#sheer willpower and the power of friendship or something like that. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blazingstar24 · 3 years

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Summary: Essek realized how deep his affection for Caleb runs after getting a glimpse of the fates that could have been.

******************************************************

Essek cared about the Mighty Nein. He had taken a while to come to terms with that fact. It had been a long time since he had opened himself up to another being, let alone seven. He had been so resolute in his selfishness. His self serving goals. Yet, somehow this group of unpolished, broken adventurers managed to sink their claws into his frozen heart.

The thing about breaking ice is that it shatters, leaving shards of frozen residue behind. When the Mighty Nein discovered his deception, when they chose to offer him redemption instead of death, Essek had felt the breaking of the ice he had created around himself. The shards of shame and guilt lodging themselves into his heart and melting into his veins.

They hadn’t changed him through violence, not for political gain, not for power. But through kindness. Friendship. And dare he say it, love. That was something he couldn’t have prepared for. And maybe he was on his way to being better for it.

So, yes Essek cared about the Mighty Nein.

But as he watched helpless as, Lucian turn Caleb into a monstrosity of a human, something inside him broke. He could not bear the burden of freeing Caleb from the twisted fate forced upon him. But he could destroy the one who did it to him. He didn’t have the ties to this tiefling like the others. He had no qualms about erasing this false god from the face of Exandria and every other plane of existence. Crushing a piece of onyx in his hand, letting the blood drip onto the stone, Essek growls with rage as a dark sphere swallows Lucian whole. He refuses to turn around, desperately trying to block out the sounds of the Mighty Nein fighting their friend.

He instead pulls to mind the image of Caleb, eyes bright with curiosity as he explained the workings of a dunamantic spell.

Caleb’s laugh, soft and light as Veth teased Fjord about his accidental balding.

Caleb’s smile from across the table as they enjoyed the meal Jester had lovingly prepped for them.

The feel of Caleb’s lips against his head on one of the worst days of his life, giving him a lifeline out the sea of lies and madness he was drowning himself in.

He wouldn’t be able to feel that on his lips anymore

The firebolt dancing on Essek’s fingertips pales in comparison to Caleb’s, but he fires it all the same into the sphere. He knows Lucian will dispel his magic soon enough, but not before he knows true pain. Not before Essek can make him understand what it’s like to have the one person who has seen his wicked, traitorous soul and still reach out a hand, ripped away like he was nothing. Caleb Widogast was just a tool to be used to Lucian. And maybe once he had been that to Essek too. But now? Caleb Widogast was—is more than anything Lucian and himself could ever dream of being.

The sphere suddenly dissipates as Lucian walked forward, bloody and burned. Essek knew he couldn’t take another hit from the tiefling, but like Fjord said, there was no going back.

“Certainly was a nice try. Cute even. But my patience wears thin.”

Essek’s world goes dark as a black scimitar plunges into him.

******************************************************

Jolting upright in his bed, Essek has a death grip on his sheets as he did a quick scan of the room. A stained glass window with the image of the stars catches his eyes. The tower. He’s in Caleb’s tower. He let out a shaky breath as he remembered where he was and what had truly happened. By some miracle or just through the sheer willpower of the Mighty Nein, they had saved the world. Some revivification had to happen here and there, but in the end, they stopped Lucian and those cursed eyes disappeared.

Now they were on their trek back to the Dynasty’s outpost. Essek didn’t need to sleep. He could have just tranced and read some of the books Caleb had conjured up. Jester had recommended Tusk Love, although the book with the cat on it seemed to call to him. But after nearly dying several times and saving the world, Essek had decided to sleep like the others.

But with sleep came dreams. And dreams can always turn into nightmares. And he just couldn’t shake away the lingering threads of his dream. He had seen bits of it before. Messing with time and reality meant being able to peer into possibilities. He hadn’t told the Nein but he had seen some terrible fates. And this one stuck with him because of how close they had gotten to it.

His heartbeat still hadn’t calmed as the desire to check on Caleb grew within him. It was irrational. He knew his friend was fine. Probably asleep. There truly was no need to check on him. He should just trance and move on.

. . .

Essek found himself floating outside of Caleb’s door. He was about to knock when he heard another door open. He froze as Jester stepped out of Fjord’s room, making her way to the bathroom. Her eyes locked onto his and she let out a little gasp. He gave a awkward smile, to which she responded back with a wink and finger guns.

He was certain she would be asking him questions tomorrow. He hesitated. What exactly was he doing here? Say hey just checking if you’re okay because I was so afraid we would die and I don’t know if I could handle losing you? Essek wasn’t even sure where he stood with Caleb sometimes. Their relationship was so complicated and some of that was his own fault. Starting a war between countries doesn’t exactly scream trustworthy. Screw it. Essek tapped lightly on Caleb’s door.

“Caleb?”

“Ja, come in.”

*****************************************************

Somehow Essek found himself sitting by Caleb on his bed. Frumpkin was purring on Caleb’s lap as he absentmindedly pet the cat, closing the book he was reading.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

Essek gave a small smile. “Something like that.”

Caleb picked up Frumpkin and set him on the bed, turning to look at Essek. The drow met his gaze, unknowingly showing his fondness of his fellow wizard in his eyes. A wave of relief washed over him. He’s alive. He’s safe. We’re safe.

“I know we made plans to....exchange theories in Aeor, but can we put those on hold for a bit? I’m still itching to delve into the magic there, but I have some loose ends in the Empire I need to tie up first.”

“Of course. Honestly some distance away from that place might be good for everyone right now.”

Caleb smiled slightly. “Had enough adventuring, Thelyss?”

“I would prefer the fate of the world to not be hanging over our heads while we unravel the mysteries of time and space.”

They both shared a laugh. Essek hummed as he felt content here. Here where finally they can just be Caleb and Essek. Not the Shadowhand and the Ex-Scourger. Not the stopper and starter of a brutal and bloody war. Just Caleb and Essek. Two souls content to be in each other’s presence. The pretense of knowledge exchange was no longer necessary. Essek couldn’t help but think “This is why I love this man.”

Essek froze at that thought. He couldn’t deny it though. The numerous possibilities of Caleb’s demise had shaken him to the core when he saw them. Of course he didn’t enjoy seeing his other friends die or suffer a worse fate, but nothing compared to the fear and rage that accompanied the notion of losing Caleb.

Perceptive as ever, Caleb tapped Essek on the shoulder. “You okay?”

Essek chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “No. I am realizing how much of a fool I have been.”

“You’re on your way. I know I’m being hypocritical when I say don’t be too harsh on yourself. But you did just help save the world.”

“I didn’t mean in regards to the countless mistakes I made in pursuit of knowledge. Although I am foolish in that as well. But I meant how much of a fool I have been about my own feelings.”

Caleb nodded solemnly. “Those are tricky to navigate.”

They sat in silence, both refusing to meet each other’s gazes.

“Caleb I—”

“Essek—”

Both of them awkwardly motioned for the other to speak first. Essek decided he’ll bite the bullet.

“Caleb, I know that trusting me is hard. I wouldn’t have extended a hand to myself, to be honest. But you and the Nein have shown me how wonderful it is to have friends by your side. To have people who care about you. And I—I find myself afraid to lose that, yet also...knowing that I fully deserve to lose it.”

Caleb’s hands wraps around Essek’s. In another lifetime, those hands would have had eyes on it. In this life, all that mar them are scars and burn marks.

“I have been where you are. Stuck between wanting something good and feeling like it’s not for you. Many times...I have toyed with the idea of leaving my friends. Leaving the Nein. But I have found that staying with these people, with my family, they have helped me to be better. Maybe we don’t deserve this. Perhaps one day our hubris and folly will catch up to us.”

“Then why stay? Isn’t it better to run? I know that my sins will have me burning on a stake. I do not wish to involve you in this mess. I will not have you share my fate or ruin the possibilities awaiting you, Caleb. You spoke to me of the venom in our veins. Are you not afraid that one day that venom will spill out and hurt those around you?”

“I am very afraid of that. I have been afraid of that for a long time. Keeping my past from my friends out of fear, they would run once they saw the wickedness inside. But Essek, if there is one thing I have learned through all of this, it’s that the Mighty Nein doesn’t give up on people. They haven’t turned their backs on me. It is not so bad to let those who care about you help you.”

Caleb’s eyes were bright with some emotion Essek couldn’t place.

“I’m not turning my back on you either. You talked about trust. Well, trust me in that I will not let you go down that path again.”

Essek let out a shaky laugh. “I do trust you Caleb. I think I have since that day on the boat. But I don’t know if I can trust myself.”

Caleb leaned forwards, their foreheads now touching. Essek let their breathing sync up. Barring his soul had never felt so calming.

“I don’t fully trust myself either, but we said we’ll keep each other in check, ja?”

“I cannot say I know what will happen once we reach the outpost. I know I cannot hide from the Bright Queen forever. But I need you to know that I care deeply for you, Caleb Widogast. And I hold fast to the possibility of a future where you and I can walk the same path.”

“I dream of that future as well, Essek Thelyss. I need to confront my past and fix the wrongs in my country first. But time. We just need time. Then we will have our moment.”

“We already have time at our fingertips, do we not?”

Caleb laughed, soft and light. “This is why I love you.”

Caleb then froze and pulled back, looking away from the drow. Essek paused and then nodded. He cupped Caleb’s chin, pulling his gaze back to him.

“I am and have been for quite some time, it seems, irrevocably and uselessly in love with you too.”

****************************************************

Essek couldn’t help but smile as Caleb’s expression changed from surprise to a fondness that could not be put into words. A warm fluttering sensation went through him as Caleb closed the gap between them. Ah so this is what kissing Caleb feels like.

It feels like gravity has pulled him to the one place he belongs. A transformation of both souls becoming what they were meant to be. Gravity. Fire. Time. Transformation. Everything that made up the two of them in one single moment.

Maybe it was hours. Or possibly just minutes. But when they finally pulled apart, Essek had never felt more whole in his life. Consecution was meant to take the soul from one body into a new one. This was more. This was his soul finding the piece of himself he had been looking for all his life. His eyes taking in the man before him. Caleb’s eyes keep fluttering open and shut, clearly exhausted. Essek gently pushed him down into the bed.

“Stay with me tonight, Liebling?”

Essek nodded as he laid down next to Caleb, whose long ginger hair was spread out over his pillow like wildfire. Surprisingly, he found himself growing tired as well. Caleb had already fallen asleep with Essek’s hand in his, so Essek just watched the rise and fall of his wizard’s chest. As the two wizards slowly drifted into dreams of their future and the path they had swore to walk together, Frumpkin circled the middle of the bed and curled up between them.

Endless possibilites awaited them.

#shadowgast #caleb widogast #essek thelyss

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genshin-djinn · 3 years

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Princeps Cretaceus Act 1

he is a pretty, dangerous boy. perhaps a pretty dangerous boy.

general

I enjoyed Albedo’s quest for what it was— a Part 1 to the Festering Desire quests. It was fun, it was a good tutorial for Dragonspine, it was a nice introduction to Albedo’s slightly off “yes, I am a human” personality... but it felt extremely incomplete. I assume that Festering Desire will be what “completes” Princeps Cretaceus Act 1, and I really hope that players who join Genshin after Jan 2021 can have a chance to play through the Acts of Festering Desire.

