#yada yada gonna put in all of the important tags so I can get noticed by the art side of tumblr feel free to do the same in the reblogs.

[wildlygay]

Silly purple cat be opun you fools.

@hyenaa-euphoria enabled me and so I caved and drew Catnap in my style. You must already know how much I adore this bastard from my reblogs. And have some headcanons too because it's been ages since I done that enjoy it let it seep in.

- Looks and acts like he just rolled out of bed 24/7, always has a bedhead with his frizzled whiskers just to add to the effect. The kids think it's funny and help him brush out his fur he greatly enjoys this. - He's not always 'mouth completely open', that lets too much red smoke seep out of his mouth and it's a hassle to clean it up and he isn't entirely immune to it as well. It's like a weasel being slightly immune to poisons, he cannot have too much in his body at the same time or else he will pass out. - Selective mutism, dislikes talking due to both his voice and how it's a risk due to the red smoke in him. So he mainly expresses his affection through actions and doing favors, he mainly uses sign language, but on somedays he might meow or even utter a few words, but that's it. - To expel some of it, he simply exhales through his nose during parts of the day. He might exhale some without realizing it, but it's always manageable. - dislikes touch, especially close contact. He doesn't like it because there's a possibility he might get out red smoke and make someone pass out without meaning for that to happen. It makes him a bit anxious honestly. But he really craves to be apart of a cuddle pile sooner or later.. - Helps get lost children back to there caretakers, they simply hold onto his tail or holds his hand while he takes them to safety. He enjoys hearing the stories that some of the kids tell him while he's taking them back.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Maya?? Maya!!

also Athenas lmao

finally i am free to work on this

boy i sure hope we don’t get more info soon *squints at Amara’s character trailer just around the corner*

tl;dr: athenas. wow. uhhh temple areas with the weird vault-shaped statue things might be a teleportation hub or something like a Stargate cuz, uh… they’re probably not Vaults. i mean. given what we know maybe they are Vaults but not like vaults with important stuff inside, just teleportation vaults. you know what im trying to say? i mean it’s not like the eridians had any spaceships we’ve seen. but they had to get around somehow. 

also it’s possible the big temple area we see is on Athenas, is in that giant fucking pyramid in the background that i completely and totally did not notice for the longest time. 

i also discuss Maya and her thoughtlock skill (if she gets her powers taken away from her) and if she’s gonna die or not. because she’s got the Cloud Kill legendary (’oh noo she ded’), an apprentice (let’s be real, the cliches aren’t looking great), and she seems to working beside rampagers in that giant temple area (also another reason i think it’s on athenas) and tbh i didn’t see her tattoos in either of those shots (but that could be cuz she’s so smoll). so that’s cool. 

oh also the order of the impending storm was probably pretty respectable back in the day, since they can track sirens (maya’s assassin in son of crawmerax), and maybe that’s how maya figured out ava was gonna be a siren even tho she hasn’t manifested her powers yet. and Maya’s probably unearthing all this buried Siren/Vault knowledge and bringing the Academic District back into power while also protecting the Order from Maliwan. who’s still v sus.

wow we have a lot to go over

so to start, im taking a wild guess and saying the temple is on Athenas. why? because we really haven’t gotten a lot of looks at either of those areas too much (compared to promethea and eden-6) and the architecture lines up to me. 

also i, an idiot, was all like ‘mannnn Athenas is super mountainy, that’s wild. love it’ and neglected to realize there’s literally a giant fucking pyramid in the background of a lot of shots

on the right

behind the tower

to the right of ava

on the left

so i feel really dumb right now for not noticing this sooner and writing it off as a mountain. It's literally the fuckin Vault symbol like. ~triangles~. i played skyrim i should know what mountains look like when they’re not 1 polygon

either way, if that’s not at least part of the temple, it’s definitely important. somehow.

but let’s talk about the temple. the parts we know.

let’s try to look out the windows of this wild place

see cause this looks like inside a mountain

so my first instinct was eden-6 because we see a volcano on there

i mean im under the assumption this is eden-6???

bc all the plants match up

… maybe there’s more than one temple?

oh god i don’t wanna separate these by temple that’s going to be IMPOSSIBLE

but yeah i guess it’s possible there’s one on Eden-6 and one on Athenas… dear god…

but yeah my first instinct for that was ‘inside a volcano’

possible mountain on the left there

very rocky all around. im assuming this is underground or smth?

it feels like we’re underground

so maybe it’s a thing where it just keeps going further down. iunno.

it’s hard to place exactly where this is going to be because of the whole ‘underground’ thing

the part that’s throwing me off the most is this

because this looks like Pandora bc of Elpis and the rocks

and it looks like we’re walking outside a temple with the same friggen tiles on the floor, which means it is possible that this is The Temple, but you think we’d know about a giant-ass temple just on pandora. especially with the big dig site

but then we see a super similar dig site (supposedly on promethea). so what the HELL

im almost inclined to believe this is some sort of Eridian teleportation system. i know, i know, we have Sanctuary-III so it’s pointless. but… will we always have Sanc-III throughout the story? yada yada orange/gray -> blue/yellow/red markings. you get the dealio by now.

to

when taken by the cult or smth.

idk it’s possible we won’t have sanc-III for the entire game (just like normal sanctuary in bl2, in that we’ll get it back eventually (or ill kill someone for taking my room decorations)) and then we’ll have to use this wicked eridian tech to move between planets with these gateways. sort of like a stargate…

this thing is a stargate. I’ll call back to this in a hot second.

what kinda shit am i tripping on? i don’t really know. but given how it seems like these temples could be on ANY of the planets we see, im trying to figure out wtf the connection could be.

and give me this: we have never actually seen an eridian spacecraft, but we know they’ve traveled across the galaxy, putting vaults on different places. how in the fuck could they have done that if, you know, they didn’t have spaceships to travel through… space? 

well we know they have the power of teleportation down pat. i mean down so hard they were able to create a ‘teleportation gland’ that allowed a giant vault monster to teleport at will. (now im wondering if lilith has one… hm.) 

this blue thing (which… is the same color as siren stuff. okay. im sorry. i won’t get off topic this time. but it’s stewing in my gray matter)

and given that we know all the (okay, we only know for certain some) vaults open up into this other dimension (space place), would it be so hard to believe that they’re created links between planets using this dimension? i just… something isn’t right here and this seems like the most logical solution. 

take a look at Eleseer. look at all those holograms of labeled planets. of galaxies and stars in the distance. it’s possible eleseer is like the Hub for this teleportation system (explaining why it’s always open) and explaining why it’s got all those weird planet holograms sitting around. could also explain why Moon = Key.

