hand, we never see any part of his body bare except his neck and arms, and since he can regrow his arms,[18] they’re not exactly conclusive evidence that he’s never been scarred there. Also, he does say talk about his situation—the scars he bears—as something other children in the country have to bear, suggesting that the norm is rather worse than a little symbolic gash across the palm or something! 17: In fairness, he may not own very much different, as I’ll discuss shortly. 18: The duplicated ones, at least. I seem to recall reading once that he could regrow the base set as well, but I’m still working on tracking down a citation on that.

Secondly, as was the case with the image of the historical massacres, the adults here are using tools/weapons in the assault, not quirks. As I mentioned in a footnote last time, them not using quirks to carry out this attack makes them merely criminals, not Villains, and therefore not nominally a Hero’s job to deal with. While I can’t imagine any Hero in the manga these days would stand back and let this go on, the absence still stands out—no Hero is participating in this, nor observing from the sidelines, nor trying to intervene. Heroes simply don’t figure into this picture at all.

Thirdly, we can see a few children in the background, both there with adults, I assume their parents. The child on the right is a passive observer, clinging close to their mother and simply watching; their father has one hand supportively on their shoulder. Neither parent seems distressed, insomuch as we can tell from their somewhat indistinct features and rather clearer body language. The child on the left is being actively held back by their mother, who’s standing with her back to the violence, her body interposed between it and her child. The kid is reaching out towards the scene, but it’s unclear what the intent is. Are they trying to intervene or do they want to join in? Neither child appears to be the little girl Shouji saved—the one on the right is dark-haired, and the one on the left—the more likely prospect just going by the body language!—is wearing a long, dark T-shirt instead of the little girl’s overalls. I suppose the left one could be the little girl if we assume she was hustled out of what she’d been wearing by her parents, eager to get her out of now-tainted (and also soaking wet) clothes and into something dry and warm and, in more ways than one, clean. However, that seems like the sort of thing that would take longer than what looks to have been a pretty impromptu, disorganized bloodletting, unless everyone just held off on assaulting Shouji right out on the street until the “victim” could be present.

Finally, there’s the pair of adults right at the center of the background. If anyone in this picture is actually related to Shouji, I’d put money on them being here, watching but not attempting to intercede. I don’t think it’s conclusive, though; the woman is thin and hunched, making her look older—I’d guess Shouji’s grandmother before Shouji’s mother. That hunched posture and her hands being raised to her mouth do give her the most obviously distressed appearance of any of the adult, though, to the extent that the person with her is focused on supporting her rather than watching what’s going on in the foreground—and forward attention is what I’d expect if the dark-haired figure is related to Shouji.

So that’s the image we have of the crowd—actively taking part or observing with varying degrees of reaction running from distress to indifference to, potentially, enthusiasm.

O Next, let’s talk about Shouji’s parents. He implies they were baseline—at the least they were significantly more baseline than Shouji himself, as they lacked arms “like his.” That makes it quite telling that Shouji’s parents are nowhere to be seen in his story beyond the simple mention of how they were different than him.

Now, I don’t want to suggest here that Shouji’s parents are completely irredeemable people. While I would imagine that—at least initially—they shared their town’s bigotry, having a heteromorphic child themselves would have exponentially increased the hardship of their own lives. In a town like that, I’m sure that many if not all of their neighbors must have come to regard them with suspicion of wrongdoing or transgression—recall the first page of the last chapter, where Shouji is accused of tricking the town in his having brought dirty blood to it. Hie parents almost certainly lost friends and likely became ostracized themselves, and ostracization in a small Japanese town can be a horrifying thing to deal with.

And yet, even with all that being the case, they didn’t abandon Shouji or give him up; they didn’t commit family suicide with him.[19] Assuming he wasn’t removed from their custody after the incident, they’re presumably paying his school and living costs;[20] likewise, unless he just ran away from home or is carrying out an incredibly elaborate deception about what school he’s attending, they almost had to support his desire to attend a hero school to begin with. In his situation, parents who support his desire to be a Hero is a big fucking deal. After all, between the winning and the saving, heroes will de facto be touching people all the time! If Shouji’s parents still live in his hometown, how do you think those people will take it when someone first realizes the Shouji family sent their kegare-riddled monster off to be a Hero?

19: The history of honorable suicide in Japan casts a very long shadow, and when it’s combined with the meiwaku culture, you get an underreported epidemic of things like parents who can’t see their way out of a bad situation taking their lives and their children’s as well, so as not to leave messy loose ends that others will have to bear the burden of dealing with.

20: I won’t get into whether or not the U.A. students’ parents are paying for any given thing on the following list, but here are some potential costs to consider, assuming that Shouji, like Uraraka, was commuting from an apartment prior to the dorms being implemented: tuition, school uniforms, textbooks, school supplies, school meal plan, food not served at school (e.g. breakfast and dinner or meals when the school is on break), non-uniform attire, personal care and hygiene, housing and transportation costs, a measure of spending money for unanticipated expenses or culturally expected gift-giving, etc.

All that being said, it’s obviously not a glowingly loving relationship, either. Think back to Shouji’s absolutely barren room in Chapter 99 and consider it in the context of the information we get in this chapter. Is he really so ascetic by inclination, or is he just used to making do with as little as possible? After all, it goes without saying that if him coming into contact with someone called for blood purification, anything he himself was in regular contact with was also to be considered incredibly impure. That includes his clothes, personal belongings and living space; even setting aside his parents’ view on it, who in his hometown would even want to provide or sell things to the family that they think will go to the child with the dirty blood that’s defiling their land?

Shouji’s parents’ absence is also glaring in other ways. For example:

They’re either not in the beating scene image above at all or they’re that central background couple hanging back and just watching; whichever is the case, what they’re assuredly not doing while their son is being beaten so badly he will still have glaringly visible scars years later is “trying to stop the violence or take the blows themselves.”

Shouji says he has one single good memory about his body, but his parents are nowhere to be found in that memory. Ergo, his parents have not given him a single moment of positivity about his heteromorphic form.

Parents of U.A. students were evacuated to U.A.—not just the ones near it, but even ones like Uraraka’s parents, who live at least a two hour drive away, in a wholly different prefecture with a third prefecture in between them and U.A. Every student we see in the departure scene in Chapter 342 is shown with their parents except Shouji.

To sum all that up, Shouji’s family situation is not maximally bad, but it’s certainly proximally bad.

O Next, we get Shouji alleging ignorance on the part of heteromorphs raised in cities, that there are still parts of the country in the modern day where stories like his happen.[21] It’s a milder version of the same assertions made by #2 and the beaky heteromorph last chapter, in that Shouji doesn’t suggest heteromorphobia doesn’t exist at all in cities, simply that there are extremes of violence that can only be found in the country. It still feels off, however, to suggest that absolutely no one else in Shouji’s class might ever have heard of this through any channel at all: being from similarly small towns, reading about an attack in the news, reading about factors that impact the public approval ratings for Heroes, going through a morbid phase in middle school and researching it, being talked to about it by their parents, etc.

21: The suggestion of the Viz translation of this suggests that city-raised heteromorphs do know this, but only because they’re read about it in textbooks. My sister-in-law, who does professional translation, tells me this was a subtle mistranslation of the original text, however; the textbook framing is supposed to imply a remove of time, not merely of distance.

It’s not as unrealistic a story beat here as it would be in an American comic, as Japan does tend more towards using silence as a weapon against bigotry—children won’t learn what they aren’t taught, and similar reasoning. Still, to portray the class as so unanimously ignorant reflects a deep incuriosity, be that in the kids themselves about the world around them or in their author about how the knowledge/perpetuation of discrimination spreads.

This is particularly the case when you consider the story’s handling of the Ordinary Woman—attacked in her own town because people were suspicious of a heteromorph out after dark, turned away from multiple shelters because of her heteromorph status. It’s certainly true that things got worse for heteromorphs after the first war arc, but for discrimination in that specific form to emerge, there needed to be something for it to draw on. The fear of villains and the association of villains with heteromorphs are the foundation for the upswelling in anti-heteromorph sentiments in cities.

O Mina’s reaction to all this is one of rather theatrical anger. That is, no one around her takes her broad declarations—that the world would be better off without the people who hurt Shouji—as anything more serious than hyperbole. This is, it would seem, the only sort of anger that’s acceptable to show in response to hearing a story like Shouji’s—empathy to the wronged, sure, but no real intent to confront the wrongdoers.

O Mineta stares into space for a second before emphatically apologizing for calling Shouji an octopus once—a call all the way back to his microaggression in Chapter 6!—and asserting that it wasn’t his intention to say Shouji was gross or anything. Shouji responds gracefully, saying it’s “only natural” that his arms would make people think of octopus.

He doesn’t go on to say, “But that doesn’t mean people have to say it out loud,” but it’s possible that Mineta’s apology is meant to suggest that regardless. At least, one certainly hopes this isn’t the author’s way of quietly absolving his more popular characters of all the times they’ve done the same thing! It’s notable, however, that none of the other Class 1-A kids that have done this are in the scene. Shouto and Bakugou, who have both used that kind of language in anger (and in the latter’s case, also just with no provocation whatsoever) are the missing elephants in the room, and even Sero, who was the actual person to call Shouji an octopus, is, in his absence, Sir Letting The Gag Character Handle This Apology So I A More Serious Character Don’t Have To.

O Shouji brings up the Heroes Who Look Like Villains rankings. We know the Number 1 on that list is actually Endeavor, per a movie bonus booklet, but bringing it up in this context does implicitly confirm that said rankings have an unseemly slant towards heteromorphs, and what did Skeptic say about Villains and heteromorphs again…?

O Shouji says he wears the mask because he knows that if people see his scars, they’ll wonder about them, and fear he’s out for revenge. He doesn’t want people to think that, so he covers them up. He’s praised for this by Tokoyami, and the narrative pretty clearly also thinks it’s admirable and cool. I have serious issues with this—chiefly that it’s prioritizing the oblivious comfort of the baseline citizens over the fellow feeling and affirmation of other persecuted heteromorphs—but I’m also curious to see if the mask will come back now that its meta-narrative purpose of hiding Shouji’s scars from the reader has been fulfilled. I note, for example, that Shouji is not wearing the mask in the color spread for Chapter 394, and the color art does have some precedent for being an early predictor of stuff in the body of the manga.[22]

Incidentally, while I’m talking about Shouji’s mask, I do wonder how effective it would even be for him to cover his scars up? I have my doubts for two reasons. First and most obviously, heroes are such celebrities, all over the news all the time, such that if Shouji really does get as popular as he intends to, there will be people who want to know what he looks like.[23]

22: The big one is Aizawa’s eyepatch. It showed up in two pieces of color art (the popularity poll results spread for Chapter 293 and the new art announcing the BNHA Drawing Smash Exhibition) before it was revealed in the manga. Both pieces released within days of each other in early December, 2020, three months after Shigaraki raked his hand down Aizawa’s face during the war and almost two months before the latter showed up in bandages in the hospital, with another two months to go beyond that before the eyepatch itself made it to the manga in late March. In a more stealth spoiler, the same popularity spread revealed Shigaraki’s blackened, burned face-hand two chapters prior to Spinner digging it out of Shigaraki’s pants. The 394 spread is also my basis for asserting that Mina’s horns have gone back to normal after her attack against Gigantomachia, compared to Shouji lacking his mask and Koda having his new horn in the same spread.

23: Edgeshot’s character profile page notes that his fans are split into two factions: those who’re mad to see his real face and those who think the mask is what makes him cool.

O More importantly, though, heroes have to be licensed, and Hero Licenses are photo IDs. Photo IDs don’t typically allow face coverage because not being able to provide a visual reference to what the bearer looks like defeats the whole purpose. While we don’t know what full-fledged hero licenses look like to say if they’re taken in or out of costume, we do know the provisional licenses the students carry showed them in their school uniforms, despite the fact that they definitely had working costumes by then:

Pardon the sudden screenshot. The manga has this shot, too, but the anime fills in the details of the text a bit more.

It seems probable to me that the photo on a Hero License must show the bearer’s face, so that if they’re tooling around a crime scene and a cop who hasn’t seen them around before asks for their license, it can reliably be used as a form of identification. (I wonder how Hagakure manages?)

Also, think back to the press conferences we’ve seen in the story, most recently the one post-war: at every one, the heroes are in serious, solemn black suits, not their costumes. So at any press conferences Shouji ever has to speak at in the future, he’ll have to show his face there, as well.

O We see a direct flashback to Shouji saving a little girl from drowning in a choppy, swift-flowing river as he says in voiceover that he’d rather cling to the single good memory related to his body than dwell on the bad memories. He very much uses his quirk to do it, with his right set of limbs used to hold onto the bank while his left ones reach out to the girl, extending out another few “nodes” of arm-length when he at first can’t keep hold of her fingers. As they sit and catch their breath afterward, the girl clings to one of his tentacles and cries. This is not quite what his entry in the Ultra Analysis databook was hinting at[24] when it said he wears the mask due to his scary face making a little girl cry; that’ll be next chapter.

24: My apologies for not bringing this up before; it’ll be covered on AO3. The gist is as detailed above; the databook came out circa the Endeavor Agency arc, so this was a known factoid about Shouji by the time this chapter came out three years later.

O Wrapping up the flashback, we’re left with Koda’s memory of Shouji saying that he knows it’ll take longer than a generation to tear down a wall that’s stood for over a century, so, just as previous generations have done, he’ll keep paying it forward, being the coolest hero the world’s ever seen, “to give good memories to generations to come.” Which sounds really nice when he says it that way, as opposed to the broader implication that people whose children have been or are in danger of being maimed by bigots should just keep their heads down and “keep paying it forward.”

The whole “be a cool hero and give good memories” bit is particularly egregious to my eye, for a few reasons.

How much good did cool heroes do for Takami Keigo when they were just on TV? Which is where Shouji will be, because in order to be “the coolest hero the world’s ever seen,” he’s going to have to be at the top of the rankings, and being at the top of the rankings means prioritizing cities, which means all those heteromorphs out in rural areas are never going to see him in person. And anyway, what’s stopping all those bigots from just changing the channel or going on a rant about Woke Mutie Agendas every time a heteromorphic hero crops up on TV?

How much did the visibility of previous generations’ cool heroes do for Spinner? Does Shouji think Spinner was super inspired and uplifted by seeing e.g. Gang Orca on TV using the emitter-like hypersonic waves his quirk gives him to beat up Villains, an undue percentage of whom are also heteromorphs?

It’s certainly nice that Shouji was inspired enough by heroes on TV to want to emulate them, but he is demonstrably not the norm when it comes to wildly disadvantaged and victimized heteromorphs. Also, I have to wonder how much his admiration of TV heroes would have done him if he’d gotten to the girl just a little later—say, in time to get her out of the river, but too late to be able to save her life without knowing CPR. As bad as it was for him when he saved a little girl but had to touch her to do it, can you imagine how much worse it would have been if he’d touched her and then failed to save her, being found or having to walk back into town with her body?

I realize that's incredibly dark, but it's the kind of question that presents itself when the story is so insistent on Shouji's exemplary behavior being the model for heteromorphs to follow in their own lives.