Beyond that... Dragonspine is a neat region (post about that hopefully coming soon). Albedo’s JP voice is fantastic and so is his EN voice. The battle BGM in dragonspine is so good. [insert other complimentary things about Dragonspine here.]

albedo

As for Albedo himself... after initially watching Albedo’s character trailer I kinda thought “wow, this trailer doesn’t fit him at all”. But I was wrong and it does. Albedo is overall a rather blank and emotionless person but he can be incredibly (unintentionally) goofy in an endearing way— hoping that Aether has an extra organ, or that they have super vision, or that they can shatter cliffs using their sheer willpower.

Albedo’s morality is also rather odd in a way that’s sort of similar to Zhongli— he sees himself as separate from humans, and doesn’t quite know how they behave. Offering a stranger a suspicious drink ten minutes in to your friendship is not something a normal human would do, nor is bringing your new friend to a tall cliff and telling them to get to the bottom of it as fast as possible.

Albedo seems to see himself as one step removed from humans, and while this puts up multiple walls between him and his students (students - teacher, humans- nonhuman, idolizing - idolized) this also draws him to Aether in a way he doesn’t quiiiite admit in the quest. He likes Aether because they’re both inhuman, they’re both made up of matter that is not fully defined yet.

And Albedo is a very lonely person, because of these walls up between him and all of the humans he knows. Sucrose and Timaeus are his students; the citizens of Mondstadt are his admirers; and everyone, even his little sister Klee, is a human. Throughout his story quest he frequently asks Aether about things that make them much less “human” than the humans of Teyvat— having extra organs, having nonelemental superpowers, having inhuman skills. He seems almost disappointed that their skills are ordinary and theorizes that they’re unable to use their true powers on Teyvat.

It’s almost as if Albedo wants Aether to be inhuman in some way, because then they’ll be the same in their inhumanity. And then, maybe he won’t be so lonely anymore.

#genshin impact #genshin spoilers #genshin albedo #albedo #I apologize for the auto button’s cameo appearance #it’s a cool feature but most of my screenshots are taken during dialogue lol

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childotkw · 3 years

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Hiya! Adore all of your works!

Curious to know your twist on a muggle Harry who can't perform magic at all (or is he?) but is for some reason REALLY LUCKY (aside from having to deal w/ the dursleys) who accidently stumbles upon the wizarding community due to trying to run away from the dursleys, somehow manages to Mcguyver his way into living there w/out anyone the wiser and picks up a hobby of helping ppl out while still being undetected. He sees some of the shit going on and goes, huh that ain't right, and welp Harrys always had a clever head on his shoulders, common sense thru the roof, and crazy luck.

So he goes out of his way to to set things right the Harry way! So he does, using completely muggle means (?) to unknowingly fix wizarding society, after all nothing like a bit of duct tape, grit, wit, blackmail, ALOT OF LUCK, and a hyperfocused willpower to get the job done! But then people start Noticing and some get curious, and somehow everytime this tiny kid leaves somewhere, a messy situation is somehow magically(?) fixed but they don't understand HOW....and then Harry accidentally stumbles upon this bald dude in the forest he was picking some herbs and stuff from (mans gotta eat) and thru the power of concern (bruh you could get some weird disease from slurping raw animal blood wtf) and sheer luck manages to strike a weird tentative friendship(?) with the pasty bald dude w/ a vampire fetish(?) that clearly needs to get some help....but have no fear Harry's up to the task! He's always wanted a friend and he can start with this one, offer up his services and gain a friend!

Hello! Thank you - you're very sweet!

Harry just bullshitting his way through the wizarding world is absolutely hilarious. God, it's the ultimate bluff, and given the general lack of awareness the rest of wizarding Britain has, I fully believe they'd just never clue on.

I'm not sure if I'd ever write something like this, since I tend to like to do magically powerful Harrys. But it'd be fun to do as maybe instead of becoming an obscurial, Harry's magic finds other, safer ways to manifest. Uncle Vernon never quite remembering to lock the cupboard door. Dudley tripping over whenever he tries to start a new game of Harry Hunting. Aunt Petunia getting a call from a neighbour just before she launches into a scathing rant.

Harry doesn't understand his insane luck, but he's also smart enough not to question it. So one day, when Dudley is sick, and Aunt Petunia forgets to pick him up from school, Harry decides to walk home. Only, he doesn't quite remember the way - but that's okay! Because things just fall into place around him.

Along the way, he stumbles into the Wizarding World, and his luck carries him into finding a new home, with neighbours that dote on him - and Harry's always been a kind boy that is used to doing odd tasks to help out. So he...does.

His friend Tom comes later, and even though Harry found him when he was more misty and a hell of a lot less corporeal than most people, he still treasures him! And sure, sometimes Tom tries to drink his blood, and maybe he possessed a cat once, but he also starts to talk to Harry, and teaches him how to...target his luck and turn it into a weapon.

#infinitesky27 #harry potter #i probably wouldnt write this #but if someone else wants to take it on #feel free!

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satendou · 4 years

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⟼ a touch of warmth

holiday masterlist | next | 1/15

・‥…━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━…‥・

⇢ pairing: semi eita/reader/shirabu kenjirou

⇢ au: aged up!au

⇢ summary: you know it’s cliche, getting caught out in a snow storm, and you know it’s made worse when you’re forced to stay at semi and shirabu’s apartment. but the real icing on the cake is when the power goes out.

⇥ masterlist

⇢ warnings: pretty vanilla smut

⇢ word count: 5350

・‥…━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━…‥・

⇢ a/n: i have a headcanon that semi runs super fucking warm at all times and you cannot change my mind.

“Jesus, where the hell did this come from?” Semi snarled, trying and failing to shield his face from the snowflakes flying towards his eyes. They were squinted so close he could barely see, the wind whipping around his clothes and the bags in his hands, almost knocking him off balance.

A hand at his back steadied him even as the person used him as a shield, then your voice cut through the howling storm, “They said that a storm was coming but that it was still supposed to be a few hours yet.”

You were practically yelling to be heard, fingers curling into the back of his jacket so you wouldn’t lose him in the thickening swirl. Semi didn’t bother to answer, instead intent on not getting lost before he made it home. It was getting harder to breathe, his eyes starting to sting as the moisture tried to freeze, and he tugged his scarf higher up over his nose.

At last the apartment building came into view and your hand disappeared from his back.

“Oh no you don’t, you aren’t walking home in this,” Semi snapped, snatching your wrist back up and tugging you up the stairs. He would swear he heard a sigh of relief from you, wiping snow off of yourself with your free hand.

“Thanks, Semi,” you said, and he glanced back at you for only a moment, pretending the pink flush on his cheeks was from the biting wind. “I’d probably freeze to death out there.”

Semi huffed quietly into his scarf as he fiddled with his keys at the door to his apartment. “Can’t believe you actually thought we’d make you walk home in this. Unbelievable.”

You giggled quietly behind him, content to stand close enough to him to give him heart palpitations as he finally got the key in the lock. “You know I don’t like to assume things.”

“You can make an exception just this once, _____,” he sighed, shoving open the door to reveal a pacing Shirabu.

“Thank god you’re home,” he said, stopping short when he caught sight of the two of you covered in snow and shivering. “Get in here before your toes fall off. I can’t reattach frostbitten limbs.”

You laughed behind your trembling hand while Semi raised a brow. “Did you just make a joke?”

Shirabu’s face turned the faintest pink as he snapped, “It’s the stress. Don’t get used to it.”

“You’d have much higher marks for bedside manner if you did that more often,” Semi responded, setting the bags of you had almost died for on the counter, so missing the way his flush deepened. “We gotta get out of these wet clothes. I’m sure I have something for you, ____. I’ll be right back.”

While he was gone, you shed your jacket as you asked Shirabu, “Did they say how long this is supposed to last?”

He took the jacket and gloves from your hands and made his way towards the laundry room, leaving you to stand in front of the heater as he said, “Most of the night, but they aren’t sure. The cell moved a lot faster than expected and is bigger than they thought.”

Semi appeared behind him in the doorway, almost pressing against his back to hand him his own wet clothes, asking, “Do you have anything she can wear? I think all of my stuff is too big.”

“Yeah, just a sec,” he answered, turning and disappearing into his room.

Semi returned to the living room, pointing over his shoulder as he said, “Shirabu is gonna see if he has shorts or something that’ll fit. Then we should probably shower and eat before the power goes out.”

Shirabu appeared a few minutes later, looking flustered as he held out a pair of boxers and some sweatpants which were clearly too big. “This is all I have. Sorry.”

Heat crept up your neck and you couldn’t quite look him in the eyes when you took them from him, unable to help the small laugh that escaped you. “It’ll have to do, I guess. Thanks, Shirabu.”

“Uh, sure,” he answered, retreating a few steps back from you. “You guys should shower real quick. I’ll cook tonight.”

Semi allowed you to shower first, breathing a sigh of relief as feeling returned to your arms and legs. There was the uncomfortable sensation of pins and needles for a few moments, causing you to wince, before you stepped out of the shower. It took every ounce of willpower you possessed to get out of the warmth, slipping on your borrowed clothes. You had to roll the pants a few times to make them fit at the waist, but at least they were warm and dry.

You thanked yourself for buying a decent pair of boots, which had protected your socks from getting ruined. Even with the heaters going full blast, it was still chilly in the apartment.

While Semi showered, you crept up behind Shirabu in the kitchen, latching your arms around his waist and setting your head on his shoulder. “Can I help with anything?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin, dropping the packet of noodles he was holding into the sink with a startled gasp. “No, you-- Jesus, you scared the hell out of me,” he said, holding his hand over his racing heart. You were warm and smelled of Semi’s bodywash, your hair dripping water onto his neck and causing face to flush. “Do you feel better?”

“Much,” you murmured, and he would swear you nuzzled closer, feeling your lashes flutter against his skin. “Thank you for letting me stay. Can’t believe I actually got trapped by a snowstorm.”

“Would you shut up?” Shirabu snapped, his voice dropping before he continued. “You know we always want you here.”

He meant it, too. He wasn’t entirely sure when you became such a staple in their routine or when he and Semi had started to view you as more than just a friend, but they were both in deep by the time they realized it. To top it off, when they had first come to realize that the other felt the same way about you it had caused some tension in their friendship, resorting to ignoring their feelings for the sake of everything at that point.

It was easier said than done though, with you standing in his clothes smelling like Semi who, Shirabu was reluctant to admit, had morphed into something more as well. Maybe it was the way you and Semi interacted, or maybe it was the way the dynamics between the two of them changed just by the sheer virtue of your presence, but something had definitely given in Shirabu’s mind. He could easily imagine being with the two of you, and had on more than one occasion.

Your heart stuttered in your chest at his muttered words, hope blooming before quickly being tamped down again, leaving you with a small smile. Squeezing around his middle, you made yourself more comfortable against his back, breathing in the clean, fresh smell that always surrounded him while he fiddled with the pot on the stove.

“You’re making this exceptionally hard,” he drawled, even though he hadn’t even attempted to get rid of you. You had remained attached as he moved from the sink down to the stove, shuffling behind him like an oversized leech as he dumped everything into the boiling pot.

“Mhm,” you hummed, squeezing your arms for just a moment to let him know you weren’t going anywhere, and he laughed under his breath. “Tell me to get off and I will.”