These aren’t Vaults, they wouldn’t show up on the Vault Map- explaining why we never saw this one on Pandora- these are like… gateways or something, iunno. name pending until sept. 13th i guess.

so why tf am i going off about this on a post about maya and athenas?

because i think athenas has a gateway in it too

yeah you should recognize that thing in the background!

that’s this place!!! from the behind closed doors demo!!

and it still

doesn’t look like a vault to me

it’s intact (also it looks like stairs…). all the Vaults we’ve seen are 100% not intact. they’re all chunky and in pieces (we’re gonna ignore eleseer and uhhhh all that business right now, but even thinking about how the sentinel tried to emulate a vault by spawning it in chunks and THEN assembling it)

chunky

im just saying there has to be a reason these vault-like shapes are intact. they’re either just statues/monuments or they have a purpose.

so why tf am i convinced they have a purpose?

bc we’ve seen one light up

taken straight from the void itself (seriously it’s like a gradient back there. which is weird.)

so there’s gotta be a reason it does this right? and if it’s not a Vault, because it’s on Pandora and the Crimson Raiders would have seen it on the Vault Map, then what the fuck is it?

welllllllll i just don’t know. but my best guess right now is some sort of teleportation system to travel between planets. if there are ‘temples’ on every planet then it would make sense that there is some way for eridians to travel btwn them. 

personally i think there’s one on eden-6 (maybe in that volcano area??) and one on Athenas (cause we really haven’t seen a lot of athenas yet and… i dunno i just have a feeling). and there’s apparently one on Pandora (given we see it with elpis in the background) and possibly one on Promethea. i don’t know what that instagram video was trying to imply. i don’t wanna think too hard about it right now my brain hurts enough already as it is.

but uhhh i was gonna talk more about athenas than this

i promise this is gonna lead into maya

the academic district, with a Vault symbol on the door, to boot.

so this place is really interesting to me for a lot of reasons.

1. that vault symbol on the door

2. they’re flying flags with the vault symbol on it

3. giant pyramid in the back

it’s staggeringly huge

4. they have siren tattoos on the building in the back there. specifically, amara’s tattoos

yeah. maybe this is Partali? a smaller area on Athenas, like Meridian is a city on Promethea, and this is Amara’s way of tagging her presence/an area under her protection as the Tiger

more shots of Athenas from the amd horizons e3 stream

it’s a very pretty planet

so if anything, this is the place we’re going to go to learn about Sirens.

and i don’t know how much the Order of the Impending Storm actually KNOWS about Sirens, because all we know about them from maya’s backstory is that they were assholes and using maya to keep the people scared and giving them money

also that they knew how to track sirens

that’s probably important…

“Maya, you’ll like this next dude. He’s a Siren tracker named Mordo Sophis, Father of Brother Stephen Sophis, that dude you ganked back on Athenas. And boy, oh boy, is he just itching for vengeance.”

who isn’t, mr. mordo, sir? get in line

anyway apparently the Order knows how to track Sirens. Which could explain how Maya has a Siren apprentice when Ava uhhh apparently hasn’t manifested her powers (or tattoos) yet. might also explain how they got their hands on Maya when she was a baby. cuz yeah… i got the feeling they stole her and killed her parents… just a feeling.

y’know if tannis didn’t kill that siren tracker dude maybe she could’ve learned something from him first. that could’ve been interesting.

anyway, idk. maybe at one point the Order was respectable and, like, didn’t force people into giving them money by using sirens as a scare tactic. 

it looks like they have/had an academic district (which im sure maya is helping cultivate) focused on Sirens/Vaults.

and there’s a lot of importance on books this game

seriously

apparently

there’s

a

lot.

but let’s get back to this in a minute, because i do wanna talk about the name of the Order.

it’s full name is the Order of the Impending Storm.

I know while writing bl2 they probably didn’t know that they were gonna be building towards a war in tps, but it’s still interesting that they decided to bring them back into play now. because they 100% could have just left them as a background monastery that Maya came from and have maya refuse to return/start her own organization. but they made her specifically return there.

so does their name have significance now? i’d be willing to bet a yes. I mean, war is coming. Impending Storm sounds like it’d be a pretty fitting name for an organization that knew this. Especially because according to Maya’s cosplay guide, they worshipped her like a God (seriously lol are all Sirens worshipped as minor deities? most people know Sirens are Sirens right? like just people with magic powers..? hmmm)

And if Maya returned to learn more about Sirens, then isn’t it implied that the Order did, in fact, know more about Sirens than Maya did? hell, maybe even Tannis…

especially if the temple or eridian ruins are nearby. Say… In this giant pyramid…

so this doesn’t fit in with the aesthetic of Athenas at all. it’s almost like those are caution colors on the bottom strip there. warning you to not go inside. i don’t know if this was built by the eridians or by whoever is on Athenas to keep whatever’s inside… inside (cough Rampagers cough)

either way that pyramid is FUCKING HUGE

seriously, just compared to the academic district, it’s insanely big (that is the BASE in the background)

also guess who just realized this would be a hilarious joke by gearbox

to have pyramids built by ancient aliens. oh, you.

also, side note, there’s a crew challenge for moxxi in the academic district

i just have no idea how we’re getting up there…

oh but the Order. yeah i get the feeling they know A LOT about Sirens/Eridians. maybe even what’s about to go down. but maybe a majority of that was lost in the archives when some corrupts assholes came into power. and now Maya returned and is slowly but surely unarchiving everything we need to know about Sirens.

perhapith this book has some Siren-y knowledge within it? from someone who went into the temple on Athenas and… never came back out.

and I would bet Maya is waging war against Maliwan at the same time as she’s uncovering all this buried info (protecting the Order) because Maliwan is trying to get this info as well. 