O Exiting the flashback, when Shouji calls out to the heteromorphs, we finally get a straight-out look at how disastrous this conclusion is going to be in the way he shouts that no, the people who hurt them weren’t justified, but that there has to be a better way, that they should think about how to use their rage—but offers exactly zero suggestions himself for what that better way might be, or what they should be using their rage to do instead.[25]

25: I have seen the argument put forth that Shouji is one (1) teenager, and one (1) teenager cannot fairly be asked to Solve Bigotry. To this, I would counter that if Shouji doesn’t have even one (1) single idea to offer, why is the camera lens holding him up as the hero who quelled a fifteen-thousand-strong mob with only words? He doesn’t have to Solve Bigotry, but if he’s going to be used as a counter for other peoples’ misguided but at least active attempts to address the problem, he needed to be better than a mere white knight for the status quo.

Spinner’s #2 calls Shouji out on this directly, saying that if the situation were that easy to resolve, it wouldn’t have come down to this, and accusing Shouji of having no feasible solution to offer, just childish and naïve egotism. And call me a hopeless MLA Stan and you’d be right, but truly, where’s the lie?

His efforts in this regard, however, wind up pushing Koda to what certainly has all the markings of a quirk awakening because it upsets Koda to see Shouji being “mocked.” Man, sure is a good thing quirk awakenings are just a dime a dozen and definitely don’t require life-threatening injuries and/or incredibly severe emotional distress over someone who means more to you than your own life, right?

O In a last little stroke of ugliness for the chapter, Spinner calls Shouji gross. Just to, you know, make it really obvious that the villains are all totally bad faith representation for this cause and thus can be safely dismissed. (Christ, I hate these chapters.)

Chapter 372:

O We get the flashback of Shouji and Koda asking All Might to assign them to the hospital defense group. Points of note:

Neither Shouji nor All Might can be bothered to use the Ordinary Woman’s real name, instead just referring to her by her size. Seriously, I get the intent behind insisting that she’s just an ordinary woman, that there’s nothing in particular stand-out about her in the current age; it’s pretty much the same deal as Shinomori saying that OFA can no longer be wielded by an “ordinary” person, with that phrasing being used to ironically emphasize that quirks are now seen as ordinary, while those without quirks are the unusual ones. However, it obviously wouldn’t work in-universe for characters trying to specify who they’re talking about to say, “That ordinary woman,” with the end result being that they have to grab for what stands out about her if they want to be understood—in this case, her obviously unusual height. In trying to emphasize that she’s normal, Horikoshi forces his characters to define her by what makes her stand out.

Koda says that if Shouji’s going, he is too, a moment that would really land much better if they’d had literally any interactions of note at literally any point prior to this exact moment. Frankly, even last chapter’s flashback is pretty thin on that front, since Koda is not one of the students who gets speaking lines when cuddling up to Shouji to comfort him. (I’m not even convinced it’s very in character for Koda to be one of the kids diving in for cuddles—he’s usually pretty shy!)

Shouji says that he could never call himself a hero if he were to stand back while the hospital attack plays out, implicitly emphasizing the role his reaction to his own oppression plays in his heroic motivation.

O Another flashback[26] gives us Koda’s mother discussing the possibility that he might get horns like hers someday, and what those horns can do, as well as mentioning that she used to have to put up with considerable mistreatment herself, and, lastly, telling her son to grow up into a man who gets angry when people mock those dear to him.

26: The sheer number of them crammed into this mini-arc really says a lot for how rushed it is, but complaining about the structural problems of the last few arcs would be a different essay.

Breaking those down, we’ve got:

The fact that Koda’s mom says he might grow in horns like hers suggests to me pretty strongly that her own horns are a quirk evolution she just doesn’t have the language to name as such. If it were just a matter of maturation, something that came in with puberty, there’d be no “maybe” about it. Given what we know about the context of quirk evolutions elsewhere, this in turn suggests that she did not exactly get her horns under peaceful, wholesome, uplifting circumstances!

This is backed up by her mention of the “real cruelty” she faced. Interestingly, this kind of raises some questions in relation to Shouji’s assertion last chapter that people like Koda who grew up in cities lack an understanding of the extremes of heteromorphobic violence that endure elsewhere. Did Koda’s parents move to the city from the country at some point when Koda was young/before he was born, and the “real cruelty” was out in the country? That might track with the overalls she was wearing. And of course, Koda’s mother was a younger woman then, so maybe it’s just the fact that heteromorphic discrimination was worse at the time. Either way, Koda’s mother is clearly open with him about the fact that she was mistreated because of her appearance, though she may have downplayed the severity of it.

The idea of Shouji being “dear to Koda” is immensely frustrating for how utterly groundless it is, based on absolutely no prior grounding within the story other than the general bond among the 1-A students. That’s just me complaining, though—more pertinent for this essay is the problem with how this moment frames anger. Like, the whole mini-arc has the same problem, but this chapter is particularly rotten with it. To preview: Koda’s anger is portrayed as righteous, as was his father’s, because their anger is about protection, about defensive reaction, about intervening with harm currently in progress—basically all the stuff Heroes are supposed to do. It is notably not about action based on past harm or proactive attempts to prevent future harm.

O Koda’s bird attack knocks Spinner’s #2 off the roof in one of the most egregious examples of, “I can’t come up with an actual counterpoint for his arguments, so I’ll just shut him up through force,” I’ve ever seen. Sure, there’s something to be said for not engaging bad faith parties in good faith arguments, but like… That guy already had a platform of his arguments—he was standing on the roof of a tall building! The author gave him several pages to make his pitch; the argument’s already out there in the readers’ minds! The only thing getting rid of him does is guarantee that the person the taciturn Shouji actually has to argue with is…Spinner. Who is not exactly a born orator at the best of times, and he’s very far from even that level here.

Now, #2 will get a few more lines next chapter, but they’re against one of the people on his own side. No heroic character has to argue #2 down; instead, they get to match wits with the literally drooling Spin-zilla. Which is a bit like stepping into the wrestling ring with someone who’s had a bag thrown over his head and his hands zip-tied behind his back.

This confrontation is, woefully, not the only place in the endgame where a heroic character gets all the time and freedom in the world to make their big pronunciations while their opponent gets shut down by some outside factor—interference from other villains, psychological decay, literal possession—but it’s in particularly stark relief here.

O Shouji contends that the crowd is letting their pain be exploited, which is a fair cop, but will become difficult to square with his praise of them next chapter.

O He says that these peoples’ children might be the next targets, presumably because of their actions here today. This is particularly maddening because it’s coming from someone who was, himself, already targeted as a child! Not because of anything his parents did, and certainly not because of anything bad he did, but simply because of the bigoted, backwards views of his town. Children already and still are being targeted! Shouji’s backstory is all wrong for this stand, and there’ll be another angle on that next chapter as well.

O Here we finally fulfill the promise of Shouji’s databook entry and see the Little Girl Crying Because His Face Was Scary. She wasn’t crying because she was just scared of his face in isolation, but rather because she sees his face being scary as her fault, directly correlating his wounds to her rescue.[27] Those wounds stand in marked contrast to what happens when other people save small helpless children from danger, and underlines the biggest problem with this whole resolution: the idea that simply Being An Hero will create change.

27: My big question is, “Given that him being in contact with her was so bad it got him scarred for life, how did she even sneak out to see him again to give him this tearful apology? Did young Shouji even want this apology, or would he have preferred she not risk the two of them being seen together again for both their sakes?

Now, it’s certainly likely in Horikoshi’s world that this little girl will, herself, grow up to be different from the people around her, that she won’t think heteromorphs are tainted. And like, that’s at least one less person being awful, right? And doesn’t every one count?

Sure, of course—but what happens when she runs up against that prejudice herself? Will she try to intervene the next time she sees a blood cleansing? Will she simply abstain from such action and teach equality in her own household without trying to change the village around her? Will she simply move away and leave her hometown worse for her absence? If she does stay in that town, will she herself become an outcast for her views—a form of silent, passive harassment that can be absolutely life-wrecking in those small Japanese villages? If she gets married and has children, will her husband have her back in trying to raise those kids free of hatred?

For that matter, isn’t there a chance that, being surrounded in people who think heteromorphs are tainted, that she’ll just internalize something like, “It was my carelessness that got that poor heteromorph boy beaten so badly. He was trying to help, and it only got us both hurt—him for the beatings, me for being in contact with his filth.” Like, she’s so young in that scene; she’s got a whole lotta years of having the anti-heteromorph narrative reaffirmed at her before she’s old enough to do anything different herself. It feels to me like the kind of thing that she could easily fall back into as she grows up, only to have a huge spiritual crisis about it once she hits her late teens to early twenties.

In any case, it's just a lot to put on a single child—on her and Shouji both!

O Spinner rallies enough to yell out a message of his own, but it’s just a quote of what he told his followers when he first sent out the call, not anything new to rally them, nor tailored to respond to what Shouji’s saying. This has been the danger of the plotline all along, and here it comes to fruition: in putting bad faith villains with ulterior motives[28] up against an underdeveloped character who’s hidden the evidence of his mistreatment from Day 1, someone with no apparent intention to ever speak up for others like himself, no one comes out looking good. Truly, heteromorphs deserve better rep.

28: #2 is the obvious one, but Spinner’s here in bad faith, too. While I’m sure he’s not totally indifferent to the matter of heteromorph rights, it’s self-admittedly not his current priority.

O That said, if what Spinner says is old hat to the crowd, it is new to the audience, and it serves to sharply up the ante on from what we knew previously about the persecution he faced in his hometown!

But it would have gotten better if he’d just put on a mask and dealt with it, amirite?

Recall that Spinner has previously only said that people in his town called him names—this is self-evidently many steps worse. Note, though, that it’s another example of the violence heteromorphs face not involving anyone using quirks—that is to say, nothing that’s a hero’s jurisdiction to deal with. That being the case, how much could Spinner get away with fighting back or running before the “it’s okay to use quirks in self-defense” stops holding? After all, is it still self-defense if biased cops[29] can accuse him of “escalating” the conflict? How far away can he get by climbing on walls before it becomes, to some small-town local Hero, unlicensed public quirk use?

29: If policing in HeroAca Japan still works basically the same as it does in IRL Japan, then in truly backwater areas, ones too small to afford the upkeep of a police department, an officer would be sent in from another area to live in a home attached to the police box. That being the case, it’s not a given that the officer would share the locals’ bigotry. That’s where we come back to the whole “what percentage of Villain-designated criminals are heteromorphs” statement and what it implies about bias in the law enforcement system. Also too, building a strong relationship with the community is absolutely essential to rural policing, and there are, oh, so many stories about what happens when someone new in a small Japanese town gets between the inhabitants and their “traditional spiritual practices.”

O Pig Nose Guy starts making an impression by noticing the doctors—most prominently Dr. Yoshi, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a baseline nurse—forming a human chain in front of the hallway leading to the Inpatient Ward. This drama is undercut on both fronts by the fact that Spinner is not looking for the Inpatient Ward, and in fact barrels right on past that hallway without even glancing in its direction. So, the mob stops because they’re struck to hesitation by a group of people protecting a part of the hospital that the mob was not even intending to assault in the first place.

O As part of stopping, Pig Nose Guy seems to have some sort of flashback to a time he saw Dr. Toad caring for an elderly baseline man. This raises a lot of questions to my by-this-time hyper-critical eyes.

What past circumstance brought Pig Nose Guy—presumably fairly rural, as most of this crowd is implied to be—to Central Hospital, the most technologically advanced hospital in the entire country? • If Pig Nose Guy is not rural, but was still so fired up about heteromorphobia that he joined a terrorist-led mob to attack a hospital, wouldn’t that suggest that a lot of people in the story have been misleading us about the extent of anti-heteromorph sentiment in cities?

If the person in the bed is someone related to Pig Nose Guy—perhaps someone with a rare illness that requires specialized treatment?—why is the guy entirely baseline? If it’s just a friend, then they must be very close, given that PNG was willing to take a trip to the Tokyo metropolitan area to visit him. But if PNG is that close to a baseline guy, why did he ever believe that baseline folks are such a lost cause that he, again, joined a terrorist-led mob to attack a hospital?

Why is this important, impactful memory one of a heteromorph in a caretaker role instead of being taken care of? To elaborate on why that question matters, a common issue you’ll see minority groups raise when talking about representation in media is the role any given minority character performs in their narrative—the gay best friend there to give the straight female lead advice, the Black person there to help a white person self-actualize, that sort of thing. This is not so much a critique of any given, specific character as it is criticizing the restrictions on of what demographics are allowed to be portrayed as full, rounded individuals in popular media versus which are relegated to stock stereotypes or supporting cast. This isn’t something BNHA addresses explicitly, but I do think we have some precedent for suspecting heteromorphs in this world have similar problems—think of the image for Class B’s play in Chapter 173, Gang Orca playing the Villain at the license exam, and, most egregiously, the Hug Me Corporation and its all-baseline-all-the-time image of bystanders and victims. That being the case, it really gets to me that Pig Nose Guy’s memory here has the man in the hospital bed being baseline while it’s the doctor who’s the heteromorph. Like, what does that communicate about his mindset, exactly? “Oh, I remember this time I saw a heteromorph who’d managed to actually kind of Make It in society and he was nice to the baseline guy in his care. But the spider guy leading us, he didn’t sound like he wanted us to be very nice at all. Is that what I am? Not nice?” On the other hand, if the whole point of this memory is to remind PNG that there can be peace and support between heteromorphs and “people with human faces,” why in heaven’s name isn’t this a memory of a heteromorph being cared for and supported by a baseline person? Why does the person doing the labor in this picture have to be of the oppressed class?

I hate this panel so much.

Chapter 373:

O The last conversation plays out between Pig Nose Guy, #2, and Shouji, revealing #2 to be a bad faith idealogue who thinks of Shouji with microaggressions and his followers as meatshield patsies. It’s real bad.

O Shouji says that the feelings that led the mob to come today are neither useless nor wrong, and that their willingness to keep thinking about everything makes them look like a bright and shining light to his eyes. However, he carefully does not engage with the fact that those feelings, which were previously aimless and directionless, were only stirred up and stoked to the point of “coming today” by the villains. It’s the same sort of thing the villains always get told, really—you may have a point, you have suffered, but when you act on that point, that suffering, then you’ve gone too far. All you’re really supposed to do with that pain is—what, exactly? Thinka bout it and choose to Nobly Endure?

O The last little bit of insult to this chapter, to my eye, is #2 getting an apology from some anonymous hero we’ve never seen in our lives, who says, “We’ve heard your voices loud and clear today. Sorry for not realizing sooner.”

Remember the bit where the person who apologizes to Shouji for the octopus comment is Mineta, the gag character, instead of Sero, the serious character who brought it up in the first place? Remember the conspicuous absence of Bakugou and Todoroki, who have actually used that language with conscious demeaning intent? This apology is the systemic version of that absolute unwillingness on Horikoshi’s part to let his sympathetic/popular/important characters look bad. It’s the same thing that led to none of the heroes who retired after the war being heroes the readers know and care about, the same thing behind the total collapse of the series’ critique of All Might. Heroes are allowed to be ignorant, but they are not allowed to be complicit.

Notice, too, what this random hero does not say, what Shouji does not offer, the absence that damns this resolution: any promises of concrete change. We’ve finally gotten to the crux of Horikoshi’s point, as delivered by Shouji, and it really does all boil down to this:

And I can’t overstate enough what a terrible resolution this is, especially given how Shouji’s own experience puts the lie to it. Remember, Shouji saved a child from drowning, one of the absolute most prototypical actions someone can do and get called a Hero by the bystanders/victims/evening news. The only thing he could have done that would have been more stereotyped would have been saving her from a burning building! He saved that little girl from drowning and the townsfolk attacked him with farming tools for it.