“Get off,” he deadpanned, though his heart sank even as he said it. It was a reflex response and he cursed himself for it.

“Rude,” you said, then laughed. “But no. You’re warm and do you really want me to?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he said, even as he though, No, no I don’t.

Footsteps sounded from down the hall, then Semi appeared in the archway, a brow raised as he leaned against the frame. “Don’t you two look cozy. Dinner ready yet?”

Shirabu froze for a moment against you, expecting jealousy or ire, but he heard only amusement in Semi’s voice. Hoping you would just assume he was startled, he answered, “No because _____ here won’t let go.”

Semi laughed at that, cocking his head to the side and opening his arms. “Why don’t you come here and let Shirabu finish cooking?”

You seemed to think about it for a moment before shaking your head.

“No,” you said petulantly, but the smirk you gave him was almost a challenge, as if to say Come get me.

Shirabu groaned in aggravation as more weight settled on his shoulders, a frustrated laugh bursting from his lips as he realized Semi had piled on top of you now. Your happy laughter filled his ears, vibrating against his back while Semi’s hands settled comfortably on his sides, chuckling along with you.

“Do the two of you want to eat tonight or just sleep in a pile on the kitchen floor?” Shirabu asked, trying to be grumpy and failing miserably. You could see the corners of his lips turned up, the flush on his cheeks, and Semi could hear the smile in his words.

“No, but considering the power is probably gonna go out later, maybe we should sleep in a pile on the couch,” Semi said, not quite as joking as he should have been.

“Real subtle, Semi,” you said, rolling your eyes even as you smiled. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that.”

He shrugged in response, heart flipping in his chest when you didn’t quite say no. “We’ll see how you feel when you’re freezing cold on the couch, but don’t come crawling to me.”

“She won’t, because you’ll both be crawling to me since I have the bigger bed and all the blankets,” Shirabu said reflexively, his hands freezing over the pot as he realized what he’d said.

Expecting silence, he was pleasantly surprised when you burst out into more laughter while Semi mumbled, “Well that’s because you keep stealing them. You have like six blankets what do you need that many for?”

“For if the power goes out of course,” he answered with a shrug, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You know I get cold easily.”

“Yeah, Semi, not everyone runs a toasty 150 degrees all year round,” you quipped, earning a hard poke to the side from behind.

Shirabu scoffed, turning the burner off and reaching above him to pull bowls from the cabinet. “He would be dead if he were that h-high.”

He tensed when he felt your fingers drift over his abs, realizing his shirt had ridden up as he stretched towards the cabinet. Stumbling over his words, he grabbed the bowls and hunched back down, but his shirt bunched up over your hand still resting on his skin.

“Yes, Shirabu, we know that,” you drawled, letting your hand remain exactly where it was. You had felt him freeze against you, heard his breath skip, but he didn’t push you off. “But tell me he doesn’t feel that warm.”

“I’m actually secretly a werewolf,” Semi said, pulling away from you at last as Shirabu doled out spoonfuls of soup into the bowls.

You moved back reluctantly as well, shivering as the chilly air encircled you again. You hadn’t realized until then that it actually was cold, at least compared to the two men. A bowl was shoved into your hands, piping hot and causing your skin to tingle as it warmed up again.

“You’re actually secretly an idiot,” Shirabu retorted, pushing him forward out of the kitchen. “Now eat before it gets cold.”

For a few hours after that, you sat almost on top of one another underneath one of Shirabu’s thick blankets to stave off the cold. With your legs tangled together and your head resting on Shirabu’s shoulder, you eventually found yourself falling asleep.

“We should probably go to bed as well,” Shirabu said, watching your eyes flutter open for the nth time in twenty minutes.

Semi reluctantly picked his head up from where it had been almost buried against your neck, shooting Shirabu an almost betrayed look before agreeing. “Guess you’re right. I’m surprised the power’s still on, honestly.”

Shirabu nodded, smirking when you grumbled as he got up. Your hand grasped at his shirt weakly, trying and failing to keep him from getting any further before you slumped down to lay on the couch. “Give it an hour and it’ll be out, probably.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Semi muttered. Or do, give me an excuse.

Tucking the blanket around your shoulders, they turned the lights and TV off before bidding each other an almost reluctant goodnight, the apartment falling silent after the click of their doors closing.

You weren’t sure how much time had passed when you woke up shivering, but the clock on your phone read only midnight. Squinting in the harsh glare, you realized the apartment was unnaturally silent, the buzz of the heaters and the hum of the fridge missing. The only sound was the howling wind and your teeth chattering as you tucked the blanket closer around yourself. Your nose burned with each breath before you finally pulled the blanket up over your nose and ears. Curling into a ball, you tried to get back to sleep.

After what felt like an eternity later, the sound of a door opening caught your attention, and light blinded you when you rolled over to look.

“Hey, are you awake?” Semi asked, voice shaking with cold. “It’s freezing out here.”

“Y-Yeah, I’m awake. Guess the power finally went out,” you said, sitting up as he approached the couch.

Before he could sit down, another door opened and Shirabu appeared in the hallway. “Can anyone else sleep in this cold? I can’t feel my damn fingers.”

“Not even all those blankets are enough to keep you warm, huh?” Semi quipped, though it fell flat with his voice trembling.

“Shirabu doesn’t have enough body heat to warm ‘em up,” you joked, rubbing your hands up and down your arms. You thought about getting your jacket out of the dryer and putting it on, but that would mean getting out from under the blanket, which meant being even colder.

Shirabu’s flustered huff caught your attention, scratching the back of his head as he said, “Do you guys wanna--”

“Yes.”

You and Semi looked at each other before breaking out into nervous laughter while Shirabu scoffed.

“You don’t even know what I was gonna say!” he yelled, even as Semi pushed him back down the hall and into his room.

“Sure we don’t,” he said, turning around to guide you further into the room. “What else could you have been asking?”

Under his breath, Shirabu said, “Maybe I was just gonna offer more blankets.”

“Mhm. You getting in or what?” Semi said from where he had already made himself comfortable. You were tucked as close as could be to his chest, hands pinned between you with one of his arms shoved under your head and the other slung over your waist. You were instantly warmer already, with the blankets piled on top of you and tucked around your neck.

Still muttering, Shirabu climbed in on your other side, hesitant to move closer until you snatched his arm up and tugged. Cold fingers skimmed up your side where your shirt had ridden up in your squirming, causing you to shiver, but you only continued to pull until he was molded against your back.

A sigh ruffled the hair at the back of your neck, a cold nose pressing into your hairline as Shirabu hid his face from the cold. Semi tucked your head under his chin, burying his face in one of the many pillows Shirabu owned, heaving a sigh of relief.

“So much better,” he mumbled, and even Shirabu hummed in agreement, squirming closer and forcing his hand between the two of you, grazing--

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” he gasped, yanking his hand back as fast as he had accidentally groped your breast, shame and perceived rejection flushing white hot through him. “That was an accident, I swear. I--”

Your eyelids had fluttered open at his touch, able to feel the chill even though your shirt, causing your nipple to pebble. “‘Jirou.”

A pin could have been heard hitting the floor in the silence that followed, both men tensing up as heat flooded through you, embarrassed at the way you had whined his name.

A warmer, more calloused hand trailed over your side, pushing your shirt further up tentatively, and your heart stuttered in your chest. When you didn’t stop it, it paused, a nose grazing your forehead and down over your own.

You could feel Semi’s lips move against the tip, voice breathless and hopeful as asked, “Do you want--? I mean, you said--”

Shirabu was still frozen behind you, breath ragged against the back of your neck as he listened to Semi’s stuttered question, hoping against hope that somehow this was actually going to happen. To his utter horror, the blood was rushing from his face straight down, and he subtly shifted his hips back from where they were pressed against your ass.

“Well, I--” you hesitated for just a moment, wondering what would happen in the morning, if it would cause a fight between the two of them. Finally you whispered, “Yes, but it’s selfish, isn’t it? I want both of you, but I don’t want to lose either of you.”

Semi laughed low in his throat, nose pressing against your cheekbone so you could feel his lips move against yours. “Yeah, it’s pretty selfish, but I think we are too. If you want both of us, you can have both of us. You already do, anyway.” He silenced your startled noise with his lips, pushing you to roll onto your back before pulling away. “This alright with you, Kenjirou?”

Before he could think, Shirabu reached up to tangle his fingers in Semi’s hair, forcing the man to look at him. “Can I kiss you?”

His eyes widened in the dark, unseen by Shirabu, but it didn’t matter. Reaching out blindly, his hand found his cheek and he leaned in, clumsily seeking out Shirabu’s lips. He missed the first time, but Shirabu was quick to correct, molding their mouths together in a hesitant kiss that quickly turned heated. They fought for dominance above you, Semi’s arm braced above your head, knee between your legs before Shirabu finally caved.

“This works out rather well,” Semi said cheerfully, turning his focus back to you. He grasped the hem of your shirt and tugged upwards, exposing your torso to the cold air, nipples hardening as you shivered. “Wish we could see, though.”

“We have all day tomorrow,” Shirabu hissed as he pulled his own shirt off, the chill sweeping over his skin. “Hopefully it storms tomorrow night too.”

Too busy forcing Semi’s shirt over his head, you didn’t respond besides clenching your thighs together at the thought of being trapped with them for another day.

You couldn’t say you minded.

Two sets of hands met on Semi’s chest, both colder than he liked and he quickly fell back to your side, pulling the blankets back up over you.

“This might be a bit tricky,” Shirabu conceded as warmth crept over him again. That didn’t stop him from tugging his pants down his legs, kicking them off to the foot of the bed, and yours quickly followed suit.

You almost hissed when the length of his hard cock pressed against your thigh, almost hot against your skin. Semi was already trailing his fingers up your inner thigh, grazing over your hooded clit before hooking your leg over his hips.

“We’ll make it work,” he said, though he almost choked when your hand palmed his cock through his sweats. “Just a sec, since you’re so eager.”

You already had a hand wrapped around Shirabu, his hips rolling in time with your strokes, smearing precum down his shaft. Warm breath fanned across your neck where he’d hidden his face, before you turned and pressed your lips to his.

Your other hand was guided back down, Semi’s hand forcing yours to wrap around his head, smearing precum across your palm. “God, princess, you feel better than I imagined. We’ve wanted this forever.”

“M-Me too,” you gasped when two different hands touched your folds, one warm and rough, the other soft but cold. The duality made you squirm, desperate for more as you imagined Shirabu’s fingers dipping inside you. “‘m sorry I’m selfish, I-- You’re both so--”

“So what, sweet girl?” Shirabu breathed against your lips, condescension dripping from his words. “Tell us.”

The words bottled up in your throat as Semi started circles on your clit, leaving Shirabu to toy at your entrance. You were pinned beneath them, hips held down by both their arms even though you tried to squirm, begging for more.

“You like that, like when we touch you so nicely?” Semi whispered in your ear, nipping the lobe gently. “If we knew you wanted this so bad, we might have done this sooner.”

“Yes, yes,” you whined, and Shirabu had to hook your other leg over his to keep you spread open for them. You didn’t even have time to bemoan the loss of his touch before it was back, one slender finger finally sinking inside you. “‘Jirou.”

“Hm?” he asked, curling his arm up and tangling his fingers in Semi’s hair. “Did you like that?”