Seriously, anyone else notice Maliwan is SPREADING?? They’re not just on Promethea. they’re on Eden-6. They’re on Athenas. They’re even fuckin on Pandora in some trailers (although I would not trust any trailer with roses at this point. something’s really fucky. I will make a seperate post about that i think, once we get Amara’s and Fl4k’s trailers). I’m really suspicious that Maliwan has either joined the cult, or they’re going to become the main villains. which, y’know, given corporations are the big bad in borderlands always… that seems about right.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if Maya/the Order knows something about the Children of the Vault. Given that one pic of her holding a book with the CoV symbol on it.

that she seems to be passing on to Ava

I dunno. I don’t think Children of the Vault is a name that the cultists/Calypsos just HAPPENED to come up with. And I still don’t think that the broadcast easter egg is from the Calypsos. it doesn’t make sense. I know I went over this in-depth in the Promethea post but god damn it im going to do it again because i feel so strongly about this.

i feel like the cult stumbled upon this name and decided to adopt it as their own. or tried revive an old cult with the same name. and if they didn’t, why in the hell does the message say ‘Do Not Open the Vaults’? How do the twins know about Tannis by name?

i mean, okay, granted we don’t know exactly how she fixed the Vault Map and it could be that the twins know how she did it. Because I still haven’t been able to place that one shot of them walking outside the Recruitment Center 

this one

and we know tannis fixes (??) the Vault Map in the recruitment center, so, maybe they saw it happen or there’s some sort of record in the vault map? that shows her fixing it and when they get to Promethea they send out that message?

i meannn she seems pretty surprised it’s functioning, herself.

so maybe they come while/after tannis fixes the key/map to get it back and Lilith like alright everyone let’s book it to Ellie’s garage with the Map. she’ll help us get to Sanc-III.

and in that they see that she’s able to fix it (possibly with weird Siren/Destroyer/Slag/pickurpoison powers) and that’s how they know Tannis is not what she seems.

and maybe the twins just don’t want their cultists opening the vaults because they want to be the ones to open it.

Sure

BUT that’s boring sauce to theorize about because it’s all just there. I’m still partial to the idea that Children of the Vault is actually referring to Sirens tho. It would explain why Maya has a book with the symbol for the CoV on it and is offering it to Ava. Because why would Ava need a book about the Calypsos? who would WRITE a book about the Calypsos?? and make it look THAT old? like… c’mon.

At the very least, it’s an old name for a cult that got revived by the Calypso twins.

At the most, it’s the name for Sirens.

Or it’s the symbol for the Order of the Impending Storm, back when they were respectable. tho you think we’d see maya wearing the symbol somewhere in bl2, so maybe not. unless she took it off her clothes because they had her try to kill unarmed civilians.

I mean, why is the cult’s symbol the Vault symbol upside down, anyway? We know that the symbol for the Vaults in Eridian is the upside-down V in a circle, because Tannis tells us so in bl1. So why would a cult of people who believe the Vaults to be their birthright go around slapping what is essentially the opposite symbol everywhere?

i personally wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the symbol for Siren or something, given how closely intertwined they both seem to be to that alternate dimension.

regardless. let’s keep going

so let’s talk about Maya’s fate in BL3. Is she gonna die? is she not gonna die? i dunno. let’s discuss.

i personally would not be surprised if she does, but i’d be a little disappointed regardless. if any Siren is gonna die… Lilith is going to finish her character arc this game. not that I want her to die, but still. I get that they gotta keep the Siren cycle going.

sooo one big point in the ‘maya dies’ category:

“Oh noo she ded” i mean. that’s just mean, gearbox. 

of course we don’t know if that’s talking specifically about Maya, could be talking about Tyreen, or a miniboss, or something. but i do think it’s interesting that it’s on maya’s legendary. plus uhhh given we had a death out of Roland in BL2, and in TPS 2 of those VHs died as well, I think it’s a given at least one BL2 VH isn’t gonna live to see the end of 3. as much as that actually physically pains me to type. 

And… to tip the scales further to Maya, Zer0 has crew challenges, which probably means they won’t be biting the dust anytime soon, unless you wanna completely ruin doing all the crew challenges by beating the game before doing the assassination quests. which doesn’t seem like something they’re keen on doing, if Roland giving out side quests had anything to say about it. Of course there’s always the argument that someone will take over Zer0′s crew challenges if they die, but… who would? Rhys? maybe. i get the feeling he might be too busy with Atlas though. Lorelei..? … i don’t know her well enough to make a statement on that.

taken from K6′s awesome legendary loot vid

Back to the legendary. we know it’s hers based off the name ‘Cloud Kill’, which is one of her best skills (after the buff lol). It’s a corrosive only Maliwan smg (as far as i can tell. it doesn’t look like there’s the option to swap elements. so it’s cool to know uniques might throw out their manufacturer’s alternate firing modes). i’m gonna take a guess and say it mimics cloud kill by spawning a cloud on top of enemies that are shot with it. that could clean out an entire room in seconds, especially on Amara with Phasegrasp.

anyway i got more

so Ava is Maya’s apprentice, hmmmm?

well i dunno about you guys but whenever a character gets an apprentice/kid/whatever, it’s not good news for the character. and given that borderlands definitely doesn’t need children to keep the premise fresh, I’m a bit worried for Maya.

Ava must be important to the main story, or they could’ve taken her out or put Gaige in. The devs themselves said they only wanted to bring in characters that they knew had significant importance to the plot and so that characters wouldn’t feel shoehorned in.

so there’s a few ways things can go down with Ava, using apprentice stereotypes:

1) She takes over after Maya dies/has her powers stolen/is brainwashed and helps us bring Maya back by proving herself using the stuff she learned from Maya (or, the stuff she taught herself that Maya said wasn’t important)

1b) she inherits Maya’s powers and Maya trains her in the way of Phaselock

possibly maya handing over her class mod or smth

2) she’s evil and the cult is using her to get info and secretly hates maya or whatever

Given Ava is like… 12… I wanna believe she’s not evil. of course we don’t actually know if she’s 12 cause apparently the Siren lore got messed up knowing Angel had her powers manifest at 5. but that’s not canon until mentioned in-game, so fuck it: let’s believe Ava is 12 and not evil and is just Maya’s kickass Siren apprentice.