How much more heroic would he have needed to be? How much more of a shining light could he possibly have been? In what universe could someone with that backstory possibly think that the answer to systemic bigotry—violence that goes wholly accepted by the community and wholly unpunished by the broader society—could be this Model Minority bullshit?

Ultimately, for Shouji’s backstory to realistically have given him the motivation he professes, his actions needed to have changed the people in his village for the better. If the reader is meant to believe that Shouji’s “answer”—the premise that selfless heroism can change the hearts of bigots—then we have to see it. And, you know, even if that had been what we got, there would still be grounds to criticize it! It would still be a perhaps-too-idealistic depiction of fighting oppression; it would still put too much responsibility on the victims! But at least it would justify Shouji’s own stance.

As it is, we have Shouji choosing to believe in the changeability of people who specifically shouted while throwing rocks at him that, no matter how much the times advanced, they would never accept him. His answer does not entail a single non-heteromorph working to bring heteromorphs living in the darkness a light; it entails them kindling their own. As with Pig Nose Guy shutting down in the face of a memory of a heteromorph doctor, this resolution asserts the life-changing power of…being told that heteromorphs have to do all the work to make baseline people feel better.

Conclusion

Do I think that this terrible resolution means heteromorphobia was poorly set up or retconned? No, I don’t. I just think it means that Horikoshi is a Japanese man writing a Japanese story from a position of demographic privilege in Japanese society. I think he’s fully capable of setting up a detailed, intelligent, thoughtful discrimination allegory, a logical, internally consistent extension of the discrimination in the world around him to the alternate future he’s created—and then coming to a completely different resolution than I would because his context led him to different answers than I wanted or found acceptable. Compared to the U.S., Japan as a culture is more communal, more collectivist; they have less history with successful protest movements, more history with protest movements turning violently extremist or just being ignored by those in power. The idea of “not making trouble for others” is an incredibly deeply engrained value.

I have a decent idea why this resolution is what it is. I can try to make myself view it through the more generous, forgiving lens of Cultural Differences; I can fail to do so and instead conclude that this is portrayal is much less about Cultural Differences than it is yet another in a long chain of Well-Meaning Majority-Culture Author Writes Discrimination Allegory, Fucks It All Up Because of His Well-Meaning Majority-Culture Centrism. That doesn’t mean I believe heteromorphobia came out of nowhere, and I hope this essay has at least demonstrated that much, whatever you might think of its resolution.

——————————

Thank you so much for taking this journey with me, all! At 42,000 words and 93 pages in Word, there's definitely more I'd like to do with this, chiefly taking a spin through the Vigilantes spinoff, which I've always found to be very good at grappling with practical questions and concerns BNHA Core largely ignores. The character of Kamayan is particularly relevant to this topic.

However, for now, I'm going to take a break on this subject and turn my attention to something else. I'm not sure what it'll be quite yet, but meta projects that have moved towards the top of my list concern the ridiculous series of nerfs Toga has been subjected to in this endgame, arc thoughts on everything I hate about the stupid, stupid All Mech fight, and an organized argument for the endgame being chock-full of retcons that are obvious if you look at them for more than the five minutes it takes to read a chapter each week.

You may notice that all of those are pretty negative-sounding, and you would be right. Given that the whole reason I stopped doing my chapter posts is that I was weary of the constant negativity, the actual next thing I do will probably be to get back to one of my neglected MLA fanfic projects.

'Til next time, all!

#bnha #bnha meta #bnha worldbuilding #heteromorph discrimination plot #octolad #plf advisors #my writing #preview for Vigilantes:#Kamayan is a crank and that distracts everyone #from realizing that Kamayan is also right

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god-mouths · 10 months

Text

Matsc dashboard simulator

🐛 mars-needs-rats Follow it’s always a huge treat when the Metatron visits hell. He enters my shop and just sort of meanders around nervously before taking something off the shelf and carrying it over to my counter like if he makes one wrong move the weird cat plushie he picked out will shatter and break. And then he tries to pay for it in coins and I have to be like No Sir This is Hell We Barter Here This Is The Fifth Time I’ve Had To Say This To You 🔁mars-needs-rats Follow

forgot how much angels in heaven are afraid of him. He’s really just some dude I promise. He’s the most just some guy in the universe, swear to ancients. Do you guys ever question the lies told to you by your government or 🔁mars-needs-rats Follow

Well we don’t treat him like a freak for one but the answer to this question is the same that it always is which is: COMMON HEAVEN L (18,782 notes)

👑 apateons-no1-fan Follow

I Loooooove being soooooo cute and awesome and amazing and lovely and awesome and cool

(459 notes)

🎇 beeautyqueen Follow

why’s there always gotta be something going on at Eros tower I just want to look at the latest magazines why the fuck is the front desk employee always doing some looney toons ass shit what are they paying him for 🐕 justa-little-guy Follow

he has a name

🎇 beeautyqueen Follow

oh yeah what is it then

🐕 justa-little-guy Follow

unsure but my friends and I call him peepee boy and he responds to that

🎇 beeautyqueen Follow

well can you tell peepee boy to stop fucking around and give me my magazine issue.

(1,562 notes)

😇 heavenleelove Follow can hell angels get over themselves please…. I’m soooo sorry that you don’t have a cool monarch and are taking it out on us

🎮lames-gaymes Follow

hi hell angel here! We never said we were superior to you you just think any ounce of individuality and freedom is a threat because of how you were raised. Also we have cool people down here too

😇 heavenleelove Follow ...ignoring the first part of that response. Yeah tell me about all your cool people -_- I’m suuuuuuuure you have plenty lmfao.

🎮lames-games Follow

we do. You just have the monarch but we have;

medical malpractice man

cunty showrunner

the Metatron, sometimes? Genuinely not really sure what’s happening there, actually.

front desk employee/errand runner to showrunner who always is kind of sick but we love him

diner owner who I’m pretty sure is spitting in my food whenever I order

LAIKA (ALSO SOMETIMES) 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💓💞💓💗💓💞��💘💘💝💝💝

😇 heavenleelove Follow Who the fuck is laika 🎮 lames-gaymes Follow

wouldnt you like to know heaven boy

(29,367 notes)

💫 sparky-the-angel Follow

BEGGING hell angels to stop lying and saying the metatron """""visits""""" 😭😭😭😭I’m not against hell I bet you guys have tons of other cool stuff but please guys.

⭕ myadventuresof-hell Follow

💫 sparky-the-angel Follow

Huh

( 251,478 notes)

📋 interned-demon Follow

I hate my job

🐯 bugpack-lou Follow

peepee boy has a tumblr?

📋 interned-demon Follow

man can you guys stop calling me that

(12,860 notes)

👻 nervous-attack-angel Follow

I think medical malpractice man is trying to raise someone from the dead because like guys what else would he use all those organs for

👻 nervous-attack-angel Follow

please dont yell :(.... this post was meant for hell angels sorry if it showed up on your feed. Um. No it’s not a joke we have a giant organ stealing man we don’t see him much he lives on the edge of town I think his name starts with an L or something

💌 fineprintssx Follow

. Op are you talking about fucking LUCIFER????

👻 nervous-attack-angel Follow

yeah ( 54,812 notes )

🙂 doomed3fail Follow

I wonder what would happen if I just barged into the monarch’s palace and started doing a little dance

🔁 doomed3fail Follow

hopital (hell

#matsc #excuse meeee im having fun #unreality

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hillerskalibrary · 1 year

Text

YR week 2023 - FAQ

General

What is Young Royals week? A fandom event where all YR content creators are invited to create new content for the YR fandom. Each day of the week, there is a new prompt to inspire creators to come up with a short fic, a quick doodle, or something else entirely. The end result will be a sort of potluck of new content to read, admire, enjoy, share and discuss!

When does it take place? YR week 2023 takes place from April 24th to April 30th.

What pairings/characters are allowed? All of them. Whether it's about our beloved wilmon or that one extra with 5 seconds of screen time you fell in love with - as long as the main focus is on one or more YR characters, you're good to go.

What type of content is allowed? Fic, playlists, meta, headcanons, gifsets, collages, picrews, cosplay, drawings, ... if you can make a post about it, we can reblog it.

Participation

How do I sign up? Because we want to encourage as many people as possible to participate, there are no formal sign ups. If you wanna join, you can, simple as that!

What are the prompts? You can find the prompts here.

I'm not sure how to interpret X prompt. However you want, really! E.g. for the "fairytale" prompt you could rewrite a fairytale with your favorite pairing, or have a character reading a fairytale to his/her (future) children, or a superfluffy scene in which a character mentions "feeling like they're living a fairytale", or ... The prompts are there to inspire you, not limit you - so use them as you see fit!

I don’t have time to create something for each day / I don't feel inspired by the day X prompt. You are under no obligation at all to create something for each prompt. So whether you create something for one day or all days, or even three things for one day and none for the others - we're looking forward to see it!

I’m not much of a content creator / don't have time to create anything. Can I still participate? Yes, you abolutely can! After all, sharing is caring, and that goes double for fandom content. So like, kudo, reblog or comment, send your favorite author a sweet ask or reblog your favorite artist's entire portfolio - there are plenty of ways to show the YR week content creators how much we appreciate them!

Posting

Where/How do I post what I created? Make a new tumblr post* that either contains what you created, or contains a link to the content on a different platform (e.g. a post with your artwork, a link to a fic on ao3, ...) and tag it with #yr week 2023. We will then reblog it to the hillerskalibrary for more visibility!

*remember that only new posts show up in the tags, so if you reblog a post and tag it, we probably will not see it! if you do prefer to reblog rather than make a new post, make sure to mention (@) hillerskalibrary on the post itself.

When should I post? We will post each prompt at 10am GMT+1, which will signal the start of that day's posting. However, if you are to the East of us and it's easier for you to post early in your morning (so before the prompt post has gone out), OR if you're to the West and you post late (so when the GMT+1 day is already over) - that is just fine.

It's Wednesday and I only now finished the Monday prompt :(. What, you think people are gonna be mad they're getting more content? Just post it, you're fine!

I'm not on Tumblr - how can I share my content? Just submit it directly to hillerskalibrary, and we will post it for you, no problem!

Is there an AO3 collection for fic? Thanks to a thoughtful anon who reminded me - yes there is!

#yr week 2023

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thelastattempt · 10 months

Note

I am ok! I am just sad about it. I kind of listen to Louis but not much because the music isn’t my kind and I don’t want to lose my friends here but I’m not sure it’s the same. Harry was in my wrapped Number 2 and I don’t want to have wasted so much time and money on someone who isnt what I thought. So you ever feel like that? What is the point of us giving all this support when they don’t even notice us ever and it feels stupid?

I think we are in the same fandom because you can’t have one without the other unfortunately. Louies constently talk about Harry and Harries constently talk about Louis. You can’t get away from it, no point even trying to

Hi anon, music-wise that’s fair enough, if it isn’t working then it isn’t working. Just pop Harry on shuffle and lose your tumblr log ins for a while? It’ll be here when you come back, and so will your friends. You shouldn’t feel restricted by your internet friends who (as much as they are beloved, my darling mutuals 🖤) only exist inside a screen. If you want to listen to Louis or whoever else, you should.

I think we give the support for us, not for them. And I know that’s weird so hear me out. There’s plenty of artists I listen to religiously (my wrapped listed it at 946 artists this year - gonna break that 1000 barrier next year 🤞) and I don’t engage with any of them the way I engage with Louis. Part of it is that he’s a good guy, part of it is that I really enjoy his content and his personality and his merch (omg 😱) but the bigger part of it is I really enjoy this community he’s built, and the people here have built, and if it wasn’t for that structure I’d have maybe dipped ages ago. So yeah, I think the support is from us, by us, for him but also for us too. And if you’re not feeling that, then take a break, go outside, try something new.

We’ll have to agree to disagree about the fandoms tho, friend.

#asked and answered

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psychic-refugee · 2 years

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Thanks to the Anon on @heyharoldsboo 's page who gave me a shout out. Sorry I don’t do Anon Asks, frankly I don’t believe in anons. I barely believe in people who have fully developed blogs that have been operating for years. People curate and create online personas, myself included. It’s smart to not put your real life online. So, I take everything I see and hear on the internet with a grain of salt.

I do very much believe in protecting my peace, however. I’ve seen way too many people get brave behind the anon feature and just go absolutely vile.

As much as I know some anons are sweet and well meaning, “I won’t set myself on fire to keep you warm.” Tumblr and writing are a hobby, my mental health is the biggest source of wealth for me. I’m going to protect it at all costs.

My other justification is that Tumblr is free, it doesn’t cost anything to create a blog and to do the minimal work to make it not look like a porn bot. People can create a blog and ask me things that way if they really wanted to.

Sorry if a newcomer with an empty blog has tried to follow me, I’m pretty heavy handed with the block feature if I presume you’re a porn bot.

I do appreciate the thoughts and shout out.

So, lets talk about Cease and Desist letters. They mean nothing. lol That’s the long and short of it. They’re used as an intimidation tactic. Sometimes the threat of a lawsuit is enough to get the recipient to back down. It’s part of legal theatre.

They are not legally binding on either the sender or the recipient. If the accusers got anything, they could wipe their butts with it for all that it technically matters. You can write as many demands as you want, the recipients have the choice to ignore it. Most firms send it as an extra-judicial way of hopefully avoiding litigation. Why litigate for thousands upon thousands of Can$ if they can just send a warning shot? Sometimes, C&Ds are bluffs. Now, most people would take threats of legal action seriously, but given the accusers’ erratic behavior and immaturity they’ve shown thus far, they could also just as easily dismiss it as a joke.

It’s probably true that they do not have the money for attorneys. By that same logic, they do not have the money to make a suit worth it on PHW’s end. Will he really spend that much money on principals? Not sure a C&D is worth the time and money either.

If they say they haven’t gotten anything, I’m more inclined to believe them.

One anon made a good point regarding addresses. PHW’s representation might be having a hard time locating these women. Assuming he hasn’t spoken to them since high school, we’re talking at least three years. That’s plenty of time to have moved to a bunch of places if they don’t have steady employment. Did they go to university? Are they still in university? Could they be staying with a friend and don’t have a legal address? Could they still list their parents house while they’re living somewhere else?

So far, they’ve done PHW’s legal case more of a favor by continuing to post rather than to go dark. Given how toothless C&Ds are, it’s not worth the billable hours or fancy heavy stock letterhead to write one IMO, plus on top of hiring someone to find them.

I also see these women as being petty enough to have posted the letters if they got them. It’s not illegal to show a letter you’ve gotten. It’s their letter, if they show they got one, then they’re just stating facts. There’s no implied or enforceable gag order on not revealing they got a C&D.

His legal team may not want to prematurely reveal themselves either. Given how volatile Twitter and Tumblr could be, I wouldn’t want to expose my firm to trolls.

C&Ds aren’t required either. If I was going to sue, which they may still be considering at this stage, then I would just serve them an actual complaint. I don’t think a C&D is worth it at this stage if ever.

#percy hynes white

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the-lincyclopedia · 2 years

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I’ve gotten quite a few fic comments in the past two days, and I had the thought, I am so lucky. And that’s true. I am, in a lot of ways, including in fandom friendships. I have a lot of good friends in fandom, and I know that’s not something that can be earned or that should be taken for granted.