Semi hissed when he tugged roughly, pulling him away from where he had been mouthing at your shoulder, at the same time your hand tightened around his cock. He was smearing pre across the outside of your thigh, thrusting his hips in time with your strokes, but they stuttered for a moment. “Yeah she did. Give her another one.”

You clenched around Shirabu’s fingers at the thought, both hands squeezing and twisting roughly around them, milking more precum to spread across your skin as a second fit inside you. They crooked up, dragging down the front wall of your fluttering cunt, seeking out the sweet spot inside you.

Both men shivered, Shirabu stifling his grunt against your neck but Semi moaned for you to hear.

“Fuck, I--” Shirabu started, devolving into moan that rumbled in his chest.

“Me too, fuck, me too,” Semi panted, pulling away from you completely. “You started it, you go first.”

You whined at the loss, reaching blindly out into the dark, smearing a mess across his chest. He snatched your hand up, mindlessly pressing his lips to your knuckles.

“Are you-- Are you sure?” Shirabu asked, trying and failing to meet his eyes in the darkness.

His touch disappeared as well, guiding himself to hover partway over you, seeking Semi out as he said, “Yeah, if you’re alright with it, princess?”

Curling your arm around Shirabu’s neck, you hummed as his cock nestled against your folds. You could hear the sounds of kissing just above you, your hand still clasped against Semi’s chest. “I am, just hurry up.”

That elicited muffled chuckles from the both of them, Shirabu starting a slow roll of his hips that slid his cock back and forth across your clit.

“You aren’t gonna regret this in the morning, are you?” Semi asked playfully when he pulled away from Shirabu.

“I’m not unless you don’t quit teasing,” you huffed, locking your leg around Shirabu’s hips.

“That attitude is gonna have to be curbed,” Shirabu teased, bracing himself on one hand over you. The other found your chin, tilting your head up until he could find your lips with his. “I don’t deal well with brats.”

“Wouldn’t be a brat if you would just--”

You broke off with a gasp, back arching up into his chest when he finally, finally slid himself in, slick walls parting easily until he was buried to the hilt.

A broken noise filled the room, hands flying up to wrap around his biceps while Semi chuckled beside you.

“What was that, princess? If he would just…?” His fingers tangled in your hair, turning your head towards him so he could whisper against your lips, “Shirabu doesn’t deal with attitude well. I’d suggest you watch yourself.”

Shirabu didn’t wait for you to adjust, dragging his hips back just so he could slam back in, already hitting your cervix with every thrust. He fell down to his elbow, seeking out your warmth while the cold air bit into his back, the blanket having fallen down to his hips.

The chill wasn’t much of a problem anymore, your focus solely on the drag of every vein against your walls, the crown of his cock rubbing up against the spot he was looking for earlier. You were crying out his name and begging for more, arms moving up to loop around his neck, pulling him down flush with your chest. Your nails bit into his back, goosebumps rippling over his skin as your legs tightened around his hips, forcing him deeper.

“Gonna cum if you keep that up,” he bit out, breath puffing against your neck. His head was swimming, the darkness forcing him to focus solely on the way you sucked him back in, dripping down his balls and easing every thrust.

Semi was occupying your mouth, slipping his tongue between your lips to taste you. After a moment, you felt his hand cup your breast, rolling and plucking your nipple between his fingers teasingly. lt was a gentle contrast the way Shirabu pulled out and snapped back into you, pinching your clit against his pubic bone.

“Don’t stop, please, ‘Jirou,” you begged, teetering on the edge of coming around him. You just needed one last push, him to angle his hips up--

You gasped when a warm mouth wrapped around your nipple and sucked, walls spasming around Shirabu, who jerked up inside you when you did. You were coming before you knew it, clenching rhythmically around him and milking him deep inside you, a litany of curses spilling loudly from his lips.

“A little warning next time, Eita?” Shirabu gasped, pulling out and collapsing beside you, resting his arm on his forehead.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he answered, releasing your nipple with a wet pop. “Roll over towards ‘Jirou, sweetheart.”

You were still trembling from aftershocks, pussy pulsing and forcing Shirabu’s cum to drip out until Semi nudged the head of his cock into you, pushing it back in. He groaned into your ear, molding his chest to your back and pressing his nose to your hair, hands holding your hips for dear life.

“You feel so fuckin’ good,” he growled, carving through your clenching walls until his tip met your swollen cervix. “You’re gonna come for me again, aren’t you? Kenjirou got to feel you, let me too.”

Shirabu shifted beside you when you mewled, muffling the noise with a kiss as Semi fucked you from behind. His pace was far different from the former’s, gentle and slow, carefully grazing your overstimulated nerves until it tipped over from painful to pleasurable. He could feel when you relaxed, hooking your leg back over his hip only for Shirabu to lift it up, spreading you wide for Semi.

Your fingers tangled in Shirabu’s soft hair, breath coming in pants and tiny moans against his lips, meeting them occasionally with your own only to pull away to whine.

“Eita,” you breathed, hugging Shirabu closer. His cock was still half-hard, sitting just right that every one of Semi’s thrusts dragged your clit against it. “Gonna come again, please don’t stop.”

“Good girl,” he groaned, feeling you tighten around him. You were so wet, so messy from a mix of your own slick and Shirabu’s cum, dripping down his balls and making a mess of his thighs and yours. “So perfect, so good for us. We’re not gonna leave this bed tomorrow, I don’t care if it’s snowing or not. Wanna see you, wanna watch you come for us.”

You tightened up at his words, whining into Shirabu’s mouth. He took advantage of it, running his tongue across yours and greedily taking in your taste.

“Can’t believe we waited this long to do this,” he panted when he pulled back, shifting and rolling his hips in time with yours. He reached out blindly until he found Semi’s hand, linking their fingers together and squeezing.

Semi huffed out a laugh before kissing just below your ear and down, humming against your jaw. “I won’t wait that long to do it again, I promise you that.”

You were barely listening to them, the coil in your lower belly tightening again, waves of heat spreading through you as every thrust managed to graze the swollen bundle of nerves inside you. You couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose, but you were drooling around his cock, begging him to go deeper, to fill you up and make you come.

They both groaned at your filthy words, high pitched and whiny, needy for them to take care of you.

“We’ve got you. Just let go,” Semi whispered in your ear, shifting down and thrusting sharply into you, sinking even deeper and slamming against that spot*.

White flashed behind your eyes, Shirabu’s slender fingers replacing his cock on your clit, circling so fast you clamped down on Semi. He managed to hilt inside you only twice more before you started coming, back locking up and forcing your ass back into his pelvis.

Like Shirabu, he spit out a string of curses at how tight you were, milking him dry before he could think to pull out. You felt so good fluttering around his cock that even when he was spent, he didn’t pull out, content to plug you up as he softened inside you.

The room fell silent again for a few minutes, basking in the afterglow. Shirabu pulled the pile of blankets back up over your shoulders, letting his arm settle across your side. His hand rested on Semi’s side, forehead pressed to yours, while Semi’s fingers wrapped around his arm to complete the tangle of limbs the three of you had become.

“I know what you said earlier,” you said at last, whispering with your eyes closed. You were so close to falling asleep, nestled between them, but you wanted to know before you got your hopes up. “But was this a one time thing?”

Semi shifted behind you while Shirabu huffed in annoyance, peeking an eyes open even though he couldn’t see you.

“Not if you don’t want it to be. We’d actually really like to date you,” Semi answered, trying to push even closer to you.

He only succeeded in pressing you closer to Shirabu, who moved to tuck your head beneath his chin. Shirabu was content to let Semi do the talking, knowing he was better at it anyway, and already knew everything Shirabu wanted to say.

“Oh,” you said, and sounded surprised for some reason. “I’d like that. I didn’t think...Well, I didn’t think you would be alright sharing.”

“I didn’t think we would either, but I guess somewhere along the way things changed. ‘Jirou, you--”

“Yeah,” Shirabu said, cutting Semi off. “I don’t know when but I-- I like you too, Eita. Sorry if I--”

“Nah, I feel the same,” Semi said, squeezing his arm. “Well that settles that then, doesn’t it?”

“Seems so,” you whispered, nuzzling at the column of Shirabu’s throat. You forced your leg between his and your arm beneath his, content now that you had your answer. “G’night, guys.”

“Night, sweetheart,” Semi whispered, while Shirabu pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

Your breathing evened out against his throat, body going slack so quickly it was almost laughable, but they followed quickly behind, too tired to have anymore conversation that night.

⇥ masterlist

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henoda4 · 3 years

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--Just a little ficlet I had rolling around in my brain after the latest manga chapter. Can be read as platonic or romantic bkdk. Hopefully not too OOC, and probably some grammatical errors. Enjoy!--

* Manga spoilers- for those not caught up to chapter 317, ye' be warned!*

Finding that which is Lost:

It's been days, multiple infuriating days of searching, flying over rooftops and zigzagging through desolate alley ways and getting mostly useless information from the occasional civilian. Bakugou was pissed, hell he'd been pissed since he'd woken up in a hospital only to find out Deku was still unconscious, and then later to a goddamn letter and a nerd who'd gone off to fuck-knows-where. Uraraka had tried to tell him that he was probably just scared more so than angry, that they all were. Naturally he told her to shove it. But more than anything he'd been pissed from the moment that All Might walked right back into the UA dorms, fucking months later, looking absolutely miserable and terrified. The former Pro Hero had barely gotten the explanation out of what he and Deku had been up to before he'd straight up slugged the man. Deku left All Might behind? Deku's pushing everyone away? What the fuck does that even mean? Godammit, didn't he warn the damn nerd not to do this shit?! All Might at least had the decency to look apologetic, as if he knew he deserved the hit.

As he moves the buildings start to blur a bit and he recalls a memory from the recesses of his mind. He and Deku had been very little, he doesn't recall how old exactly, he just knew it was at some point before he had driven a wedge between their friendship, and it was the first time both of their families had gone on a camping trip. The two children had wandered away from the campsite for a bit to explore. He recalls several minutes passing and him and Deku getting separated, and even though /he/ wasn't scared of anything in the woods, he wanted to keep Deku close, you know, just in case, poor nerd would probably bawl his eyes out without him. Sure enough after a few minutes of searching he heard loud sobs and found the green haired boy crouched underneath a tree, his knees all scratched up from taking a tumble. Deku's green eyes lit up in relief upon seeing him and his little heart swelled at the reaction.

"Kacchan!"

"Stupid Izuku! I told you to stay with me!"

"I know, I'm sorry Kacchan, I guess I got lost."

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah-"

"Well, come on then!"

He grabbed Deku's hand and yanked him upright, then practically pulled him along behind him.

He put on his best All Might voice impression, "It's okay now, ya' know why? Because I'm here so you're not lost anymore. Let's go back Izuku!"

If he'd turned behind him, he'd have seen the beaming smile aimed his way.

But all he heard was the small, "Thanks, Kacchan."

Back in the present moment, Bakugou was snapped out of his memory by a blur of green, and he abruptly came to a halt on a rooftop. Looking over the edge, he saw down to the street below where there was another flash of green and just as suddenly a figure stepped out, their silhouette half covered in shadows. His eyes widened, he was far away, so he couldn't be sure. But that lightning, the black-green tendrils that trailed the figure, it had to be...it couldn't be. He leapt ahead to the next building over making sure never to lose sight of the ground below, and then jumped down the side to stay out of the figure's line of vision. He silently thanked Hatsume for the upgrades to his gauntlets that rendered them way quieter than usual. As he peaked around the corner he saw the figure walk close to the sides of the building heading his direction. Suddenly their head came under a direct beam of light from a street lamp, and he felt his whole body freeze from the inside out.