The apprentice Maya was able to find because the Order knew how to track Sirens/determine if someone is going to exhibit Siren powers.

yes, let’s go with that.

So… what’s gonna happen to Maya, then?

I personally believe she’s going to have her powers stolen and used against her. One major part of her powers is that she’s able to ‘Thoughtlock’, which basically brainwashes an enemy to fight for her.

That sounds like it would be insanely powerful in the hands of the Calypso twins, especially since Maya has gotten more powerful since bl2, and tbh I can’t see them wanting to pass it up. Of course it could also be story-breaking, but let’s say they can only have one person ever Thoughtlock-ed at a time and suddenly it’s a lot less troublesome.

so this scene makes me do a big thonk

(also, another reason im thinking this temple area is on Athenas is bc Maya’s there! plus there are triangles everywhere. Triangles… pyramids… iunno. just spitballing)

also idk if this is just cause she’s super teeny-tiny buuuut

im worried i can’t see maya’s tattoos

she’s also entirely focused on the player instead of… oh, idk, the giant rampager right next to her

and idk it looks almost like she’s holding a gun and aiming it at us?

which hey, i wouldn’t jump to conclusions right away because she does have a skill that allows her to heal allies by shooting them

but also… if she doesn’t have her siren powers, then that’d just be like… regular shooting, wouldn’t it? and if she DOES have her Siren powers, why in the hell is she not using them on the giant monster right next to her???

we see her again in the background of this shot

again… tattoos not 100% clear.

she also seems to be taking radiation damage from the rampager! which is good. but also she doesn’t seem to care that much about it.

we can also see her gun here

sorry it was kinda being obscured by the youtube progress bar

but uhhh it’s not looking good.

boy i really hope Maya doesn’t die

we also know it was hinted that Krieg might be making a return! from his voice actor’s twitter:

tho, he also soon made a tweet after that was all like “this doesn’t confirm nor deny that krieg is returning” which, yeah i get that.

either way, if Krieg is coming back, it’d be interesting to see what goes down with him, especially if Maya dies. or even if Maya’s ‘just’ in trouble, I could see him going absolutely apeshit.

maybe krieg will sacrifice himself to save maya, somehow. maybe he’s have a moment of pure lucidity and save her. maybe she’ll die and he’ll lose his mind and become a boss battle. maybe she’ll save him and they’ll live happily ever after ;w; who knows~

maybe ava will have heard about Krieg through Maya and will go to get him to try and help save her. that’d be really interesting to see- krieg smashing through a wall with Ava riding on his shoulder lol

anyway, holy shit im exhausted. i gotta wrap this up because it’s like 1am and i’ve been working on this post for like… 3 days straight now. ech.

if maya does die, it would be interesting to see is Ava inherits her powers after we kill the Calypsos. like, would the powers try to go back to their original host? would they see she’s dead and just find another Siren to give the powers to? i wonder if maya dying/being about to die would be enough of a traumatic experience for ava to unlock her siren powers.

ohh it’d be cool if Ava unlocked her siren powers and used them to save Maya from the cult/brainwashing/whatves

alright. im tired lmao

good night.

[the-lupine-sojourner]

Takara’s Hero Academia Season 2 Episode 5 [Eijiro Kirishima/OC] [Female!Aizawa/Hizashi]

Hey, guys!! Sorry for taking forever on this chapter! I feel really bad this took so long, but I do have a reason; my phone gave out on me and it took a while to get a new one cus I wanted to get my phone repaired but then the people said I needed to just replace it cus it was an iPhone 6 I’ve had for a few years, and then I tried to do an update to get my cellular data back, but then it said I still needed to update my phone to get my cellular data back after I did the update, and yada yada no one cares.

Bottom line, I have a Google Pixel now and I am really liking it so far. Now, let’s stop wasting time and get to the story, okay?! :)

Okay so here’s the Masterist for the Series (sorry I forgot to do that when I posted this lol)! And now for the taglist! 

Once again, before I get to that, I have to remind everyone that Hiyoko and Ryuji Tiechida belong to @elite-guard-hardygal !! My bestie is just being incredibly sweet and awesome and letting me use them for a cameo/side-character thing. Love you,  galfriend!! 

Okay so I’m also tagging @dailyojiromashirao , @souskena , and @fandoms-fandoms-everywhere99 . They are awesome people and I genuinely love hearing their (and everyone else’s) feedback. 

Also, real quick: I just saw that my blog has reached 100 followers!! That’s insane!!! Like, literally! Anyway, let’s get to the story for real this time! 

Hope you all enjoy this chapter!! 

God Bless and Good Day! 

~The Lupine Sojourner

(Looky! I made a gif!!)

“You better hope your stupid boyfriend doesn’t mess this up for us, Yamada.” Hiyoko snaps, crossing her arms, nodding toward Katsuki’s team.  

I blink, looking back at Katsuki’s team despite myself. “What?” I ask, raising a brow, then blush a little and scoff. “He’s not my boyfriend!” I then decide to change topics. “Just because we’re in the same class doesn’t mean-” I catch myself and clear my throat. “-we have more important things to discuss, like Quirks and strategy.” Hiyoko sighs. I blink. Did she always have cat ear-looking whisps of hair? And whisker-like markings on her face? Guess so...and she has a medial cleft that adds to the cat-like thing she’s got going on. I suppose that’s also part of her Quirk. Huh...