But it’s not all luck. I also have some skills around developing fandom friendships, and since we’re largely a bunch of neurodivergent folks over here in fandom, I thought it might be worth spelling some things out in case other people are wondering how to make more fandom friends, since direct instructions can be helpful.

Right off the bat, obviously, don’t be an asshole. Tell people nice things about their fics, and don’t tell them mean things about their fics (or mean things in general). If you eventually get to the point where someone has asked you to be their beta, you can give constructive criticism at that point, though it’s still important to be kind. It goes against fandom norms to give criticism, even criticism meant constructively, outside of beta relationships. If you didn’t know that before, well, now you do.

But beyond not being an asshole, here’s what I typically do: I comment a lot on other people’s fic. I probably comment on over 75% of the fics I read. Commenting is my default reader state, and I only don’t comment if I truly can’t think of anything nice to say (either because I didn’t like the fic or because I’m having trouble phrasing the thing I liked in a way that sounds good). Whenever possible, I quote-comment, meaning I use the lines I liked from the fic in the comment and basically live-react at the writer through my reading process. I try to comment on every chapter of multi-chapter fics I read.

After I’ve commented on multiple of someone’s fics, if I’m really enjoying myself, I might try to find the writer on Tumblr. I don’t mean trying to stalk them and find a non-fandom blog, obviously; I just mean looking up their AO3 username on Tumblr and seeing if they pop up. If they do, I might DM them and say how much I’ve been enjoying their fics, or how much I appreciate their characterization of a certain character, or make a fandom-related reference.

From there, sometimes people respond. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes we don’t seem to have much to talk about. But sometimes we hit it off. If it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, I don’t push it, but if the other person also seems to be having a good time and is responding enthusiastically and/or initiating some of the time, I keep talking to them.

Note: I am less likely to try to talk to people who are clearly Big Name Fans, whatever that means in a certain fandom. I don’t show up and immediately try to catch the attention of people who surely have tons of people vying for their attention. And people who get less engagement are more likely to really appreciate having one new really enthusiastic supporter, anyway.

There comes a point in some online friendships where it’s okay to ask to exchange numbers/talk on the phone/Skype/etc. That point comes at different times in different friendships, and it may never come at all in plenty of them, and that’s all right. It’s nice to offer your information rather than asking for someone else’s (a tip I picked up in autism support groups), and you should definitely make sure the other person feels like they can say no, they’d rather not give you their number, or whatever.

It’s important to know going into this that sometimes fandom admiration isn’t mutual. Some people whose work you enjoy may not enjoy your work, and you need to be okay with that. Some people also won’t want to be your friend, and you need to be okay with that, too. This isn’t a manual on how to make everyone like you. But I do think that this way of interacting in fandom has helped me make a higher-than-average number of fandom friends.

This is not to say you have to follow all this advice or that there is One Right Way to engage in fandom. You’re not obligated to comment on anything or DM anyone, and I can’t guarantee any results even if you do. But if you’re wondering how to make more friends in fandom, being enthusiastic and complimentary (when you can do so genuinely) is a decent thing to try.

#a lin original #fandom life #fandom stuff #online friends

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imagineitdearies-old · 2 years

Note

Hello! I’m sorry for sending this but I was wondering if you could explain how to be able to post anything really and for it to appear. I have tried to post stuff and it never appears but especially because I have my own little story in the works and don’t know how to post it in hops of someone reading it.

Thank you!

Hi! I assume you're asking about ao3? I have zerooo knowledge on anything tumblr-related, so without further ado here is

Imogen's Very Unofficial Guide to Posting on Ao3:

First and foremost, use tags thoroughly. Not an essay-length of them, of course, but covering things past the relationship, fandom, and warnings can go a long way toward you attracting the right readers. Like setting (modern/canon-divergence/omegaverse/post-episode #/etc), relationship dynamics (like top/bottom, which really matters in lucemond lol), any E rating descriptors worthy of note (if any), and of course general themes of the story (hurt/comfort/crack/dead dove: do not eat/etc.). This makes it a lot easier for people who would enjoy your story content to find you amidst everything else posted.

If you're new to tagging, I'd recommend finding a few popular fics that match the content/story of your fic to some extent and seeing how they tag. I also recommend this post if you're very new to tags and looking for a very detailed explanation of them.

Second, especially at the beginning, post regularly. If that means you have to write a couple of chapters up before you post the first, then do so. Readers like consistency. Building that trust at the start will help them stay faithful when Life stuff inevitably comes up. (Obviously this is only relevant if you are posting a multi-chapter fic.)

Third, and this one others may disagree with me on, but have an estimated chapter count as soon as you can. In my opinion, a reader is much more likely to try you out, even if you don't have many kudos/hits/comments yet, if you seem to have a plan. On the other hand, seeing a new story posted with 1/? chapters is not very tempting for most who have been burned before (unless they REALLY like your tags and summary).

Fourth, speaking of summaries, on ao3 a big reason people scroll past your fic 9even if you have tags they like/searched for) is if your summary is bad. Take time and make sure you write a good summary. I would again recommend you look at popular stories most similar to the one you're writing and their summaries. Scrolling through lucemond fics, for instance, there is a very popular format used: throw in a couple of lines from the first chapter as a hook, then on a new line add "Or" and a short sentence or two of explanation. (This is my preferred method, but there are plenty of others too!)

Fourth and last, and probably the hardest---your writing needs to be clean and easy to read. If you think you're already doing everything listed before this pretty well, the main issue may be bad grammar and sentence structure. That's more effort to fix, and often the only cure is writing more and reading more (particularly reading more published fiction). But if you're in a hurry, I know a lot of writers enlist the help of beta readers to catch the big stuff before posting. I don't have any personal experience with using a beta, though, so I have no advice on how to find one unfortunately.

ALTERNATIVELY: Just wait until it's 3 in the morning or you're entirely smashed (or both!) to post it, sleep in until 2pm, and if you wake up and there's no engagement, just delete it and pretend it never happened/try again later 😂 I've done this at least twice over the years.

#ask me shit #writing advice

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nehswritesstuffs · 2 years

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Baratie: Home to Chefs, Strays, and the Occasional Sword Goblin - Part 2

We’re back!

First chapter on [tumblr] - [FFN] - [AO3]

It’s a new day, and how is Sanji going to explain this kid to the rest of the Baratie? Let alone the geezer? How is he going to handle... childcare...? [3884 words]

Waking earlier than normal, Sanji realized that it wasn’t the threat of an earthquake that was shaking him awake as in his dream, but Asido jumping up and down on the empty side of the bed. The boy bounced about, wide a-fucking-wake, making Sanji feel exhausted already.

“Don’t do that,” he warned halfheartedly. Asido threw his legs in front of him and landed on his rear, bouncing himself still. “Sleep good?”

“Kinda,” the boy replied. “Are you gonna bring me back to Mom today?”

“I doubt it, but I am going to see what the hell it is I’m dealing with,” Sanji said. “Let’s get you into clean clothes, alright? Time to meet the geezer.”

“The who…?”

“Trust me: I want this as much as you do.” Sanji cringed inwardly at the idea of leaving his newfound nephew in the care of Zeff of all people, but he also figured that there wasn’t much he could do with such a small child… and, well, the asshole raised him, didn’t he? Though to be fair, he had been older than Asido back then… “Hey, kid, how old are you again?”

“Four and a half!” the boy proudly proclaimed. “Mom says I’m more like I’m six because I’m so big and smart, but Miss Cosette thinks something else, even if she never says it.”

That caught his attention. “Miss Cosette…?”

“Yeah! I used to stay with her when Mom was at work,” Asido said. He allowed himself to get dragged to the bathroom and washed, after which he was allowed to fish fresh clothes from his bag. “Mom said that Miss Cosette needed to get back to her other job, which was why we were going on our trip. What did Miss Cosette do?”

“She’s a cook,” Sanji nodded idly. “She’s so skilled and talented that I’d trust her with this restaurant if I had to, and she doesn’t even have fancy training.”

“Well yeah… all her food is yummy.”

“It really is—just a few lessons in haute cuisine or some time abroad and she could even be amazing… and I don’t throw that sort of compliment around all the time.”

“’Cause you’re a cook too!”

“That I am.” Once Asido was fully clothed and looking presentable, he brought the boy out into the corridor and knocked on Zeff’s door. “Oi, we have a visitor.”

“At this fucking hour?!” Yeah, it was a good thing they had a floor to themselves. Zeff threw open the door, all scowls and a thousand different threats ready on his tongue. Instead he looked down, saw Asido, and blanched.

“Eggplant…? What did you do…?”

“Blame. My. Sister.”

“That lass has plenty of explaining to do normally,” Zeff grumbled. He noticed that Asido was staring at his peg leg and chuckled lowly. “What’s your name, little azuki?”

“Not azuki, it’s Asido!” the boy insisted.

“It’s a bean—get used to it, ‘cause he won’t let it go.”

“How do you know?”

“Hasn’t dropped my plant-based nickname yet.” Sanji pushed Asido in past the door and shut it behind them, making sure no one coming up the stairs would see or bother them.

“Why?”

“He’s my dad—it’s what dads do.”

“It is…?”

“It’s what you aim for, anyhow.”

“So…” Asido looked at Zeff. “You’re my grandpa…?”

“No.” Sanji was getting exasperated at this point. “He’s my dad, not your mom’s dad. It’s… complicated.” He then pointed over towards the window, where the sun was beginning to rise. “Hey, why don’t you watch out for ships? This room’s always been good for that.”

“Uh… okay…” The boy dragged a chair over towards the window and stood on it, pressing his nose into the glass. Zeff gave Sanji a critical look and stepped to the side.

“What the fuck is going on?!” he growled, his ire punctuated by a coughing fit.

“Listen: I wasn’t consulted, or warned, or nothing. Here.” Sanji took the letter out of his pocket and let Zeff read it. “Now you know about as much as I do, which is frankly not very much at all.”

“Here—now we can be on the same page.” Zeff grabbed a newspaper from underneath a stack and shoved it out towards Sanji. “I don’t care if it is about some wastes of cum… just read it already.” Sanji looked down at the paper and Zeff tapped on it.

WEDDING OF THE CENTURY – GERMA PRINCESS TO WED NOTICE MERCHANT HEIR IN SUMMER CEREMONY

Ah—it was worse than he feared. Reiju was not just forced into a marriage for Judge’s power grabs, but a money grab as well. Whatever, whomever, the poor idiot was, there was no way he was prepared for the sort of shit their family was going to put them through. Sanji skimmed the article and frowned.

“Reiju’s just the first,” he noted. “Ichiji in the fall, then Niji next spring, and Yonji next winter. He’s pairing them all off.”

“Thought he realized how big of a mistake it was when the bastard tried doing that with you.”

“Tch… don’t remind me.” Sanji dropped the paper on the sidetable and exhaled heavily. “The kid’s not even five yet. I don’t know what my sister’s been doing, or who she’s doing things with, but she helped me get out of there, and now she needs the same thing for her son. I need you to watch him while I get our meals together, but I’ll make sure to find a sitter so you’re not ruining Chopper’s timetable.”

“Wouldn’t want to make the reindeer upset, would we?”

“No, we don’t.” He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll… be back, alright? We can talk about this some more.”

Zeff grunted and allowed Sanji to leave, with the latter returning with their food in almost record time. Sanji found that Zeff had Asido sitting at the table with him, watching the boy stumble over reading the comics section out loud.

“Put that away for now—it’s time for breakfast,” he said. Asido looked up from the paper, his eyes wide.

“Uncle Sanji, I’m reading about a superhero! He’s from the North! Like us!”

“Oh yeah?” He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the newspaper—of fucking course Zeff would have him reading that shit. “Sora, eh? That’s been running since I was little. Used to be you could find a Northern kid by just shouting his motto into a crowded street, but it’s so popular that now everyone can read it.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Asido grinned as some fruit-laden oatmeal was placed in front of him. “I wonder if I can read it from the beginning…”

“I’m sure we can find the compilations,” Zeff chuckled. He threw Sanji and shit-eating grin as he ruffled the boy’s hair. Not even twenty minutes and the old man was already sabotaging the entire thing. “So, the azuki and I agree that the first thing we need to figure out is what we’re doing with him today. Any thoughts, Uncle Eggplant?”

“Ha, ha—he’s staying with me,” Sanji replied. “I already have Patty and Carne on their maintenance split-shift in the main kitchens, so I can just use the day to get to know my nephew a little better. There’s a lot that letters can’t tell you about a person.”

“That’s true!” Asido piped up. “Maybe that’s why Mom wanted me to stay here, so I can know you better!”

“I’m sure that’s a big part of it,” Sanji said, forcing a chuckle. He and Zeff exchanged a quick look—getting answers from Reiju was going to need to become a priority. “I’ll show him around, and then keep him while doing paperwork, but I will need a little bit of time this afternoon to make a snail call.”

“Why?”

“I can’t stay with you all day, every day,” Sanji explained. “As much as I’m going to enjoy hanging out, the geezer can’t watch you when I’m working; I’m going to get you a babysitter.”

“Oh…” Asido shuffled his oatmeal with his spoon, pensive. “Like how Miss Cosette watcheded me for Mom?”

“A little different than that, but you’re correct—I already know exactly who to call for a recommendation.”

“Not the long-nose brat,” Zeff groaned.

“Do I have any other friends nearby with small children?”

“Last time those lads of his were over, I had to reupholster four booths in the dining room.”

“Part of the process is going to be asking if they’ve grown up at all these last couple years,” Sanji deadpanned. “Just let me do this, alright?”

“We’ve got plenty of comics to read in the meantime, eggplant,” Zeff said.

“Don’t you take that tone with me, old man,” Sanji barked. “Either magically find someone else who can recommend a sitter, or do it yourself and risk Chopper keeping you locked up here for another three months before physical therapy.” Zeff grunted and glared at his son, knowing he was right, though not wanting to give him the dignity of hearing it out loud.

“This is a large undertaking, brat,” Zeff warned. Sanji scoffed at that.

“I know, but this year is about what needs to get done, not what I’ve been chasing,” the younger man said. He waited until Asido was finished with his food before clearing their plates. “Come on, azuki—got to introduce you to the morons before it gets too busy. After that, I’ll show you around the place.” A sinking feeling plopped inside his guts. “How are you with directions?”

“Pretty good, I think,” the boy nods, dutifully following. “I don’t really get lost, but Mom and Miss Cosette were always there too.”

“Well, it’s pretty hard to get lost here once you know it for a bit, so don’t worry,” Sanji said. He led the boy out into the corridor and down the stairs. At least it didn’t sound like he was working with someone of the Mosshead’s caliber… but then again, the kid wasn’t even really old enough for school yet.

As expected, the very moment that Sanji walked back into the kitchens, all the attention was diverted to him and, subsequently, the child poking out from behind him. Daily prep froze immediately, all eyes filled with questions.

“Listen up, assholes!” Sanji scowled. “My nephew got dropped off last night while I was wrapping up with closing. He’s gonna be staying here for a while, so don’t freak out if you see him wandering around.”

“‘Nephew’, huh?” Patty smirked, raising an eyebrow. He stared at Asido, then glanced up at Sanji, and looked at the boy again, sizing up how much of this he believed. “We’re not as stupid as you think, kid.”