The person in front of him, was unmistakably Deku. The teal jumpsuit, worn and disgustingly dirty and covered in various degrees of drying blood, his leg bracers ripped to shreds, those ridiculous bunny ears frayed, and those red shoes that he would recognize anywhere. It was Deku, but not Deku as he had named him, a useless person, incapable of doing anything, and not Deku as the boy himself had taken the meaning, a person capable of anything, full of unlimited promise. No this was Deku as in a doll, a mere foreboding vessel of power and purpose. There was nothing in those green eyes, glowing but soulless. It was Deku, but it was no longer the Deku he knew, and it definitely wasn't Midoriya Izuku.

"I know you're there. Although if you're not here to attack me, then what is your purpose?"

Bakugou flinched at the voice, momentarily having forgotten about "Danger sense", All Might had tried to explain before, but he'd been a little too preoccupied planning how to get around the security at UA to go after Deku to pay close attention to the details.

He figured to hell with it and stepped out into Deku's line of view.

"What the hell do you think I'm here for Deku?"

Now Deku froze, his head raising slightly. His voice came out quiet and hesitant, completely unfitting the ominous aura his appearance gave off.

"Kacchan? Is that really you?"

"Who the fuck else would it be?"

To his surprise Deku started approaching him again, the tendrils of black whip receding and the lightning dimming to nothing. When he was close enough he yanked his hood down, and Bakugou got an up close look at the grime and blood caked on his face, the sunken eyes and black bags of sleep deprivation.

"What the fuck happened to you Deku?"

The green haired boy seemed nearly ready to collapse, as if he was standing upright on sheer willpower and adrenaline alone. Bakugou fought the urge to grab him and throttle him, as fragile as he seemed at the moment, like a breathe would knock him over. Instead it was Deku who grabbed him by the arm as if he couldn't believe his eyes alone, and needed the physical confirmation of his presence.

"I'm glad you're okay. I was worried... after you, you know."

Bakugou felt his anger boil back to the surface.

"Worried about me?! What the fuck?! Worry about yourself for fucking once! Do you have any idea how upset everyone was when you took off after nearly dying, and then left only a fucking letter! How worried sick your mom is?! How scared your fucking shitty friends are?!"

He didn't realize he was shaking until he felt Deku's hand slide down his arm slightly.

"I'm sorry Kacchan, I know I should've talked to you in person. But I had to go, and if I had waited, you would have tried to stop me."

"DAMN RIGHT I WOULD HAVE!"

Silence.

"I told you not to do this shit on your own Deku, I told you not to play the hero on your own. Do you not think I'm strong enough to help you?! Are you actually fucking looking down on me this time?!"

"No, of course not! I told you I've never looked down on you. I just....I can't see you get hurt for me again. I can't risk anyone getting hurt again because of me, because I couldn't do anything to protect them....I can't let that happen! I have to do this on my own. OFA was given to me so I could-"

"You're such a fucking idiot. You think you can take down every fucking villain on your own? Take down AFO on your own?"

The little shit had the nerve to smile awkwardly at him, "I've managed fine so far."

Bakugou yanked his arm out of Deku's grasp, and gestured at his whole body.

"This! This is not fine! You're barely standing, you're covered in blood and you look like you haven't slept in weeks. When's the last time you fucking ate? You can't keep this up Deku, even in his prime All Might didn't handle shit like this. And I know I said some real shitty stuff in the past about you being quirkless, but you are more than just OFA's vessel. You were the one to fucking get that through my head.. that we are more than just our quirks. So what the hell?"

"I-"

"Just let me help you Deku."

"But Kacc-"

"Dammit! It took me years to understand that you genuinely wanted to help me not because you thought I was weak, but just because you're a natural born hero and you care about me or some shit. Just..just let me return the favor for once. You don't have to do this alone."

He turned his head away uncomfortably, suddenly acutely aware of how inept he was at expressing himself in these delicate situations. How was he supposed to get through to Deku? Would this be enough? The nerd always seemed to be able to read him like a book, he hoped that proved to be the case now.

"Ka-"

He felt his eyes sting with unshed tears. He was running out of options, aside from pummeling the nerd into submission. But for once he wanted to chose a different option.

"Please Izuku." He lifted his gaze to meet his child hood friend's. A silent plea hanging in the air.

In the span of seconds that felt like an eternity they kept eye contact and Deku seemed like he was trying to find something in that contact, like a promise, or a confirmation, whatever it was, he finally sighed and lowered his gaze to the ground.

It was barely a whisper.

"Okay."

Bakugou let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Can you walk nerd?" He extended his hand out to the green haired teen who took it right away. He tightened his grip immediately.

"Yeah, but I'm a little sleepy-"

Before Deku could finish, and without a word Bakugou yanked the other teen towards himself and lifted him up. The teen seemed surprisingly small and light in his arms, a far cry from the monstrous visage he painted when they first crossed paths several minutes ago.

As he walked down the blocks and could feel the tension leave Deku's body as his form went slack, he gazed down to see the nerd's eyes slowly closing, he must be exhausted. He kept walking down the vacant streets, on alert for any potential threats, the nerd's weight a comforting presence in his arms. He assumed the other teen was already unconscious .

He briefly gazed up and saw the stars through the gaps between the building silhouettes, he thought back again to that time in the forest as kids.

He whispered in the dark, "It's okay now, ya' know why? Because I'm here so you're not lost anymore. Let's go back."

If he had looked down a second time he would have seen the subtle but content smile aimed at him. But all he heard was the small, "Thanks, Kacchan." before the teen fell asleep in his arms.

#bkdk #platonic bkdk #bkdk fic #bnha bkdk #bnha #mha bkdk #bnha angst #bnha spoilers #bnha 317

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jingo · 3 years

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Before I pop off on something for a moment here, I really want to emphasize that there is a very fine line drawn between fiction and reality, and that line needs to be maintained constantly. One satisfies the imagination (escapism, fantasy, etc.), and the other satisfies responsibilities. The two are not meant to intermingle casually, and trying to force one to become more like the other can either make someone an absolute killjoy or an immature troublemaker.

Anyway:

For all the criticisms “Power of Friendship” shows tend to endure, I never hear anyone complain about the villains’ power-ups the same way they complain about protagonists’ power-ups.

Mid-battle, the villain is basically like, “I’m angrier now, so now I can fire a more powerful version of my Angry Beam!” which inevitably does some real damage to the protagonist and puts him/her in a pinch.

Some bad guys come back from the dead out of a sheer desire for revenge against the protagonist (and so the writers don’t need to write a new villain).

Naturally, the protagonists are going to have “good guy” versions of those abilities because these kinds of stories are typically about the clash of willpowers between good and evil. That’s the genre. That’s the name of the game. This isn’t about constant resource management and realism (granted, realism is its own kind of fantasy that doesn’t want to admit it, but I digress), it’s about being an art form that excels at giving the audience visual representations of emotions and heartfelt expressions, both good and evil.

TL;DR - See paragraph 1.

#I don't know why I felt like I needed to spell this out #It just seems like more and more people miss the point #and they get so angry about it too #power of friendship #heroes #villains #storytelling

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vampiresuns · 4 years

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Aelius Anatole Radošević De Silva

Anatole has changed a bit as a character since i was around the first time, so he’s getting re introduced. His open to make friends.

art by @elizastarkart

Name: Aelius Anatole Radoševic De Silva. He has two surnames because his mother is latina. He is a mixed Latine-Slav, with family that is all latine, vesuvian, and slavic. People he’s friend’s with call him Anatole (russian/greek pronunciation, he doesn’t acknowledge the French one). Only people he has a strictly professional relationship with, and his uncle call him Aelius.

‘Aelius’ means sun, while ‘Anatole’ means sunrise. He’s fully aware of this, he chose his name himself.

His nicknames are:

‘Nana’ is the most common nickname, and the one most people use.

His mother calls him Lilito, Nana, Nanito, Toly, Tolito, Tortolito.

His father calls him Lily or Lilu.

Toly, Tolytoly or Tolito are nicknames used by his maternal grandmother, his aunt, and his Vesuvian family.

He will not mind if you want to call him Toly, but you cannot call him Lily/Lilu if you’re not his father.

Asra came up with Nanatole, which he doesn’t like but lets Asra call him anyway. Asra also came up with Nana Banana and that is absolutely forbidden.

Family: on his father’s side both the Radošević, who are slavic (yugoslavic, specifically), and the Cassano, a prominent Vesuvian family who has had a hold of the Consulship for years.

On his mother side, the De Silva.

His father’s name is Vladislav, but everyone calls him Vlad, he’s an alchemist, a polymath, and works in what is most similar to biochemical engineering. He has one bother, named Valeriy, who you, however, might now as Valerius. Vlad’s biggest personality trait is being head over heels in love with his wife, and adoring his son more than he thought it was humanly possible to care about someone.

His mother’s name is Louisa De Silva (if you want to add her mother’s surname, it’s Lascal). The L-o-u spelling was a registry mistake she never changed. She moved half across the world while her native country suffer a military-civilian dictatorship to study Medicine. She swore never to go back as long as vestiges of said dictatorship remained in the country. She has two sisters: Paris, who lives in Vesuvia, and Alma, who remained with her parents out of her own choosing. Her medical experience include having been a volunteer war doctor. She didn’t change her surname when she got married.

The Radošević (pronounced Radozheveech) and the Cassano have been entangled families by friendship for generations upon generations, with some marriages between them. Notoriously: Vlad and Val’s father married a Cassano, Matilda, and his bother Mircea, Anatole’s great uncle, also married a Cassano: Florentino. Mircea’s brother and Matilda Cassano died when Vlad and Val were children still, so him and Florentino brought them up.

The Radošević are an overall eccentric family (think the european Addams family), whom are noted for: one, their self-sufficiency/self-preservation, which comes out in a very ‘eccentric people of the world unite’ manner. They appreciate people with character. Two, their leanings towards trades/professions, they do not conceive not doing anything (work hard to play hard). The Cassano, while sharing the quirk, they add the zest for life. It’s like they grabbed the Radošević and told them “you have forgotten how to live and we will remind you how.” Both of them are ridden with racially ambiguous bastard you cannot kill in any way that matters. They simply refuse to. Someone (either the courtiers or Lucio) compared them to roaches, they took it as a compliment.

This will tell you a lot about Anatole’s character.

On a last note, Anatole’s an only child. He has a good relationship with his parents, albeit marked by a sense of distance, solely because he was privately tutored from age 15 and on, which required him to travel a fair share. He was an argumentative teenager, but always cherished whenever he could see his parents. The older he gets, the closer they all become.

Favourite Food: Cake

Favourite drink: Coffee, in general.

Favourite Flower: Iris

Birthday: Nov 1st

Age: 29 (I calculate his age as if he had been born in 1991)

Zodiac:

Sun: Scorpio

Moon: Virgo

Rising: Libra

Mercury & Mars: Scorpio

Venus: Virgo

Patron arcana: Strength & Ace of Swords

Strength

Upright: inner strength, bravery, compassion, focus, Reversed: self doubt, weakness, insecurity

Ace of Swords

Upright: breakthrough, clarity, sharp mind, Reversed: confusion, brutality, chaos

MBTI Type: INTJ-A

Gender: Transmasculine, but Nonbinary. Uses He/Him pronouns only

Orientation: Identifies as NBLM.