“Fine. Obviously, I got cat-like looks. And I have a solar panel on my back that I can use to store up energy and release it in claws of hardened light. I can use just my fingertips or my toes or both if I want. I can shoot out beams from these three middle fingers,” she holds up the three middle fingers on her left hand and I notice she’s wearing a glove made to fit over the fingers, with metal claws on the fingertips. “but it hurts a lot to do that and it drains my stored energy to almost nothing. That’s about it.” I nod, ignoring the odd, knowing look Ryuji gives me like he saw through my facade of not caring what team Eijiro ended up on. I clear my throat

“I can go next. I have two Quirks, actually; I control earth and water. Not great at earth, but I can track people using vibrations in the ground, so we won’t be caught off guard. Water is much easier, but my Quirk uses my blood sugar, so I can’t do it forever, and earth takes more blood sugar. That’s about it, really, besides having about a 6-meter radius.” I turn to Ryuji. “What’s your Quirk, Ryuji?” Ryuji scratches the back of his neck.

“Well, nothing fancy like yours. I can read people’s emotions, and if I directly tell the person what they’re feeling, it intensifies the feeling. And when I do that, it’s kind of like manipulating them into feeling more than they normally would.” Hiyoko scoffs.

“Yeah. Super annoying when he just spouts off therapist garbage at you because he can tell what you’re feeling.” Ryuji sighs, choosing not to rise to his step sister’s bait.

“Plus, I can’t turn it off. It’s not really my fault, Hiyoko-nee.” I nod. Oh geez. Despite not being able to turn it off, his Quirk is kinda cool!

“Dude, that’s pretty cool!” I reply, smiling. Ryuji smiles, probably sensing my genuine interest in his Quirk.

“Thanks.” He turns to Chiharu. “What about you, Chiharu?” She gestures to her ears.

“Well, I got the wolf Quirk, like Ami, and I can do a really loud bark, but it takes my breath away to do it. And that’s pretty much it.” I nod.

“That’s awesome!” I praise, smiling at her. She grins back.

“I know.” She teases with a wink. “Anyway, um, I know you’re in class 1-A, and Ryuji’s in my class in the General Studies course, but which class are you in, Hiyoko?”

“I’m in Class 1-B.” Hiyoko replies, crossing her arms. “I wanted to get into 1-A, but it didn’t turn out that way.” She seems pretty upset she didn’t get into 1-A, so I smile at her.

“You know, this whole rivalry between the hero classes is pretty stupid. It’s not like we meant to be attacked by villains or whatever, and Katuski is the only asshole in my class. The rest are good people.” I then decide to change topics. “Anyway, let’s talk strategy real quick. I know Hiyoko’s the rider, but who’s the front horse?” Ryuji puts his hand up.

“I know my sister the best out of the three of us and I am most likely the strongest- -no offense- -so I’ll be the front horse and Takara can be right and Chiharu will be left.”

I nod. “Sounds good. Now, do we want to run or try to grab headbands?” Hiyoko scoffs.

“Obviously, we need to play both defense and offense, Yamada. Defend the ones we have and grab a few more to ensure we place well. You all good with that?” I nod.

“Personally, I am. As I said, with my vibration tracking, I can tell where the other teams are and if they’re coming up in a blind spot. Plus, if I get some water I’ll be able to keep them at bay.” I then bite my lip. How was I gonna get more water? I doubt Oba will let me run to a vending machine or something. My range doesn’t reach the stands, either. Shit!

I then decide to try to suck any water I can out of the ground. I find piping below but can’t burst them as they are part of the school and I can’t damage school property, right? There’s not much, but I do add a tiny bit of water to my stash and sigh. I also need food. This game will be rough...I just hope I do well.

I then feel a puddle a little ways away. Izuku is standing by it talking to Ochaco. I raise a brow, but pull the water to me sneakily. Unfortunately, it attracts Mineta’s attention. He looks over and motions for me to walk over. I flip him off and scoot closer to my teammates. We didn’t have long till the game started, so we wait for the headbands to be passed out and we can get into formation. Hiyoko wraps the headband around her head and takes her shoes off.

“Alright, you guys. Don’t screw this up!” Hiyoko calls as the countdown reaches thirty seconds. I smile.

“We won’t. Just climb up already.” She does and Chiharu and I offer support as well as Ryuji. To our right stands a girl with black curly hair and a burly man with a weird bell-like face that looked like some odd helmet. I could see Izuku a little ways away, getting into position with his team.

“Alright! This’ll be fun!” Chiharu purrs, snapping me back to reality, as we make final adjustments to positions and the timer rings. Oba stretches her arms.

“Oh, goodie! It’s time to get this party started!” She cheers.

“Hey, hey! Look alive!, love” Dad prompts and I hear mom groan as she wakes up. I smile at the thought of Mom napping for fifteen minutes as I prepare to run wherever Hiyoko directs us. “After fifteen minutes to form teams and talk strategy, twelve teams are prepared to go head to head!” Dad cheers. Mom hums.

“I’m seeing some unexpected student combinations.” She notes. I bite my lip. Did she not approve of my team?

“C’mon! Everyone, get your hands in the air! It’s time for an arena-pumping UA Battle Royale!” Dda continues. “Lemme hear yah scream!” The crowd cheers eagerly and I bite my lip, trying not to think too much about the crowd watching. I just had to do my best and hope I make it to the next game. “One final countdown before the game starts! 3...2...1…”

“Begin!” Oba Nemuri calls, and it’s off. Hiyoko leans over toward me so we turn that way as we run, away from Izuku and the spotlight. Smart. It appears some other teams have our idea, running from the huge fight and focusing on keep their headbands and stealing if the chance arose. Once we get settled a bit away from everything, I see Izuku and his team take off into the sky!

“Whoa! What the hell?!” I exclaim, shocked. I then see a girl with pink hair in Izuku’s team and a backpack on Izuku’s back. The flying suddenly makes sense, if the pink haired girl is from the support course.

The support course students are allowed to bring their inventions, right? That’s the only way Izuku’s team could have those support items. I have to then focus on our team as we near the team with Tetsutetsu running after Izuku’s team, still airborne, and we nearly bump into Hagakure’s team, Kyoka sending her earphone jacks after Izuku, as well. Tokoyami is evidently on Izuku’s team because next second, Dark Shadow (I’d seen the bird-like thing a few times while we were training. He’s cool!) swats the jacks away.