“He is my uncle!” Asido snapped, his brow furrowing in what was a frightening accidental imitation of his only relative on the ship. “He looks like Mom! But taller! And different hair! They have the same eyebrows! He’s not lying!”

“Hey, calm down,” Sanji said gently, placing his hand atop Asido’s head. The boy realized he was not behind his uncle and then retreated, glaring at Patty as he poked his head out cautiously. Sanji then shot Patty a pointed look of his own that tore through the other man before turning his attention back to the kitchen at large. “His name is Asido and he hasn’t been away from home before—be nice or I’ll feed you to the Sea Kings. That goes for all of you.”

A muttered chorus of “yes, chef” was heard, to the point Sanji figured it was going to do for the time being. He passed off his tray to the dishwasher and ushered Asido out into the dining room. Sunlight was fully illuminating the space now, making it feel leagues different than it did the night before.

“Don’t worry about them,” Sanji said. He brought Asido outside and took the opportunity to suck down his morning cigarette. “A lot of those morons have been here since I was a kid—they’re nothing special.”

“Are you sure? That one guy sure did look at me funny.”

“He looked at you funny because you look like me, but you and I both know that it’s because we look like your mom as well. They’d know better already if they’d seen her.”

“Then… why didn’t she stay?” Asido looked up at the ship’s height, eyes growing wide. “Whoa, wait, we were that high up?!”

“That we were,” Sanji chuckled, glad for the topic shift. He pointed at a balcony, where he could see Zeff settling in with his book. “See where the geezer is? All the way up there?”

“Wow! Grandpa Zeff looks really small!”

Sanji smirked at that and filed the name away for another time when the geezer was being particularly obstinate. “We’re going to make our way back there, alright? This ship will be your home as long as you’re with me, and I want you to feel comfortable wandering around in it. Now, how do you think we get back?”

The two then spent the next few hours wandering around the interior of the Baratie, with Asido learning the layout of the ship and Sanji coaxing him through their adventure. The blond described the different kind of ships and boats that were moored there, the sorts of customers that would come to eat there, how he and Zeff made it a wonderful place where people would come from miles around, just to have a meal. He put thoughts of caring and comfort into the boy’s head, because if Reiju could not, then who would? The boy was taking the entire situation in-stride, and his uncle was going to make sure that something good came of it.

Eventually, Sanji left Asido upstairs with Zeff and returned to the kitchens to get together a lunch for the three of them. When he arrived, he was met by Patty and Carne commiserating lowly in the corner, the pair looking at him suspiciously.

“What the fuck do you losers want?” he snapped while tying his hair back.

“Nothing—I was just telling Carne about your guest,” Patty shrugged. “Since when do you have a sister?”

“Since always, not that you two are allowed within five hundred kilometers of her,” Sanji deadpanned. He wondered why they hadn’t read it in the papers, why they hadn’t figured it out by that point, but then again… it would involve them reading and he wasn’t entirely certain either man could do that without it being related to a recipe. “She lives in the North Blue, and, wouldn’t you want a kid to not grow up in that frozen hellscape if there was a chance for otherwise?”

“It’s just… convenient, is all,” Carne shrugged. “He supposedly looks like you…?”

“Yeah, because my sister and I look a lot alike… you know… like siblings often do.” Sanji considered throwing both men overboard, but he really wasn’t feeling like adding a senior staff shortage to the list of things he wanted to deal with at that current moment. “I’d appreciate if you both took what I say as fact for once, because it’s looking very likely you’ll be watching him grow up as well.”

“You make it sound like your family sucks balls,” Carne noted.

“Why do you think growing up with you two as babysitters was preferable?” Sanji quipped. He had them there, and they didn’t even fight back after that—for all they hated about each other, there was a twisted version of respect that lingered in their fractious relationship. “It’s alright—I got a new family now, and the kid is going to be part of it.”

Patty and Carne both shrugged and went back to their discussion, this time it being about one of the newer hires. Sanji proceeded to put together some lunch and brought it up to Zeff’s room, the older man having announced with that shitty grin of his that he figured out a way to get all the collection books of Sora, Warrior of the Sea. Sanji didn’t have to ask to know that the geezer was doing it just to fuck with the Vinsmokes, not like he was really going to complain.

After lunch was done and cleaned up after, Sanji locked himself in his bedroom, knowing that one of the last things he wanted to do with an audience was contact one of his crewmates. They had dealt with enough of his fucked-up family issues, so why was he so nervous about this time? He stared at the transponder snail for a bit before sighing in resignation—if he didn’t do this before leaving the room, he never would, and he possibly wouldn’t get relief until Chopper came, which was a long time to be juggling more than he could properly take on. Dialing Usopp’s number, he waited for the other end to pick up as the snail buzzed. A tiny voice broke the wordless wait, brimming in overconfidence while still stumbling slightly over the words, the snail copying a bright expression.

“Sogeking Projectiles and Explosives—how may I direct your call?”

“Merry, darling, it’s Uncle Sanji—I need your dad.”

The small child gasped, presumably dropping the snail. “Dad! Dad! Dad! It’s Uncle Sanji!”

“Oh, shit!” Usopp fumbled to pick up the snail and the one on Sanji’s end grew exasperated. “Hey—I didn’t think you’d be calling so soon.”

“Let’s just cut to the chase: I’m in the middle of a jam and I need your help.”

“My help?” There was shuffling on the other end of the line and Usopp’s voice dropped—he was hiding. “What can you possibly do that would require my help?”

“It’s more of who you have who can help me.”

“Eh…?”

“I need to borrow one of your lads, maybe all three. Soon as you can. They can take turns.”

“Why do you need to borrow them?” Usopp wondered. “Do you need repairs done around the place Zeff doesn’t want Franky overembellishing? Some extra hands serving and dishwashing?”

“I need a babysitter.”

The transponder snail went quiet, peering suspiciously at Sanji. The blond’s eye twitched as he tried to keep it together.

“I know you have them watch your spawn—I need a babysitter.”

“Since when?”

“Will you stop looking like you’re the cat that caught the fattest fucking canary and just send them over? I’ll let them stay for free, I’m that desperate.”

Usopp whistled. “That is a tall order, but I’m afraid I can’t. Sorry. They’re prepping to head out on their own adventure soon. If you’re in that desperate of a need, I’ve got a houseguest who I think might do a great job.”

“At this point, I’m not in a position to be picky. I can’t take him for too long, and it’s safe to say that Zeff’s not supposed to have him, which leaves me in a tight spot.”

“What about the other chefs?”

“I barely trust them with allemand, let alone an actual child.”

“I did not understand that, but send me your coordinates, give me three to five business days, and you’ll have yourself a temporary live-in babysitter that’s great with kids until you can find a permanent solution.”

“You sure you’re not just dumping an unwanted houseguest on me? I’m not getting a weirdo, am I?”

“No.” Oh, there was a laugh in there.

“…it’s not your father, is it?”

“No, no, just trust me, alright? And if you don’t trust me, trust Kaya.”

“Can I get that in writing?”

“Asshole.”

“Alright, fine, I’ll give this rec of yours a chance, but it’s on you if this doesn’t go well.”

“I, Usopp, World’s Greatest Sniper and Chillest Bestie, solemnly swear it’s no one I wouldn’t leave my own kids with, and that’s a fact.”

Sanji sighed dramatically. “Alright, fine, I’ll give you our coordinates, and you’re getting a new Vivre Card when you do show up, so that we don’t have this issue anymore. You’re worse than Luffy.”

“Tell the literal toddlers wandering around to stop stealing and eating my shit and we’ll have a deal.” The two exchanged location information and confirmed that it looked like Usopp could be there late the following afternoon if the winds stayed favorable. “Oh, and Sanji…?”

“Yeah…?”

“This, uh, kid… where’d it come from?”

“It’s, uh, probably too long a story for the snails to handle.” Yeah, it was a private snail network, but there was a decent chance that their communications were constantly being tapped. A location, he’d give up, but that just meant that he’d be ready for trouble on the receiving deck, not sending trouble to where he couldn’t fight. “We’d be here for a while.”

“Fine—I’ll hear the story when I get there—fucking asshole. To think I’m giving you a babysitter.”

“Yeah, yeah; see you soon, Usopp.”

“See you then, Sanji.”

The transponder snail fell asleep and Sanji knew that the call had ended. He leaned back in his desk chair and silently stared out the window.

Late tomorrow.

It still did nothing in regards to the mystery of where in the hell Asido came from, let alone what he was going to do with him. The kid was much too young to be in the kitchen—shit. What sort of schooling did he have up until now? Was struggling over reading Sora, Warrior of the Sea right where he should have been, or was he ahead? Or behind? Fuck… way to make it complicated, sis.

After checking to make sure that there was a News Coo resting on the eaves, Sanji went into his desk and pulled some paper and a pen out—at least he wasn’t going to take this laying down.

‘Reiju,

‘I got your package. It’s a shame that you couldn’t hand it to me yourself, but I understand the sort of time crunch you’re in. Guessing by what the gossip columns are saying, you’re extremely busy and Father would notice if you were gone long enough to visit properly. If you can, then you should. Visit properly. Call me sentimental, but I’d like that. I’ll make some manju with all these azuki beans you gave me—the geezer probably won’t stop laughing. He hasn’t yet.

‘Not that I don’t appreciate you thinking of me, but it was very out of the blue to get the azuki. When you visit, you’ll have to explain your reasoning behind it, how you came across them. Funny as this might sound, I don’t get to see them every day. One would think how I am, I’ve procured plenty… but you’d be surprised. You gave them to me, however, and I’ll use the experience wisely.

‘I hope to hear from you soon.

‘Sanji

‘Oh, and congrats, I guess. Hope he knows what a prize he’s got. The only one of my siblings that’s not a complete psychopath? He lucked out.’

Carefully, Sanji stuffed the letter in an envelope and addressed it to his sister. He tapped on the window and the News Coo hopped over, squawking as he slid it open. It took the letter and payment before flapping off, presumably to wherever his sister was being detained.

At any rate, at least she would know that her son was safe.

#Sanji #One Piece Sanji #Aka Ashi no Zeff #Red Leg Zeff #Blackleg Sanji #Kuroashi Sanji #Usopp #One Piece #fan fiction #this is just Sanji having a very not good day at first so bear with me please #I also know I promised Whouffaldi in the tags of my last posting but you also need to understand that it didn't want to happen #sometimes shit don't want to be written that's why you got a bazillion other projects going at once #Asido (OC)

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rrtfs-official-blog · 5 months

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Welcome To The Railroading Tales From Somewhereica Official Blog!

After taking a poll on my other American railroad centric account (@american-railroading) it seems there was some interest in my silly oc project so here we go! Come in and stay a while, I’ve got nothing but time and passion to talk about and show off things from this series! So without further ado…

Welcome to Somewhereica! The 51st state in the USA. It’s a bit odd as a lot of people would describe it as chaotic and sporadic. But the residents are friendly and there’s plenty of train watching so why not stick around? Here we’ll be talking about some of the more behind the scenes and work in progress parts of the series, that being drawing, writing, and just chatting about characters and engines they’re based on! Getting to know the characters is key to getting invested or understanding a series, SO DON’T BE ARAID TO SEND ASKS EVER I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS SERIES!!!

Refer to me as Jak/Jac/Jack, whichever you prefer, doesn’t matter to me! Pronouns also don’t matter much to me! I’m sure if you’re asking about the series I’m sure I’ll know you’re talking to me anyway! I just figured I ought to give y’all a name to go with the blog.

What Is RRTFS Exactly?

The best way to describe it is sorta like Thomas The Tank Engine. The engines are alive and have faces, and depending on the engine, how experienced they are, and all kinds of factors they can run themselves to some extent. BUT, unlike TTTE, this series is not aimed at little kids. With swearing, blood, character deaths, and very descriptive moments, I’ll be covering some of the less fortunate side of railroading and how bad wrecks and accidents could really be. But, I’ll also be writing more silly and nonsensical stories as well as the realistic ones. After all, this series started off silly so might as well stick to those roots even when some of the shorts take a darker turn! So following the engines will be both harrowing and funny! (Hopefully at least, I’m not a professional writer and I’m always willing to take suggestions!

Where Can I Find The Stories?

As of now, I haven’t posted the links. They’re on a Google Doc that I have given access to anyone who has the link (viewer/commenter only, no edits for obvious reasons). That document goes with three others, the informational document which I wrote down character personalities, short ideas, and the general timeline for the series (it is also accessible to anyone who has the link), the spreadsheet which I use just when I need more technical information/need to know fast what engines I’ve added for what railroad (also public), and the super secret document where me and my co-writer (he’s not on Tumblr sadly) actually write up the shorts, which then get copy and pasted to the actual short document (this one is NOT public, only me and him have it). So for now, they’re just stories on a screen (I can and will post the links when/if someone asks, I’m just too nervous too right away). Me and my co-writer, who has Trainz have talked about animating at least some of the shorts at some point in time, which will not happen for a LONG time, as he only has so many models of some of the characters, some aren’t the best quality, some haven’t and likely won’t be made without special commissions, and none have faces. If this ever changes I WILL SAY SO, as he’s going to try and learn how to make his own models so they all match and we can fill in the gaps!

Is There Anywhere Else To Discuss This?

Yes! Technically there is! I have made a discord server for the series! As of now, only me and my co-writer are in it. I will not be posting the link publicly for the time being. I want to try and ease into moderating a server and I don’t want a bunch of people I don’t know entering it right away! BUT, it is open! If anyone wants to join please DM me about wanting the invite link and I shall supply! After getting comfortable talking to you of course, I want to make sure I don’t let anyone with ill intentions into the server, and I don’t want to be nervous in my own server! There’s also asks! Please send asks here! I love talking about the series and a question you have that I find difficult may just lead to more worldbuilding and fleshing things out! So it’s always appreciated!

Am I Allowed To Make Fanart/Fanfics Of The Series?

Absolutely! Just please credit me as the original creator of the characters and any stories/material you use from the series! I’d love to see fanart and read stories you guys come up with! Just try to be respectful with it and don’t do anything too bad with them! I’d rather not have their faces associated with something bad, but still, by all means go right ahead and come up with trauma inducing stories and edgy art or whatever you have in mind for them! Just tag me if it’s art or when you post about posting a story somewhere (AO3, Wattpad, etc) let me know! I’d love to read it! And who knows, I may take inspiration from you and a similar story could become canon! ;)

On a side note, you’re also allowed to suggest thing for the series! Characters, locations, stories, anything! It may not be used, but ideas are always appreciated and it’s always nice to get an outside perspective on things! So don’t be shy to speak up about something you’d like o see used or done at some point! Also don’t be scared to reference actual events that have happened on railways all around the world, as I’m sure I could use some elements of it in a story set in Somewhereica!

If any of the above questions I already answered didn’t answer your question please let me know! I will answer them, although maybe not right away! Please be patient, there’s only one of me and who knows how many of you!

In the meantime, these are the other blogs I run just in case you’d like to check the them out!

@kindashywriter (although my main blog, I’m behind on posting art so be wary of that, might try to catch up soon!)

@american-railroading (my other sideblog I posted the original poll to! Mostly just pictures but there may be rants and videos and what not!)

Have fun! And don’t be shy to talk to me and send asks! Stick around as long as you like! I hope you enjoy this series as much as I’ve enjoyed working on it!