LIs: Julian, Muriel, @ilyamatic‘s Andrico, @thelazaretmakesmesad‘s Vishal.

“The sun-like strategist with a solution for everything, and a whole lot of hope in the future.”

More details under the cut!

Physical appearance:

art by @lesbianarcana

5′4. As you can see in the sprite down below, while he’s slim but with muscle, out of doing a moderate to high level of physical activity. The man has a nice waist and inherited his mother’s hips, which he’s very proud of. He likes his legs and his butt the most about himself

Dark brown eyes, long eyelashes. His hair is naturally black, but he dyes it blond.

Has a mole over his right eyebrow, on the left side of the bridge of his nose, and on his left jaw. He has freckles.

An horizontal scar on his nose, which he got by getting hit with a wooden scaffold square in the face. His nose wasn’t broken out of sheer dumb luck. He has a smaller cut on his cheekbone, which was done by a fencing sabre which lacked the proper tip protection/button. It was done onto him by someone else.

The nose scar is how he met Julian before the plague, as he was the doctor which cured his face.

He has several tattoos:

Right arm: A rapier on his inner forearm. Over his elbow he has a black work band, and over it the words ‘THE SUN IS MY UNDOING’ in all caps, circling his arm.

Left arm: a snake wrapped around his forearm, near to the wrist. The Odyssey quote ‘let’s have a toast to the incompetence of our enemies’ under the inner crook of his elbow, and a floral half sleeve.

Chest and Torso: AMOR OMNIA VINCIT over where his heart is supposed to be. He has laurel leaves on the base of his waist.

Legs: ‘o serpent heart hid with a flowering face‘ in his upper, inner thigh, like really up his left inner thigh. A floral anklet on his right ankle.

Languages Spoken: Too many. He speaks nine languages.

Magic Specialities: His magic is connected to both light and languages (it is a play on words with ‘logos’) so he is both adept in photokinesis — he is able to create and manipulate sources of light — and language related magic — which includes incantation and language manipulation. He learns languages as a faster rate than most people, and while he cannot speak or literally understand a language unless he learns it, his magic allows him to intuitively grasp the meaning of words that are being spoken to him.

This capacity also makes him very good at recognising hidden intentions in people. This is not an ability that he broadcasts having, and when he later succeeds Valerius as the Consul, it is something which aids his diplomatic work but he keeps private.

His words tend to carry more weight sometimes because of his magic, something which he can’t always control — it depends on many factors — so he tries to choose his words carefully and with consideration.

His familiar is a Raccoon, named Antu.

Occupation: While he did study magic and is in touch with his magic, he studied politics, diplomacy and international relations. By trade, and out of will to help people, he is a political analyst and, later in life, a Statesman.

Personality/Trivia:

Willpower or Stubbornness? Depends how you look at it. Passionate, generally devoted, hopeful, independent and sometimes defiant. He is a people-oriented introvert. Competitive, but not aggressively so.

Smarter than he gives himself credit for. Overall charming, even debonair.

Curious by nature, hates having his decisions taken for him.

He is proper, sometimes even distinguished, but he is feral. A firm believer in being kind and compassionate with people, until you cross him one too many times, then nothing will make him taint his vindictive wrath.

Is he humble? For the most part. His humbleness comes from knowing his own limits and knowing he’s not infallible. He does have, however, a good deal of pride in himself and trust in what he can do, and he doesn’t like being underestimated.

He’s not particularly loud, though when the chatterbox is on, then it is on, specially if he’s nervous. He is often never still.

He’s known he has ADHD since he was seventeen.

Likes dancing.

He fences, almost every Radošević fences/sword fights, and he will let you know at the slightest chance. Which can be either him simply being hyper-fixated in fencing, him flirting, or him letting you know that if the occasion rises, he’s armed.

Friend shaped, lover shaped if you’re daring enough.

He wrinkles his nose when he doesn’t like something.

Speaking of which: he doesn’t like abuse of power, the Court, injustice, supremacists of any kind, unkind, hurtful and selfish people in general; he doesn’t like red meat (he says it tastes like metal or dirt), narrow minded people, incompetence, specially when displayed by people in positions of power, and purposeful apathy.

A mastermind archetype, but he draws his power from connection. He does not conceive a life not lived with others.

A bit of a bastard, he enjoys a good laugh.

He plays the piano and the harp, he sings, he cannot draw, he’s a lightweight when it comes to alcohol (which doesn’t really stop him), he likes the opera because he likes watching other people’s drama without being dragged into it, and his favourite season is winter. Also likes playing chess, reading, coffee, flowers, a well tailored outfit, learning, languages, the sea, mysteries, winter, a well laid argument, collecting quills, music, winning, knowing he loves and is loved in return.

When he was 7 he bribed his dad for more dessert, and he ate so much he vomited. His sweet tooth hasn’t gone anywhere, it is alive and well.

Perceptive little bastard, will knife cat you for the sake of it. He has a way more present sense of humour than what he comes across.

Would call himself a ‘trans masculine Mary Poppins’.

He is closest to his parents, his uncle, my other ocs Leonore, Medea and Sabine, his cousins Amparo Cassano and Milenko Radošević, Natiqa, Asra, Portia and Nadia.

If he liked women, he would be paired with Nadia. The possibility both terrifies and fascinates me.

@ilyamatic, @viviae, @gaybirdwrites, @arcanaprentiss @apprenticeofcups

#the arcana oc #the arcana mc #aelius anatole

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citadelspires · 4 years

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Finally Following Through On Explaining That MP100 Lumity AU

Aight so a few days ago I promised to describe the basic layout for this Mob Psycho 100 Lumity AU I’ve been thinking about. This is that.

A marginal bit of context up front. You don’t need to have watched MP100 in order to understand any of the things I’m about to say, but I do recommend watching it anyway because it’s a wonderful show and an absolutely essential experience. Anyway, for those who haven’t watched MP100 this is all the context you need, for those who have you can just skip to the next paragraph. All y’all need to know is that MP100 features people called espers and they all have these vaguely defined "psychic powers." The actual abilities tied to these powers vary from person to person, some people just have telekinesis, some people have special moves and abilities they've trained, there are people with fire, people who are really fast, a dude who's psychically reinforced a plastic sword to be infinitely sharp and durable, just, loads of stuff. All espers have the ability to see spirits, which are, ya know, the spirits of people who have died, though the level at which their humanity is still intact varies. As a general rule the more powerful you were in life (particularly in the psychic capacity) the more powerful your spirit is. Aight now to the actual stuff.

We’re gonna start with the Blight family cause they were the first people I really got figured out for this thing so it’s just fitting. The Blight family has had at least one powerful esper per generation as far back as anyone can remember. They're an overwhelming presence in the esper community of the city they live in, though most people without psychic powers aren't really aware of their existence, as the Blights have always viewed themselves as above regular humans. For this reason a long time ago the Blight family gathered with a group of other powerful esper families to found a school exclusively for young espers so their children would not have to associated with "the ungifted." In the time since the family has relinquished a good deal of its hold over the school, having deemed directly running it a waste of their resources, as long it sticks around they don't really care. That being said they still hold a large amount of authority in the community.

Edric and Emira are both naturally gifted espers who've never had trouble demonstrating their powers and the 'superiority over the rest of the humans' that their parents desired. The only setback they've faced is that they trained and developed their powers together a bit too much. See, Edric has trained his whole life in using his psychic powers to create projections aka illusions, and Emira has power-based abilities, in which she can give Edric's illusions the full force of their imagined attacks. Separately neither of them can make or do anything worthwhile but together they're top students. Fortunately they've been able to hide that drawback from everybody so far.

Amity, on the other hand, has never displayed any sign of even the potential for psychic powers. Her parents consider her to be both a failure to the entire family and their greatest embarrassment. That didn't stop them from enrolling her in a school exclusively for people with psychic powers though, cause they would much rather force Amity to find some way to lie and cheat around her entire life than reveal to the world they have a talentless daughter. They force Amity to become friends with children of their choosing, who will help her cover up her 'failure' and they assign Ed and Em to watch out for her and make sure she doesn't 'destroy the Blight family name.'

That’s about all the background for her thing, and I’ll get to what Luz is up to in a moment, but first I’m gonna make a momentary stop to talk about Willow (and kind of Gus). Willow is also an esper, though she honestly would rather not be. She enjoys the affinity with plants that she's built up over the years but she'd trade it in a heartbeat if it meant she would get to go back to normal school instead of this fancy esper school with all these stuck up superpowered narcist teenagers who hate her. The only reason she even goes anymore is because she doesn't want to disappoint her parents, who were just so proud of her when her powers developed. Though one day she did ditch school to go visit a normal high school, just to see what it was like. There she met Gus, who happened to be the only member of a fanclub for espers, on account of everyone else in the school doesn't believe in espers and think he's crazy. Well, there was this other girl but... She’s not around anymore. Anyway so Willow befriends Gus and shows him some of her plant affinity thing and he thinks it's amazing, and Willow has a pretty terrible lack of people her age who think anything she does is remotely notable, much less amazing, so she and Gus develop a friendship pretty quickly.

Aight, now finally onto the main event, Luz and Lumity. So Spotlight on our girl Luz, who just so happens to be a spirit at the moment. I'm not sure what actually happened to her to, ya know, unalive her, but it sure did happen. Still, she managed to hold on to the world long enough to form as a spirit, just through sheer willpower and certainty that she wasn't done yet. Essentially she dies and starts to drift off but like right before everything fades to black she just like, jolts back up like 'hey no absolutely not I had dreams and a family and there is so much going on here that I am going to see and do and nobody can stop me.' And, as Luz do, she decides to focus on the positive bits of this instead.

See, cause back when she was alive our girl happened to be something of an esper enthusiast. And the thing about being a huge nerd about espers is that she managed to do some digging on the notable espers of the area. So, naturally, she found out about the Blight family. And she just so happened to find out about Amity specifically while she was at it, and perhaps she had discovered this information about a girl her age belonging to the most important esper family of the city and decided that this girl would be her rival in the field of becoming the best esper she could be, despite, admittedly, not knowing how to make the esper part even happen in the first place.

So, now with a spirit body not bound by the laws of physics and other such inconvenient matters, she searches out the Blight manor, intent on finding Amity, this whole preconceived notion in her head about how this is all going to go, some fanficitony plot unfolding in her imagination about how once they were bitter rivals but now Luz will have to convince her to work with her so she can achieve her dream still.

But when she gets to the manor she finds it warded against spirits. Not to be deterred, she waits outside the gates for Amity and latches onto her backpack, waiting for a good time to reveal herself to Amity, though she questions a bit why the girl doesn't see her in the first place. She hides with Amity all day, surviving a whole day in a school full of espers who could exorcise her with a flick of their finger, solely because she was with The Amity Blight, and anyone who noticed her energy just assumed Amity knew what she was doing and left her alone. The drawback to this, though, was that Luz kinda got directly smacked in the face by her preconceived notions of what Amity would be like, and while initially she had intended to reveal herself to Amity in order to ask for help, after seeing her be rude and pretentious to literally everyone all day she instead reveals herself to basically just yell at Amity and get really mad. Fortunately for Amity she's not an esper so she can't see spirits anyway.