“Stupid bird!” Kyoka exclaims in frustration. I smirk as we run away. No one in our immediate area was concerned with any team but Midoriya. Thus, as a team with a red-headed girl as rider was distracted, I get Hiyoko’s attention and nod to the team.

“I’ll grab their headband.” I whisper. Hiyoko nods, so I grab one of her two headbands off with a hook of water.

“Hey, what the- -give that back!” I had to be careful how much I use my Quirk because I don’t have unlimited blood sugar here, especially since I had to use my Quirk a lot in the obstacle course. Crap!

Wait, what the--Shoji’s with Mineta?! And Tsuyu?! How’d that pervert manage that?! Well, with Shoji’s arms protecting them, it’s not worth trying to grab their headband, besides...we had a good amount of points. As long as we kept this number, at least for now, I think we’ll be okay.

An explosion rattles the ground and I see Katsuki soaring after Izuku’s team, who had taken off again. “That can’t be legal!” I growl as Dark Shadow blocks an explosion. Hiyoko scoffs as Katsuki begins falling, only for Hanta to send tape out to grab him and yank him back to his team. I raise a brow. If they planned that out, they’re really smart.

“Is that even allowed!?” Dad asks incredulously. Katsuki lands gracelessly on his teammates’ arms, awkwardly shifting back into position and glaring at everyone.

“He never touched the ground, so technically it’s okay.” Oba Nemuri replies. I roll my eyes.

“Oh, hey, Yamada. Your boyfriend’s on that blonde asshole’s team.” I blush scarlet and refuse to look over, feeling more annoyed and irritated then I should that Hiyoko had brought up Eijiro being my boyfriend again after I told her he wasn’t. I knew he was on Katsuki’s team already.

“He’s not my boyfriend and I already knew that.” I growl.

“Calm down and focus on the game, Yamada. Hiyoko-Nee didn’t mean anything.” Ryuji murmurs calmly. I take a breath. Eijiro...wasn’t my boyfriend, much as I’m beginning to want him to be...so there wasn’t any point allowing myself to entertain that fantasy by responding everytime someone teases me about it.

Refocusing, I feel a two-person team rapidly gaining on us and slam a platform up as they leap at us. I smirk as they regain their footing and we keep moving. It was worth the loss in blood sugar.

“Ooo-hoo-hoo! A nice defensive move from Tik- -I mean, um, Takara Yamada of Class 1-A! Nicely done!” Dad gushes and I blush, smiling widely in pride.

“Hizashi, you’re supposed to be unbiased.” Mom chides.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Dad replies, and I can practically pouting. That red-head is back all of a sudden, raring to grab her headband back.

“We got a team coming up behind us, Hiyoko.”

“So? Use your earth Quirk!” Hiyoko snaps back.

“I told you, controlling earth is harder.” I reply, trying not to get mad at her again. “We’ll just have to avoid them. I can’t use either of my Quirks too much here. I didn’t get any food after the race, so I’m about half-empty right now.” I explain. Hiyoko huffs.

“Fine. Thanks for the heads up.” She says, looking around and directing us away from the other teams. Ryuji grimaces a little and looks like something’s hurting him, but before I can ask what’s wrong, Dad’s voice booms out over the crowd.

“Now, who wants to take a look at each teams’ points so far?! It’s been seven minutes since the game started, so let’s get those rankings thrown up on the screen!” I blink. It’d been seven minutes already? I glance up and see that we’re between Shoto’s team and Team Kendo, whichever team that is, but...whoa… “Hang on; this is an unexpected turn! Other than Midoriya, Class 1-A’s not doing so hot!” I shrink a little in embarrassment. We weren’t in the top four. Dad obviously saw that, so he’s probably talking about my team as well as the rest of 1-A. Crud… “Even Bakugo is losing!” I feel a tiny little bit better that Dad didn’t single me out, but have to refocus as that red-head comes back around for another try at her headband. We barely manage to get away. Ryuji is definitely pained now, and he’s trying his best, but he’s not as fast as he used to be, so once we’ve gotten fairly clear I decide to ask.

“Hey, Ryuji, what’s wrong?” He forces himself to look more normal.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just get headaches if there are too many intense emotions around me. The more intense, the more my head hurts.” I wince.

“Eesh. Who’s giving you a headache?”

“Team Bakugo.” He replies. “Specifically Bakugo.” I snort.

“Yeah, I’d imagine so. He’s...very intense.”

“Whatever! Focus!” Hiyoko snaps, not noticing that two person team from before when they change course to come after us, and I look over my shoulder to see that the horse is a girl with ram-like horns and is bounding over the field on all fours, and the rider looks startled that Hiyoko used her claws. I couldn’t do another earth wall, so I settle for warning Hiyoko.

“Close your eyes!” She hisses at us, then when we obey, she uses her sunlight as a kind-of stun ray, and we run past them, snatching a headband for good measure while they were reeling from the bright light. Before they recover, we’re a good distance away, dodging Tsu’’s tongue and Mineta’s balls. I can hear him cackling and saying something, but I don’t care enough to pay attention, focusing on dodging. Then, once we’re settled in the clear, Ryuji bites his lip to muffle a groan.

“C’mon, Ryu-boy, man up! Don’t let your headache stop you!” Hiyoko growls. I frown.

“Ryuji, is it getting worse?” I ask. He nods.

“Yeah. Bakugo’s so pissed off right now, I can’t focus! It’s really ramping up my headache.” I bite my lip.

“Hang on. We’ll try to put some dist- -holy shit you’re right!” I look over and flinch when I see Bakugo’s pure rage, directed at a boy I think is from Class 1-B.

“Monoma you ass, stop taunting him!” Hiyoko calls as we keep running.

“You in his class or something?” I ask.

“Yeah. Keep running!” Hiyoko replies. Despite the distance between our teams, I see the boy, ‘Monoma’, not listening to Hiyoko, twirling what I assume is Katsuki’s headband on his finger and saying something to Katsuki, who’s getting increasingly pissed off, much to his teammates’ concern and fear. But ‘Monoma’ doesn’t seem to mind. He simply keeps speaking, sealing his fate.