#rrtfs #railroading tales from somewhereica #pinned post #intro post #introduction post #gif #animated gif #trains #oc stuff #oc stories #oc series

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terrifictoonman · 1 year

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Prompt: As a Barbarian, you hate that just because you have a different lifestyle, your party looks down on you and assumes you are incapable of basic intelligent thought. Today you had enough.

By: writing-prompt-s [Tumblr]

Paw-larity Insues

True North, an Adventuring Party based in Utoplion, was hired to assist a former town-turned-aspiring kingdom, Larthadrose, due to them having helped the new kingdom several times in the past. Their mission was to help protect the kingdom’s only delegate as they made their way to Utoplion for an assembly to decide the fate of their home. Upon arrival, the delegate requested the party’s werewolf barbarian, Huskveiler “Husk” Lunes, as their personal guard during her stay. While the rest of the party had their concerns, they had no real reason to deny their request.

Sir Conner, a old paladin, was at a local bar, enjoying a book and a small drink when Fynn, his party’s gnome alchemist, poked her head from behind the bar. When Conner noticed, he nearly drew his axe.

“Fynn! What are you doing here?” asked Conner.

“Bored,” replied Fynn. “Was gonna spice up some of these drinks, sit back, and watch the fireworks.” Conner grabbed Fynn’s head like a ball and pulled her over the counter.

“Where’s your sister?” asked Conner.

“Where else? Still, back at the shop glued to that magic tome, we found,” said Fynn as she climbed onto the seat next to Conner. “I know I’m the problem child and all, but that girl has a problem.” Fynn pulls a glowing vial from her pouch, pops the cork off, and drinks the whole thing in less than a second. Fynn then burps a small storm cloud, complete with thunder and lightning, and smiles as it floats away.

“Every day, you find new ways to shock and concern me,” said Conner.

“Mystery keeps the relationship fresh,” said Fynn. “Speaking of mystery. I didn’t take “Sir High and Mighty” to be a barfly. So, what’s your vice, old man?” Fynn reached for Conner’s glass, but the paladin managed to keep her away from it.

“My faith doesn’t forbid vices,” said Conner, “as long as I acknowledge and control them, I may drink as much as I wish.” Fynn burps again after finishing off Conner’s drink.

“Man! You call this a drink?” yelled Fynn. “I’ve had unicorn piss stronger than this!” Fynn slaps the table, getting the demonic bartender's attention. “Sir, two glasses of whatever can make a grown man cry on the rocks.” Fynn drops some gold coins on the counter. “And a shot of milk for my friend.”

With a low, gruff growl, the bartender begins to take bottles off the shelf and mix them. He poured a dark red drink into two glasses, sliding them over to Conner and Fynn. Along with a shot glass filled with white milk.

“So?” asked Fynn, “You think our little diplomat’s enjoying Husk’s services?”

“Not this again!” groaned Conner.

“Oh, come on, don’t tell me you don’t see it,” said Fynn. “She’s dainty and smart, he’s tough and dumb, and they’ve almost died together several times. A perfect match if there ever was one.”

“Lady Lorelei is on a critical diplomatic mission for her kingdom,” said Connor, “I doubt that holds much importance for her at the moment.” Fynn snickers at Conner’s use of words or lack thereof.

“Alright then, answer me this,” said Fynn as they finished off Conner’s drink, “why else would she ask Husk to be her personal guard?” Conner looked at Fynn, confused.

“For protection,” answered Conner, “there are plenty of people who could benefit from kidnapping the sole diplomat of a new kingdom in desperate need of aid.”

“But then why just Husk?” asked Fynn. “I mean, this is your home. You know this place like the back of your hand. Plus, you might have a more political sway, given your heritage. Or Dev, the former assassin for one of the largest bands of criminals in the nation. He can spot danger coming from miles away and can take care of it without making a sound.”

“Maybe it's for intimidation?” said Conner.

“Sure, that could work,” said Fynn, “if he didn’t work for the most upstanding adventure guild in the kingdom. Sure, the red fur, sharp teeth, and piercing yellow eyes would scar the shit out of most soldiers on the battlefield, but not in a room with the people who are essentially his bosses. I’d also like to reiterate that Dev is a well-known assassin.”

Conner struggles to think of a counter-argument while Fynn drinks his glass of milk, slamming it on the counter. “Think about it: she’s in a room with pompous old men who hold the future of her home in their hands. She’s spending the whole day bargaining without a leg to stand on, probably having to accept a bunch of bullshit terms that only really help Utoplion. That’s gotta be unbearably frustrating. So what better way to deal with that frustration than to let a war-torn, seven-foot-tall, built like an orc, and just as dumb wolfman destroy her?”

“Good lord would just- just stop!” begged Conner. In the brief silence, the two notice the bartender not so sneakily eavesdropping on their conversation. The bartender coughs as he quickly picks up a glass and cleans it. Fynn bursts out laughing.

“So,” said Fynn, “how does it feel to run an escort service?”

“That’s it!” said Conner as he stood from his chair. “I’m going to find Husk.”

“Gonna give her a two-for-one deal?” mocked Fynn.

“No! To prove your gutter drowned mind wrong!” said Conner as he sped toward the door. However, he was blocked by a wall of thick, damp red and white fur. Conner had walked into a werewolf wearing pants, what remained of a fancy shirt, and a vest.

“I thought I heard you guys in here,” said Husk before pulling Conner away from him. “Since when did you drink?” Conner spit out as much fur from his mouth as he could, with little success.

“Bartender,” said Fynn. “gonna need another glass of milk…” Lorelei, a young woman in fancy clothes, stepped from behind Husk and into the bar. “And a pillow if you would be so kind.”

“That is very considerate of you,” said Lorelei, taking a seat next to Fynn. “No offense to the royal family, but they should heavily invest in adding cushioned seating to their diplomacy hall.” Husk and Conner take seats at the bar, the former pushing his stool to its limits.

“So, why were you guys looking for me?” asked Husk.

“Well-” Fynn started.

“That’s not important right now!” Conner interrupted. “Lorelei, how are the negotiations going?”

“Ugh!” groaned Lorelei. Husk pats their back with his massive hand.

“Yeah, it’s been a tough few days,” said Husk.

“Tough? Tough does not begin to describe what I’ve been through,” said Lorelei. “Again, no offense to your kingdom, Sir Conner.” Conner uses his glass of milk like mouthwash, spitting it back into the glass with a few extra patches of fur.

“No offense taken, friend,” said Conner. “My grandfather was a delegate for the kingdom since he was young, and he always talked about how his best day was the day he retired.”

“Never have I missed my council more than this past week,” said Lorelei, “Thankfully, I’ have had Husk to keep me sane.” A devious grin stretched across Fynn’s face.

“How so?” asked Fynn.

“Above all else, he has been excellent company,” said Lorelei. “I would have gone mad my first night without him.”

“Go on,” said Fynn, prompting Conner to hit her in the arm.

“Uh, well, due to the more complex nature of your legal system,” said Lorelei, “I spent many late nights researching as much as possible. I often became frustrated, so I sought out Husk, who was more than happy to aid me. Due to the nature of his career, I suspected he would be able to keep up with me. However, his stamina easily dwarfed my own.”

“Hey, don’t you go underselling,” said Husk, “you pushed yourself hard every second of every minute of every hour!” With every word, Conner turned a brighter shade of red, and Fynn’s grin grew longer. “Let me tell you, this woman is non-stop! I mean, every chance she had, we were back at it. In the library, in her chamber, in the courtyard. Heck, if we thought the Wigheads were about to go on a ramble, we’d sneak out for a few.”

“Are you serious!” said Conner and Fynn in unison.

“And we were never caught,” said Lorelei as she high fived Husk.

“Sounds like you two had quite the adventure,” said Fynn, struggling to keep from laughing. Meanwhile, Conner buried his face in his hands from embarrassment, whispering a prayer.

“We really did,” said Husk, “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t excited at first, but after some prodding, I was surprised to find out how much I enjoyed it.”

“...what?” asked Fynn.

“It is not out of the ordinary,” said Lorelei. “For men like Husk, it can be difficult to take it all in. Most would have surrendered after the first few seconds, but Husk saw a challenge.”

“And I never back down from a challenge!” said Husk. “You guys should give it a try. Who knows, maybe I can show you guys something for a change.” Fynn quickly joined Conner in the “red face” club alongside the bartender as he handed them drinks.

“Are you both feeling well?” asked Lorelei. “You look flush?”

“I-I-I think we had a bit too much to drink,” stuttered Fynn. “Probably should be getting back anyway. It’s getting late.”

“Didn’t Conner only have milk?” asked Husk.

“Also, the sun has only just now set,” Lorelei continued.

“You know what the boss says,” said Fynn, “Early to rest, early to rise!” Fynn leaped down from their chair and dragged a still-praying Conner out the door with them. “See you tomorrow!” A few seconds after the two left, Husk and Lorelei looked at each other and exploded into a laughing fit.

“Did you see the looks on their faces?” asked Husk.

“I believed that they would have exploded if they had stayed,” said Lorelei. “What fools! No offense!”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Husk, “serves ‘em right for assuming, even more for forgetting that my hearing is better than theirs.”

“So when do you plan on telling them the truth?” asked Lorelei.

“...eventually,” said Husk as he sipped his drink.

“Do you know what “eventually” means in my home?” asked Lorelei. “Between “now” and “never,” I would prefer that you do the former.”

“I dunno,” said Husk, “I mean, I didn’t really do anything. I just noticed a few things, that’s all.”

“Yes,” said Lorelei, “ and those “few things” led to financial aid for construction and development, a sizable defensive force, and my people being put on the Golden Route. In case you forgot, that means direct trade with some of the most affluent kingdoms in the nation! You helped my home take that first step to becoming a true kingdom.”

“But what if it was just luck?” asked Husk, “what if I just end up embarrassing myself and my team by believing I’m something that I’m not.”

“You know what I believe?” asked Lorelei. “I believe that you are not the dumb barbarian everyone thinks you are. I believe that you have a natural affinity for researching not only the law but also whatever draws your interest. I believe you are not the most embarrassing member of your team, and even if you don’t believe in any of that now…” Lorelei places their hand on top of Husk’s as the the two look at each other. “I will believe in you until you can believe in yourself.”

The two smiles at each other until Lorelei notices something behind Husk and motions him to look. He turns around to see the bartender cleaning another cup, with bloodshot eyes and tear streaks down his face. He quickly wipes his face with the cleaning rag before racing into a backroom.

“You think that means the drinks are free?” asked Husk.

“Hope so,” said Lorelei before chugging her drink, “Because I have seven days of blah I need to wash down.”

---{A Few Hours Later}---

Lorelei and Husk walk out of the bar, stumbling into each other every couple of steps. As they walk back to the royal housing, Husk notices Lorelei looking at his back.

“Is there something on me?” asked Husk. “Blink twice if it has a weapon.”

“No, It is just…what are those straps for, on the back of your vest?” asked Lorelei. “It has been nagging at me for the longest time.” Husk grins as he turns his back to Lorelei.

“Grab on,” said Husk. Lorelei grips the straps. Husk jerks forward, pulling Lorelei onto his back as his human features morph until he becomes a giant wolf. Husk looks back at Lorelei with a smug look.

“Cooooooool!” said Lorelei. “How fast can you go?!” With a proud bark, Husk sprints forward. Reaching top speed in seconds, Lorelei grips the straps with everything they have. Husk jumped onto the roof of a small building, working his way up until he was leaping from rooftop to rooftop with Lorelei laughing on his back. It was at that point that Lorelei felt a raindrop hit her head. They pulled themself as close as they could to Husk’s ear. “It is going to rain!”

Husk’s eyes widen as he makes a hard turn towards royal housing. He tries to leap across a massive moat that separates the royal housing from the town but misjudges the jump slightly, sending him and Lorelei into the center of the river.

---{One Drenched Sprint Later}---

A soaking-wet Husk carrying a slightly less wet Lorelei charged through their chamber door. Lorelei jumps out of Husk's arms and quickly lights the fireplace along with every candle in their room. Husk runs into Lorelei’s bathroom and shakes himself dry before joining them at the fireplace. The two sit and let the fires warm them up a bit before Lorelei walks into their bathroom.

“What the Hell!” yelled Lorelei.

----------

Lorelei walks out of the bathroom wearing a robe while Husk, now semi-humanoid, continues to sit by the fire. Lorelei stands over Husk with their hand out. Husk takes their hand, thinking that they would help pull him up, but Lorelei slips from his grasp, dropping Husk on his butt.

“Coin bag. Now,” ordered Lorelei. Husk hands over a small damp cloth bag. Lorelei pulled out a few silver and a couple of gold in spite of Husk’s pouting face and placed the coins on a nearby table. “Thank you for offering to pay the poor servant they send to clean up your nightmare.”

“My pleasure,” groaned Husk. Lorelei grabbed the blanket off of her bed and wrapped it around Husk before sitting down next to him. “For the record, this blanket’s on you.”

“Fair enough,” said Lorelei. The two sit in silence for a while, letting the fireplace's heat wrap around them like a second blanket. Lorelei leans closer into Husk. “I meant what I said you know. With your talent, you could become smarter than most scholars could ever dream of.”

“I know, and you’re right,” said Husk. “I just wish I never had to prove myself. If anyone else did what I did but messed up, society would have just assumed that they just didn’t learn enough, but my kind was bred, born, and raised as tools for war. To do anything else and fail just pushes the narrative forward that at the end of the day, all I am and all I’ll ever be is a mindless beast that can pretend to be human.”

“Husk,” said Lorelei, “you are just one person. Your actions should not carry such weight. All that should matter is that you are happy with your life, and no one else can control that but you.”

Lorelei feels Husk pull away from her. She turns to see the blanket shrink around him down to a quarter of his original size.

Husk now had wet almond skin with large patches of crimson-red fur on the sides of his face, chest, and arms. His ears had a tall point, like an elf, and his clothes, while they still fit, were looser. Lorelei closes the distance, leaning against Husk again.

“Thank you,” said Husk.

“It is the least I can do,” said Lorelei.

“So does that mean…?” asked Husk

“No, you can not have your coin back,” answered Lorelei.

“Ok, just checking,” said Husk.

#writeblr #writting #writing prompt #creative writing #fantasy #Brains & Brawn #I'm so punny

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04mxfutbol · 2 years

Text

You’re Not Sorry (Alex Morgan x Reader)

A/N: This is my first fic here on tumblr and I’m quite nervous? Haha. I hope you enjoy it! (:

“Who’s that?” Alex asks Kelley as she watches you walk hand in hand into the hotel with a woman. A woman she’s never seen or met before.

“Have you been living under a rock Janice? That’s Y/N’s girlfriend.” Kelley says patting Alex’s shoulder.

“Girlfriend?” Alex asks, her face very much looking in shock.

“You think she was going to wait for you? Alex. Y/N gave you plenty of chances and you seemed to screw it up every time.”

“She’s mine. We’re supposed to be together forever.” Alex says.

“I guess it was her last straw.” Kelley says shrugging her shoulders. “Anyway. Let’s go meet up with the girlies. We want to explore the city.”

“Get me out of here sure.” Alex says as she grabs her bag.

Meanwhile in your room, you lay next to your girlfriend. Who rather just looks at you sadly.

“How long will we keep this going Y/N?”

“I’m mourning.” You groan as you flip over.

“You’re an idiot. I love you but you’re an idiot. We’re fooling everyone all because you don’t want to talk to Alex.”