Except the thing is. She's walking home by herself, like she always does, and then she starts to hear this whispering coming from nowhere, getting louder and louder, until eventually she just hears someone yell her name out of nowhere. See, Amity had never seen a spirit before, but also, a spirit had never gone out of its way to appear to her before. Essentially Luz accidentally reached out to her and lit the spark of her dormant psychic powers (everyone has at least some level of psychic powers sleeping within them it's kind of a whole thing). So Amity spends the entire time Luz is yelling at her just, staring open mouthed at this spirit that appeared for her out of nowhere after 14 years of hell. She doesn't even acknowledge any of the stuff Luz said about her, she was far too overwhelmed by just the fact that after being a failure her whole life she suddenly wasn't, at least, not entirely.

Luz eventually notices that she is getting far from the anticipated reaction and she quiets down. At that point the two talk things out and, while Luz is still seriously disappointed in the person Amity turned out to be, she doesn't have any better ideas of who to talk to, she kind of needs someone to be her communication piece to the real world at this point, and Amity finally has something she can use to actually do things with her 'psychic powers.' Cause they've been awakened now, yeah, but she quickly realizes she can see Luz and Only Luz. So the two of them begrudgingly work together, each kind of starting off mutually aware that they're just using the other for their own goals, and being perfectly okay with that.

So that's the general relationship dynamic between the two of them at the start, and eventually they get to know each other better. Amity stops viewing Luz as a spirit and starts learning more about the person she was before she died. (Amity just calls her "spirit" for like, at least the first week. The first time she uses Luz' name is a whole thing). Meanwhile Luz learns more about what Amity's life is like behind the scenes and everything that's happened to her.

#Lumity #The Owl House #Luz Noceda #Amity Blight #Willow Park #Mob Psycho 100

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godboundrpgfans · 3 years

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Guts in Godbound

Guts, the Black Swordsman.

One of the most badass characters in fiction.

Not just for his sheer, unadulterated power and being everything a 90s Anti-Hero is expected to be, but also for being everything that a 90s Anti-Hero isn’t expected to be.

Guts is a much more complex character than first glances would have you believe, and I don’t think I could do his character justice by talking about it here.

Thankfully, that’s not why I’m here.

I’m here because I was bored and got the bright idea to use the Godbound Character Creation System to create Guts.

Why? Cause why the fuck not?

Now before we start, I’m going to be doing two version of this character creation.

The first will follow the standard character creation for a Godbound. You roll up/pick attributes, pick three Words, etc. For this, I will be creating Guts when he was still in the Band of the Hawk, right before he left. Since you could kind of consider that his “peak” before the Eclipse.

The second version will be the same, except I won’t be using the 6 Point limit that the game gives you at the start. Instead, I will just give Guts any and all Gifts/Artifacts and otherwise that I believe he should have at this point in the Berserk Manga.

With that out of the way, let’s begin!

Standard Creation:

Attribute Scores:

8, 16, 13, 10, 12, 18

I’ll wait until after I choose Words since those will have an affect on the Scores.

Facts:

Grew up in a Mercenary Band

The Raiding Captain for the Band of the Hawks

Has formed a deep friendship with all of the major members

Since this is Guts before the Eclipse, I feel these would be the best Facts to use as his Origin, Past Profession, and Relationship.

Armor: Medium (AC 5; -4 Save Penalty)

Weapon: Greatsword (1d10; Heavy)

Goals: Find his own Dream so he can stand next to Griffith.

I’ll put the penalty towards Evasion (Guts was never known to be very dodgy).

Divine Powers/Words:

Sword (He’s been using a Greatsword since he was about 5 years old. It’d make sense he’s really fucking good with them)

Endurance (Guts is fucking durable. Seriously, even before he became the Black Swordsman he was surviving shit that would kill normal people. See his fight with Zodd or Wyald for examples)

Luck (I was going to put Might here, but as strong as Guts is, during his time as Raider Captain in the Band of the Hawk, he didn’t do anything that really showed off physical strength. Most of the crazy shit he did (such as break through a cast iron door) was with his Sword. So, instead I’m choosing Luck as, let’s face it, Guts has been exceedingly lucky during most of his fights. While it hasn’t exactly made his life sunshine and rainbows, it’s allowed him to survive fight after fight when paired with his unending willpower)

Now to set up the Attribute Scores:

Str: 18 (+3): Check: 3

Dex: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Con: 18 (+3): Check 3

Int: 8 (-1): Check: 13

Wis: 12 (+0): Check: 9

Char: 10 (+0): Check: 11

And here’s our final scores. I set Strength and Constitution the highest for obvious reason (go watch any montage of Guts and you’ll understand). Dexterity is the way it is cause, while Guts is fast, he’s not exactly someone I could see dodging all over the place like a ninja. He’s a much bigger and easier to hit target than someone like, say, Griffith. Wisdom and Charisma are the way they are cause Guts is perceptive, just not too perceptive. On top of that, while he himself is very gruff and not much of a smooth talker, he does seem to attract the opposite sex to him a lot….even the same sex to an extent. And Intelligence is the lowest stat cause….well obvious reasons. Guts is not book smart in the slightest. He knows a lot about surviving on his own or in the wilderness, but he won’t be solving any advanced math problems.

Gifts:

Defy the Iron (While not necessarily negating the damage, Guts is able to ignore most attacks and keep moving even when they should be fatal)

Nine Lives (The dude seems to always luck out on events that would kill him. Look at his fight against Gambino or Bazuso)

Unerring Blade (Do I even need to explain why he gets this one?)

Cutting the Crimson Road (I was actually having trouble deciding between this or Shattering Hand. In the end I chose this one, since one of his most defining moments is when he fought 100 soldiers and won).

Body of Iron Will (Just to give him an AC of 3 and represent how his body is tough as shit).

With that, here’s what the final Character Sheet Looks like for Guts:

Name: Guts

Facts:

Grew up in a Mercenary Band

The Raiding Captain for the Band of the Hawks

Has formed a deep friendship with all of the major members

Attributes:

Str: 18 (+3): Check: 3

Dex: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Con: 18 (+3): Check 3

Int: 8 (-1): Check: 13

Wis: 12 (+0): Check: 9

Char: 10 (+0): Check: 11

Words:

Sword

Endurance

Luck

Gifts:

Defy the Iron

Nine Lives

Unerring Blade

Cutting the Crimson Road

Body of Iron Will

Weapons: Greatsword (1d10; Heavy; Atk Bonus: +1; Attribute Bonus: Str)

Armor: Medium (AC 5; -4 Penalty to a Save)

AC: 3

HP: 11

Saves:

Hardiness (Con): 12

Evasion (Dex): 18 (Base 14)

Spirit: (Wis): 15

And here we are, Guts before he became the Black Swordsman as a Godbound. Now then, on to what I would give him if I had full freedom and didn’t have to worry about point limits.

Free Version:

I’m keeping the same Attribute Scores, but the Facts will be different:

Facts:

Grew up in a Mercenary Band

The Raiding Captain for the Band of the Hawks

Has formed a deep friendship with all of the major members

Is marked by the Brand of Sacrifice

Has given up his Revenge against Griffith to protect/help Casca, the woman he loves

Has killed over 1,000 Demons

Wields the Dragonslayer

Wears the Berserker Armor

Is haunted by his Beast of Darkness

His companions keep him grounded

He lost his arm and eye, now he has a mechanical arm.

These are all of the obvious Facts that would be included after the current part of the manga.

Following that, I would add in these Words:

Might (By this point, and with the help of his mechanical arm, he has shown that his physical strength is just as strong as an Apostle’s)

Peak Human (Guts has gone well beyond the realm of a normal mortal by this point. He has proven that, despite not having any real, inherent magical powers, he is able to go toe-to-toe with Apostles, Sea Gods, Demons, Constructs, and just about any supernatural creature that steps in his path. By now, I’d say he’s right on the cusp of being Superhuman)

Vengeance (Though he has given up on getting revenge against Griffith, it is still a defining characteristic for him, and something he draws strength from)

Gifts:

Fear No Steel (At this point, normal weapons are like tickles to Guts.)

Fist of Black Iron (He literally has a fist of black iron)

Loosening God’s Teeth (He can cut an Apostle in half with one swing of his sword)

Contempt of Distance (Guts seems to be able to move to wherever the hell he wants when he needs to kill something)

Thirsting Razor (There are normally too many enemies in front of Guts for him to even worry about hitting Mobs)

All Natural (Guts’ abilities don’t really appear very magical, and that’s because most of them aren’t. Alot of them are from either pure sweat and hard work, determination, or his own equipment)

Mortal’s Luck (The dude never stays down)

Trained Aim (He always seems to hit whatever he aims at…it’s just that most things he aims at has enough armor or scaled hide to resist it)

Human Grit (And how. The dude is able to heal from fatal wounds faster than any other human in his world)

Indomitable Will (Do I really have to explain this one?)

Street Sweeper (Have you seen the size of his sword?)

Bloody Vengeance (Guts loves to use all or nothing attacks that immensely damage both him and his enemy)

Shattering Hand (Dragonslayer. That is all)

Artifacts:

Dragonslayer:

A great sword that is like a hunk of raw iron. This blade has bathed in the blood of so many demons that it now rest on both the Mortal and Astral planes, turning it into a magical weapon that can harm both spiritual and physical creatures. Due to its massive size, it can also be used to block projectiles and smash through any type of armor.

Effort: 5

Hunk of Raw Iron (Greater Gift): As an Action, the wielder may Commit Effort from the artifact to launch an attack at every enemy within sight, doing a maximum of 1 damage even on a miss. Mobs are automatically hit for 1d10+15 rolled straight.

Too Thick, Too Rough (Lesser Gift): As an Action, Commit Effort from the artifact to immediately break any armor, weapon, or piece of equipment in range of the sword. Any magical substance is not destroyed, but damaged to the point where it is almost useless.

The Berserker Armor:

An ancient, magical armor from the time of the first Emperor, the Berserker Armor is a black and spiked. It completely encases the wearer when it is equipped. It is considered heavy armor and can defend against most attacks, including magical ones. However, the armor’s true ability comes from its power to lock off the wielder’s nervous system, pushing their body to heights that a normal human could never reach. There is a downside to this, as the armor will remove the wielder’s sense of self and cause them to view everything as an enemy. On top of this, the armor does not heal the wearer, instead holding their body together and preventing them from dying to any injury. Once all living creatures have been defeated, all of the wearer’s damage will return full force and can kill them instantly if it is more than their HP can handle.

Effort 10

Unstoppable Rampage (Greater Gift): Commit Effort from the Artifact to immediately gain three bonus Attacks that can be used on this round only.

Jump Good (Lesser Gift): Commit Effort from the Artifact to instantly leap to any spot within double your movement speed. This does not count as an Action.