Honestly, I pity the guy. He picked the wrong person to-- I feel a team approach and I recognize it as Shoto’s team. Before I can even properly react to that, however, I suddenly feel very tingly, painfully so, and the pain increases as every muscle in my body seized up and I shook as electricity coursed through me. Damn Kaminari and his stupid electricity!

As our team reels back, groaning and aching, my feet suddenly feel icy cold. I try to walk to a warmer area, but I find my feet encased in ice. I blink. Shoto, you ass! Smart move, but still!

“Shoto!” I growl. The teams in the vicinity are frozen to the ground.

“Would you look at that!” Dad calls excitedly. “He’s stuck all those teams cold in their tracks!” I pout a little. Way to state the obvious, dad.

“But only after Kaminari had immobilized the students using his electricity. In the obstacle course, Shoto was surprised at how many people avoided his attack. He’s adapting his strategy.” Mom replies thoughtfully. I had to hand it to Shoto; he was a great strategist.

“Nice commentary, hun!” Dad praises.

“Yamada, melt the ice!” Hiyoko snaps. I look at her in shock.

“I can’t! I use liquid water! I can’t move ice! Defrosting it takes too much of my blood sugar, and I can’t create ice, either. I’m stuck with liquid water!” I reply.

“Ergh! Fine! Cut the ice with the water, then! Hurry!” I nod and begin cutting us out. Chiharu also uses her bark on the ice around her feet, and that helped a lot.

In our haste to get out of the ice, however, I dropped my guard and didn’t hear or feel a team approach till it was too late. Just as I was about to finish smashing a long-handled hammer of water against the last few spots of ice still stuck to us (Ryuji and Chiharu supporting Hiyoko while Chiharu regained her breath after her bark), I hear Hiyoko curse, feel the balance shift, and chuckling I knew all too well. I look up and see Shinso’s team jogging away, Shinso fixing the headband around his neck. I glare at him, feeling angrier than I should at the fact that he stole one of our headbands. We were now below Team Tetsutetsu, and Hiyoko leans forward.

“Shinso, you ass!” I bark, still feeling mad. “Get back here!” He just looks over his shoulder.

“It’s a competition, Takara.” He places emphasis on my first name, smirking as he does. “We can’t be too friendly here.” My eye twitches.

“Shinso, you better giv- -waittaminute...you did not!” I just notice that Shinso’s horses all look listless, eyes never closing...just blank slates. They were under the influence of his Quirk! That asshole brainwashed his teammates into being his horses, and then steals our headband?! No way!

There were less than six minutes left in the game, as I heard from Dad. We had to get our points back and then grab another headband in that time if we wanted to get into the final game. “Yamada, this isn’t the time to get upset!” Ryuji barks. “Focus!” I hardly heard him, whipping the water forward, but Ojiro was on Shinso’s team and his tail shattered my formation. I stagger a little. “See?” Ryuji adds. I grit my teeth, summoning the water back to me. Crap! I can’t lose my cool! He was right! I take a breath.

“Ryuji’s right, Takara. We have to get our points back, but if we lose our cool, that’s not gonna happen.” Chiharu adds. “What’s got you so bent out of shape, anyway? You know this guy?”

“We went to middle school together. He’s my friend. Let’s just go.” We go after him, then Hiyoko leans toward a struggling team with a kinda werewolf-looking front horse. I see that they have more than two headbands and send the water to grab one as we pass. Now, all we had to do was get our headband back. In just over four minutes. I look over and see that Shinso’s gotten a good distance away. “C’mon! We gotta move” I exclaim and race after my middle school friend. We got closer and closer just as I begin to feel woozy and lightheaded. Not good! I stagger on, though, gritting my teeth and pressing forward.

“Hey, Yamada! You okay?” Ryuji asks.

“Y-yeah, I...I’m okay,” I mumble. “Just getting low. Running also takes energy and I’m almost on empty here.” I explain further.

“It would help if you didn’t waste your energy on useless attacks.” Hiyoko snaps. I feel my cheeks heat in embarrassment.

“Fine fine, whatever,” I reply. We didn’t have a lot of time to catch up to Shinso.

“Only one minute left!” Dad exclaims. “Team Todoroki has cornered the 10 million point team and is poised to seize the ultimate prize!” I blink. Oh shit! Izuku better hope he can keep his headband for this last minute! “At least, that’s what I would have predicted five minutes ago!” Dad adds, laughing. I then shake myself and try to keep running, but the world was spinning now and it was hard to go in a straight line.

“Guys, Takara’s getting worse! We gotta hurry!” Chiharu notes, voice rising in concern.

“There’s less than a minute left! Hang on, Yamada!” Ryuji and Hiyoko reply almost perfectly in sync. I grit my teeth and keep running.

“Unbelievably, Team Midoriya has managed to avoid the ice master for the last half of the game!” Dad continues. I try to keep running, but it’s hard when your legs feel like they’re dragging weights behind them. We run by a huge ice wall just as we’re about catch Shinso. Guess Shoto didn’t...want...interruptions...gotta get the headband...Shinso...gotta...gotta focus! I reach out desperately with my water as the time ticks closer to ending. The world starts to go black and all I can think of doing is getting my team to the next game. As if from a distant tunnel, I hear Dad speaking and some commotion, but I can’t focus on that.

Gotta...reach...a little...further….just…

“Tak- -” The world blank as I hear Oba call out the end of the game.

=#=#=#=#=

I come to on the ground, my team around me, looking at me in concern.

“--ney, I think, uh, Team Teichida is having some kind of difficulty there.” I distantly hear Dad saying.

“One of the members passed out, it seems. She looks okay, but still. She shouldn’t have pushed herself so hard.” Mom replies. I feel embarrassed that Mom and Dad were criticizing me in a roundabout way.

“Are you okay?” Chiharu asks, shaking my shoulders. I groan sluggishly. This was not how I wanted to make an impression. As long as we advance, though, it’s worth it.