“Isn’t it nice to be my pretend girlfriend though?” You ask your long time friend Marissa.

“No. You have really bad manners.” Your friend says making you scoff. “Plus you get really cold at night.”

“Harsh much?” You say as you push her off the bed. A loud thump is heard as Marissa falls onto the floor. “That’s better.”

“Just talk to her.”

“No.” You quickly respond.

“Why? Tell me why?”

“Tell me why! Ain’t nothing but a h- OW.” You yell as your friend hits your head. “What the heck was that for?”

“You’re avoiding the question Y/N.”

“Fine. Alex and I shared secrets together but I’m tired of being the last to know about anything that happens in her life. I was her something.”

You hear banging on the hotel room door. You sigh as you quickly rock, paper, scissors to see who opens the door. To your dismay, you lose. Like always.

“She can tell me that she’s sorry but I won’t believe her like I did before.”

You head towards the door and are met with Alex standing in front of you. You feel the air trapped in your throat as you see the woman you’ve loved for so long.

“Hi.” Alex says and you squint as if she’s not there. You close the door in her face and walk back.

“There wasn’t anyone at the door. Weird huh?” You say as you flip back onto the bed.

“I’m doing this for your own good.” Your friend says as she walks over to the door. “She’s inside. I’ll leave you two alone.”

Alex furrows her eyebrows as she walks into your room. You silently curse at your friend for letting in that woman inside your room.

“Hey. You haven’t answered any of my calls the past couple weeks.” Alex says and you scoff.

“Why should I? I sent you a message saying to not call anymore because I wasn’t going to pick up the phone.”

“I thought you’d get over it.”

“Over it? Are you kidding me right now?” You ask and laugh sarcastically. “You’re something else Alexandra.”

“I’m sorry okay. I’m sorry I always pushed you away when people came up to us. I’m sorry I kept forgetting things and forgetting to tell you what I’m up to. I’m sorry okay? I never meant to hurt you.”

“You’re not sorry.”

“I forgot a lot of things I’m sorry. I stood you up on a date once and I’m sorry! Damn it I’m sorry. Seeing you with someone else kills me.” Alex says as she grabs your hand. “Y/N.”

“I don’t want to hear it. You can tell me that you’re sorry but I won’t believe it like I used to before.” You say as you pull your hand away from her. “Leave me alone Alex. Please. I don’t want to hurt anymore.”

“No.” Alex says as she stays put, her arms crossed.

“Leave me alone Alex.” You shout as you go to open the door. “This is the door, walk through it and don’t come back.”

“I said no.”

“LEAVE.”

“NO.”

You rub your temple as you hold the door with your foot. Looking up at Alex you sigh as you cross your arms.

“Leave.”

“No.”

“Why are you being so persistent now.” You say. You see Kelley running down the hallway, towards your room. “Kelley wonderful you’re here. Take Alex away from my room.”

“Jan, come on.” Kelley says as she tries pulling Alex out of the room. “Alex.”

“You moved on so fast.” Alex finally says and you laugh.

“That’s low even for you. I wasn’t the one who stood up someone frequently. Kelley I swear if you don’t take Alex out of my room I will drag her.”

“Alex.” Kelley pleads as she looks at Alex.

“I’m not moving.”

“Damn it Alex, face it you messed up now let’s go.” Kelley says as she pushes Alex out of the room.

“I won’t stop until I get you back.”

“Sure. We’ll see.”

You close the door and walk towards the bed, laying down, looking up at the ceiling you let out a sigh.

“So stupid to think I was worth her time and love.” You whisper to yourself.

#alex morgan x reader #uswnt x reader #uswnt imagine #woso imagine

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aro-culture-is · 2 years

Note

okay so i’ve been thinking for a bit that i might be aro. i questioned whether i was ace for a while but i don’t think i’m that. i just felt like there was some level of attraction missing and i was a bit scared of the aro label.

i mean, i’m fine with romance in fiction or if my friends are in romantic relationships so i’m not romance repulsed. but then i read alice oseman’s loveless and realized that that didn’t necessarily disqualify me from being aro.

so i don’t think i’ve ever really had a crush before. i mean, i remember in elementary and middle school when i would kind of just pick a guy that seemed kind of attractive and tell people i had a crush on him. when i got to high school, i thought guys were attractive and i wanted them to notice me because i just generally felt invisible, but i never really wanted to date them. there was one guy that i sort of fantasized about confessing his love or something in a big rom-com way, but i never wanted it to go beyond that. i think it wasn’t so much that i had crushes as i wanted other people to like me in some way. but i didn’t want it going beyond that.

i keep going back to this relationship i had in junior year of high school as this reason why i couldn’t be aro. this guy and i were friends and we started dating because i felt like i was sort of behind everyone else since i’d never had a boyfriend. he wasn’t really a great guy and i was really uncomfortable with any pda. we dated for three months but in my head i think i just thought of us as “friends who kissed.” i wasn’t really sure what we had was romantic or what that even meant.

now i identify as bisexual, but i think i might be on the aro spectrum. i’m really nervous about it isolating me from my friends. sorry if this was long i just needed to get this out.

hi!

this sounds very much like an aro experience. i assume you sent this primarily on the end of wanting validation, since I think you've thought this through and come to your conclusion already. welcome to the community!

you're in good company - there's plenty of alloaro (including bi aro) folks out there, though my personal experience is that due to social stigma, they tend to be less out irl than other aro groups. there's also plenty of folks in the aro community who aren't romance repulsed, or who only experience romance repulsion conditionally. we're aroqueer and don't identify as any particular romance repulsed/indifferent/favorable label :)

overall just: congrats! i'm glad that you've been through this journey and are part of our vibrant community. i wish you well :)

mod axel

edit: wow tumblr super fucked this post up. just fixed it, reblogging for those who want to see it!

#Anonymous #not aro culture is #aro #aromantic #actually aro #actually aromantic #ask #mod axel #am i aro #(tangentially)#(could be useful for others at least)

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gale-gentlepenguin · 3 years

Text

ML Fic: Soulmate Survey Part 38

Sorry for the delay. Real life gets out of hand. But here it is! The antepenultimate chapter.

Shout out to @asongeverlasting for beta reading for me and making sure I actually got this out.

Check her writing out on AO3 as Ramblingwren

(Master post)

(Read the fic in a more condensed on Ao3)

(The latest chapter will be up on there once this reaches over 500 notes on tumblr)

Hope you all enjoy

_____________________________________________________________

“I shouldn’t have let her go out there.”

Fu watched the school nurse, Angela, fret as she paced back and forth.

“I understand your concern, but I believe that it will all be alright. Ladybug and Chat Noir haven’t failed in handling an akuma yet,” he explained. “The girl will be okay.”

The nurse stopped pacing.

“I appreciate your optimism but… I am really not used to this,” She said as she gestured to the air.

Fu blinked at the statement.

“Oh?”

“This! This whole thing! Super villains that appear whenever someone gets sad, teenagers with superpowers! This is all new to me! I just moved to Paris a month ago from the countryside. All I wanted was to further my education and get work in the medical field. It… It boggles my mind that everyone in this city is so okay with all of this! Even my new boyfriend Curtis is able to shrug off an akuma attack like a sudden drizzle. This isn’t normal!”

The guardian could tell the young woman was distressed, and he couldn’t blame her. In a way, he envied her. This was all foreign for her, but to him, this was his entire life.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to blow up like that. I've had a lot to deal with, and this whole situation is just so…”

Fu moved to her and helped her sit down.

“It’s alright, this is by no means a good situation. Your concerns are very understandable. I can tell that deep down that your frustration and fear come from compassion and empathy. You will make a wonderful doctor one day.”

She took a deep breath.

“Thank you. You have no idea how much I really needed to hear that today.”

“How about I teach you a medication technique that will help you calm down?”

“Meditation? I'm not really one for that kind of stuff.”

“If one wants to be a doctor, being able to calm down and handle an emergency situation is a must.”

The school nurse agreed that he had a good point, and that this may help get her mind off of things.

“Okay, I guess I'll give it a shot.”

Fu smiled.

“Good. Let us start simple. Close your eyes and put your hands together.”

Angela felt the action was a bit odd but complied.

“Now, take a deep breath. Count to 5 in your head and then breathe out.”

She took her breath and followed the order.

“Whenever you feel a thought come to your head, simply picture yourself putting it out of your mind and into a bucket.”

She tried her best to comply.

As she did this, Fu moved behind her and quickly pinched a nerve on her neck, causing the young woman to seize up for a moment before losing consciousness.

“That will help her relax.”

He carefully moved her to the cot and laid a sheet over her like a blanket.

Once it was clear that she was asleep, a turtle kwami flew out of hiding.

“So, what do we do now, Master?”

Fu took a moment to consider.

His plan was already in motion. Ladybug and Chat Noir had plenty of allies to help fight the akuma. All that needed to be done was to sit down and wait.

But as he thought about it more, he couldn’t help but think that he should go in personally. It was what he'd initially planned to do with akuma, after all. Listening to this young woman’s fears made him really see how his inaction has led to such fear and uncertainty.

For once, it was time for him to go on the offensive.

“Now we head out and find this akuma.”

“Master, you already sent out three miraculous. Let the other heroes handle this,” Wayzz insisted.

“The people of Paris should not have to become used to this. I have been far too lax with this situation. Right now, Ladybug and Chat Noir are facing their most dangerous akuma yet. For decades I have always remained passive in order to avoid making another mistake, but I have already made so many with my inaction. It's time I stop letting my actions be dictated by fear.”

“But Master, you can’t transform! Your body is too old to handle it!”

“Fear not, Wayzz. I have been exercising and restoring my vitality with the techniques of the guardians. By my estimation, I should be able to maintain the transformation without too much issue for 10 minutes,” Fu assured.

“That is not a lot of time, Master!” Wayzz pointed out.

“True, but it is better than nothing. We will head out and wait for the moment we need it. Be ready, Wayzz.”

The old guardian started heading to the door.

“But Master, what if you get captured? What if the akuma does succeed and you are unable to step in?”

Fu paused at the door.

“I know you are concerned for me. I appreciate your care. But I need to go out there. I have lived a long life, Wayzz, far longer than most humans. One day I may not be here to be the guardian.”

Wayzz felt a pang of sorrow hearing his Master talk about how he would no longer be around.

“But that’s okay. I know that when that time comes… I have two young heroes that will be ready to stand up and fight. The best thing an old man like me can do is pave the road for them.” The guardian said with certainty. He went to open the door.

“Fu…”

The old man stopped. Turning around, he saw the turtle kwami he had known for most of his life smile at him.

“I know you think of yourself as a failure of a guardian… but Su Han and the others were wrong. You are a great one. You are the most caring guardian that has ever held the title. And I will be by your side to the end.”

The old man felt his eyes well up at the sweet comment.

“Then let’s go, Partner.”

___________________________________________________________________________

The dragon heroine grabbed the confused snake hero and moved him to the closest room before closing the door.

“Okay we should be safe here,” she said as she looked over to her comrade. It was clear that Viperion was still very confused. It did not help that both his and her miraculous were beeping. They didn't have much time.

“Thanks… ummm,” Viperion started as he tried to rack his brain for a name. Part of him felt like he should know her. But his mind is blank.

“Ryuuko. You can call me Ryuuko. And you are Viperion.”

“Okay… weird name for me, but I guess it works.”

Ryuuko realized that the bubble Viperion had been put in wasn’t just to keep him frozen in place. One of the side effects must have been leaving him without any memory of who he was. Had her partner been aware of that risk when he took the bubble for her? She couldn’t know for sure. But right now, she needed to focus on the task at hand. Shehad to take charge since her partner was out of sorts.

“Okay, 'll try to explain this as quickly as possible.”

“Your real name is Luka. But when you are in your hero form, you go by Viperion.”

“Hero form...”

He looked down.

“Well, that does explain the costumes. I thought it was some sort of weird costume party.”

Ryuuko decided to ignore that.

“Okay, so I'm a hero. And you're one too?”

“Yes. We are both heroes picked by Ladybug to help her fight villains. Right now, we're fighting a bunch of them, and you got your memory wiped by one of their attacks. That’s why you are confused. Any questions?”

The boy took a moment to look himself over and then look at her. This was a lot of information to take in. Ryuuko was half expecting him to call her crazy. Which, given how bizarre the circumstances were, she wouldn’t blame him.

“Okay, I think if it was anyone else telling me this, I would have called it a load of bull. But… I don’t know why but I feel like I can trust you. You sound sincere,” Viperion responded.

“Okay great, now let's…”

“I still have a few questions.”

Ryuuko sighs.

“Look, we really don’t have much time. We need to hurry and get out there to help…”

And just before she finished the statement, both of their transformations wore off. Revealing their civilian forms.

“Oh no.” Kagami muttered in horror.

“What happened? Where am I… What am I?” The snake kwami questioned as he looked at himself.

“It appears that Sass was also impacted by the amnesia.” The dragon kwami that popped out of her necklace commented.

Luka stared wide eyed at the creature.

“Are you a snake?”

“A snake? I suppose?”

“A snake with limbs? That is very rock and roll.”

The two fistbumped. Thankfully they seemed to get along.

Longg looked at them.

“This is quite a predicament.”

“We need to hurry back in. Longg! Bring the….”

“Hold on a moment. Both Sass and I will not be able to do that yet.”

Kagami stopped.

“How come?”

“We need to refuel. The energy of transforming AND using our unique powers drains a lot out of us. We need some food to continue.”

“Food… Okay.”

The snake Kwami grabbed his stomach.

“I find myself rather famished,” he commented.

Luka looked at him.

“Let me see if I can help you out.”

The teen took off the backpack he was wearing to go through it. Thankfully there was a bag lunch in there. For some reason he felt that was important. But decided that if it could help the little guy out, he was sure it wouldn’t be a big deal.

He opened the bag lunch and pulled out a bag of apple slices. Opening it to grab a piece.

“I know snakes usually are carnivores, but how about some fruit?”

“Ooo! It smells divine!”

Luka handed the floating kwami a piece of the apple.

He takes a bite.

“Oh! It's delicious! Juicy and sweet!”

The snake quickly devours the apple piece.

As that happens, Kagami looked through her bag.

“I don’t have fruit but I do have some onigiri. It was my afternoon snack… but since this is a dire situation.”

“Rice? Yes please!” Longg exclaimed as he dive bombed right into the delicious rice ball.

“It’s Umeboshi, it’s not to everyone’s taste but It is one of my favorites.”

“It’s the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. The sour plum really brings a new dimension of flavor.”

Kagami smiled a bit at her kwami companion, happy that she could help.

The two Kwami finished their food and were ready for action.

“Okay, Sass. You need to help Luka transform.”

“Sass? Is that my name?” the snake inquired.

“So, he helps me transform into Viperman?”

“Viperion, and yes,” Kagami responded.

“All you need to do is say. Sass, Scales Slither. And to activate your special power just pull your bracelet back and say second chance. Then pull it back when you want to use it. But be sure not to use it right away,” Longg instructed.

“Okay seems easy enough. Are you okay with this?” Luka asked as he turned his attention to his snake pal.

“The floating horn snake seems fine with it so I say let’s give it a try”

Longg decided for the sake of his friendship with Sass to ignore the comment.

“Alright! Let's do this!” Kagami exclaimed as she prepared to transform.

“One last question.”