Beast of Darkness (Greater Gift): This Gift can activate whenever you kill an enemy as long as you wear the armor. At the end of a round, if you’ve killed an enemy, roll a Spirit Save. If you fail, this Gift activates. Commit Effort from the Artifact to remove all limits on your body and lose yourself to your inner beast. You lose the ability to make rational decision on the battlefield, and see even your friends as enemies. In return, all of your attacks now deal 1d12+10 Straight Damage, you gain two bonus Actions, you become immune to all mental, emotional, or psychological damage, your attacks shatter any substance even if it is magical in nature, and your attack bonus is now +10. Whenever you take damage, record it somewhere else. Once the battle is over, you must make a Spirit Save to regain control of yourself. If you fail, you must keep fighting everything around you, even if they are your allies, making a Spirit Save each round to regain yourself. If you pass, make a Hardiness Save. If you pass that Save, you only take half of the damage you took during battle rounded up. If you fail, you take the full damage straight.

So now, our final Guts sheet, looks like this:

Name: Guts

Facts:

Grew up in a Mercenary Band

The Raiding Captain for the Band of the Hawks

Has formed a deep friendship with all of the major members

Is marked by the Brand of Sacrifice

Has given up his Revenge for Casca the woman he loves

Has killed over 1,000 Demons

Wields the Dragonslayer

Wears the Berserker Armor

Is haunted by his Beast of Darkness

His companions keep him grounded

He lost his arm and eye, now he has a mechanical arm.

Attributes:

Str: 19 (+4): Check: 2

Dex: 18 (+3): Check: 3

Con: 18 (+3): Check 3

Int: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Wis: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Char: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Words:

Sword

Endurance

Luck

Peak Human

Might

Vengeance

Gifts:

Defy the Iron

Nine Lives

Unerring Blade

Cutting the Crimson Road

Body of Iron Will

Fear No Steel

Fist of Black Iron

Loosening God’s Teeth

Contempt of Distance

Thirsting Razor

All Natural

Mortal’s Luck

Trained Aim

Human Grit

Indomitable Will

Street Sweeper

Bloody Vengeance

Shattering Hand

Weapons: Dragonslayer (1d10; Heavy; Atk Bonus: +1; Attribute Bonus: Str)

Armor: Berserker Armor (AC 3; -4 Penalty to 2 Saves)

AC: 3

HP: 11

Saves:

Hardiness (Con): 15 (Base 11)

Evasion (Dex): 16 (Base 12)

Spirit: (Wis): 14

Artifacts:

Dragonslayer:

Effort: 5

The Berserker Armor:

An ancient, magical armor from the time of the first Emperor, the Berserker Armor is a black, spiked armor that completely encases the wearer. It is considered heavy armor and can defend against most attacks, including magical ones. However, the armor’s true ability comes from its power to lock off the wielder’s nervous system, pushing their body to heights that a normal human could never reach. There is a downside to this, as the armor will remove the wielder’s sense of self and cause them to view everything as an enemy. On top of this, the armor does not heal the wearer, instead holding their body together and preventing them from dying to any injury. Once all living creatures have been defeated, all of the wearer’s damage will return full force and can kill them instantly if it is more than their HP can handle.

Effort 10

Unstoppable Rampage (Greater Gift): Commit Effort from the Artifact to immediately gain three bonus Attacks that can be used on this round only.

Jump Good (Lesser Gift): Commit Effort from the Artifact to instantly leap to any spot within double your movement speed. This does not count as an Action.

And there we go. I would’ve added another Gift to the Dragonslayer, but I couldn’t think of what to put there.

So, there you go. How I would stat Guts as a Godbound.

Feedback would be appreciated, and if you think there are things I could’ve added or done better, please let me know.

#submission

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mangamushi · 3 years

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Thoughts on Saikyou Densetsu Kurosawa

FUKUMOTO Nobuyuki, 11 volumes, published from 2003 to 2006 in Big Comic Original (Seinen)

Saikyou Densetsu Kurosawa (Legend of the strongest man Kurosawa) follows the story of 44 years old construction worker Kurosawa as he realizes he spent most of his life without any meaningful connections with anyone nor any special achievements. He decides to change his life so that he can become proud of his own accomplishments and efforts, and earn respect and appreciation from the people around him.

(spoiler warning)

So I’m currently binging Fukumoto manga, after having them on my “plan to read” list for several years…I started with Kaiji, but initially the first manga of his that caught my interest was Kurosawa. The themes of it are right up my alley, and I like main characters that are not teenagers or young adults.

Kurosawa has a sequel, Shin Kurosawa: Saikyou Densetsu, which is a direct continuation. I’ll mostly be focusing on the first part here.

The art is typical Fukumoto style. Odd at first, definitely not the prettiest nor the most impressive out there, but it does the job and I really grew to like it. He doesn’t hesitate to give exaggerated features to his characters, and I actually find the deliberate ugliness of the character designs refreshing. It certainly fits the story of Kurosawa, makes the characters very expressive and works well with the often comedic tone.

Although the art looks simple, Fukumoto can deliver very intense pages when he needs to.

His forte is in his use of narration combined with the picture, rather than in the drawings alone. He is a master at using a narrator’s comments or the character’s thoughts to raise tension and make the manga flow better.

Kurosawa is definitely written with a lot of heart. Both the manga itself and the titular character, feel very genuine. Kurosawa is very flawed and very human. He is rough but powerful, his desires are simple, and he is straightforward in his reactions, to the point that his impulsive nature and lack of social restraints put him in trouble, especially when it comes to women...

There are a few instances however where he comes close to harassing women, which is played for laugh, which I disliked. Those scenes made me less sympathetic towards him as he actually deserved the repercussions of his actions here.

But besides those chapters, Kurosawa is overall a likeable character, easy to sympathize with and to root for as we see him at a low point of his life.

He is clumsy in his interactions with his coworkers, which, coupled with his hot-temper, often leads to misunderstandings and prevents him from getting closer to them despite his best efforts. I actually found Kurosawa’s failed attempts at achieving popularity reminiscent of Watamote. The beginning of both series, in which a pathetic main character fails repetitively at gaining the appreciation of their peers through outlandish strategies, elicits the same mixture of pity, second-hand embarrassment, and amusement.

Kurosawa also gets into a fair number of fights. While those fight-focused chapters were not bad, I was personally less into them.

Drawing literal fist-fights in not what Fukumoto’s best at. His character’s postures are somewhat stiff, which he compensates for with heavy use of speed-lines. It is okay-ish, but I want read a fight scene, there’s plenty of fighting manga out there that can do a better job.

I like Fukumoto more when he writes more psychological battles, like in his gambling mangas. Of course, psychological elements and strategies where not totally absent from the fights, but it was nowhere as much as in his gambling manga. Sometimes I think Kurosawa was a bit too lucky in the fights, as he is not a very athletic person nor someone with a lot of experience in fighting. It did not feel very convincing to me.

Besides, it is through these battles that Kurosawa gathers allies, a reputation and respect. But most of his opponents are teenagers, even middle-schoolers ! Granted they are very scary teenagers, but I still fail to see how a 44 years old man throwing hands with teenagers is such a praise worthy thing...

I think I prefer to see Kurosawa fight and struggle to improve his life in a less literal way that actual physical fighting.

I haven’t read that many of Fukumoto’s works yet, but I feel like an important theme in them is perseverance/resilience. He puts his characters through a lot, but they tend to have some form of resistance that shines through as admirable. Kurosawa’s will to fight and to push back against adversity is sometimes the only thing he has left, and it is extremely important.

However, that is not an innate ability that comes to him easily -at times Kurosawa hides, flees, cowers. He hesitates, and he needs to think things through before he actually decides to fight.

Fukumoto: You know how protagonists in shonen manga do things like jump in to stop their classmate from being bullied without thinking about how they might get beaten up themselves? I always felt that wasn’t real. So with Kurosawa, I wanted to make a manga that shows hesitation, and how it actually isn’t so easy to defend people like that.

(Excerpt from this interview)

I like this kind of manga where characters reflect about what is the right decision to take and on how they should be living their life. And how the reader has access to their inner turmoil and thoughts.

His strength is often born from sheer desperation and desire to survive. It is when he is cornered that he can manage to act and fight even when the odds are against him. He has to make do with the very few tools and options he has, which leads him to elaborate unconventional tactics to win over his opponents.

Having cornered underdogs characters winning over more powerful, but less desperate, opponents seems like a running theme in Fukumoto’s manga (cf. the made-up E-card Game from Kaiji, in which The Slave is the only card that can win against The Emperor, precisely because it is so low that it has nothing to lose anymore).

In a way, one could argue Kurosawa follows a formula reminiscent of classic shounen manga: a character who is below average at first rises to a heroic status through willpower, effort and after fighting a string of opponents. However, there are major differences that set Kurosawa apart, besides the older characters and more adult setting (Kurosawa’s worries are grounded in reality: growing old alone, financial problems...) Kurosawa does not provide escapism and dreams. The story begins with Kurosawa as a single old man, and ends with him an even older still single man. He does not become an amazing fighter through power boost and magic training like a shounen character might.

He does want to dream big, but all things considered, his achievements are fairly modest. He is not saving the world or becoming hokage. At most he is just helping some other marginalized people from his neighborhood.

Even if he puts his life on the line to fight, what he accomplished will fade into oblivion at some point.

But, even so, his efforts and struggle are still admirable.

Besides, Kurosawa is not about friendship, at least not the kind of friendship you find in shounen manga.

In Fukumoto’s manga, people may stick together for survival, they can share intense emotions when put through the same ordeals, but it’ll rarely turn into true companionship. Kurosawa is alone from the start, and while he does connect with other people throughout the story, in the sequel those relationships are left behind as he leaves on his own to start a new life.

Fukumoto: My protagonists, on the other hand, are always alone – not only do they not have followers, they don’t even have friends. (laugh) [...] I can’t do manga where the characters readily make friends that they risk their lives for. I started out by drawing short human drama pieces, but even then – partially because I wasn’t doing long-term series, but – they weren’t generally stories about friends.

I was kind of expecting Asai, one of Kurosawa’s coworker, to have a bigger role, but that didn’t happen. (I liked the part where he tried to comfort Kurosawa after he got humiliated so I was hoping for more!)

The story isn’t very cohesive or straighforward, it just follows Kurosawa’s life, who wants to change but lacks a clearly defined goal or road to follow. There isn’t one big coherent plot, instead the story goes in different directions, shifting from one genre to another from chapter to chapter. Kurosawa even admits it himself !

The quality of the chapters and different arcs is in my opinion rather uneven.

There are some really powerful scenes, notably the very end of the manga which is very touching. Kurosawa successfully leads a group of homeless men to defend themselves against some delinquents who were threatening them, but as a result of his injuries, he is implied to die. (The sequel manga reveals he actually just goes into coma for 8 years). It is bittersweet ending as he finally achieved something and is surrounded by human warmth.

Shin Kurosawa, the sequel, is similar to the first part, though slightly more light-hearted and focused on humor (even though Kurosawa’s situation technically worsens!). It seems to be less liked than the first part for those same reasons, but I personally enjoy Fukumoto’s humor and his more slice of life-y mangas. It has many genuinely funny moments. Once in a while there are still some chapters that feel deeper/more thought provoking, as Fukumoto likes to reflect about society, life, and humanity in his stories.

For anyone looking for other manga with similar themes, I can recommend Furuya Minoru’s excellent Wanitokagegisu . Both feature very lonely adult men who wish to turn their life around, and oscillate between humor and psychological drama.

#fkmt #saikyou densetsu kurosawa #fukumoto noboyuki #kurosawa #manga

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