“...Did...did I do it? Did we get the band?” I mumble, sitting up and holding my head.

“...um...well…” I pale and feel ready to pass out again. No, no, no!

“We didn’t make it to the final game?” Ryuji looks at me sympathetically. He knew how I was feeling.

“No, but we tried our best. That’s what matters.” He says consolingly. It doesn’t help at all. Hiyoko sighs.

“Yeah, you tried damn hard, we all did, but it just...just wasn’t…” She swallows. “It didn’t happen.” Shinso is suddenly behind my teammates, looking at me in concern. Chiharu and Ryuji scoot aside a little so he can help me up.

“You shouldn’t have pushed yourself till you passed out, idiot.” He says. I nod.

“Yeah, but I wanted to get into the next game so bad...I didn’t think straight.”

“Hmm, and I probably shouldn’t have targeted your team like I did. Sorry.” I shake my head, ignoring the way it made me feel dizzy.

“No, no. Like you said, this is a competition. Congrats.” I’d glanced up after he stole our headband and saw that he was in the top four. He nods.

“Thanks. Let’s get you some food.” I shake my head again. I was feeling stronger now, and could make it to the vending machines alone. I...I needed to be alone right now. Luckily, it didn’t seem like Mom and Dad had moved on from my passing out, so I was okay to sneak out and get food. I didn’t want to face my parents right now.

“I’ll be okay, Shinso. I’m gonna go to the bathroom and get myself some food.”

“Food first, Yamada.” Shinso says, understanding why I declined his escort offer and walking away. Chiharu grabs my arm.

“Yeah, let’s go.” I feel my emotions rising and pry her hand off reluctantly.

“I really appreciate it, Chiharu, but I’ll be fine…” I assure her. “I’ll be back in a sec.” I walk away before anyone can call me back and somehow manage to make it to the bathroom before the dam bursts and suddenly I’m sitting on a toilet sobbing my heart out. I didn’t make it into the final game...I failed.

What would Mom and Dad think?! Oh dear Lord I can’t face them! They’re already disappointed, I know it! I tried my hardest and I failed! Thoughts lost all reason and sense at that point, flooding into me and back out again too fast for me to process. After what feels like forever, I manage to get myself together and shakily get to my feet, wobbling as I walk out and find a vending machine. Shinso was waiting.

“You forgot your wallet, Takara.” He says, giving me a small smile over his shoulder. He knew what I’d been doing. It wasn’t like you couldn’t look at me and tell I’d been crying. I instinctively lean my head on his shoulder tiredly as he inserts a bill and presses the buttons for gummies. Those gummies had a lot of sugar. Good. He lets my head lull to the side while he grabs the gummies and hands them to me. He then walks over to the drink machine and gets himself and I water. He then walks over to a bench and I follow.

“...Thanks, Shinso.” I mumble around a few gummies as we sit down.

“Don’t mention it. Now we’re even, right?” I chuckle.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I lean on his shoulder again. “Can I stay here a sec? I don’t want to go back yet.” He nods.

“Not too long, but yeah. Get yourself together.” I chuckle again and eat more gummies in silence. Why was he different than Eijiro? Why can I lean on his shoulder and not get super flustered?

Maybe it’s just that Shinso’s been around too long. I never grew attracted to him romantically because he had been there since before I thought of boys like that. He’d been my friend so long it was hard to picture him as anything else. Regardless, it was nice that he knew he didn’t have to give me a pep talk. He just had to be here, letting me lean on his shoulder for a moment. This was a moment I needed to collect my thoughts and composure. Not getting into the final game had been a blow.

I tried as hard as I could, but couldn’t quite get that headband we needed to get into the next game. That was that, no need to get caught up other thoughts.

“Oh, good. You’re feeling a little better.” Comes Ryuji’s voice as he rounds a corner. I smile at him.

“Yeah, a little. Sorry for worrying you guys.” I mumble. Ryuji smiles.

“Sorry I didn’t stop you using your Quirk sooner. That last formation took too much out of you. I should have said something.”

“Nah, I’m the idiot that made the formation despite knowing it really wasn’t my best move. I just really wanted to grab our headband.” Shinso sighs.

“And I really wanted to get into the next game.” I chuckle.

“I know. I don’t hold it against you. Oh, by the way, this is Teichida Ryuji. Ryuji, this is Hitoshi Shinso, a guy I- -”

“Went to middle school with.” Ryuji interjects, smiling. “You mentioned when he stole our headbands.” I frown, munching on the last of the gummies.

“Oh. Really? Sorry.” He shakes his head.

“No worries. You wanna head back or do you want me to bring someone here? You still seem pretty upset.” I sigh. While I did want to hug Eijiro right now, I’m not sure I want him to know how badly I reacted. “I mean, um, I- -” Ryuji looks flustered, waving his hands around a little frantically.

“It’s fine, Ryuji. Um...I think I’m okay to walk back, slow, but I don’t really want everyone knowing what I did, so…”

“You look like shit, Takara. That’s not going away easily.” I sigh.

“Thanks, Shinso…” Shinso points to the bathroom sign.

“Go back in there and splash your face with cold water a few times, don’t rub your eyes, and pat it dry.” He then holds up my water bottle. “Then chug this.” I nod. He had probably done this before and knew how to hide it. I felt horrible I couldn’t always help him when he got depressed and felt awful, but I do what I can.

I walk in and the water feels great on my face. I splash it a few times and gently wipe all the tear streaks away and pat my face dry. I feel better and come out.

Immediately, Shinso hands me my water. I drink it down and feel even better. I start walking back and side-hug Shinso when he catches up.

“I really appreciate this, Shinso.” I tell him. He nods.

“No problem. Just don’t mention it.” I nod in pretend sobriety.

“Riiight. Can’t let anyone know you actually feel things.” I tease. He chuckles, knowing I didn’t mean it literally.

“No, not at all.” He replies, then leaves me to walk the rest of the way over to my teammates. I wasn’t totally better but I was coming to grips with not being in the final game and I guess that was about all I can do at this point.

I can’t change the past. I can only live with it.