Kagami was starting to get antsy. She wanted to be back out there fighting. But she held back her annoyance, considering how he sacrificed his memories for her.

“Make it quick, we need to hurry.”

Luka scratches the back of his head.

“Are we a couple?”

If Kagami was drinking water she would have done a massive spit take. Her cheeks turned red.

“What?!”

“You know… together? You seem to know a lot about me, and I just feel this connection... like I can trust you even though I don’t remember anything. I don’t know how or why, but I feel like you matter to me.”

Kagami’s eyes went wide at the comment. It felt surprisingly bold of the musician to say. She had to admit that the statement made her heart skip a beat.

“No, we had just recently become friends.” Kagami responded.

“Oh…” Luka was saddened by the response.

“But, I have thought about the possibility it could be more than that one day," Kagami continued. "But that is something to discuss when you have your memory back. Maybe.”

The fencer felt her mind scream at her.

‘WHY DID YOU SAY THAT! Well, at least he won't remember.’

Luka smiled at that.

“Well, that must mean I must be a good guy, if I could have such a great friend like you.”

The teen prepared himself.

“Alright then! Sass! Scales Slither.”

The musician shifted into his hero form.

“Let’s go save the day.”

Kagami looked at her hero partner and smiled.

“Longg, Bring the storm.

______________________________________________________________________

“Well, that might be a problem.”

Chat Noir and Ladybug looked to see a stone giant guarding the front door of the classroom. The two had hidden just out of the goliath’s view.

“Any ideas on how to take down Mount Akuma?” Chat Noir questioned.

Ladybug looked at the giant from their hiding spot and began formulating a plan.

“Stoneheart grows bigger when he gets mad. These akuma aren’t really able to express their emotions. That means we don’t need to worry about him getting bigger. We just need to find a way to incapacitate him.”

“We could ask Mayura,” Chat Noir pointed out.

“We could ask… wait WHA…”

Chat Noir covered his partner’s mouth and ducked down.

“Shhhh! She’s right there,” Chat Noir hushed.

Ladybug removed the cat’s hand from her mouth and looked from the spot to see that her partner was right. Mayura was in the building!

“She actually showed up?” Oh, this is a lot more serious than we thought. Hawkmoth is really playing it serious with this one.”

“To the butterfly man’s credit, he really has been throwing out some tough ones.”

“I will not give our worst villain credit for anything except this headache,” Ladybug retorted with annoyance.

“So, what do we do? Mayura is in the building and she is talking with the giant.”

Ladybug felt like the situation couldn’t get worse.

“Not so fast, Feather Freak!”

Ladybug recognized that voice.

“Chloé?”

Chat Noir and Ladybug glanced to see a familiar blonde strutting down the hallway. But their expressions of shock shifted to bewilderment when they noticed what she was wearing.

“So are you and that purple fashion blunder here? Or is it just you? I am guessing it's just you. Your boss doesn’t really like to show his face unless he thinks he is sure to win. No wonder Ladybug always kicks his…” The bee themed heroine confidently quipped.

“Queen Bee. Now that is a surprise. I thought Ladybug was done giving you a miraculous.” The peacock villainess commented. She had no interest in dealing with the bee heroine at this time.

“Well, you would be surprised by a lot of things. So how about we settle this. My fist really misses your face.”

Mayura rolled her eyes.

“Fortunately for you, I don’t have the time to deal with you. Stoneheart, I am sure Masquerade would love for you to take care of this pesky bee.”

“Oh don’t think you can walk away! You and that purple cockroach are the same. Both cowards that can’t even face children.” She jeered as she walked forward.

The stone giant moved forward, allowing Mayura to walk to the door and enter.

“Too scared to face me! Typical. I'll beat your pet rock as a warm up and then your butt will meet my foot!” Queen Bee exclaimed with confidence. “Because I am a real heroine!”

Queen Bee got into a stance and prepared to trade blows with the colossus of rock.

Chat Noir looked to Ladybug.

“Did you give her a miraculous?” He whispered in surprise.

“I don’t have any additional miraculous. I thought she had been captured with the rest of the class.”

“Wait… if it wasn’t you… you don’t think…”

“Either Master Fu is in the building and saw how dire the situation was or Chloé snuck away and had a Queen Bee costume stowed away in her locker.”

The two look at each other and immediately come to the same conclusion.

“We need to save her before she gets crushed!”

______________________________________________________________________

Mayura walked into the classroom.

She managed to keep a straight face, but internally she had a lot going through her mind.

What was once a standard classroom now looked like an elaborate throne room. The amazing curtains, the high ceilings. The steps leading up to an elaborate throne. The portraits of Masquerade really brought together the utter decadence and vanity of the akuma persona. It reminds Mayura of Gabriel’s obsession with Emilie in the worst way possible.

Despite finding the décor off-putting, she had to admit it was impressive how Masquerade had been able to change the room into something completely unrecognizable. A testament to her vanity.

She took a moment to see what akuma servants she still had in the room. The Gamer, Reflekta with around 12 copies, Princess Fragrance, Robostus, Zombizou and Horificator. While the white masks obscured their expressions, it was clear that all of them were watching her. It greatly unnerved her.

She kept these thoughts to herself as the masked akuma that was running the school took notice of her.

“Mayura. I've been expecting you.”

Mayura looked up to see Masquerade sitting on the throne.

“Please, come in.”

She approached confidently. Though in the back of her mind something seemed off.

Masquerade stood up from the throne and walked down the steps, a smile of certainty on her face.

“Masquerade. Your Sentimonster gave me the basics of your plan. Securing the school as your base of operations was a good first step. Your plan of creating a video to lower the spirits of those in Paris was also a nice touch,” Mayura praised.

“But of course! My plan is flawless,” Masquerade boasted. “Not even Ladybug and Chat Noir will be able to stop me.”

“Getting ahead of yourself aren’t you?” Mayura cut her ego trip.

Masquerade’s mood soured as her smile faltered.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You have yet to face the two heroes. Not to mention there's a pesky bee flying around.”

“A bee?” Masquerade was very confused by the comment.

“Yes, Chloé Bourgeois, or Queen Bee, to be precise. Seems that Ladybug and Chat Noir went and got back up."

“It doesn’t matter if they have one additional hero or three. This plan won't fail.”

‘Something isn’t right here. I need to leave now!’ Mayura’s mind screamed.

She wasn’t sure why, but something felt incredibly off.

“Speaking of heroes, your plan never really specified how you will deal with them. Care to elaborate?”

Masquerade’s smile grew more sinister.

“I am glad you asked. After Simularé relayed to me that you were here. I finally figured out the perfect way of dealing with those arrogant heroes,” the masked woman stated with certainty, moving forward.

She now stood only a few feet from the peacock villainess.

“Wait a moment, something is wrong here,” Mayura commented as she tried to focus. She couldn’t ignore the warnings in her head.

“What do you mean?” The mask akuma looked with confusion at the blue villainess.

Mayura looked around. Frantically trying to find something but it was fruitless. This distress caused Masquerade to smile.

“I can't sense it,” Mayura spoke with slight worry.

“Sense what?” Masquerade inquired further.

“Where is your amok? It should be on your person but I can't sense it.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Yes. If you don’t have the amok in your possession then that sentimonster will go out of control!” Mayura explained.

“Can’t you just rip the amok out?”

“If it's nearby and I sense it, yes. But I can’t do that if it’s out of my range.”

“So you’re saying you have no power over me right now.” A devilish grin appeared on Masquerade’s face.

“No, I am saying I don’t have any power over the senti…”

Mayura felt a chill as she realized that the masquerade in front of her was not an akumatized Lila.

“Horrificator, block the door,” the Faux Masquerade commanded.

The pink and purple monster quickly moved to block the door with her large form.

The controlled akuma started circling around her as Simularé undid the illusion and morphed into its true specter form, Simularé.

“You ungrateful little monster. You think your master will be okay with you attacking one of the ones that gave her power?”

“My master doesn’t care about you or Hawkmoth. You are a means to an end. And she gave me special permission to take your miraculous from you.”

“Well if your master isn’t here, then no one is jamming the signal. I can contact Hawkmoth and put this little coup to an end.”

Simularé shifted into Lady Wifi.

“I have access to every power my master does. You are trapped with no options.” The sentimonster mocked.

Mayura looked around as she was circled by the controlled akuma. She needed to get out of there.

She felt a pain rush to her head.

‘F*** not now’ She mentally cursed.

The odds were indeed not in her favor.

______________________________________________________________________________

Stoneheart began charging at the bee themed heroine, and just as Queen Bee was about to move, a yo-yo wrapped around her waist and pulled her away from the monster.

The stone giant had expected his charge to make contact but forced himself to stop when he noticed the bee was gone.

“Sorry tiny, but I’m your playmate now,” called a cat-themed hero.

The mindless akuma didn’t visibly react to the change in foe and simply charged at the cat hero.

Queen Bee found herself near Ladybug.

“Chloé! What are you doing?!”

“Uh… Saving the day? I got the jewelry box that you sent out because you needed my help.”

“Jewelry box… wait a minute that means. You are wearing a miraculous.”

“Yep! Don’t worry LB, I will show you that I am worthy of being Queen Bee. And not to boast, but I totally saved someone. But right now, we gotta go beat that ugly pile of rubble.”

Ladybug looked at Chloé for a moment. With the situation as hectic as it was, Queen Bee has shown some competence when there is real danger. Ladybug knew that right now, all hands that could help would be appreciated, and Queen Bee’s appearance could mean that Fu may be closer than she expected. So maybe there were more reinforcements. So if this was the case. She would trust Fu’s judgement.

“Alright, just be ready to return the bee after all of this is over.”

“Right, right, but just know I will probably change your mind about that after this is over!” the bee exclaimed confidently as she jumped back into the fray.

Ladybug shook her head. Whether she was Queen Bee or Chloé, she was still a handful.

“Are you finished gossiping? Because I could REALLY use a hand!” Chat Noir shouted as he held his staff up to hold back the rock monster’s boulder of a fist.

Queen Bee and Ladybug jumped into view and noticed the situation.

“Don’t worry you stray cat, The Queen Bee will put that rock in his place. Ve…”

Ladybug covered Queen Bee’s mouth before she could.

“Hold it. We might need your power for later.”

“I think it would be useful now!” Chat Noir shouted as he struggled to hold the weight of the giant’s rocky hand.

“Okay if my powers are a no no right now, what is the plan?”

Ladybug looked around. She found her attention drawn to a fire extinguisher, Queen Bee, a rubber band, and a discarded backpack.

“Okay, I have a plan.”

______________________________________________________________________

Gabriel had made a decision.

He hurried out of the lair in his civilian form. He was going to head to the school. Now he would just need to get his chauffeur and go…

Gabriel’s eyes went wide as he saw his son’s bodyguard and chauffeur fall to the floor at the steps of the main entrance, a white mask adorning his face that he was desperately trying to get off.

“What is the meaning of this?” Gabriel asked aloud in shock and anger.

He looked to see the mask akuma he created standing at the door.

“Well, if it isn’t Gabriel Agreste. Fashion mogul, and master manipulator.”

Gabriel’s visible anger faded as he stared at the akuma.

“Lila, is that you?”

“Oh quite astute! An amazing deduction. Was it that observational skill that made you the fashion success you are now?” the akumatized Lila inquired. “Though I go by Masquerade now.”

Gabriel knew very well the girl’s powers. He was the one that gave it to her. She was trying to antagonize him, get him angry. But that would not work.

“Well Masquerade, what brings you to my home at this time?” Gabriel asked calmly. Doing his best to keep his tone and mannerisms calm.

“Oh, I was just in the neighborhood, finding more people to join my little army and I notice my charm glowing as I was getting near.”

Gabriel’s eyes went wide as he realized something. The charm bracelet was configured to locate anyone that has ever been akumatized. That included him. His ploy to ward suspicion off of himself was now biting him in the butt. And of course, Lila was likely holding a grudge with how he pushed her with his words about his son and his classmate.

“My bodyguard was akumatized. What of it?”

The silent action figure enthusiast stopped resisting and his body began growing. Gabriel noticed the man was transforming into the gorilla akuma. Gorizilla! And he rushed up the steps as the akuma moved and pounded his chest.

“Gorizilla, go gather up anyone who has been akumatized that you know of. I will handle Mr. Agreste myself.”

The giant akuma nodded at its master and headed off, leaving the agreste mansion with a giant hole that was once the front of the mansion.

“Handle me? And what do you plan to do?”

Masquerade’s necklace began to glow.

“Oh! Well that is very interesting,” Masquerade mused aloud as she learned from the glowing charm.

“What do you mean, interesting?” Gabriel asked. He knew that the charm had the bonus effect of pointing out the emotional weak points of those that had been akumatized. But he had PRETENDED to be angry and wasn’t actually emotional when the akuma took over. Did the charm still impact him the same way it did everyone else?

Masquerade started walking up the steps.

“You blame yourself for your wife’s passing.”

The statement was a blade pointed right at his throat. But Gabriel refused to react. He would not let himself be taken advantage of by his own akuma. He has been on the receiving end one too many times and he would be damned if he let that psychopath have control of him.

Masquerade saw that Gabriel was not reacting to the statement.

“I have never seen a man more miserable and pathetic,” Masquerade said. Her words sounded genuine and cutting.

Gabriel tried to turn around and walk away. But Masquerade jumped high with her superhuman agility and landed right in front of him, continuing her tearing down of his emotional state.

“All of this wealth and yet you are obsessed with what you don’t have. You are so blinded by the grief of losing your wife that everything else in your life may as well not exist. You locked yourself away, desperately trying to find something, anything that would bring her back. But now you are finding that color is starting to return in your life. You feel guilt over hiding the truth from your son, you loathe the attraction that you have been developing for another woman. You hate that you can’t dedicate every second to your lost wife and any speck of joy you feel without her here feels like treason since she is not here with you. You are a man so blind with his obsession that you fail to see the world doesn’t revolve around you. It's disgusting.”

“You know nothing of my life,” Gabriel dismissed.

But Masquerade knew he would say that. She only smiled. The truth was right in front of her. And she was ready to bring it home.

“You are actually terrified of facing her again.”

That shook Gabriel.

“What?”

“You are afraid of seeing her again. Whether it’s a year or 10 years, you feel that even if you could bring her back, she would be here and realize how much of a shell you had become without her. You are afraid that your obsession with her will be the very thing that drives her away once you see her again.”

“That isn’t true.”

“Then why haven’t you brought her back yet? Don’t you love her?”

Gabriel felt like his heart was being repeatedly punched.

“How dare you question my love for my wife!”

“Then why isn’t she here? If you loved her she wouldn’t have been taken from you and Adrien. But you were far too pathetic to do it. You failed her, and you are still failing her. You will never be with her again, and deep down. You know it to be true,” Masquerade answered coldly.

Those words were enough to get him down. That is what finally did him in.

Gabriel fell to his knees.

“No…”

Gabriel had broken. Masquerade knew she had him.

He was emotionally devastated, to the point where couldn’t even react to the mask coming his way.

____________________________________________________________

Well now things are now hitting their highest points of drama!

Will Ladybug and other heroes be able to stand up to Masquerade?

Will Mayura fall to Simularé's double cross?

Will I EVER update in time?

Tell me your thoughts on the chapter. Your support keeps it alive

#ml #ml fic #ml fanfic #soulmate survey #miraculous ladybug #ml fanfiction #drama #ladynoir #lukagami

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